January 10 2021
It has been such a quiet week I almost forgot to log into
the monkey mail and slip off the little bits of information that I do have!
The service is recorded, I did not have to imagine soaking
you with water — I changed the whole thing. At bible study we got to talking
about some of the wording and the New Zealand liturgy was talked about so I
pulled out my book and took a look, then the link got sent by parishioner which meant that I did not have to type the whole thing. I went back to the service that I had
completed a couple of weeks ago and made a few changes. No water was hurt in
the production of this week’s service!
Next week marks the beginning of the Week of Prayer for
Christian Unity, RC and I have played with the Music and liturgy
(respectively) and have utilized the resources from the website for the
service. Initially there was about 12 pieces of music, apparently that might be
too much— ha, who knew! So, we cut it down to a mere 7 pieces.
The following week we will observe the Conversion of Paul,
since he is your patron saint! And the last week of the month our Intern will
preach and preside.
Susan begins her internship on Monday. I am sure that you
will want to welcome her to the congregation, I forgot to ask her permission to
put her e-mail in this monkey mail. Since I believe forgiveness is easier to
get than permission (most of the time) here it is for you to send her notes of
welcome or reflection on her service and sermon, which is important for her
learning process— but remember to be kind!
The service will be uploaded Saturday night or Sunday
morning, depends on how long it will take
No funny bits for you this week, been a slow week for my
brain!
Have a wonderful weekend, stay well and stay safe
January 17, 2021
Good Saturday Morning
Apparently, a few people missed my Thursday mail out. Some
inquired and when told “No, I had not forgotten to send the monkey mail but I
didn’t think I had anything to say” thought it was hilarious and somewhat hard
to believe!
So here I am, fresh off of a Saturday morning Deanery
meeting and wondering what I have to tell you for this week!
Tomorrow our service marks the beginning of the week of
prayer for Christian unity so we have availed of the service that the World
Council of Churches provided and have recorded a slightly adapted version for
you
Our intern Susan is in place and will be connecting as much
as possible with the members, given our limitations. A difficult way to do an
internship for sure!
The Annual meeting reports are due and we are looking to
fill positions on the Parish council. Some of you will be called directly, but
if you feel called to offer yourself then please feel free to contact either of
the wardens, sub-wardens or myself and we will be happy to find a place to slot
you in. Now don’t all rush to volunteer at the same time we wouldn’t want to
overload the internet connections!
Otherwise, it is a slow news week. The New Up to Date was
just published this week so I think TR covered most of the bases.
The service is published on the blog for you and once DC has everything ready the service will be up on the YouTube channel, likely much
later tonight but definitely for the morning
Have a wonderful weekend
Stay well and stay safe
January 24, 2021 Apparently, I’ve created a Monster
I’ve created a monster!! Who knew some of you would miss me
if I didn’t send out my weekly entertainment — I mean news
Thank God yesterday was slightly warmer! I am not made
for cold weather. I question my sanity for having agreed to move here when it
gets below minus 20. And to have to get out and walk my road runner (a.k.a.
Aslan) in that is a challenge. So, get your mental imagery in gear and picture
it — the only part on me that is exposed is my eyes and those only because I
needed to see where we are walking. It takes me a good twenty minutes to get
all of my layers on and then I have to try and bend over to tie up boots, so a
slight bit of backtracking was required, and two of the top layers came back
off (I have on four) so I could get to the boots, then back on they go with the
balaclava, followed by a toque. Heavy mittens go on with the heat pads, Aslan
has on his boots and coat (I did that before I got dressed), I’m exhausted
getting into all of the heavy layers, and off we go — the dressed in mostly
black Michlin mascot and her dog!! There was still one minor problem — while I
left the glasses at home because they steam and then frost up — my eyelashes
frosted up and I thought my eyes were going to freeze together, there was a
moment of concern, but never fear blinking frequently solved the issue. Nearly
5 km later we were back home, I was exhausted with all the extra clothes and
then we did it all again the following day! I’m still walking the streets but
you’d be hard pressed to recognize me these days!
Now that you’ve had your laugh let me think what is new
The blog is done and posted
The service is recorded. I seem to run into any number of
glitches so hopefully dropping the address in the body will work better than
that button monkey mail encourages me to use
The annual meeting is coming up and we are looking for
volunteers. When members of the nominating committee call, please say yes, if
not they tell me I’m going to have to call. And if you know someone who knows
me from previous parishes that won’t go well - I’ve been told that I don’t
understand the word “NO” very well. A former parishioner, who joined the vestry
as a member at large told someone “Sure I just came on as a member and somehow,
I’m on the property committee and now I’ve ended up here at a stewardship
conference. I’m not even sure how I agreed! " Nice thing is that man still
talks to me and we have lovely visits when I go home, but apparently others
have not been able to convince him to join committees. In my defense he is an
electrician —very handy to have around! He’ll probably tell you mistake number
one was telling me what he did before he retired.
I’m contemplating a high tea, anyone interested? As I
thought about doing this, I remembered a tea I once attended at the government
house in New Brunswick. It was a bit pretentious, but the chef was on hand and
a few of us nabbed him and got the recipe he used for the asparagus sandwiches.
We were so gauche we grabbed a napkin (there was no paper to be found) and
wrote down the recipe, the chef had a pen. I plan to do it on a Saturday or a
Sunday afternoon in February — via Zoom of course and after the annual meeting
so stay tuned for that date.
Ok, enough for one week, gotta save something for next time.
Stay well, stay safe and stay warm
January 31, Two words for you
Eye-lash Extensions! The first wedding that I officiated at
here in Manitoba, the bride had the most distracting eyelashes. She had eyelash
extensions; they were so long they reminded me of fans. Every time she blinked
these lashes (which I swear looked to be two inches long) looked like fans
coming down on her cheeks. I was often distracted during the service since I
was fascinated with what I termed “her fans.” I know I should not be so easily
amused! Well, this week I grew extensions! Thanks to the really cold weather,
when I walk with only my eyes exposed (lets face it barely because I don’t have
glasses on so I am squinting) and my breath is icing up not just the face
covering but my eyelashes. The more I breathe the longer the build up gets on
my lashes and occasionally the sun glistens on the sparkly new lashes that I am
sporting except my newly acquired “fans” don’t seem to work properly because
they freeze on the bottom lashes and occasionally the balaclava. I have thin
eyelashes to begin with I can not afford to have any ripped out this way! In
the meantime, my telephone calls to Newfoundland all seem to want to know what
the weather is like here and what the temperature is and then to add insult to
injury they announce well it’s a beautiful day here, no snow and it’s 4 degrees
today! Insert Rude Comment as you please!!!
Thank you to those who “breathed my air” last week and
understood the difficulty all of those clothes pose for a person! However, I
had not given any thought to how one is supposed to regain their feet if they
fall over. I sincerely hope that it does not happen and if I am so unfortunate
I can only hope Aslan will help some how!! My luck, he’d think we are playing
and pounce on me!
I have the Sunday off from preaching! This week Susan, our
intern, is leading worship and preaching. You’ll get to see what she looks like
without the mask. So please be sure to tune in to the worship service which
will be available for you on Sunday morning via the YouTube channel.
Ash Wednesday is February 17. I have been thinking about
what to do and have decided that a Zoom service would work best. Then the
decision about the ashes, the BAS provides the option of not using the ashes so
I have decided to not try and figure out how to distribute ashes and will have
the service via zoom with communion at 7:00 pm. If you wish to join the service
please contact the office and we will take the list of names and have the link
sent out to those wanting to participate
There are two events beginning at St. Paul. One is creative
connections and the other is a Lenten Study. Our intern is leading these events
as part of her training for parish ministry. The Up To Date has the details but
here they are again for you, you will need to register at the office, details
are included below
"Creative Connections" is an
online community to help reduce isolation during ongoing pandemic restrictions,
encourage self-expression through creative activities, and foster fellowship! Community
gatherings will be held Wednesday evenings starting at 7 PM and Thursday
afternoons starting at 2 PM via Zoom from mid-February until mid-April (choose
whichever time slot works best for you!).Each gathering is anticipated to
include an opening prayer and music, time to casually ‘check in’ with each
other, discussion of a theme or topic, and an opportunity to explore a creative
activity (for example, activities may include Zen tangles, finger labyrinths,
word or image collages, art journaling, virtual walking group, frozen
suncatchers etc - or anything else that participants are interested in!)
“Time Out: Reflecting on Our Baptismal Covenant” is
a Lenten series which will offer participants an opportunity to individually
and collectively explore how they are currently fulfilling their baptismal
covenant, and to discern and discuss potential actions and/or behaviours they
choose to focus on going forward, to deepen their fulfillment of the baptismal
covenant. Sessions will be held Thursday evenings starting at 7 PM from
February 18th until March 25th (inclusive) via Zoom. Each session will include
Night Prayer/Compline (adapted from the NZ Prayer Book); Lectio Divina
(leveraging an African Bible Study method); and an open forum to share
reflections on our baptismal covenant.
Please contact the church office by Thursday Feb 11th by email or phone to
register for either or both series.
And for those knitters out there who would
like a project for the 40 days of Lent, I have a pattern for a labyrinth shawl,
the idea is you knit a little bit of each day during lent. It would be best
done as a group if there are people interested and I am happy to set it up for
us to do. The pattern is not difficult so it would be easy for beginners and
only two colours are required for the shawl. It can be made with any weight
yarn, (the creator recommends DK weight).
As we knit sections of the shawl we will focus on the
labyrinth for quiet reflection. If you are interested you can contact me
directly at nlgirlnmb@gmail.com or contact the office. If you don’t
knit but would like to join for daily reflection on the labyrinth then
you are certainly welcome to be a part of it. This project will begin on Ash Wednesday;
I will negotiate a time of day with participants.
Have a fabulous weekend, it is supposed to warm up to a
balmy minus 6 according to my frog! Stay well, stay safe and stay warm
Let me tell you that labyrinth shawl was not easy to make. Only two of us continued with the pattern and
only one made an actual shawl (mine was a beautiful cape). The pattern at best required guess work and
while the other person figured out the missing pieces I did not and added
generously to the stitches. In one of
our gatherings the other lady said she had whatever the number of stitches were
for the row she was on and all I could think was wow I have more than double of
that! I decided to lose the pattern – it did look lovely when it was finished
and the ends were not sewn in when the recipient eagerly put it on to try it
out!
February 7, Deadly
Sins that is!!
I have a confession. For months now I have been suffering
under one (well probably more but I’m only admitting to this one today) of the
“deadly” sins. When lockdown occurred, I was only two weeks away from a hair
cut! And now all these months later I finally have an appointment to see the
stylist.
I am sure you are thinking well we all experienced that! And
yes, we did but then on December 21 and again on February 1 Mr. Aslan got Spaw
days with a groomer who tidied him up (a.k.a he got a hair cut) and every time
it happened, I was envious because I couldn’t get a trim, never mind a whole
spa day.
So, Aslan, in this pandemic, is looking all spiffy and in
the meantime, I’m looking more and more like the Shaggy D.A.! (Except I seem to
have more grey)
Most of the news for this week is not new but certainly
worth repeating
I feel like I’m on continuous repeat for the YouTube channel
and the blog address…..
The addresses as well as a few repeat announcements were
included but I did not think I needed to insert them here (again)
Hope you had a smile for today! And as always stay well,
stay safe and definitely try to stay warm the Frog tells me the mercury is
about to plummet again to ungodly temperatures. I will be wishing I’m somewhere
else -- here goes another SIN!!!
February 14
Some weeks are just not that funny! And it is one of those
weeks. What could possibly be funny about the temperature outside — yes, I’ve
added another layer! The walks have been incredibly shortened (15 minutes is
now a very long time). Its too cold for anything so Aslan has been enjoying
extra time at the day care to burn off his energy much to the disgruntlement of
a few people that come by to see him.
I have to say though I’m not sure who benefits most from my
monkey mail, you or me when I get replies. Imagine, I wasn’t the only person
having fallen into the “deadly sins!” I am sure that surprises you.
E-mail has become the bane of the office! Thank you to those
who have let us know that you have not been receiving anything. We hope that
the problem has been corrected - again - but who really knows what happens once
you hit send and where the mail really ends up if it doesn’t arrive in your
in-box.
So for this week you need to know — the annual meeting is on
Sunday. The meeting starts at 1. You still have time to register and if you
have not received the package of material, reports, minutes, zoom instructions
and various other bits you still have time. Call the office tomorrow or
Friday and have the office admin add you and re-send all the
information to you.
The service for this week has been recorded.
Don’t forget we have a few projects on the go for the Lenten
Season. If you are interested in any of them, please register at the office.
A short news week! So that is it from me for this week stay
well, stay safe and don’t forget to show the love to your special Valentine
Karen
and excuse the language in the clip below, but I just could not resist. Keep smiling
February 21 What a difference…
… a week makes!
The temperature is rising! Not the plus side but definitely
an improvement and the frog says that by Monday we are going to enjoy a plus
day. So, dust off the shorts and capris! Well not me but I am sure I will spot
a few people doing that.
Now tell me truthfully, you thought I forgot the monkey mail
didn’t you!! But no, I didn’t. It was a busy week and Thursday afternoon when I
normally do the mailing saw me doing a pastoral call at one of the hospitals.
In those situations, the monkey mail must wait. So, it is Friday night,
technically my day off and my DH thinks I am downstairs watching television. As
he pointed out earlier it is one of two evenings that I turn the TV on.
Instead, I wrote a blog — not the service although that did get done and posted
on Thursday, but an actual written blog which has gone on the back burner for a
very long time. One friend wrote almost immediately after I published it and
said “Thank you, I have missed these.” Nice to hear for sure. Now I decided
that I should write to all of you.
This week marked the beginning of Lent and a few study
opportunities as well as a Knit Along are underway. It is not too late to sign
up if it interests you.
The Knit along for those of us who decided to tackle the
labyrinth shawl turned out to be more challenging than the pattern initially
looked — I only ripped mine out three times and the third time I took it down
to the first stitch and began again. One mistake I could kind of live with but
there was no way I could handle looking at three of them or rather have three
of them glaring at me!! I finally figured out the mistakes and I hesitate to
say it—so far so good. PW is an absolute champ and made the corrections for
the other knitters as well as figuring out the rows for all of us once we
passed row 36 and were on our own! Several knitters selected to do their own
project (smart people!) Hopefully there will be a couple of completed projects
by the time the end of Lent rolls around.
Ash Wednesday was a lovely experience with a good
attendance. Many thanks to the readers and the soloists who participated on
such short notice. It was wonderful to see a small community gathered via zoom.
Those that requested ashes, they are in the mail to you. It might be slightly
different than you were anticipating. I had the office administrator type out
the prayer that we use in the BAS, create a card and “paint” an ashes cross on
the card with the prayer. Something that you can keep for a while at least. If
someone, besides the four that requested them on Wednesday, would like to have
ashes please email me and I will see that it gets sent out to you.
The service - as stated above has been published on the blog
to go along with the service for this Sunday which will be uploaded on the YouTube
channel for you to watch.
Now for a little challenge! Not like the wardrobe change
during one of the advent services. Did I ever tell you what that was? It was
earrings and YES three people wrote me to tell me that they had spotted it. So
let that be a lesson — people really do pay attention to the tiny details. My
challenge is this, the church sign message. Do you have an idea for a catchy
message? Currently it is a Valentine message of love but that will soon need to
be changed so let me hear your ideas. At the moment the administrator and I play with
the sign and the message so we will choose from the ideas that you send to us.
Sorry no prize for the winner except to see your message on the board so make
it short (we have limited letters) fun and catchy!
That’s it for this week, have a fabulous weekend and as
always stay well and stay safe
February 28
No news…
…good news??? (I hesitate to use ellipses since the orange
guy to the south over used them and all I can hear is Stephen Colbert reading
the tweet along with dot, dot, dot)
I’m sitting here wondering what I have to tell you this week
other than the service is recorded and it has been published on the blog for
those that enjoy having the words to participate. Susan is the preacher and
presider and the service celebrates Black History Month.
There hasn’t been much funny stuff in my life this week,
well the people at the Shawl Knit Along (Take note it is no longer the
labyrinth —two of us refuse to concede defeat the others have all decided to do
something more enjoyable) were a little shocked when I announced that I was no
longer monogamous (I took a brief pause) when it came to crafting. I have
approximately 5 projects in progress. My Beside the Sea Cross stitch should
have finished seagulls this weekend. One needs legs and an eye and the other is
just about to get its wing and that will bring me down to four works in
progress and lots more projects waiting. I keep saying so many pretty birds in
NL and the pattern has boring old gulls! Puffins would have been so much nicer.
But since I didn’t design the pattern (my university roommate did) I suppose I
should just get to the stitching!
News wise, we are going to maintain the course we are on for
the time being with regards to the services. The limits on numbers allowed to
gather and the protocol that has to be followed saw us decide to continue on
recording. Trust me when it is safe to open and with more people, I will be
sending out the big announcement.
There was a lovely letter in the mail this week from Oak
Table expressing thanks for the donation and support that St. Paul parishioners
provide to them. They wrote “Your continuing support makes such a difference in
providing food and resources for the would-be under loved guests” So a huge
thank you for the caring hearts and generosity that you provide so that this
valuable ministry can continue to reach those who need it.
Shortly after the monkey mail was sent out last week, a
former parishioner wrote me to say she appreciated the joke at the end and it
reminded her of the time I was doing a Children’s talk. I asked the children if
they knew what temptations were and one little guy said yes, he did, they were
the treats for the cats. I’ll tell you about his take on forgiveness another
time!
The picture below, showed up in my e-mail from M L! The
thing was on a bigger screen and when it downloaded it just seem to come right
at me and I had a great laugh so I thought I should pass it along to all of you
on my monkey mail!
It really is a short news week! So as always stay well and
stay safe
Parishioners began to make contributions to the mailings with jokes and memes. And it soon became the place where announcements and upcoming events were dropped since the bulk of the parish plus a few from other parishes were on the list of recipients. It would be noted some months down the road by a number of parishioners that the monkey mail did a wonderful job of keeping folks connected!
