News Blog

Commitment to Service Award!

Posted by on Tuesday, October 1st, 2013 in News

Last week St. Andrew's was honoured to attend the Annual General Meeting of the Cambridge Self-Help Food Bank.  We received the "Cambridge Self-Help Food Bank 2013 Commitment to Service Award".  Presented to St. Andrew's Hespeler ... "A supporter who displays a unique humanity stemming from a depth of wisdom both rare and precious in our world ... Whose insight and clarity inspires them to take action to create a better world.

Our Clerk of Session receiving the award!

Please note that we host the Cambridge Self-Help Food Bank every other Thursday.  Check to calendar on our website to confirm the days.

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Coming soon to an eBook vendor near you.

Posted by on Monday, September 23rd, 2013 in Minister

For the past decade or so, I have been writing a book in my spare time. The book sprang out of my general dissatisfaction with the traditional ways of telling and dramatizing the story of the birth of Jesus. In many ways, I find that the ways that we think of the story really do not honour the intentions of the original gospel writers - especially the writer of the Gospel of Luke.

I feel that we miss so much of what Luke was trying to communicate about Jesus because:

  1. We have insisted on harmonizing the two accounts of the birth that we have (Matthew 1 and Luke 2) in a way that strips both of them of their unique perspectives on the meaning of the birth of Christ.
  2. We have not struggled in constructive ways with some of the problematic elements in Luke's story like
    1. The description of the census (which does not fit with what we know about Roman policy and practice).
    2. The reasons for the journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem which are not sufficiently explained.
    3. The historical and political situation that Luke describes at the time of the birth that is obviously very meaningful to him but that we have neglected because it is inconvenient to us.
  3. We have not taken into account Luke's use of Old Testament ideas and imagery in his Nativity Story.
So I have been working on these and similar thoughts for quite some time. This has led me to some very interesting places and, indeed, a way of reading and understanding Luke's story that I think is refreshing and revolutionary.

Writing this book has made me love Luke's nativity story - a true story - all the more and I have decided that it is time to share what I have learned with a larger audience. For this reason, I am publishing my book with the title, "Caesar's Census, God's Jubilee."

It will be published as a ebook only. (Sorry to all of you know do not own a reading device but physical book publishing is a whole other matter, I'm afraid). Soon, if all goes well, it will be available at online ebook retailers everywhere (including Amazon, Kobo, iBooks etc.) When that happens, I'll certainly be announcing it here and everywhere I can!

It is a scary thing to do but I am glad to be finally sharing this book that God gave to me.
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STARS news!

Posted by on Tuesday, September 17th, 2013 in News

Hi STARS!

This Sunday (Sep 22) will be our first taping in Season 3.  We need some help from you.  We need you to bring something that represents something that is important to you.  Or something that tells us what you like to do.  For example:  if you love to play football, maybe you could bring a football helmut.

And if you do figure out what you are going to bring and can let us know that would be helpful, too.

Don't worry if you forget or can't think of something, we want you to be involved.

Please don't bring anything fragile.  It might get broken.

See you Sunday!

Blessings,
Joni
([email protected])

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Something for everyone!

Posted by on Monday, September 16th, 2013 in News

There is something for everyone, all ages at our special Harvest Festival weekend, October 26 & 27.


Check out all of the categories, put on your thinking caps, and get creative!  This is going to be so much fun.



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