On February 1st, the Wolfville Area InterChurch Council (WAICC) hosted a ‘Neighbours’ Meal’ to nurture and celebrate Christian unity in our community.  At this time of year, WAICC has often held a worship service to mark the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, but a meal together gave us opportunity to put our prayers into action as we gathered, cooked, laughed, and ate together. 
 
The meal was hosted at L’Arche Homefires, where a hall and kitchen provided the perfect setting for labour & love together.  Around every table, folks from all the WAICC member communities, as well as folks with no church connection at all, used conversation starters provided by the L’Arche community to get to know each other better.
 
During the meal, several WAICC members offered reflections on how the simple actions of a meal mirror the whole of Christian life.  For example, setting the table for an ordinary meal reminds us of how we prepare both the sanctuary and our hearts to encounter Christ in a eucharistic meal.  Or cleaning up from a meal reminds us of the disciples ‘gathering up the fragments’ after the feeding of the 5,000, encouraging us to notice how much abundance God pours into our lives every day.
 
The food was generously provided by WAICC, so all could come, be nourished, and go out filled with joy!
 
The WAICC member communities are St. Francis Assisi Roman Catholic Church, St. John’s Anglican Church, Wolfville Baptist Church, Port Williams Baptist Church, The Society of Friends (Quakers), Orchard Valley United Church, and L’Arche Homefires.

On Friday, February 2,  a number of St. John’s parishioners attended a Pop-Up Coffee Cafe held by Elder Dr. Lorraine Whitman and Just Us Coffee. Elder Lorraine spoke about the seven sacred teaching that guide her life and that were taught to her by family and other Elders.

These teachings are: Respect, Courage, Honesty, Humility, Truth, Wisdom and Love. Using events from her personal experiences as well as stories that spoke about the history and legends from the Mi’kmaq people, she explained these teachings and how they inform her actions.

We began our time together with "dry" smudging. Dried Sage was rubbed between our fingers and Elder Lorraine directed us in the actions of smudging, encouraging us to see, hear, speak, and walk with respect and awareness of others.

During the teaching, Elder Lorraine told us about the animal spirits connected with the teachings. Themes of Respect and Positivity ran throughout the session. Elder Lorraine talked about her belief in prayer. She said she prays all the time and the simplest prayer is one of ‘Thank You.’

This was a gift generously given by Elder Lorraine for us to learn the ancient wisdom of Mi’kmaq nation.

The Calls to Action for Reconciliation includes supporting reclamation of identity, building relationships, respect for beliefs, respect for culture and learning. Today’s event allowed us to engage.
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We thank Elder Lorraine for her lessons, her stories and her sense of humour.

Christmas this year was a total delight of carols, candlelight, and a children-assisted crèche scene. December 24th was busy with three services and one the next morning! We began Sunday morning as we celebrated the Fourth Sunday of Advent with our usual Service of the Word, before swiftly transitioning to Christmas Eve at 4pm that afternoon.


At the first Christmas Eve service, we celebrated Songs & Stories and the Gospel story was told to us in an original script written by MaryEllen which incorporated the traditional Friendly Beasts carol. Children were invited to the front to help Rev. Nicole take the nativity figures (plus a few extra toy animals!) up to the high altar where they were lovingly arranged on a bed of straw. This scene stayed at the high altar for the remainder of our Christmas services and was a joyful symbol of the Gospel story.


At 9pm, we had a more traditional service of Choral Eucharist, where our choir led us through service music and a new anthem for the evening. While a quieter service than the earlier story-led service, it was full and glorious, ending with the whole church singing Silent Night by candlelight.


Christmas Day dawned bright and cool, and a smaller congregation gathered for a friendly communion service at 10am. We were treated to music and carols led by Helen Ackerman and Kimberly Matheson, and spent a lovely morning together in the afterglow of Christmas Eve.


What a wonderful Christmas! Thanks to all who volunteered, attended, and worshiped with us. We live-streamed all of our Christmas offerings for the first time - thanks to the Stream Team who volunteered their time this Christmas to keep our online community connected with our in-person community (Click here for the Playlist).


We hope you have had a wonderful Christmas season, and we look forward to the coming year together.

​On December 10, the second Sunday of Advent, St John’s welcomed the Acadia Singers as guest choir, to offer three pieces from their repertoire suitable for Advent.  Two movements from “Méditations de la Vierge Marie” by Marie-Claire Sandon (L’annonce and Le secret de Dieu, words by Albert Lozier and Hélène Harbec, respectively) were sung after the sermon.  A third piece, a setting of the ancient words O Magnum Mysterium, in a new setting by B. E. Boykin, was presented as music during the offering.  Additionally, the Acadia Singers joined the St John’s choir for the hymns, canticle, and music for the lighting of the Advent candles.  Ella Burtt, a member of the Acadia Singers, also played her flute in a duet with Michelle Boyd on organ for both the prelude and postlude.  What a talented group of singers, and such music making!  We are indeed blessed to have the musicians of Acadia University on our doorstep, and Michelle Boyd as the liaison to the Faculty of Music.

​On November 25th, the ACW hosted the annual Christmas bazaar! For over 50 years, making the St. John’s plum puddings has been a parish-wide effort (with donations from local businesses much appreciated, too!) The festive sale included the puddings, as well as crafts, baking, second-hand treasures, and seasonal centrepieces. What a joyous way to get ready for the Christmas season!

St John’s live-streamed its first service on Sunday September 3.

For three years, services had been recorded live, and then edited offline before publishing to YouTube on Sunday evenings. With live-streaming, our internet-based congregation can join in as the worship service unfolds.

Installation of the equipment was made possible through a generous grant from the Tartan Foundation, following a budget approval by Parish Council. In addition to new cameras and controllers, a new sound mixer and computer were purchased to run the whole system. Steve Slovenz graciously built a console to hold all the new equipment, which has been installed in the back two pews. Our pre-existing sound equipment has been incorporated, necessitating moving everything to the back of the church. Microphones have been installed over the choir, and close to 500 feet of cabling were required to link everything together.

We thank the tireless efforts of Gary Dunfield and Cameron Finlay for making this dream a reality!

As before, recorded services are available to be viewed at any time through our YouTube channel.  To date, four people have been trained on using the system, but more volunteers are welcome to join “the AV team” - just contact the Wardens. ​

June 25th marked the last choral Sunday until the choir resumes in September.  The choir sang two anthems to mark the day - a setting of the Jubilate by Mozart, and the final benediction “Go Now in Peace” by Don Besig.  

Following the service, the choir gathered for a pot luck lunch at the Finlays where “Non nobis Domine” was sung as the grace before the meal. Michelle thanked Linda Ellis, Elizabeth Browne and Ron & Patti Stuart - all recent departures from the choir - for their many years of faithful service to music at St John’s. We also celebrated John Whidden’s 80th birthday with a rousing rendition of Happy Birthday!  

New choristers are always welcome.  Please contact Michelle Boyd.  Also, check out our music page on this website!