Newsletter June 12, 2025

Family Fun Day and Change Makers Gathering Festival (Messy Church)

June 14th - Gordon United & Station Market

All are welcome on June 14th at Gordon United, 935 Goldstream and then Station Market.

At 10:00 we’ll gather to celebrate “Good Guys of the Bible” and the Good Guys we know, with activities, crafts, stories etc. Free snacks will be available. At 11:30 we’ll walk together to Station Avenue (adults are responsible for accompanying their kids) for Coast Salish Art Workshops & Game Tent. There you will find Indigenous drum and dance groups, the Indigenous artisans market, drop-in Cedar weaving workshops, a free Bannock taco lunch, and teen zone activities.

Strawberry Tea & Craft Fair

Saturday, June 21st from 10 am to 3 pm

Thanks to everyone who has already signed up to make items for the bake table, to assist with set-up on Friday evening, June 20^th, and to help during the Tea and with the clean-up after the event.

For everyone who is baking, you can pick up paper trays and baggies to wrap your items from Liz Garland after church on Sunday or from the church office, Tuesday to Thursday, 9 am to 1 pm. This is a popular feature of the Tea, and so anyone who enjoys baking is invited to contribute.

We still need help, especially on the day of the Tea as follows:

- serving our patrons (bringing coffee, tea and shortcake to the tables)

- clearing and resetting the tables

- coming at 3 pm to help with the clean-up after the event

If you can help in any of these ways, please add your name to the sign-up sheets on the entranceway table. If you would like to know more before you sign up, please see Linda Van Sickle after church this Sunday or contact Linda at lindavs51@gmail.com. Let’s make this a wonderful event for our parish and for our wider community!

Pride Sunday Service

Sunday June 29th at 10 AM

Join us at the Church of the Advent for a joyful Pride celebration of all of us, God's family, in our wonderful diversity of identity, love, orientation, and gender.

Come as you are, knowing that your authentic self is beloved, and celebrate that belovedness with a diverse and affirming family of faith. You are wonderful, just as you are.

Eucharist Service - Sunday 29 June, 10 AM, Church of the Advent

Come and join us - we dress casual! Join us for a fun picnic on the church lawns afterwards!

Victoria Pride Parade

July 6

Church of the Advent will be marching in the Pride Parade in downtown Victoria on Sunday July 6th together with Gordon United Church, as the West Shore Affirming Churches. We will be carrying our beautiful new banner!

You are encouraged to join us - whether it be for only part of the march or the entire length! The Parade begins at about 11 AM, and lasts about an hour and a half. It's our way of letting people know that there IS loving, caring, affirming Christian community on the West Shore.

Please let Sr Ingrid know if you would like to participate - we would like to start planning as soon as possible.

Note: There will be a church service at 8.30 and10 AM as usual, with supply clergy.

Parish Camp

Rondalyn Resort, Ladysmith - July 11-18 (or part thereof)

You are warmly invited to join us for our fun parish campout, which takes place at Rondalyn Resort in Ladysmith, from July 11-18. Many come only for the day or the weekend, but some of us stay for longer. We especially encourage you to join us on Saturday for the potluck dinner, and/or Sunday morning at 11 AM for the Eucharist service, celebrated by Rev. Larry Scyner.

There is a great pool which is $5 for daytime visitors.

To find out more about Rondalyn, click here

Never been on parish campout before? Join us! It's a great way for parishioners of all ages to learn to get to know each other.

Intersections Course

September and October Tuesday nights @ 7 PM

The Diocese has a superb course on our history in BC, looking at the way that we have interacted across cultures and race, beginning with the very first colonists.

Sr. Ingrid has completed the course, and found it interesting, challenging and immensely rewarding. Often, we prefer not to engage with uncomfortable subjects, but there is a lot to be learned about ourselves and the unspoken background of the society in which we live. To introduce you to what is possible with this course, please watch this brief video with Bishop Anna.

This seven-week online series brings people together in intentional conversations to:

encounter our collective past
locate ourselves as participants in the ongoing story of this place
explore how to respond faithfully to the truths we find together

...so we can participate with God in restoring creation and affirming the dignity of all people.

A team of trained moderators will offer will offer each of the seven sessions which are based on the information covered in the CRBC project, using video, song, prayer, self-refection exercises, readings and group discussions.

The Church of the Advent will be engaging in this course during September and October, on Tuesday nights at 7 PM (skipping the third Tuesday of each month).

Thursday Evening Bible Study

Online every Thursday evening from 6 - 7 pm.

All are welcome to join us on Thursdays for our relaxed, lively and interesting Zoom online Bible Study, to discuss the readings for the upcoming Sunday. The readings are posted in this newsletter.

No experience or prior knowledge is needed.

Time: 6 PM - 7 PM.

Zoom Link:

https://bc-anglican-ca.zoom.us/j/88378461340?pwd=cU9wSUNEZG02M3h3bGVrUmpyMjRNZz09

Meeting ID: 883 7846 1340
Passcode: 4743031

Lisa Brodersen will be leading Bible Study in Sr. Ingrid's absence next Thursday, 19th June, as Sr Ingrid will be away at her annual Franciscan Chapter.

Readings for this Sunday's Service

Readings for this Sunday's services:

Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31

Psalm 8

Romans 5:1-5

John 16:12-15

Read Sunday's readings online:
1. Go to https://lectionary.anglican.ca/
2. Select next Sunday's date in the space at the bottom.
3. Click "Link to full text for this day".

From the Parish Library

NEW BOOK CORNER

The Sunday Philosophy Club

Alexander McCall Smith

A special treat for Alexander McCall Smith fans: added to the Top Shelf this week is the first in the series of five novels about amateur sleuth Isabel Dalhousie. Isabel is a resident of McCall Smith’s hometown of Edinburgh, where these books are set. She is also the editor of The Review of Applied Ethics, and these gentle, delightful mysteries are charmingly laced with her reflections on moral responsibility. The New York Times calls them “the literary equivalent of herbal tea and a cozy fire.”

In this first novel, Isabel sees a young man fall to his death from the upper circle of the hall where she is attending a concert, and feels it her ethical duty to do what she can to find out why and how he fell.

Alexander McCall Smith is best known as the author of the hit series, The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency.

The Sunday Philosophy Club was first published in 2004, and has been catalogued in the Inspiration section at INSP MCC1. The library also has the second novel in the series, Friends, Lovers, Chocolate (INSP MCC2, 2005), which can be found on the bottom shelf of the small bookcase in the narthex.

To borrow any book, please fill out a green loan slip from the small bookcase in the narthex, and put it in the pink box labelled “Library.” If you have a book due for return, please fill out a yellow return slip instead, and leave your book beside the box. Thank you.

Faith Tides: June 2025

Faith Tides is the online, faith-based publication of the Anglican Diocese of Islands and Inlets (BC). Through news stories, reflections and feature articles Faith Tides aims to showcase the work God is doing through our churches. It is a space where people of faith and doubt can walk alongside one another, share their stories and grow together.

Read the June 2025 issue