St. Johns Bowmanville

Join Us for Worship

May 23th Service

Join us on Zoom! Click Lucia's email here

If you are not able to join us on Zoom, Please join us on the YouTube (link above). We will be leaving a recording after the service has ended.

Morning Prayer Services
(Please also see Services & Sermons in our menu for Service material, Sermons and previous recordings)

Easter Sundays:

Welcome to St. John's

Welcome to St. John's. We invite you to join us in prayer and worship even while our buildings are closed to contribute to the health and well-being of our neighbours. You can join us on Zoom, click on the YouTube service or click on Services & Sermons to read the service and Lucia's sermons.

In times of joy and in times of adversity, we turn to God, and we welcome you to pray and worship with us from wherever you are.
Grace and peace,

Victorian Tea Time via Zoom

Dear St. John's,

You and your friends and family are invited to a Victoria Day Tea on Zoom!

The tea will be held on Monday May 18th at 3:00 at the link below.
You are invited to attend with a cup of tea. Each person chooses how formal or informal you'd like to be. You can attend in a t-shirt and sweatpants, or if you're tired of sweatpants by now and want an occasion to put on your favourite bow tie or pearls or fancy hat, this is your opportunity! Likewise, if you have a pretty teacup in your cupboard which is getting lonely because nobody's been coming over during quarantine, you can go over to your cupboard and tell your teacup that it's received a party invitation! Your teacup will be so excited to have a chance to come out and socialize! Especially since it's with the lovely folks from St. John's! If you have daffodils or tulips in your yard, you can tell them they're invited too!

For a conversation starter, we'll ask folks if there is a memory sparked by tea, or your teapot, or your tie or hat or flower that you'd like to share. Or a memory sparked by your t-shirt or sweatpants. It's up to you!

You are also welcome to invite friends and relatives to this tea. You can contact the church via st.johns.bow@bellnet.ca or Rev Lucia.

Since our in-person fundraisers have to be cancelled, we would welcome donations of whatever you might have spent at a fundraiser or whatever you would like to give. If you really like not being asked to sell tickets, plus not being asked to do any work, you can give us positive reinforcement for that in the form of a donation. You can do that even if attending a Zoom gathering is not your cup of tea, so to speak.

We are grateful to receive donations by any method. You can mail it to us (St. John's Anglican Church, 11 Temperance St. Bowmanville ON L1C 3A3) or drop it off in the church's mailbox. We encourage people to make e-transfers to St. John's. It's one of those things that takes a bit of time and effort to set up at the beginning, and then saves a lot of time and effort for you and for us from then on. Go to your bank account online, look for where interac e-transfers are, and when it asks you for the church email address, put st.johns.bow@bellnet.ca . Every donation helps to make our ministries possible and to keep our parish strong and vital in times of adversity and in times of joy.
Still, the event is free, and everyone is welcome whether you make a donation or not. You don't have to sign up in advance or RSVP. And while we are not asking for volunteers to do any work on this fundraiser, if you feel like making scones or cucumber sandwiches or any other favourite treat to enjoy with your tea, go for it!

Grace and peace,
Lucia

Lucia's Lawn Hours

Dear St. John's,

Thanks to all the folks who came by for Lucia's lawn hours! It was great to see you and have some real life conversations! I am holding lawn hours again on Wednesday, May 6th from 1-3 on the grass next to the church, in my lawn chair six feet from the sidewalk. Feel free to stop by to chat, pray, or enjoy some fresh air and human interaction. Feel free to invite friends and neighbours.

Covid-19 Update

March 14, 2020
Dear St. John's,

If you would like to worship with an online service of Morning Prayer, you can go to the diocesan website.

Bishop Andrew Asbil will be offering an online service of Morning Prayer from St James Cathedral on Sunday, March 15 to which people can tune in.

I also have compiled some written worship materials, which are located on the website here.

You are welcome to use them to pray with us at 8:00 or 10:30 from wherever you are, or to pray by yourself or with your family at a time that is best for you. You will find attachments of Morning Prayer, the intercessions, the scripture readings in the Sunday lectionary for this Sunday, and the Collect for this Sunday.

I had planned to be on vacation this Sunday, and the sermon Rev. Carol had planned isn't in written form, so I'm including a sermon I preached three years ago on today's scriptures.

Morning Prayer is designed as worship without the sacrament of Holy Communion, and this is a good opportunity to use it.

Still, there may be parishioners who prefer the familiar worship they are used to on Sundays, and the associations it carries, so it includes booklets from the BCP and BAS Eucharist for anyone who would like to pray using that service and simply omit the sacrament.

We are continuing to adapt to these new circumstances, and we will stay in touch as we get organized in new ways, continuing to give thanks for God's love, and to love God, and to love our neighbours.

Grace and peace,
Lucia

March 13, 2020
Dear St. John's,
As an act of caring for our neighbours, especially those most vulnerable to illness, we at St. John's will be following the decision we have received this evening from the bishops of our Diocese and our Ecclesiastical Province to suspend public worship. Therefore St. John's will not be holding church services this Sunday or in the following weeks. We will be in touch soon by email with resources for worship at home, both in written form and online, and with other ways of maintaining community. Please continue to pray for all those who suffer as a result of COVID-19, and for God to grant all of us patience, strength, compassion, and faith as we deal with it, as well as recognition of the blessings in our lives even during difficult times.
Grace and peace,
Lucia

The announcement from the bishop can be found on the Diocese Website