Elgin Portland United Church Council
Announcements
Free Art Classes in the Portland Village – 6-12 yrs. Monday 4:30-6:30 at the Portland Restaurant & Pizzeria.
Visual Art Teacher – Darlene, call to book your spot 905-801-5060.
Dig out your Stetsons and jeans! The Country Kitchen Jamboree is in full swing at Elgin United, 7 pm November 1st. This jam(boree) packed evening features the talent of 11 local vocalists/musicians and 34 hits, from toe tappers to tear jerkers, of the country music genre. Book early. Not to be missed. Tickets at eventbtite.ca or 613-359-5607 and leave a message.
Elgin United is hosting Henry Reinders, the Ontario Regional Director of the Canadian Foodgrains Bank, as a speaker at Elgin United Church service on November 23rd. We invite you to join us to hear about the important issue of food security and hunger in our world, and what we can do to help. Please share this invitation with others that you feel might be interested. See the Foodgrains notice as well.
NOW BIDDING ON ITEM #, SOLD! The Elgin United Church 6th annual on-line auction is set to go, November 26th to December 3rd, and pickup to be scheduled for Saturday December 6th. Proceeds will be shared with the Elgin Food Bank. Donations of NEW items will be received until Sunday November 22nd. Please see the letter for more detail.
Bible Discussion Groups- Monday evening at Portland UC at 6:30 – 7:45 and Tuesday mornings at Guthrie House in Elgin (10 Perth St.) at 10:00-11:30. All are welcome to join in the friendly discussions and fellowship. For more information, contact Jim Barton at ccjimbarton@gmail.com or 613-329-4089.
Strengthening Connections Day
St. Paul’s United Church, Perth
November 1, 2025 – 9:30 – 4:00
The fall meeting of the Eastern Ontario Outaouais Regional Council is going to look quite different this year.
During the region’s strategic planning process, it was decided that we should transform our fall meetings so that they reach more people, closer to home, to build connections and relationships with the wider church. All members, lay and ordered, are invited to join their regional council as we connect, discuss and remind ourselves that we are not alone in this ministry.
Instead of doing one meeting, we’re holding five of them on the same day at the same time, but in locations across the region. And the one closest to us is in Perth, Ontario.
Plan to join us. Registration is online at:
https://eoorc.ca/registration-for-local-gatherings-on-nov-1st/
BRING YOUR OWN BAG LUNCH
Any questions contact:
Liz Church – 902-441-5357
Devotional Reflection
October 25, 2025
Everything is in full swing for another glorious season. The store shelves are packed to capacity with ‘Christmas’ stuff. Your on-line shopping as taken a turn to empty your pocketbook of any savings you had.
And being who we are, we begin to imagine the hundreds, if not thousands, of people in our own country who will be without food or gifts this Christmas.
Christmas trees in the big city malls will have names printed on them. And you may be among those who buy a present to give away to another, a stranger who needs support.
And our minds think of those less fortunate than ourselves. We will be taken up with ways to assist others for the next two months – to the day! For you will read this devotional when there is exactly 2 months until Christmas.
As members of a church, we are privy to this scene more than some. The food banks are securing lists of those who cannot afford to give their families the full Christmas 
experience. And we will assist by taking a family name and supplying them with the necessities of life, and a few extra toys thrown in for good measure. Food drives will be set up in many locations and you will contribute because you are compelled by the human need that you see all around you.
I have only scratched the surface of what Christmas means to some. But I want to change my focus for a moment. And I will ask this very personal question: “Who are the poor?”
Most of you will think I have lost it. For this seems obvious. But stop for a moment and you will be surprised.
Over my years in pastoral care within churches, hospitals, prisons, street ministry, and homeless shelters, I have made an astonishing discovery. And it will help you perhaps to answer this question, who are the poor?
Your first thought will be about those whom I have briefly mentioned, and you may be correct in that. But it goes much deeper for me.
Those ‘poor’ people may be sitting next to you in church or at your workplace. It may be yourself – feeling unloved, rejected, ignored, abused.
As a church, we are called to help others. And I know you will do that. But as you reach out to the stranger, which is proper and right to do, look around you this Sunday. 
As you pass the peace, say an extra prayer for the one you reach out to. Your smile, your touch may be the means to heal another’s wounds, for the process of forgiveness to begin, for the encouragement needed to face another day.
God has called us to share. And we have a multitude of places we can do this.
As we move into the season of Love, Joy, Peace, Hope, take time to see the ‘poor’ among you and give them the gift of love, encouragement, and hope.
You are blessed and loved.
Liz Church, Director of Pastoral Care
Elgin/Portland Pastoral Charge
Together we are strong.