Elgin United Church
Carl Leggett celebrates a birthday on Monday Nov 28th. Happy Birthday Carl, wishing you a most enjoyable day.
Elgin United and RLELC are hosting a Children’s Christmas Party at EUC from 2-4 Sunday Dec 11th. Snacks, the Christmas Story, carols, gifts and Santa Claus. Register by Dec 4th, Clinton Halladay, 613-359-5607 or clint.sharon@halladay.ca. Thank you Alex for getting this organized.
Be sure to bid on a host of fabulous items in the EUC online auction. Go to the Elgin United Church Facebook page. Bidding closes at 7pm Nov 30th.
Elgin United Church Council
Portland United Church
Portland Food Bank
This year the Build a Mountain of Food for the Portland Food Bank will be held on Saturday, December 3, 2022, from 9 a.m. to 12 noon in front of the Royal Bank in Portland. Currently the Portland Food Bank assists 21 families (approximately 41 adults and 17 children) on the 1st and 3rd Tuesday of every month as well as providing Christmas hampers. Our numbers are higher than previous years since many families are finding it harder to make ends meet.
The Portland Food Bank is asking for your support and generosity to make this campaign a huge success: spread the word, come and visit us in Front of the Royal Bank, and donate food or money.
If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact Norma Cummings (613-359-0151) or Louise Martin (613-359-5397). Thank you and we look forward to seeing you on December 3rd, 2022.
Louise Martin,
Manager Portland
Food Bank Tel.: 613-359-5397
We did it again! Another successful tourtiere pie sale is in the books. Thank you to the many members of the community and our congregation for their outstanding commitment. We made 60 pies each day for two days for a total of 120 pies – all sold! On Wednesday we made a few more and 24 small pies to sell at the Bake Sale December 10th.
Many of us have missed our PUC church choir. John Wanless has proposed getting the choir together and presenting some anthems during Advent. If you would or you know someone in the community who would enjoy singing in the choir the next few Sundays come and join us for practice at the Church 7 pm Thursday evening to prepare for this joyful reunion.
As the year end and Christmas approaches many of us review our support of those less fortunate than ourselves and those organization who support them. As you do this review, please include Portland United Church. If you find life gets too busy to make a donation in person we remind you that there are 3 options for ensuring your donation gets to the church to support its activities, mail, e-transfer donateportlandunitedchurch@kingston.net and on the EPPC website via the “donate now” button.
A Christmas Bake Sale! – Portland United Church – Saturday, December 10th from 10:00 to 2:00. Let us know what goodies you can offer and how you can help. Proceeds to the General Fund. Contact Connie Cochran.
Christmas in the Village! Watch for posters announcing this event Saturday, December 17th. Sponsored by the UCW. Wagon ride with carolers through the village, hot chocolate and decorating gingerbread cookies and Santa with candy! Looking for volunteers! Contact Connie or Pauline.
If you’re looking for a unique gift to give this Christmas, why not consider a subscription of Broadview magazine. Annual subscriptions are $25.00 and can be ordered through Connie Cochran.
Portland United Church Council
Devotional Thought – November 26, 2022 – 1st Week of Advent
I love a new box of crayons. When I was young, I seldom had this except at the first day of the school year and always on my birthday. But in between times, I was using the broken crayons and here are a few lessons I’ve learned about them.
- They still colour
- Peeling back the paper, the covering, gives you a better surface to use
- If you lie a crayon on its side, you can cover a larger area and bring dimension to your picture
- Blending colours produces different shades
- No matter how many colours you have, you are always looking for that special one that gives it the final touches
- Not every colour is applied smoothly. Sometimes, the deep colour produced from going over and over the same spot allows you to get the desired effect.
I heard an expression this week that caused my brain to start working on how to spiritualize it. “Even broken crayons still colour”. Just reading it makes you see the spiritual implications for application in your life? And then I read another quote from Robert Fulghum that said: “We could learn a lot from crayons. Some are sharp, some are pretty, some are dull, some have weird names, all are different colours. But they all have to learn to live in the same box.”
So now it begs to be asked: ‘If you were a crayon, what colour would you want to be? And is the colour you chose better than the next colour (person) – your best friend, your enemy, your classmate, your parent, your church friend? Can I just be this one crayon and bring out the best that God has to offer? How can I share my colour with the world and blend together to make this world the best it can be?
This reminds me of the verse in Scripture from 1 Corinthians 12: 27 “All of you together are Christ’s body, and each of you is a part of it.”
But I must say, you should take the time and read all of the 12th chapter. And if you read it from the New Living Translation, you will be so moved with the reminder of how important you are to building God’s kingdom. We can’t do without you. You are missing from the crayon box. Your sparkle and shine leaves a blank space on the canvas when you are not here.
Then I got to thinking – If you are the broken crayon in the box, do you consider yourself to be discarded and useless? It is not always easy to be at the top of our game, or to continue to be as active as we once were. Or maybe circumstances have caused you to hide in the bottom of the box so you won’t feel more rejected or unwanted!
I feel a sermon coming on and this precious message may get too long so I will leave you with this thought – With this being the first Sunday of Advent and the message of hope being forefront allow me to say this – hope is a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen. This unknown quote I found says it all and is my prayer for each of us as we focus on this Christmas season:
“We are a box of crayons, each of us unique, but when we get together the picture is complete.”
Blessing and peace to each of you.
Liz Church -Pastoral Care Director
Elgin/Portland Pastoral Charge
1 Corinthians 12 vs. 14-27
14 Yes, the body has many different parts, not just one part.
15 If the foot says, “I am not a part of the body because I am not a hand,” that does not make it any less a part of the body.
16 And if the ear says, “I am not part of the body because I am not an eye,” would that make it any less a part of the body?
17 If the whole body were an eye, how would you hear? Or if your whole body were an ear, how would you smell anything?
18 But our bodies have many parts, and God has put each part just where he wants it.
19 How strange a body would be if it had only one part!
20 Yes, there are many parts, but only one body.
21 The eye can never say to the hand, “I don’t need you.” The head can’t say to the feet, “I don’t need you.”
22 In fact, some parts of the body that seem weakest and least important are actually the most necessary.
23 And the parts we regard as less honorable are those we clothe with the greatest care. So we carefully protect those parts that should not be seen,
24 while the more honorable parts do not require this special care. So God has put the body together such that extra honor and care are given to those parts that have less dignity.
25 This makes for harmony among the members, so that all the members care for each other.
26 If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it, and if one part is honored, all the parts are glad.
27 All of you together are Christ’s body, and each of you is a part of it.