Elgin Portland Pastoral Charge
Please find below an invitation to the Athens United Church preparing our 100th Anniversary Planning. If you want to be part of the planning gathering please contact Clint Halladay or Katy Gibson.
100th Anniversary Planning
Good morning to all of you and Happy New Year !! I would like to invite you now to our 1st Planning Gathering for the Celebration of our amazing United Church of Canada. !!
I have booked the time and meeting place for :
Saturday, January 18th, 10.00 a.m. at Athens United Church ( 17 Church St )
Please bring others with you who might be interested in attending and also your possible plans for worship dates in May or June. I’d appreciate knowing too how many to expect so i can have enough copies of the agenda available.
Lastly, you might want to join in on the Epiphany Study Sessions beginning this Wednesday, January 8th at 7.30 on YouTube . The 1/2 hour programs are designed to prepare us for three Anniversary services that will help us appreciate our Song of Faith.
I’m personally thankful for all in this special celebration of our church anniversary that will uplift us spiritually, and mentally in the midst of such turmoil in our country and world.
Looking forward to meeting you all in joy and enthusiasm !!!
With God as our Guide,
Kathryn Powell
Elgin Portland United Church Council
Sylvia French – Celebration of Life – Saturday, January 25th, 2-4 pm – The French Family are inviting friends and family to PUC to remember the life of Sylvia, a mom, grandmother, friend, and active member of her community. Please join us as we celebrate her life.
Annual General Meetings (PUC/EUC/OB) are scheduled for Sunday, February 16th, 2025. OB will be in Elgin. General reports are due by January 20th, and financial reports are due by January 27th, for the Annual Report to be done. Please forward your reports to office@eppc-ucc.com.
Bible Discussion Groups meet on Monday at Portland UC (6:30 PM) and Tuesday in Elgin (10:00 AM) at the Guthrie House. All are welcome. Info: ccjimbarton@gmail.com or 613-328-4089
Advance notice JAN 25, 2025 – our Canadian Women in Song troupe plays at the Joshua Bates Centre, Athens. Get your tickets early. joshuabatescentre.com
THE PORTLAND UNITED CHURCH FAMILY IN 2025
Let’s hear from every PUC family as we look towards celebrating the 100th anniversary of UCC.
Why did you decide to call PUC ‘home’? When did you 1st come to PUC? How long has it been your church -does the connection go back a generation or more in your family? Were you baptized, confirmed or married at PUC? If not, where, when, how did you begin your affiliation with UCC in other areas of the country?
Please take a few moments to write your personal and/or your family’s story in order for us to include it in a book and hear it one day in church. By signing the sheet on the bulletin board, we will know how often to schedule each family’s story over the coming months. If you are close to or know of a family that in recent past is no longer with us, please feel free to share their story also.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Details/questions – contact Jane or Duncan
Devotional Reflection
January 18, 2024
I recently read a poem about saving souls. This thought-provoking bit of prose got me to thinking.
Should we be trying to save souls? And if not, then, what is the alternative?
Even to fight through the rhetoric of these words could leave us stranded down a path, far from where we want to be.
Let me explain. We understand that it is not us who saves souls; it is God who speaks and an individual responds. It is God to whom we talk and ask that we may live in harmony with His plan for our life. My soul has been saved by God, through His Son, Jesus.
Thus, the dilemma I mentioned. In actuality, the souls I reference at this time are the individuals I encounter, with whom I communicate. I have been taught and continue to teach others of the importance of sharing the Good News with others – ‘saving’ them to experience new life in Christ.
A bit confusing at first. God has saved me. I tell others. Therefore, I am not saving my soul just for myself. I am giving to someone else, so they too will experience this gift of a ‘saved soul’.
Remember how we used to save those ‘good clothes’ for Sunday. Not to be used for anything else. That is not the way we want to be. We want to take our best and share with others. You take your light and shine it on to another. They catch hold of the candle spark, fan it into a flame and then pass it on to the next person.
In her poem ‘All This Talk of Saving Souls’, Linda Underwood says this: I will spend my soul, playing it out like sticky string into the world, so I can catch every last thing I touch.’
I wonder if you have ever felt like a piece of sticky string. Have you experienced the joy of sharing Jesus with another person and helping that person to experience freedom in Christ, to strengthen their faith, to trust in God because you shared your soul with them. You helped to carry their burden; you gave them hope.
We have a remarkable ability to share our soul. And in that way, we are renewed and invigorated. We grow spiritually.
May each of you, my dear friends, experience the joy of sharing yourself with those you meet. And somewhere along that piece of string you see the souls you influenced to come into fellowship with the Lord.
You are loved. You are blessed.
Liz Church,
Director of Pastoral Care
Elgin/Portland Pastoral Charge