Weekly Announcements
HAPPY BIRTHDAY Karen Pyne. Wishing you a super special day.
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Bible Discussions Groups
We are taking a break for the summer.
For more information contact Jim Barton at ccjimbarton@gmail.com or 613-328-4089
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The Portland and Area CEC Invite you to a “Summer Community Picnic” August 3rd, at 12:00 PM. Catered by The Galley. Music by the Beverley Boys, Town Crier competition @ 11 AM. Hanna Memorial Park, 27 Water Street, Portland. Donations appreciated for “The New Playground”
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Eleanor Glenn will be our guest speaker next week,
August 9th, 2026
*Proud mother of 2 sons, 4 grandchildren and 9 great grandchildren
*Retired principal since 2005,* 2027 will mark her 20th year of performances of her one woman International play,
The Servant At The Supper.
* She moved from Smiths Falls to Portland in 2010 and has performed her play twice at Portland United Church,
between 2010 and 2013.
*She also wrote her first of her 10 self-published books while in Portland.
Entitled The Shoe In The Garden, in 2012 the book was one of 30 chosen to be a finalist from hundreds of North American entries selected by the US company, Hayhouse Publishers, in their best new fictional author competition.
The book centered around the 200th Anniversary of the War of 1812.
*Her most successful book, How Love Continues: Recognizing The Afterlife has been in print since 2018
& the 5th Anniversary Edition published in 2023.
* The book has brought comfort and hope to hundreds of readers dealing with grief and has never been out of print in its current 8 year history.
*Now she joyfully accepts God’s calling as a Lay Worship Leader with the United Church of Canada.
*Beginning in July and currently into September, 2026, she is leading services in 7 churches:
Toledo, Burridge, Westport, Newboro, Elgin, Portland,
Trinity United in Smiths Falls.
eleanorglenn.ca
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Devotional Reflection July 31, 2026
This upcoming Sunday is known as Emancipation Sunday in the United Church. For those of us who live here in Canada, we do not often use this word – Emancipation. Most of us have not known or do not understand that part of history. But as I made preparations for Sunday service I came across a verse of Scripture that got me thinking about freedom and how we look at it. The verse took something simple I see everyday and from this I learned a valuable lesson – the ANT.
Did you ever watch as the ant races in and out of tiny holes in the ground. Or perhaps you ve had the chance to go to a nature museum and see first hand the working of the underground tunnels made by these tiny creatures.
And worst of all, most of us have probably tried to stomp them out by crushing the anthill. In a single second, our feet have caused what looks like total devastation. And for just a moment, you feel regret. You stand there gazing at the collapsed structure.
Yet, should you stand there for more than a few minutes, the miracle begins to happen. You see movement under the earth and then the tiny head of the ant as it begins to clear away the debris. Within hours, the ants have rescued their young and a brand-new anthill has begun, right where the old one was destroyed.
Proverbs 6 gives us insight into this tiny creature: “Look at an ant. Watch it closely; let it teach you a thing or two. Nobody has to tell it what to do. All summer it stores up food; at harvest it stockpiles provisions.”
So, this is what we learn. You can crush their structure, but you cannot crush their purpose. They are small, but they are unstoppable. They begin afresh to do the necessary so that they will flourish and take care of each other – the ultimate picture of freedom.
The spiritual lesson becomes clear. Most of us have struggles in life. We have seen our lives crumble and fall apart, even thinking that it is over.
This short devotional is written to remind you – true freedom is not a building, or a human structure. It is not this life with its failures; it is not the detours of our journey.
You know spiritual freedom best when you realize that an internal, life-giving force dwells in you. God gives to you the resilient spirit needed to rebuild your shattered dreams. That crushing despair cannot keep you buried – within you is the store-house of God’s riches.
And so, you begin to dig through the debris. You learn that you are not alone. You rejoice in the knowledge that your freedom is not as fragile as you imagined. And the process of rebuilding brings new purpose. You are free to walk in victory.
For people all over the world, emancipation will seem impossible. The social injustice, the governmental processes; so many intolerable ways that lives have been crushed.
My prayer is that as you think of those who live under the dominance of others, pray they will be able to find new inroads of safety, ways to cope with those who would try to destroy. Pray for the rebuilding of their faith.
You are blessed.
Liz Church, Director of Pastoral Care
Elgin/Portland Pastoral Charge
lizchurch1@hotmail.com