Alleluia! Christ is Risen.

Our parish hosted a meeting of the Regional Council on Tuesday evening. There are plans for a couple of events aimed at youth within the region. A puppet ministry involving youth from the churches has received funding and plans are being made to involve our young people beginning in September. Further details will follow. Also we are hoping to arrange a pilgrimage to Canterbury for the fall of 2010 as part of the 2010 celebrations. This would be open to youth (16-21 years of age). Final details are yet to be made. As more information becomes available I will pass it on. The meeting was also a pre-synod meeting where the resolutions to be brought before synod were presented and discussed. There are eighteen motions to be heard at this synod ensuring a busy three days for our lay delegates, Doug Gillett and Marilyn Hamlin as well as for myself and Rev. Judie. Thanks to Doug, Marilyn, and Wendy Wells for arranging refreshments for the meeting.

Prayer group met as usual on Wednesday morning. We enjoy conversation together and uphold the cares and concerns of our parish in prayer.

On Wednesday afternoon and evening a dinner and church service sponsored by the PWRDF took place at the Diocesan Centre. This was a timely event as it was a celebration of fifty years of service by the PWRDF, an event which we celebrate at St. Andrew's this morning. Thanks to Marilyn Hamlin who met with me on Thursday morning to prepare the bulletins for this morning's service.

I was pleased to visit the hospitals on Friday. We have one parishioner who is a patient in hospital at this time.

Saturday morning was the final men's breakfast for this year and the men invited their significant others to join them. A wonderful turnout saw some forty plus attend to enjoy a wonderful breakfast, and good fellowship. Thanks to Doug Gillett for providing an update on our plans towards developing a mission statement and vision statement for our parish. Also a deep debt of gratitude to Don, Tom, Jim, our head chefs, and everyone else whose attendance and help make these events most enjoyable.

At the dinner held for the PWRDF on Wednesday evening the centre piece for the tables was a miners helmet filled with flowers. I was pleased to be able to borrow two of those helmets for our service this morning. They are actual helmets that were worn by the miners of Springhill. As we celebrate fifty years of service by the PWRDF this I want to also give thanks for eighteen years of service by Doris DeWolfe as our parish representative. Doris is recovering nicely from surgery, and is not able to be with us at our service this morning.

In our prayers this morning we remember Isaac Robert MacDonald, and Jaymee Aniyah Crawford-Howell, who will receive the sacrament of Holy Baptism at our service next Sunday.

"Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; but remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for."

May your week ahead be blessed, and may the presence of the Risen Christ be evident in your lives in what see, hear and do.

Rev. Mike