Category: News

Dear Friends, 

Thanks be to God who gives us the victory
through our Lord Jesus Christ.

I Corinthians 15: 57

Easter changes everything.  Take everything you thought you knew about how you thought the world works—about how great stones stay where they are and don’t just get rolled aside, about death always having the last word, about you only get what’s coming to you, or that you just have to live with the fact that bad stuff happens.  Now look again because all is not as it appears.

Stones can be moved, Christ has defeated death and been raised, grace invades our lives with gift and beauty, and for every loss or tragedy that we face, there is the possibility of rising again, continuing on and finding that there is hope.  Through Christ, where we thought there was only death there is life.  For Paul, the only reason we can look at the brokenness of the world and the struggles of our existence and have any hope at all is found in the resurrection.   Death could not defeat Jesus and it has no ability ultimately to defeat us.

Easter speaks to us of endings and beginnings, of looking for something fresh and new, of seeking hope for a future which holds so many unknowns.  Surely that can be a welcome hope for us as a congregation as we seek to call a minister to help lead us into the mission that lies ahead of us.  And hope for us as part of the human family in the struggle to overcome the scourge of the COVID pandemic.  In all of it, the risen Christ is with us.

The last verse of that wonderful hymn “In the bulb there is a flower” says it well:
          In our end is our beginning,
          in our time, infinity,
          in our doubt there is believing,
          in our life, infinity,
          in our death, a resurrection,
          at the last a victory,
          unrevealed until its season,
          something God alone can see.

In Christ,

Revs. Bob and Helen Smith

A version of this message first appeared in the Saturday, April 11, 2021, edition of Tidbits.

Support of mission and outreach activities has been an important part of the witness of our Church to the teaching of our Lord to love our neighbour. In addition to the annual budget allocated for mission and outreach activities, which is used to support charitable activities locally and internationally, in recent years, our Church has undertaken a major mission project in alternate years.

As you will recall, in 2018 we undertook to raise $10,000.00 for Portland Place to refurbish the kitchen and $10,000.00 to address structural problems with our church’s sanctuary windows. We raised $20,145.21 for these projects to the end of December 2018. A major mission project had been planned for 2020, but it did not proceed due to the pandemic.

Notwithstanding the continued disruption of the pandemic to our Church activities, help is needed by many people in our community. Accordingly, the Mission & Outreach Committee has recommended and Session has agreed, and the annual meeting of the congregation has approved that we as a congregation undertake as our Mission Project 2021 the project of raising $10,000.00 for the Scarborough Food Bank. The COVID pandemic has hit the poorest in our community hardest and our view is that our church must help in a meaningful way. It also is our view that this project will help bring our congregation together in spirit, even if physically meeting together is further delayed.

Donations can be made by adding an amount to your weekly offering and noting on the envelope line for “Other” that it is to go to the “Mission Project” or to “Food Bank” or you can make a direct donation to the church for this purpose. Cheques are to be made out to Guildwood Community Presbyterian Church. As always, accurate records will be kept of the amounts donated and a tax receipt will come following the year end.

To promote awareness of the Food Bank and its needs within families, the committee will be encouraging support by donating food items to the Food Bank, e.g. fish items in “Fishy February” and milk products in “Milky March”. However, the goal of the project is to raise $10,000.00 cash to give to the Food Bank. Its buying power is better than us as individuals and the money will go further.  Please give your generous support to this important project. As Shakespeare so eloquently wrote:

The quality of mercy is not strained;
It droppeth as the gentle rain from Heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest.

The Merchant of Venice, Act IV, Scene 1

A version of this message first appeared in the Saturday, March 20, 2021, edition of Tidbits.

Thank you to all who attended our first virtual Congregational Meeting. 37 people attended and the reports of groups and committees for 2020 were approved. Jonathan Roth reviewed our 2020 financial statements which included a surplus of $93,000 (all due to not having a full-time minister). The congregation approved the 2021 budget as presented, and approved the repayment of approximately $50,000 to the Housing Allowance fund, thus repaying the loan taken from that fund for past roof and floor repairs. Sig Quickert, Don MacOdrum and Bonnie Horton were appointed as Trustees for a three-year term. Jonathan Roth was confirmed as Treasurer for 2021.

Access the 2020 Annual Report online here. There are printed copies for those without computer access available through the office at 416.261.4037.

A version of this message first appeared in the Saturday, March 20, 2021, edition of Tidbits.

As a result of the balloting conducted earlier this year, the Session is pleased to announce the following people have accepted the call to Eldership at Guildwood:

• Chris Aleong
• Niki Aleong
• Carolyn Glasgow
• Bill Holly
• Christianne James
• Catherine MacOdrum
• Susan Tomkins

Our new Elders will be ordained and admitted to Session in a worship service when it is safe to gather, but will be invited to meet with current members of the Session as Elders-elect until that service can be held.  Thank you and welcome to our new Elders!

A version of this message first appeared in the Saturday, March 13, 2021, edition of Tidbits.