Church Notes

February 21, 2020

• Shirley Stark has put together one of her luxurious gift baskets to be raffled off as a fundraiser for needed kitchen equipment. Two bottles of wine, wine glasses, nuts, bon-bons and more can all be yours for a $1 raffle ticket. of course you’ll want to buy more than one ticket to increase your chances! Tickets on sale as of March 1st. Drawing on Easter Sunday, April 12.

• Congratulations to former Chair of Church Council Darlene Halfyard who is retiring from Concordia University after 31 years. We at SouthWest wish her all the best as she relocates to Cowansville.

• Who will be first to submit their 2019 Annual Report to the office? Reports need to be proofed, formatted, bound and printed in the coming weeks in preparation for the Annual Congregational Meeting April 26th. Please don’t leave it to the last minute.

  Feb. 14

• If you are interested in ordering a chrysanthemum plant for Easter, please contact Shirley Stark before April 4th.
  Payment is required in advance since the plants have to be paid for when they are picked up.

  The plants will adorn the church on Easter Sunday and you will take them home after the service.

  Feb. 7

• Do you keep your Palms from year to year? Anyone who has a palm or two from last Palm Sunday, please see Pastor Beryl. We want to burn them to make the ashes for Ash Wednesday.

• Thanks to all who brought food donations for Manna last Sunday. We will continue these collections on the first Sunday of each month, so the next one will be March 1st, which is also the first of Lent.

• We are always looking for new people to add to the mix of scripture readers on Sunday morning. Speak to Beryl or Dennis or call the office if you would like to help out with this important part of worship.

• Have you got something to say? The newsletter welcomes contributors. Have you attended a church or community event you want to tell people about? Do you have a funny or inspiring story, from the past or the present? Is there an issue you’d like to bring to our readers’ attention? We will try to use everything we receive, though we may do some editing.

SouthWest Annual Meeting April 26

At the Church Council meeting earlier this week, a date was chosen for our Annual Congregational Meeting. it will be Sunday, April 26th immediately following the service, and will take place in the sanctuary.

What this means for the office is that Annual Reports have to be printed by Easter (April 12th) and that means we need to receive reports by Friday, March 27th. Please. Our preference is to receive them by e-mail as Word documents, but typed or handwritten reports are also permitted as long as they are received on time. Reports should cover the calendar year 2019. Thank you for your cooperation.

Amy

Bingo February 1st

It’s back! Cost at the door is $5, which gets you your first bingo card and a ticket for the (cash) door prize. Additional bingo cards can be bought for 50 cents. Doors open at 12:00, play begins at 1PM and refreshments are available (donations gratefully accepted). The fun wraps up by about 3:30.
SouthWest Bingo takes place the first Saturday of each month.

1445 rue Clemenceau, Verdun H4H 2R2

Church Notes: Jan. 17

As you know, we ended up cancelling the service last Sunday due to weather. I sincerely hope no one made the trek to find the door locked! As we are in for snow this weekend there is a slight chance Pastor Beryl won’t make it, but I believe Dennis Brown is waiting in the wings if he’s needed. If service should be cancelled this week or any other, I will make a point of changing the message on the office voicemail to reflect that. Also, the little address books for 2020 will soon be out, and there’s talk of using them to create a phone chain for just these sorts of situations.

A friend has contacted the office to offer some bedroom furniture if anyone is in need. I don’t have any details about exactly what the pieces are but I can get more info if someone is interested. Chances are you will have to arrange pick-up yourself. Call Amy at the office. 514 768-6231.

Church Notes: We're Back!

Happy New Year, and welcome to the first Friday Newsletter of 2020!

Please watch the weather forecast for this weekend. If the roads are icy and dangerous on Sunday, the service will be cancelled. Check our Facebook page for updates.

There is no Bingo this month but it will return the first Saturday in February, which is February 1st.

There is an outreach service at the Floralies on Wednesday January 15th, and one at the Champlain hospital on Tuesday the 21st.

January 21st is a busy day with the Board of Stewards meeting at church at 1:30, and Church Council meeting that evening at 6:30.

Plans for a clean-up are in the works. The office will be contacting various people to find a time for this to happen. Anyone who would like to pitch in is welcome to contact the office.

A friend of SouthWest is looking for a short-term rental (2-3 months). Budget is limited so a quiet room rather than a full apartment is best. Open to various neighbourhoods, west end or south west preferred. If you know of anything, please contact the office.

Holly Tea: Updates and Surprise Donations

As I sit at my desk, I’m watching preparations underway for this Saturday’s Holly Tea and sale. It’s going to be a good one! There are a couple of updates to the information we’ve been giving out: First, the doors will open at 11:00, and you should come then to get a look at the Silent Auction items and get to the Bake Table before it’s devastated. The lunch will be available at noon and it will cost $7 for the full menu, not the $5 advertised elsewhere. You can still get soup and a sandwich for under $5, but if you want coffee and dessert, it’ll run you $7. Still a great deal, you have to admit.

Here’s an interesting tidbit: among the items for sale on the craft table will be a number of things made by Myrtle Buchanan. Yes, it’s true we lost Myrtle back in 2013, but the crafts stayed in the house with Bill until he passed this last September. Knowing we had a sale coming up, Craig Buchanan, who with his brothers is settling Bill’s estate, brought them by this week. As he points out, some things already have price tags on them, so they must have been meant for a SouthWest sale! Thank you Craig, and thank you, Myrtle.

We also have some lovely Christmas items that belonged to Linda Kotovich, which her good friend Sabina donated for the sale. There’s a couple of creches and some beautiful ornaments. Thank you, Sabina, and thank you, Linda.

Linda Kotovich is in pink here at a UCW event in 1995. The others are: Doris Quartz, Marilyn “Rosie” Johnston, Dru MacMillan, Marilyn Ross, Mim Halfyard.

Bill and Myrtle Buchanan at SouthWest around Christmas, 2010.

Living History

It was so nice to see familiar faces and meet a few new ones last Friday at the opening of the 120 Years of History exhibit. It was a blustery night but warm and inviting in the sanctuary. Thanks to Dennis Brown and Ro Ghandhi who took pictures.

Amy

Top three images by Dennis Brown; bottom four by Rohinton Ghandhi.

A Reverse Advent Calendar

This was going around on Facebook, and we thought it would be a good idea for us to do as a congregation. Instead of a mitten tree, we will be collecting foodstuffs throughout Advent, to be donated to a food bank just before Christmas. This list gives an item per day, but as we meet once a week, we will break the list down into the four weeks of Advent. So… on December 1st, which is the First of Advent, we are asking people to bring in any of the following items: box of cereal, peanut butter, stuffing mix, instant potatoes, mac and cheese (Kraft dinner), canned fruit, canned tomatoes. We will provide a festively-decorated box to collect the items.

Holly Tea: Can you contribute?

The Holly Tea and Sale to be held at SouthWest on November 30th will feature a light lunch, a bake sale and several other tables. If you are able to contribute some homemade goodies, please package and price them in advance. Containers will be made available.

The sale tables will include: Silent auction, china teacups, trinkets and treasures, new and used toys, handmade articles, small white elephant and a couple of raffles. Contributions to any of these tables will be gratefully accepted. Contact the office to be put in touch with Dorothy Brown.

Holly Tea, Saturday Nov. 30th at 12:00. Lunch $5.

Holly Tea still needs bakers

With so much going on this November, don’t forget that Saturday, November 30th, is SouthWest’s Holly Tea and sale! There will be a silent auction, trinkets and treasures, collectible bone china, and handicrafts. And what pre-Christmas sale would be complete without a bake table?! If you are able to contribute some holiday baking, please get in touch with the office or Dorothy Brown.