THIS WEEK AT ST JOHN'S
PENTECOST
SCRIPTURE READINGS
Ezekiel 37:1-14; Psalm 104:25-35, 37b; Acts 2:1-21; John 15:26-27, 16:4b-15
TO REMEMBER IN PRAYER

Those On Our Hearts
Brigid, Mike, Judith, Bruce, Bashira, Gillian, Nellie, Andrew, Stephen, Michelle, Marianne, Liz, Michael, Michael, The Reverend Tim Taylor and the parish of St Anne's, Toronto, The Reverend Gary van der Meer, The Reverend Dr. Caroline Ducros, Gordon, Gregory and all who minister at St John's.

Our Diocese
Area Parish of Prescott-North Glengarry: Holy Trinity, Hawkesbury; St John’s, Vankleek Hill; St Michael and All Angels, Maxville; The Parish of Grenville/Calumet; The Chapel at St Paul’s, Fenaghvale and The Reverend Canon Robert Heard, Interim Priest-in-Charge.
The Anglican Church Women (ACW) and their groups and members throughout the Diocese. 
Our Bishop, The Right Reverend Shane Parker, our Metropolitan, The Most Reverend Anne Germond and our Primate, The Most Reverend Linda Nicholls. 

Our Companion Diocese in Jerusalem & the Middle East
The Anglican Diocese of Jerusalem, The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land, and for peace in the Middle East. 
Archbishop Hosam Naoum. 
 
Anglican Church of Canada (ACC)
The Right Reverend Shane Parker, Bishop and the people and clergy of the Diocese of Ottawa.
Evangelical Lutheran Church of Canada (ELCIC)
Reverend Dennis Serfas and Reverend Jerry Borkowsky, Assistants to the Bishop, and the staff of the Saskatchewan Synod.
Our Sisters and Brothers in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada and their Bishop, Michael Pryse. 

Parish Prayer Group
If you wish to have someone prayed for, please call (613) 232-4500 ext 21 or send an email to prayer-request@stjohnsottawa.ca.
JOIN US ONLINE
SUNDAY SERVICE

Pentecost
Sunday, May 23 at 9:30am

Join us here at St John's for online worship this Sunday. Part one of the service will be on YouTube followed by part two on Zoom. Once the service is finished we will have our regular Sunday Coffee Hour.

PARISH COFFEE HOUR
Wednesdays at 10am on Zoom

Every Wednesday at 10am you are invited to join Gary+ and your fellow parishioners (new, past & present) for coffee and conversation on Zoom. All are welcome!
WHAT'S HAPPENING
LOOKING TO TEXTS FOR COURAGE
IN TIMES OF STRUGGLE
Wednesday, May 26th - 7:30pm

Starting a new clergy position often entails learning the customs of a community, getting to know the congregational family, settling into a new home etc. For Rabbi Daniel Mikelberg of Temple Israel and The Reverend Gary van der Meer, Rector at St John the Evangelist Anglican Church, their new beginnings also included a global pandemic!

The unique challenges of “going virtual” have been trying at times, both have had to look to faith for strength – faith in one another, themselves and the Eternal. One year in, let’s learn about the traditional textual sources that have given them hope and grounding.

This is the advance preparation video for our shared study on Zoom. For our discussion here, we invite you to observe our process and dialogue on the texts we have chosen:

RABBI DANIEL MIKELBERG: Exodus 18
THE REVEREND GARY VAN DER MEER - Romans 8

We invite you to prepare for the shared interactive study by considering the following texts:

RABBI DANIEL MIKELBERG: Psalm 121
THE REVEREND GARY VAN DER MEER: Isaiah 55

Pre-Register to Participate in this Shared Study by emailing:

We invite you to grow in learning and friendship,

Daniel Mikelberg - Temple Israel, Ottawa
Gary van der Meer - St John the Evangelist Anglican Church, Ottawa
BISHOP'S GALA 2021
Thursday, May 27 at 7pm

The Anglican Diocese of Ottawa is pleased to present the 38th Annual Bishop’s Gala & Silent Auction virtually in 2021!

This event will be raising funds for two initiatives serving vulnerable children and their families in Africa and the Middle East:

All Mothers and Children Count is a comprehensive health, food security, and nutrition program in rural Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, and Mozambique undertaken by the Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund in partnerships with local agencies in each country. This initiative addresses a high rate of malnutrition among children (94%) and enables the distribution of food programs to HIV-positive women, pregnant and lactating women, and malnourished children. A Covid-19 Extension Fund is now in place to ensure that effective PPE and medical support are available for medical staff serving the mothers and children. Of significant interest is that Global Affairs Canada will be matching donations 6:1 until the end of June!

Virtual Therapy for Disabled Children is an urgently needed service of the Jerusalem Princess Basma Center – a ministry of the Anglican Diocese of Jerusalem that serves disabled Palestinian children who live in the West Bank, most of whom are Muslim. The Center is the only treatment option for these children, but poverty, conflict, and travel restrictions make it very difficult to get to Jerusalem. The Center’s virtual care model of therapy enables 150 children and their families to receive assistance from a multi-disciplinary team. The cost of providing this service to one child is $1,600 a month.

The purchase of your ticket includes a swag bag hand-delivered to your home and early access to our silent auction! The show will be streamed live on Facebook & YouTube; links will be emailed out to all ticket holders and donors prior to the event. Please click the link below for more information and to purchase tickets.
2021 TULIPATHON

MULTIFAITH Housing Initiative’s annual Tulipathon Walk will be virtual again this year: a 3 km. solo walk or household hike at 2 p.m. on May 30, 2021. Please donate to the St John’s team online.  Click here to donate. Your donation will support rent subsidies for MHI tenants. 

Cheque donations (with "St John's" in the comment line) can be mailed to:
MULTIFAITH Housing Initiative, 206-404 McArthur Ave., Ottawa ON, K1K 1G8.  

If you would like to walk, please join the St John's team and receive a free MHI mask. For more information, visit MHI at Tulipathon or contact Gay at gay@sympatico.ca
JERUSALEMA DANCE CHALLENGE
Postponed Due to Pandemic Safety Restraints

We hope to reschedule and send our video as a gift to the new Archbishop of Jerusalem, Hosam Naoum, in celebration of his consecration on May 13, 2021. Stay tuned for revised dates for two sessions, the first a practice and the second for recording.

Check out the tutorial videos below by clicking on them.
ONLINE WORSHIP CONTINUES
As the province of Ontario has been given the Stay-At-Home-Order, the Bishop's office continues to keep us apprised of safety restrictions. All services will take place online. However, we hope to see you during our fellowship after Sunday services on Zoom. See the link above or visit our YouTube Channel to watch our services online.

Please get vaccinated as soon as you are eligible!
TAKE NOTE
PWRDF RESPONDS TO INDIA

PWRDF is now accepting donations to support India as it struggles with the current COVID-19 outbreak. While Canada faces its own challenges and grief over COVID-19, the images and stories of mass deaths, black-market oxygen tanks and parking lot crematoria are shocking and heartbreaking. Several fellow ACT members in the region are working night and day to provide emergency services and relief, including the Church’s Auxiliary for Social Action (CASA). 

Parishioners can donate online at https://pwrdf.org/give-today/. Go to Emergency response and indicate funds are for INDIA. Or call Donor Relations Officer Mike Ziemerink at 416-822-9083. Thank you for your support.
WAIVING COVID-19 VACCINE PATENTS

The People’s Vaccine Alliance, which includes organizations such as Amnesty International, Frontline AIDS, Global Justice Now, and Oxfam, report that at least 90% of people in 67 low income countries stand little chance of getting vaccinated against COVID-19 in 2021 because wealthy nations have reserved more than they need, and vaccine developers will not share their intellectual property. It could be years before billions of people around the world, especially in developing countries, receive a vaccination. The World Health Organization COVAX program, set up to provide vaccines to poorer nations, is still vastly underfunded. WHO Chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said this week that the world has reached a situation of “Vaccine Apartheid.” The big problem is a lack of sharing.

Many of the pharmaceutical companies received substantial public funding to develop the COVID-19 vaccines. There is a growing movement to have Intellectual Property (IP) rights or the patents waived to the COVID-19 vaccines. The good news is that the U.S. Biden Administration has come out in support of an international waiver on patent protections for COVID-19 vaccines. The members of the World Trade Organization remain very divided on the issue, Canada among them. Prime Minister Trudeau states that Canada is working with others at the World Trade Organization to find a “consensus solution.”

We all know that we won’t rid the world of COVID until the majority of populations around the world are vaccinated. If you feel strongly about this issue please write to P.M. Trudeau and other key ministers, expressing your support for a waiver of the patents to COVID-19 vaccines. Jane Maxwell's letter is attached with the email addresses of key ministers. Please feel free to use Jane's letter as a template. Do include your own M.P.      

For an update on this matter, please read the Global News article from May 18 - https://globalnews.ca/news/7872114/g20-snubs-covid-19-vaccine-patent-waiver
BILL C-15: UNDRIP
United Nations Declaration on the
Rights of Indigenous Peoples

Bill C-15 has passed the House of Commons and is now before the Senate for their consideration and, hopefully, approval. Bill C-15 would begin the process of aligning Canadian law with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples - UNDRIP. The Government of Canada sees this as a key step in renewing Canada’s relationship with our Indigenous peoples. The Bill follows Bill C-262 which MP Romeo Saganash introduced to the House of Commons in December 2015. It successfully passed the House of Commons but died in the Senate when an election was called in 2019. 

Time is short before Parliament will rise in June. An election will likely take place in the fall so there is some urgency to contact and persuade Senators to pass the UNDRIP legislation quickly and not run out the clock. With the Bishop’s support the diocesan All My Relations Working Group is encouraging Anglicans to write a supportive letter to the Senators. The Truth & Reconciliation Commissioners strongly support the legislation and have urged the churches to advise senators of their strong support for Bill C-15. 
 
Please visit the Faith in Action Website for further information and a copy of a template letter. You can also find a copy of a letter Jane Maxwell wrote, with all the necessary email addresses at the link below. Feel free to use Jane Maxwell's letter and make the necessary changes of names and coordinates. 
 
Thank you for your support. Our letters do count!
PARISH ADMINISTRATION AT ST JOHN'S

In the interim, administrative duties will be as follows:

Our music director Gordon and Cara Gilbertson will manage parish communications (Sunday bulletins, This Week at St John's e-newsletter and the website).

Secondly, a roster of volunteers comprising Vicki Robinson, Emmy Verdun and Bea Robertson will cover most of the day-to-day administration tasks including handling correspondence such as email, regular mail, phone messages, etc., procuring church supplies, coordinating activities of various church groups, and so on.

Finally, Ted Reeve, a member of our newly established Property & Building Committee will look after rentals. Many thanks go to all those who have agreed to help out.

We look forward to completing the search process and welcoming a new parish administrator at St John's soon.
CALL FOR SOCIAL MEDIA SUBMISSIONS

Some of you may have noticed a great deal of activity on St John's Social Media pages this past week. One of Cara's new projects is to help St John's inspire and engage our Church Community, the Community of Centretown, and the greater Ottawa Community. Our goal is to grow St John's' online presence in the hopes to attract new members and to build stronger relationships with people, organizations, and businesses within our community. And we also want to celebrate submissions from you, our parishioners!

For those of you who are new to social media, we recommend that you sign up for a facebook and/or instagram account and follow us by clicking the icons below. If you already have an account, please check our pages each day and "like" our posts!

The more "likes," "shares" and comments we receive, the more our posts will be shared with the wider community.

Ideas for submissions:
  • Garden photos
  • Photographs taken on walks in the area
  • Cooking/Baking photos
  • Artwork
  • Recipes
  • Inspirational Scripture & Quotes
  • Christian Jokes
  • Travel Pictures
  • Pictures of Past Events/Occasions
  • Pets & Animals

Let's flood our social media with a rainbow of colour and inspiration from St John's!

If you have a photo/submission you wish to share, please send it to Cara at
caragilbertson@yahoo.ca

Submissions will be featured in future newsletters and on our Facebook and Instagram pages. Please keep in mind that Cara might use discretion on what/where/when to post...for example: "Sorry Wendy W-S, we will not publish pictures of your Christmas Trees and Snowmen Armies in May!"
SOCIAL MEDIA
FOLLOW ST JOHN'S ON
FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM & YOUTUBE

Congratulations, St John's...one of our Facebook posts went viral this week! Thank you for "liking" and "sharing" our posts!

Please click the icons to link to our social media pages.
(From Top Left): Bleeding Heart - Detlef Dransch;
Baby Finches - Vicki & Glen Robinson; Wine & Cheese - Kathleen Arsenault.

(From Bottom Left): Late Tulips - Mary Ann Varley;
Beautiful Bloom - Jill Courtemanche; Gorgeous Garden - Margaret Kasurak.

(Title Photo: A Path - Maura Beecher & Cliff Parfett)

(Social Media Title Photo: Robin's Margherita Pizza - Barbara Dorrell

To see more submissions, check out our Facebook & Instagram pages!
SCRIPTURE READINGS
NEXT SUNDAY - MAY 30
TRINITY SUNDAY

Isaiah 6:1-8; Psalm 29; Romans 8:12-17; John 3:1-17
ST JOHN THE EVANGELIST
ANGLICAN CHURCH

 154 Somerset Street West, Ottawa, ON K2P 0H8
613-232-4500
office@stjohnsottawa.ca

The Reverend Gary van der Meer, Rector
The Reverend Dr Caroline Ducros, Deacon 
The Reverend Michael Hicks, Honourary Assistant Emeritus
Dr Gordon Johnston, FRCCO, Organist and Choirmaster  
Detlef Dransch, Rector’s Warden 
Stephen Giles, People's Warden