St. Peter's Fireside

Advent is around the corner. Our team has been discussing how we can journey through Advent well together this year in light of pandemic restrictions.This year we want to send you an Advent Box. These boxes will contain a small item to unwrap each Sunday in Advent, and these objects will tie into our sermon themes as we move through the season. Handling and displaying these items will be something tangible we can do together, while apart. This embodied practice will remind us that although we are the church scattered during this season, we are still unitedone family in Christ. You can register for a box at box.stpf.ca. Registration closes Sunday November 22nd.

Please read our update about the measures we are taking in light of the increased restrictions announced by our health officials yesterday.

Mary faces uncertainty and disruption in her life with strong faith. She undoubtedly is a model for us. But how does she manage and maintain that kind of faith?

Alastair’s new book releases next Tuesday! But this is really our book, crafted within our community and filled with our stories. Learn more at stpf.ca/rhythms

Our in-person Communion service begins this Sunday, September 27th. This weekly service is at 5:00pm at The Naz (998 E. 19th Ave). It is conducted according to our safety plan and requires pre-registration. If you call St. Pete’s home, we ask that you would attend this service no more than 1-2x/month. If you plan to participate in these in-person gatherings, or if you have questions, please read our detailed update at stpf.ca/blog

If you missed this past Sunday, you can watch the full service on YouTube. But here’s everything you need to know: We continued on in our new series in the gospel of Luke. Our passage was Luke 1:1-4 once again. Alastair Sterne helped us reflect on the audience of Luke: Theophilus. The gospel is an invitation for all of us to become lovers of God, just like Theophilus. You can watch the sermon on YouTube or listen on Soundcloud or Apple Podcasts.... As we work through this series, we are developing a glossary of words (http://stpf.ca/luke/glossary) to help develop common language. We had a few key announcements: First, we are beginning an in-person evening communion service on September 27. This weekly service will be at 5pm at the Naz. Details at http://stpf.ca/events. Pre-registration is required, as well as upholding all our safety guidelines. Second, we want to make it easier for you to schedule an appointment for pastoral care. If you’d like to meet with a member of our pastoral team, you can do so at http://pastors.stpf.ca Third, we baptized Joel into the family of God! If you or your child want to be baptized, we have safe ways to do so during this season. Please email [email protected] This week we are praying to become lovers of God; for God’s intervention in the West Coast wild fires; and for British Columbia and the world’s continued fight against COVID.

How do we journey toward becoming lovers of God?

The gospel of Luke can help us develop the imagination we need to engage the issues of our cultural moment.

Why does Jesus tell the same story twice?

If you call St. Pete's home, this is a must listen. If you've struggled with virtual services and digital presence, we hope you'll take the time to engage this sermon.

Please take time to read our most recent COVID-19 update about our plans for the fall.

We are excited that Rhythms for Life is about to be available to more people and churches. We have used this material within our community over the past few years, and this video captures our stories. We hope to hear more stories of how God forms people into Christlikeness through it!

If you call St. Pete's home, or have visited just once, please take our annual survey! We really want to hear from you. We want to know about your experience during COVID-19, and listen to your feedback on reopening. You can take the survey at survey.stpf.ca

An update about our strategy moving forward for in-person gatherings

To all the dad's out there, this one's for you! You are a leader, a friend, a shoulder to cry on. You are an example, a comedian, a helper. You play an important role in the lives of your loved ones, and today we celebrate that! We are praying for you as you continue in this journey of fatherhood. Today can also come with its share of heartache for those who wish to be fathers, its share of pain for those with less than ideal fathers, and its share of grief for those who have lost a father. Today, we are also praying for you and that you can rest in God's peace. We pray for love and comfort in the Heavenly Father.

Church services on military bases are small, simple affairs, with often just a faithful few leaning into share in the rhythms of liturgy. I’m not entirely sure what I expected to find on Sunday mornings when I joined the Navy in 2018, but these small gatherings are far from what I had imagined. When I was young I loved Church. I loved putting on my pretty dresses and taking in the colours of the stained glass windows. I loved the carvings on the altar, the mystery of the Euch...arist and the closeness I felt as we moved through the readings, prayers and the passing of the peace. My memories of the Church are warm ones, and safe ones, they are memories of a place of thinnessas though the barriers of heaven and earth were melting away. Shakespeare once wrote that sorrows come not in single spies, but in battalions and as the bataillions of sorrows entered my life during my 20s the awe and majesty of Church melted away. The warmth lessened and the simplicity of the Sunday morning rituals became frustrating and lacklustre. I crawled inside myself and became bitter and isolated. I became rule-bound and judgemental. I hardened my heart to the joy of community and the possibility of a God who loved me just as I was. In 2015 I happened upon St Peter’s Fireside. I wasn’t looking for community, I wasn’t looking for majesty. Life was frustrating and I was incredibly lonely, but I could put on a brave face and hide all the heart ache, the fear, and all the distrust I had in the Church, it’s leaders, and it’s peopleuntil I became part of a community group. It was through these weekly meetings that I encountered that same warmth, that same majesty, that same thinness that I had experienced years before. It was as though God had wrapped Himself up in the faces of those around me and bandaged and attended to my wounds. Sharing my loneliness and frustration with these trusted friends breathed new life into my faith and as I healed, the beauty and awe of Sunday mornings has come back to me. My job often takes me away from the community that I love, but I go knowing that my presence is valued and that there are people that are praying for me. I find peace in the simplicity of the small Sunday morning gatherings on military bases because they remind me of my early days with a St. Pete’s community group, just a rag tag bunch longing to find Jesus in every aspect of our lives. I go knowing that the Church is not just a building or a Sunday morning ritual, I go knowing that the Church is the people I share my faith with, it is the people who love and support me and whom I love and support. Dara