First Baptist Church St. Marys
34 Church Street South N4X 1B5 St. Marys, ON, Canada

We gather each Sunday at 11.00 a.m. by ZOOM for a discussion of the day's Scripture readings and sermon. The readings, sermon, and Zoom link are sent by means of an email from the pastor each week. If you want to receive the email, please contact us. :)

In the midst of the Covid catastrophe overwhelming it, I encourage you to pray for India. +Dr. McKim

Easter Sunday 2021 - Scripture Lessons and Sermon First Baptist Church of St. Marys Dr. Mark G. McKim

Easter Sunday, 2021

The province of Ontario is once again entering lockdown, starting at midnight on Saturday, April 3. As a result, in person worship services following the Easter Sunrise Service at 6.30 a.m. in Lind Park will be suspended until the lock-down is lifted. This means we WILL have the scheduled services for this evening (Maundy Thursday) at 7.00 p.m., Good Friday (10.00 a.m.) and Easter Sunday Sunrise (6.30 a.m. Lind Park) BUT NOT the Easter Sunday morning service at 11.00 a.m. ... We will resume in person worship services once the lock-down is lifted. During the lock-down printed copies of each Sunday’s sermon (including sermons for Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter sunrise, Easter Sunday morning) will be placed in the sermon box on the front steps of the manse. We will also TRY to upload sermons to the church’s facebook page. In recent weeks, this has sometimes proved impossible, for reasons which are not entirely clear, but we will do our best! This lock-down, especially during Holy Week is regrettable and disappointing, but with Covid cases, including the several variants, rising fast, there seems to be little option.

We regret that due to technical difficulties the sermon for February 28, 2021, Lent II, can not be uploaded.

Scripture Lessons and Sermon November 22, 2020 Christ the King Sunday

First Baptist Church would like to welcome you to visit our display for the Santa Claus Parade tomorrow night between 7 and 9pm on the corner of Church and Jones St E. We will be graciously accepting non perishable food donations, for the food bank.

We are blown away by the amazing generosity of our community. Thank you to everyone who donated to the food drive!

Sermon November 15, 2020

Scripture Lessons and Sermon November 8, 2020

Scripture Lessons and Sermon October 25, 2020

Scripture Lessons and Sermon November 1, 2020

Scripture Lessons and Sermon October 18, 2020

Very proud that we have one of our members with a showing at the Stratford Art Gallery. Congratulations, Bonnie!

Scripture Lessons and Sermon October 11, 2020

Scripture Lessons and Sermon October 4, 2020

FAMOUS CANADIAN BAPTISTS - No. 8 Dr. Watson Kirkconnell (18951977), born in Port Hope, Ontario, was a scholar and polymath, with enormously wide-ranging interests and accomplishments. Educated at Queen's University in Kingston, and then at Lincoln College, Oxford, Kirkconnell was, successively, professor of English at Wesley College in Winnipeg, Chair of the English department at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, and the ninth president of Acadia University in Wolfv...ille, Nova Scotia, a position he held for sixteen years. Kirkconnell had a central role in the establishment of the Humanities Research Council of Canada. He also played a key role in shaping Canadian views of non-Anglo Saxon immigrants, contributing to a vision of a multi-ethnic Canada. Unbelievably, Kirkconnell mastered over fifty different languages! He was particularly sympathetic to the Hungarian, Ukranian, Russian and Serbo-Croatian communities, and is well known for his translations of their national poetry into English. These translations of the literature of ethnic minority groups gave a voice to new Canadians who were sometimes mistreated and often marginalized by the majority English and French speaking population. An important figure in Baptist denominational work, Kirkconnell was the moderator of the Red River Association of Baptist Churches (1937), president of the Baptist Union of Western Canada (19381940) and the founding father of the Canadian Baptist Federation (now Canadian Baptist Ministries) in 1944. During the course of his lifetime, Kirkconnell received numerous awards and distinctions, including membership in the Royal Society of Canada, twelve honorary doctorates, two knighthoods, and the Order of Canada. He was also shortlisted several times for the Nobel Prize.

Scripture Lessons and Sermon 27 September 2020

FAMOUS CANADIAN BAPTISTS - NO. 7 Henrietta Muir Edwards (1849 - 1931) was born in Montreal. The Muir family were Baptist and led in the establishment of the city’s first Baptist Church. They were also were heavily involved in promoting literacy, and organizing schools and colleges, for both men and women. Unusual for the time, the Muir family believed that women were equal to men and should have the right to vote and own property. In 1875 Henrietta established the Working Wo...Continue reading

Scripture Lessons and Sermon September 13, 2020

Scripture Lessons and Sermon September 6, 2020

FAMOUS CANADIAN BAPTISTS - No. 5 In a national contest in 2004 conducted by CBC TV, he was voted The Greatest Canadian. Tommy Douglas (1904-1986) was a Scot...tish-born politician who was Premier of Saskatchewan from 1944-1961 and leader of the federal new Democratic Party from 1961-1971. Douglas was deeply influenced by the thinking of the social gospel movement. During studies in Chicago, he was very distressed by his field work among depression era hobo camps. Churches were trying, desperately, to feed the tens of thousands homeless in the camps. After graduating from Brandon College, Douglas moved to Weyburn, Saskatchewan, where he was ordained. Horrified by conditions of extreme poverty and lack of medical care, he eventually entered politics, as a socialist, believing that private charity simply could not meet the need. He was first elected to the House of Commons in 1935 as a member of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) Party, forerunner of the New Democratic Party (NDP). Despite having completed a thesis on eugenics, Douglas, disgusted by what he had seen in Nazi Germany during a 1936 visit, supported the war against Germany, as a necessary evil, even though his party’s official stance at the time was complete pacifism. (As Premier of Saskatchewan Douglas refused to implement any eugenics policy, although other provinces did.) Douglas, moved from federal to provincial politics, leading the CCF to power in Saskatchewan election in 1944, forming the first democratic socialist government in North America. During his years as Premier, he led: the creation of the publicly owned Saskatchewan Power Corporation which extended electrical service to isolated farms and villages; a program to offer taxpayer-funded hospital care to all citizensthe first in North America; the establishment of a public automobile insurance programme, now known as SGI (Sask Government Insurance) which provides lower rates than in much of the rest of the country; the Saskatchewan Bill of Rights, in 1947. This legislation broke new ground protecting basic freedoms against violation by government, private institutions, and individuals. The Saskatchewan Bill of Rights preceded both the United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the first Canadian Bill of Rights in 1960. Whilst Premier, Douglas and his family attended First Baptist Church, Regina. He taught the Boys’ Sunday School class, and, on rare occasions, preached. Douglas is best known as the father of universal health care in Canada. Douglas laid the foundations for medicare in Saskatchewan before leaving office as Premier and returning to the federal political arena, this time as leader of the federal NDP. The programme in Saskatchewan was so successful, and popular, another Saskatchewan Baptist politician, newly elected Conservative Prime Minister John G. Diefenbaker announced any province seeking to introduce a similar hospital plan would receive 50% funding from the federal government. In 1962, Diefenbaker named Supreme Court Justice Emmett Hall - also of Saskatchewan - to Chair a Royal Commission on a national health care system. Hall recommended the nationwide adoption of Saskatchewan’s model. In 1966 the minority Liberal government of Lester Pearson created just such a programme for the entire country. During his lifetime, Douglas received eight honorary doctorates and the Order of Saskatchewan. In 1981, he was awarded the Order of Canada. In 1984, two years before his death he was sworn as a member of the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada, a distinction usually reserved for current and former Governors-General, Prime Ministers, federal cabinet ministers and current and former Chief Justices of the Supreme Court. Once, when asked how it felt to have left the ministry, Douglas famously replied he hadn’t left the ministry at all - he had merely changed pulpits!

Scripture Readings and Sermon August 30, 2020