d9b94e63

Event ON 1

Tue, 28 May 2024 16:21:45 GMT

September 7 ‘th 2019

The Taste of Jesus in the City will be held iat Yonge-Dundas square in Toronto.

Date: September 7 ‘th 2019

Time: 2 P.M – 8 P.m

Event ON 2

Tue, 28 May 2024 16:19:58 GMT

July 22 to August 30, 2019

Summer 24/7 Prayer Push 2019

July 22 to August 30, 2019

A Call to the Church in Toronto to gather in unity to pray 24/7 for 40 days this summer. Sponsored by the Toronto House of Prayer. At 250 Merton Street, Unit 101. www.thop.ca.

Event ON 3

Tue, 28 May 2024 16:18:00 GMT

Sat, 23 November 2019

Work is where people spend most of their waking hours and is the most strategic mission field in the world. The Goodwork Conference features keynote speaker, Paul Stevens as well as seminars, panels and discussion groups that will explore the integration of faith and work as part of God’s mission on earth; discipleship in the context in which we work and live. The conference is designed for all ages and backgrounds, whether in the “secular” workplace or “ministry”, remunerated or not, we are all called to work in the universal ministry God.

Date And Time

Sat, 23 November 2019

8:30 AM – 4:00 PM EST

Location

Tyndale University

3377 Bayview Avenue

Toronto, ON M2K 3A8

Church Doors Are Opening

Tue, 28 May 2024 16:11:19 GMT

Church Doors Are Opening

Exciting announcements have been made this week about places of worship!

Ontario announced that all places of worship across the province can re-open to 30% capacity, Alberta announced it was removing gathering restrictions on places of worship, and both Saskatchewan and New Brunswick recently increased worship gathering size.

As governments have eased restrictions for business, industry and services a plethora of guidance has been released (Alberta will soon have 60+; Ontario has 100+; Newfoundland & Labrador has almost 50) and churches are asking “what restrictions apply to us?”

In Ontario, the Stage 2 Reopening Plan explains that “the government will make available guidance, including limiting attendance to 30 per cent of building capacity and practicing physical distancing” and that “guidance will also be provided for spiritual leaders and their staff.”

Still, many Ontario church leaders are wondering whether more is forthcoming. On June 15, the Ontario Ministry of Health released additional guidance containing much more detail as to core elements of religious practice, making it similar to the highly prescriptive and limiting guidance from other provinces (see listing below). It is only available through a fairly obscure Ministry of Health list of guidance and not in the main government listing of sector-specific guidance .

Some local public health authorities have also released guidance (i.e. Middlesex-London , Toronto ).

Provincial guidance for places of worship or gatherings can be found here:

Alberta: Relaunch Guidance for Places of Worship

British Columbia: Guidance for Faith-Based Organizations

Manitoba: Public Gatherings

New Brunswick: Q&A – Religious Services

Newfoundland & Labrador: Guidance for Gatherings

Nova Scotia: Drive-in Religious Services ; Gathering restrictions

Ontario: Guidance on Health & Safety for Places of Worship

Prince Edward Island: Worship Service Guidance

Saskatchewan: Places of Worship Guidance – 1/3 Occupancy, Max 30

Yukon: Faith-Based Service Guidance – lesser of 30% capacity or 50

It is encouraging to see recognition of the essential role of churches in meeting the heightened emotional, psychological and spiritual vulnerabilities of our communities during this unusual season.

Churches and charities have diligently served the physical needs of vulnerable people and have been creative in their responses to closures and lockdown.

But equally as important, churches meet the oft-hidden need for hope, psychological security and spiritual wellbeing in the broader community. We know and share in the conviction that our faith is what gives hope and strength to carry on during difficult times and are thankful that church doors are starting to reopen.

For additional guidance on workplace safety, provincial and territorial re-opening plans and other key links, see Re-opening Plans Across Canada .

Ministry workers are invited to share how they are responding to the COVID-19 pandemic within their organization in our online community forum,

The Green: COVID-19 Response Room .

COVID-19

Drive-in service

Tue, 28 May 2024 16:09:37 GMT

Drive-in service

The excitement was palpable at the “Church of God’ in Aylmer, Ont. Sunday.

They were able to hold their drive-in service without fear of repercussions after the province gave the green light for faith-based sermons just hours earlier.

“What a special day for the churches of Ontario,” says Henry Hildebrandt, the church’s pastor from the podium in the parking lot.

“Thank God we stood as one heart and as one soul, and this morning we won as one.”

Saturday night ‘The Church of God’ announced that Ontario Premier Doug Ford signed an amendment to the Emergency Management and Civil

Protection Act (OEMCPA) that provides guidelines and clear permission for all churches to hold drive-in or parking lot services.

“The feeling was jubilant,” Hildebrandt told CTV News.

“Our people were thrilled, no one need to be concerned and the police didn’t need to be there. We had a wonderful day.”

The letter signed by Ford and the Lieutenant Governor Elizabeth Dowdeswell states that the OEMCPA does not apply to religious service, rite or ceremony if:

Each person attending the gathering must remain in their vehicle that is designed to be closed to the elements
Person must not be in a vehicle that contains members of more than one household
The driver of the vehicle must ensure that it is positioned at least two metres from other vehicles
No more than five people may conduct the service, and must maintain a two metre distance from anyone
The building where the service is being held must remain closed except to those conducting the service
No materials must be exchanged

Sunday was the sixth consecutive week they held a drive-in service.

Parishioners once again stayed inside their vehicles with the windows rolled up and listening to the sermon on a low-wattage radio signal.

It brought an end to a five-week showdown between Hildebrandt, the parishioners, the OEMCPA and Aylmer police.

The showdown between police and the church made national news when officers were monitoring the service with video cameras, and sent the footage to a provincial prosecutor.

After consultation police backed down saying “this decision is yet another example where Aylmer Police are taking the measured and educational vs. retributive approach in achieving compliance with Emergency Orders put in place by our Provincial leaders.”

“I’m honestly surprised it couldn’t have happened sooner,” says Lisa Bildy, a lawyer with the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms.

“Other provinces were doing this as an early as Easter, and there we no public health issues at all.”

Bildy has been advocating for the right to hold the services since late April. After discussions with many officials, that didn’t resolve the issue, she launched a charter challenge this week. On Thursday, she got the response she was looking for.

“The onus is on the government is to show that these massive infringements on freedoms are justified,” says Bildy. “We’ve been sending letters across the country to medical officers of health, premiers and even the prime minster to do their job to make sure the fundamental freedoms in a free and democratic society are not being infringed unnecessarily. When we find solutions like a drive-in service that balances things quite nicely there should be no reason why the government’s don’t jump all over that and allow it to happen.”

Hildebrandt has maintained his stance that he never believed they were doing anything wrong. Now he can rest easy knowing that he has led the way for other faith-based groups in the province to hold these types of services.

“We were spearheading this whole thing,” says Hildebrandt. “I don’t regret it at all, it needed to be done. It’s a big victory for everyone and it’s good news for all of Ontario.”

And Bildy says she hopes that the freedoms of others across the country will be recognized in the coming months.

“As we start to re-open province I hope that Premier and his cabinet will keep in mind that faith groups consider themselves to be essential services as well,” says Bildy. “If they can accommodates social distancing, then i would like to see them be in lock-step with other reopening’s so that their buildings can be used that respect social distancing requirements and not be an afterthought like in this case.”

Listen to the groans

Tue, 28 May 2024 16:07:03 GMT

Listen to the groans

T en years ago my mom underwent aggressive chemotherapy and radiation. The treatment prolonged her life, so I’m grateful she withstood it. But I’ll never be able to shake the awful memories from the days she was most in agony. The sound of her groans haunt me.

In recent weeks, when footage of the killing of George Floyd circulated, I couldn’t stop thinking about his family forced to watch and, especially, listen to his dying. How they must be haunted by his groans.

I began to pray that the Comforter would help George Floyd’s family bear the unbearable. I prayed that, eventually, they’ll be able to recall his voice in a form other than a groan – the sound of him singing, or laughing, or good naturedly trash talking a friend on the basketball court.

And then I listened as a collective human groan for justice began to crescendo in America – sometimes peacefully, sometimes violently. And I realized this groan for things to be put right is as ancient as it is urgent. I remembered that here in Canada we have often ignored or suppressed similar groans for justice – especially from our Indigenous citizens.

I could only stand to listen to the groans for a few days before I, like so many others, was tempted to despair.

That’s when I remembered a sermon my friend Trevor Hudson gave as a visiting preacher in Vancouver. Trevor is a South African pastor once imprisoned for his resistance to apartheid. His ears are finely tuned to groans for justice.

Trevor’s text was Romans 8:22–27 which begins, “We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time” (22). Taking us through the passage Trevor noted the Apostle Paul asks us to listen to three separate groans.

The first groan is indeed the groan of the whole creation – the deep longing for the flourishing God intends for His world. At every moment there are overwhelming needs around us. But if we pay attention, we’ll notice there are particular groans we hear more clearly.

You may hear the groan for companionship among the elderly or the disabled. I may hear the groan for provision among the impoverished. The human cries we hear loudest are important clues to the particular ways we’ve been called to co-labour with God in His project of restoring and redeeming all things.

At this long overdue moment, many of us are hearing groans for racial justice with new clarity. What are the appropriate responses? Grief? Yes. Repentance for our own complicity in systems of injustice? Definitely. Rolling up our sleeves to learn how best to change and contribute? Undoubtedly.

At this long overdue moment, many of us are hearing groans for racial justice with new clarity.

But despair? No.

Why? Because there are a second and third set of groans addressed in the text.

The second groans are those of our own hearts. “We ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly,” writes Paul (23a).

Unpacking this verse Trevor asked us to picture Jesus on the first Easter morning, approaching Mary Magdalene outside the empty tomb with a question. “Why are you crying?” (John 20:15–16). Our own tears, Trevor suggested, are the most likely places of encounter with the risen Christ.

When the heart we offer God is broken, it’s more permeable than it could be in any other state. Rather than despair our sorrow can become our deepest prayer.

But why can we trust God will hear and respond? Because – and here is the astonishing part – the third set of groans are the groans of God. “The Spirit Himself intercedes for us through wordless groans,” writes Paul (26).

“The deepest groan of the universe,” Trevor preached, “is God’s.” However much we may long for justice, God longs for it more.

Our comfort is that God grieves with us.

Our hope is that God’s not finished with His plans for creation.

And God’s promise is that – even now, and despite apparent evidence to the contrary – He is making all things new (Revelation 21:5).

Many people see the injustice in the world as a reason to give up on faith. But the irony is, when we decry injustice, our hearts resonate with the heart of God more than we can possibly imagine.

If you find this hard to believe, just listen to the groans

d9b94e63

Event ON 1

September 7 ‘th 2019

Event ON 2

July 22 to August 30, 2019

Event ON 3

Sat, 23 November 2019

Date And Time

Location

Church Doors Are Opening

Church Doors Are Opening

Drive-in service

Drive-in service

Listen to the groans

Listen to the groans

Carolyn Arends