Joye's Sermon

Here's a link to Joye Platford's Sermon for the Pinawa Birthday Weekend Community Service. It was a special treat and pleasure to have Joye preach as we celebrated the many good people who have emerged from Pinawa to engage the wide world. Also, many many thanks to the folks who pitched in to transform a rather dishevelled beer tent into a place of worship in about thirty minutes that Sunday morning! We should have had a "before and after" photo.

Anyone interested in going?

This conference looks interesting, very provocative list of speakers. Perhaps we could make a car-pool. Check out the website for more info.



October 3 - 5, 2008
To discuss and explore how growing, processing, and eating food are practical expressions of Christian discipleship and therefore can bring glory to God by supporting the care of creation and the care of people.

Food. Does anything engage our humanity more deeply or thoroughly? Necessary for physical sustenance, food is also vital for livelihoods, hospitality, and culture. However, food is often the source of conflict. For some, contemporary Western food systems are triumphs of technology that offer freedoms and opportunities previously unknown. For others, these same practices are symptoms of pervasive ecological, economic, social, and relational brokenness.

As followers of Jesus called to love God, love people, and care for creation, what should we do? Enmeshed as we are in global structures, cultural practices, and economic limitations, how can we promote health within human and ecological communities at home and abroad with every bite we take? What do Christians have to offer when the Creator’s generous abundance results in divisive scarcity rather than sustainable prosperity?

This conference will explore how growing, processing, and eating food are practical expressions of Christian discipleship that can bring glory to God by supporting the care of creation and the care of people. We seek understanding and transformation and to this end we will listen and learn from faithful believers directly involved in various dimensions of food.
Featured Speakers

* Will Braun, Editor, Geez Magazine
* Cathy Campbell, Rector, St Matthews Anglican Church
* Stuart Clark, Senior Policy Advisor, Canadian Foodgrains Bank
* Don Kroeker, Vice Chair and Director of Investments and Strategic Planning, Kroeker Farms
* Len Penner, President, Cargill Limited
* Mary Beth Sanate, Rural Women's Upliftment Society, Manipur, North East India
* Stacey Toews, Community Engagement and Human Resources, Level Ground Trading
* Nettie Wiebe, Past President, National Farmer's Union
* Loren and Mary Ruth Wilkinson, professors, Regent College

Confused

In this shared ministry business I'm never quite sure what to wear when the Anglicans invite me to a special event...

Daffodils and Trim

A beautiful display from a bed of daffodils appeared on the church lot this spring thanks to the generosity and efforts of Helen Olchowy and Grant Delaney who planted it last fall. This and the work of Mac Pellow with his riding mower are keeping our church lot in excellent shape.

Fiddle Frenzy in Pinawa

Canadian Fiddle Champion Scott Woods brought his “Road Trip” show to Pinawa on June 14 to the delight of an audience of over 300 people. From the opening “Boil’em Cabbage Down” to the “Orange Blossom Special” encore, Scott and his band gave an evening of entertaining, toe-tapping old time music ranging from up-tempo jigs and reels to slow and haunting laments.

Scott’s show was arranged by the PCF as a fund raiser and an event for the enjoyment of people in the East Man region. The organizing committee consisted of chair Gary Simmons and members Betty McCamis, Bernice Hawton, Judy Platford, Allan Campbell and Dennis Cann. However, the success of the concert depended upon the efforts of many others from the PCF including Rob Murray, Helen Olchowy, Phyllis Briercliff, Heather Westdal, June Fenton, Joan Ticknor, Irene Sedge, Arlene Boivin, Sheila Martino, Marion Delaney, Marg Stokes, Rob Smith, Scotty Wooster, Doug Platford, Allan Campbell, Nat Fenton, Grant Delaney and the PCF Guild members with intermission refreshments. A number of outside organizations also helped with the concert with special thanks to Barrie Burnett and Lynn Montsion of EMCA for the help with the staging. Through the efforts of these people and the support of the congregation as a whole over $1400 was raised for the PCF.

Ecumenical Shared Ministries

The Anglican, Evangelical Lutheran, Presbyterian and United Churches in Canada have formed (as of November, 2006) a national ecumenical shared ministries task force, which will collect and disseminate resources about ecumenical shared ministries. They have published a new Ecumenical Ministries Handbook, a guide and encouragement not a book of rules. It's nice to see a renewed interest in shared ministries. You can download the full document in pdf format.

May 7th Talent Auction

The talent auction raised $1850.00, including a few dollars
in donations. There was a lot of hilarity and some neat skills and abilities and tasty talents shared. Thanks to Mel for organizing the event.