Dear St. Stephen’s church family,

Love and blessings in this first week of March!

Some news for the week:

1. Our AGM takes place on Sunday after the 10:30 service. Lunch will be available for all who signed up. If you didn’t sign up, you are still welcome to come for the meeting! Bring a lunch? Booklets are now available. Please share the booklets as much as possible, as they are made up of a lot of paper! (My apologies for contributing to the length of the report!) The meeting is an opportunity to come together as a parish, celebrating the year gone by and looking to our future, all in gratitude to God who gives us every good and perfect gift.                                                                                                   
2. The World Day of Prayer—Take up your Mat and Walk! Friday, March 6^th at 2 pm. Stephen’s is hosting this service for our area, working together with our Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Salvation Army, Lutheran and other neighbours. The liturgy has been written by women in Zimbabwe. There will be a guest speaker from Zimbabwe and refreshments and fellowship to follow. Please come if you are able, and bring a friend!
3. Thank you to Community Life for a delicious Lenten lunch. Lenten lunches continue throughout Lent and all are encouraged to stay and share a meal, offering a donation to support the chosen cause of the hosts.  
4. Lenten Prayer services and breakfast happen on Wednesday mornings at 8:15 at Nutana Mennonite. St. Stephen’s is leading and providing breakfast on Wednesday, March 18^th.

Parish Cycle of Prayer:

Throughout the month of March, let’s pray for our new vestry. May the members of vestry lead us in being Christ Centred and Holy Spirit led. May they work well together, listening and sharing. May meetings be times of spiritual refreshment and planning for the everyday life of the parish. May wisdom and discernment be present in all decisions. May they be good stewards of the church we have been given at this time and place.

We pray for: Bob and Nancy and family and for Boris and Marje and family.

Today is a Lenten Ember Day.

Ember days occur throughout the year and have had various applications, including requiring those in the ordination process to write a letter to their Bishop. They are a series of 3 days that occur 4 times a year. They remind us of the changing church season and call us to give, fast and pray.  Today’s ember day prayer in the Book of Common Prayer is especially rich:

O God who has made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on the face of the earth, and did send thy blessed Son Jesus Christ to preach peace to them that are afar off and to them that are nigh: Grant that all people of the world may feel after thee and find thee; and hasten, O Lord, thy fulfillment of thy promise to pour out thy Spirit upon all flesh; through the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

In faith, hope and love,

The Rev. Amy <><