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Love God.. Love others launched in the Valley.
Members of the church form the "love" circle as they prepare to launch the "Love God..Love Others" program
Under a bright and beautiful morning sky members of St. George’s Anglican Church, launched the parish’s theme and focus for 2004 “Love God.. Love Others.. and Love Ourselves.” “It is our intent to focus on each on the seven basic and essential ministries of our Diocesan Promgamme, Diocese 2000 and Beyond as we work in this part of God’s Vineyard,” said Fr. Kingsley Knowles, Rector of the Parish. “Of course we will not neglect any of the other ministries, but we thought it would be best to focus on one particular ministry per year which we hope will bring a certain amount of concentrated effort to that work. This year the vestry has approved a Pastoral Care and Counselling focus.”
“We believe that in order to re-commit, re-gain and re-claim the membership of St. George’s, in the first instance, and then others, we must be a caring and sharing body part of Christ., ” said Louise Barry, Coordinator of the Pastoral Care and Counselling Ministry. “We have a number of objectives in mind” said Miss Barry. “First, we want to promote fellowship between our members, ensuring that every member of the church feels that they are an important part of the church family. Secondly, we want to provide a support base for our members and promote a caring and sharing spirit among each other. Finally, we want to promote the involvement and stewardship of all members.”
“The cold reality is simple,” said Fr. Knowles. “If there are no members, there is no church!. Building and maintaining membership is a means of building all aspects of the church. We hope to increase and build on our membership by using, as a foundation, our pew ministry and cell groups. The Pew Ministry from the congregational dimension and the cell church from the geographical dimension.”
“Implementation of our plan to focus on the pastoral needs of our people will be put into place by challenging our parish groups and organizations,” said Miss. Barry. “More specifically our Cell Church, Pew Ministry, Counselling, Family Life Education, Prayer Ministry and our Ministry to lapsed members have specific plans to address our central theme over the year. Our other organizations and ministries are presently developing their plans to coincide with the central theme and focus.
“Once the theme and focus had been agreed upon by the vestry we went about developing liturgy and an exciting way to launch the program which involved our entire faith community both at our 7:00 am and 9:00 am services,” said Adrian Archer, Parish Administrator and coordinator of the ministries. “Of course it was perfect and divine timing that the program would begin on the weekend which recognizes St. Valentine and all that is espoused on that day. So we began by asking members of the congregation to wear their finest Red and White ensemble, for which we would award prizes for best dressed man, woman, boy, girl and couple,” said Archer
“The hymns and music selected for the launch were all based around the “Love” theme,” said Brenda Archer, Organist and President of the Parish Sr. Choir. “Love Divine All Loves Excelling , Come Down O Love Divine, We are one in the Spirit, Beloved Let Us Love and other rousing favorites like There is a Name I love to hear and Love Lifted Me, tied the various aspects of the service together.”
In her sermon and charge to the congregation Rev’d Willish Nottage, Assistant Curate of the Parish, urged the congregation to become a caring church, one that sincerely looks after the welfare of its family members. “Our Gospel lesson for today, take from Luke 6 gives us the perfect illustration of our we should behave if we want to make our theme real this year,” said Rev’d Nottage
The moment of the dedication and launch came at the conclusion of the service. As the congregation made their way out of the church building to the hymn “Love Lifted Me” each member was give an red or pink balloon which symbolized their individual prayers and wishes for the parish and its 2004 focus. Members formed a “love circle” just outside the north walls of the church building where they were led in intercessory prayers for each ministry by Rev’d Dr. Roland Hamilton, an assistant priest at the church. At the conclusion of these special intercessions, Mr. Jerome Knowles, People’s Warden, led the parents, grandparents and adults in the congregation in special prayers for the children of St. George’s. The children, in turn, led by Patrice Green, president of the parish youth council, prayed for their parents and other adults of the parish.
Fr. Knowles then led the act of dedication and blessed the assembled group, sprinkling them with Holy Water. “Alleluia! O Lord our God in you we put our trust,” was the exclamation by the rector which signaled that a colorful display would be soon blanket the sky over the church and the Valley. “In You Lord is our hope, Alleluia!” was the loud response by the congregation, at which time more than two hundred and fifty balloons symbolic of the congregations prayers and wishes for 2004 were released to the sky. Gasps and applause could be heard as the colorful display, carried aloft by a northeast wind, sailed over the valley. The act of dedication and commitment ended with the blessing “Let us then depart in peace to love God, love others and love ourselves,” said Fr. Knowles. “Thanks be to God for that love” replied the congregation.
Winning prizes for best dressed members were: Collonna Hepburn, best dressed woman, Roscow Davies, best dressed man, Shante Bethel, best dressed girl, Rashad Kelly, nest dressed boy and Alpheus and Dawn Finlayson, best dressed couple.
Winners of the 2004 Valentine Competition pose with Jerome Knowles, People's Warden and rector of St. George's, Fr. Kingsley Knowles
L-R Jerome Knowles, Colonna Hepburn, Roscow Davies, Fr. Knowles, Dawn Finlayson, Alpheus Finlayson.
Front row: Cameron Wallace and Shante Bethel. Missing from the photo is Rashard Kelly
Being blown away is Administrate team member, Sharmon Ingraham as she awaits the members of the congregation to claim their balloon for the short dedication ceremony.
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