Jesus had a lot to teach his disciples, and a very short time (about 3 years) in
which to do it. The gospel writers had a lot of stories to choose from about Jesus.
John said if they were all told “even the whole world would not have room for the
books that would be written.” So I think we are invited to pay attention to the
things that Jesus paid attention to and to the stories that all of the Gospel writers
agreed needed to be included.

All of the Gospels talk about Jesus praying. All of them have at least one
example of a prayer Jesus said, such as the Lord’s Prayer, or Jesus’ prayer the
night of his arrest. Jesus presumes that his followers will pray, and he teaches
them how (and how not) to pray. So while it is not the only thing to focus on, we
see examples throughout the Gospels, and in the rest of Scripture, of how
essential prayer is to a relationship with God.

The passage above is part of Jesus’ longer teaching on prayer with his
disciples in the book of Luke. He really wants us to know that God welcomes our
prayers. Ask! Seek! Knock! In other words, don’t think that you are ever a bother
to God. God welcomes whatever it is you want to talk about. So come. Whatever
is on your heart, just come. Jesus doesn’t promise that God will do what you
want, but God will always listen and always answer. How amazing!

In February, we are continuing our series on prayer, and then we will be starting
the season of Lent with our Ash Wednesday service on February 18. There are
also a couple different opportunities to be social and learn something new this
month: Invite your friends and spend some time in the warm company of your St. Stephen’s friends. It is always good to be together! See the calendar for more details.

Thank you for all your feedback to date on our possible partnership with St. David and St. Martin Presbyterian Church. Please continue to reach out to your elder with questions or concerns. And please continue to pray about it! God knows the right path for us, so let us see how he answers our prayers for clarity. As updates are available, they will be shared at worship and through the newsletter. 

God bless you and I hope to see you soon!

Meg

A Song from my Playlist:

The Prayer by Celine Dion and Andrea Bocelli is one of my favourites. It reminds us that God’s grace keeps us safe and brings us wisdom.

Click below to listen to a live version from 2011:

St. Stephen’s Stories, January 2026

Happy New Year! As we begin 2026, we start with welcoming three young men as members to our church! This is happening on January 4, which is Epiphany Sunday. This is the day we traditionally read the story of the wisemen coming from the East to find “the one who has been born King of the Jews” according to Matthew 2:2. The signs the wisemen saw in the stars were significant enough they were willing to take a months-long journey to worship the one who caused those signs to appear. It is a remarkable sign of faith given the hardship and danger that they faced.

A few years ago, a friend of mine introduced me to star words. At many churches, this is an Epiphany tradition where you receive a star-shaped piece of paper with a word on it that is to be your word for the year. Like the star that pointed the wisemen to Jesus, the idea of a star word is to give you a focus to help you draw closer to God. It is a gift from God that is intended to help you in your spiritual journey. As we say when we present our offering to God, we can only give because God first gave to us. We gave out star words at our service on January 4. If you were not there in person, I would be happy to draw a star word on your behalf. Simply send me an email or give me a call any time in January!

We are having another potluck this month for neighbours and friends. Everyone at St. Stephen’s is welcome too, of course! This is a great way to introduce people to our St. Stephen’s community, especially if they aren’t sure about coming on Sunday morning. We are trying out a Friday night instead of Sunday to see if that makes a difference in who can attend. Check out the calendar for all other activities happening at St. Stephen’s!

As we start 2026, I am looking forward to seeing where God is taking our community. I never know what St. Stephen’s will look like at the end of the year, but I know that God will be with us each step of the way and that God wants our light to shine. I hope to see you soon!

Blessings,
Meg

A Song from my Playlist:

I was surprised to find that I haven’t shared “Offering” by Paul Baloche before. It has been on my playlist for a long time. It reminds us that the worship we offer to God should be unique.

Click below to listen:

St. Stephen’s Stories, December 2025

When I teach classes on faith formation, we talk about how much we can know about God. In academia, we talk about two ways of knowing God: kataphatic and apophatic. Kataphatic ways of knowing God are positive ways we can describe God: like a father, loving, as Creator, as Holy Spirit, etc. Apophatic ways of knowing God are recognizing the limits of what we can know. They are our ways of acknowledging that God is bigger than we can imagine and our knowledge of God will ever only be partial. It is good to have both of these ways of knowing. If we only describe God based on what we know, we might develop the mistaken impression that God is only ever how we describe God. It can lead to arrogance and self-righteousness. On the other side, if we only ever describe God in terms of what we do not know, God becomes distant and less real to us.

Jesus, by his own words in John 14, describes himself as a way to know who God is. The more we understand Jesus’ character, motivations, and ethics, the better we can understand who God is. We do this a lot with the way Jesus teaches as an adult, but what about Jesus as a baby and child? Are there things we can learn about the nature of God based on what we know about Jesus’ birth and childhood? At this time of year in particular, we spend a lot of time reading about and pondering the birth of Jesus. This Advent, we will be reading the beginnings of all four gospels, as well as some apocryphal writings (letters written in the first two centuries about Jesus that did not become part of the Bible) to see what we can learn about how early Christians described Jesus. My hope is that as we read these familiar and new-to-us stories, we might discover something new about God. I hope you’ll join me!

December is always full of activity at St. Stephen’s! I encourage you to check out our calendar for the many ways you can celebrate the season, in excitement or quiet, through generosity and participation. We hope there is something for everyone as we celebrate the hope, peace, joy, and love of the Advent and Christmas season. The church is decorated, the candles are ready to be lit, and I can’t wait to see you!

Blessings,
Meg

A Song from my Playlist:

There is a beautiful song by Lauren Daigle called Light of the World. It starts with “The world waits for a miracle | The heart longs for a little bit of hope | O come, o come Emmanuel.”

Click below to listen:

St. Stephen’s Stories, November 2025

This month, members of Presbytery are gathering at Galilee Retreat Centre in
Arnprior for prayer, learning, and connection with one another. We began these
retreats in 2023 as a way for members to grow closer together as siblings who
follow Jesus. This year, our speaker is Mark Glanville from St. Andrew’s Hall in
Vancouver, and we are reading his book, Improvising Church: Scripture as the
Source of Harmony, Rhythm, and Soul.

In the book, Mark compares our congregational lives to that of jazz music. I love
the way he introduces his book and his choice to include 12 “notes” of faithful
incarnational communities (like the 12 notes in an octave on a piano): “they are my
effort to discern and describe what God is already birthing in real, lived,
incarnational communities…. I have tried to unpack them in a way that is open and
nonprescriptive. Scripture has inspired the imagination of the communities of
which I have been a part, and I want Scripture itself to inspire your imagination” (p.
5). Madilyn is in a jazz band at school, and I have learned that every time they
perform a song, it is different. While the chords and general melody are consistent,
the way they play with the harmonies and rhythms changes every time.

Perhaps this is a helpful way to understand our various church communities. The
chords of God’s goodness, of Jesus’s teaching and sacrifice, of the resurrection
and the presence of the Holy Spirit are present in all of God’s communities of
people. But the harmonies and rhythms of each of our individual congregations is
unique based on our neighbourhood, the gifts found within our people, and a
whole host of other factors.

It can be tempting sometimes to look at other churches and want what they have.
But the truth is that God didn’t give us those gifts. God gave us different gifts. And
so we are invited to use those gifts in our own way, always to God’s glory, but
never quite the same any anyone else.

November will be another fun month at St. Stephen’s! We have Padre In Seob
Won coming to lead us for Remembrance Day! Our art workshop is that same
day in the afternoon of November 9th. Our budget meeting will be November 16 (and I
know you all love budget Sunday!). And then before you know it, the
first Sunday of advent is November 30. I hope to see you soon!

Blessings,

Meg

A Song from my Playlist:

In honour of Improvising Church, I listened to part of a contemporary jazz mass, which includes this lovely version of The Lord’s Prayer arranged by James Tatum and sung by Ursula Walker.

Click below to listen:

St. Stephen’s Stories, October 2025

Today, I am feeling very grateful! September has been a bit of a blur, between the
twins starting high school and activities getting rolling at St. Stephen’s. I have also
started a challenging and fascinating bible course on the book of James. If you follow
us on Facebook, my first assignment will show up on there shortly! If you’d like to
walk along with me in the book of James, our next bible conversation will be on
James 1 on Tuesday, October 7. But I digress. With Thanksgiving and our church
anniversary this month, here are just a few things I am grateful for:

• Sunday School has gotten off to a great start, with a new teacher, Andrew, and our new coordinator, Laura! It is a joy to see our kids having fun and learning about Jesus every week.
• Our grant application for a 3-5 year declining grant was approved by Presbytery! The application is now with the national church, and we will hear back after November 20.
• Our next Hello Neighbour Sunday Night dinner is on October 5! I had so much fun in June, and I look forward to meeting even more neighbours (and seeing many of you) then!
• We have some new volunteer help from one of our tenants, an oboist named Celina. This is part of what we mean when we say we want to do more than just rent out space. We want to partner with people where and when it makes sense. Hopefully you will get to meet her at some point!
• 81 years of being in this neighbourhood and almost 8 years of me being here asyour minister! What a wonderful adventure we are on!
• While our financial picture isn’t all roses, we are in a better position than we expected based on our budget. Thanks be to God and to all of our generous supporters for exceeding our givings to date!

I could keep going, but I am running out of space! My point is that God is so good!
And when we remember all the ways that God is good, it helps change our
perspective on what we see in the world and in our own lives. I encourage
you to make a list every day of 3 things you have to be grateful for. I have seen
how this can be life-changing, including for me. I’d love to hear what you are
grateful for one Sunday.
See you then!

-Meg

A song from my playlist:

I closed my eyes to offer thanks to God, and the chorus of There is a redeemer (hymn 358) came to mind. This video version below even has someone signing ASL in the front row!