News & Events

Music for the 1st Sunday of Advent, December 1, 2024

“How Far Is It To Bethlehem?”
Words: Francis Chesterton(1869-1938)
Music: English Taditional | Tune: Stowey
Words & Music: Public Domain

St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, Ancaster

On December 1, the First Sunday of Advent we explored section 7 of Living Faith (God’s Church). We reflected on the questions, “What is the Church?” and “What is it for?” as well as how this connects to the Advent theme of Hope.

This is part of a series on Living Faith, one of the faith statements of the Presbyterian Church in Canada. Our guiding scriptures for this week are Psalm 67 and Matthew 28:16-20.

The two songs mentioned in the message are:

‘We Are The Church’ by Richard Avery and Donald Marsh: https://hymnary.org/text/the_church_i…

‘Build Your Kingdom Here’ by Rend Collective:    • Rend Collective – Build Your Kingdom …  

Here are some highlights from section 7 of Living Faith (the full section can be looked up in the link at the bottom).

Chapter Seven – God’s Church

7.1 The Church 7.1.1 The church is Christ together with his people called both to worship and to serve him in all of life.
7.1.2 The church is one. It is one family under God whose purpose it is to unite all people in Jesus Christ.
7.1.3 The church is holy. It is set apart by God through the Holy Spirit to be a chosen people in the world.
7.1.4 The church is catholic. It is universal, including all people of all time who affirm the Christian Faith.
7.1.5 The church is apostolic. It is founded on Christ and the apostles and is in continuity with their teachings.
7.1.6 The church is in constant need of reform because of the failure and sin which mark its life in every age. The church is present when the Word is truly preached, the sacraments rightly administered, and as it orders its life according to the word of God.

7.2 Ministry
7.2.1 The Lord continues his ministry in and through the church. All Christians are called to participate in the ministry of Christ. As his body on earth we all have gifts to use in the church and in the world to the glory of Christ, our King and Head.

7.3 Worship
7.3.1 The church lives to praise God. We have no higher calling than to offer the worship that belongs to God day by day, Sunday by Sunday.
7.3.3 Worship draws us into the work of Christ. Even now he intercedes for the world to which he came and for which he died. In union with him, the church prays for the healing and the salvation of the world.
7.3.4 Blessing and honour and glory and power be to our God for ever and ever!

You can find the full text of Living Faith here: https://presbyterian.ca/wp-content/up…

Minister: Rev. John T. Read

On Sunday November 24 we explored section 6 of Living Faith (Faith). We reflected on the nature of both faith and doubt and how a church can be a community where people can grow deeper in faith, yet also be a safe place for people with struggles, questions and doubts.

This is the eighth in a series on Living Faith, one of the faith statements of the Presbyterian Church. Our guiding scriptures for this week are Psalm 13, Psalm 42 and Mark 9:14-29.

This message refers to recent U.S. research on the phenomenon of ‘deconstruction’ among Christians, former Christians and other people of faith. You can find it here: https://www.barna.com/trends/ex-chris…

For a perspective on what’s happening here in Canada you can go here: https://www.newleafnetwork.ca/blessed…

This message reflects on Living Faith section 6.

Chapter Six – Faith

6.1 Faith
6.1.1 Faith is a gift of God constantly renewed in Word and Sacrament and in the shared life of God’s people. It is trust in God, involves personal repentance of sin, acceptance of Jesus Christ as Saviour, and commitment to him as Lord. It includes assent to the truth of the Gospel. By faith we receive the very life of God into our lives and joyfully discover that God knows, loves, and pardons us.
6.1.2 God brings us to faith in many ways. We may have trusted in God from childhood; or our faith may have come later in life. Faith may come suddenly or only after a struggle to believe. Whatever the spiritual journey we have traveled, God honours our faith, great or small.
6.1.3 Faith is a response to God’s presence in the midst of life. It says “yes” to the God who is here.

6.2 Doubt
6.2.1 We are not always certain that God is with us. At times God calls us to live in this world without experiencing the divine presence, often discerning God’s nearness only as we look back. At other times God seems absent in order that our faith may be tested. Through such struggle we mature in faith. God may also chasten and strengthen us through the hard circumstances of life.
6.2.2 Questioning may be a sign of growth. It may also be disobedience: we must be honest with ourselves.

Since we are to love God with our minds, as well as our hearts, the working through of doubt is part of our growth in faith. The church includes many who struggle with doubt. Jesus accepted the man who prayed: “Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief.”

6.2.3 Though the strength of our faith may vary and in many ways be assailed and weakened, yet we may find assurance in Christ through confidence in his word, the sacraments of his church, and the work of his Spirit.

You can find the full text of Living Faith here: https://presbyterian.ca/wp-content/up…

Minister: Rev. John T. Read

On Sunday November 17 we explored how section 5 of Living Faith (The Bible) and considered: What is the Bible? How can it be God’s Word for us today? What does it mean to say that the Bible has ‘authority’?

This is the seventh in a series on Living Faith, one of the faith statements of the Presbyterian Church. Our guiding scriptures for this week are Psalm 19 and John 1:1-18

This message reflects on Living Faith section 5.

Chapter Five – The Bible

5.1 The Bible has been given to us by the inspiration of God to be the rule of faith and life. It is the standard of all doctrine by which we must test any word that comes to us from church, world, or inner experience. We subject to its judgment all we believe and do. Through the Scriptures the church is bound only to Jesus Christ its King and Head. He is the living Word of God to whom the written word bears witness.
5.2 The Holy Spirit gives us inner testimony to the unique authority of the Bible and is the source of its power. The Bible, written by human hands, is nonetheless the word of God as no other word ever written. To it no other writings are to be added. The Scriptures are necessary, sufficient, and reliable, revealing Jesus Christ, the living Word.
5.3 Both Old and New Testaments were written within communities of faith and accepted as Scripture by them. Those who seek to understand the Bible need to stand within the church and listen to its teaching.
5.4 The Bible is to be understood in the light of the revelation of God’s work in Christ. The writing of the Bible was conditioned by the language, thought, and setting of its time. The Bible must be read in its historical context. We interpret Scripture as we compare passages, seeing the two Testaments in light of each other, and listening to commentators past and present. Relying on the Holy Spirit, we seek the application of God’s word for our time.

You can find the full text of Living Faith here: https://presbyterian.ca/wp-content/up…

Minister: Rev. John T. Read

Music for Remembrance Sunday, November 10, 2024

“I Believe, Help My Unbelief”
Words & Music: Anonymous | Lloyd Larson
© 2023 Lorenz Publishing Company, a division of the Lorenz Corporation
Used by permission CCLI Licence # 3046584 | CCLI Streaming # 20546703

St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, Ancaster

On Sunday November 10 we explored how section 4 of Living Faith (God the Holy Spirit) and considered: Who is the the Holy Spirit? Where can we see the Spirit of God at work in the world today? How can we work with God’s Spirit?

This is the fifth in a series on Living Faith, one of the faith statements of the Presbyterian Church. Our guiding scriptures for this week are Psalm 104, John 14:15-27, Acts 2:37-47.

This message reflects on Living Faith section 4.

Chapter Four – God the Holy Spirit

4.1 The Holy Spirit is God with Us

4.1.1 The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of the triune God and is One with the Father and the Son. The Holy Spirit is the Lord and Giver of Life, the Renewer and Helper of God’s people. By the Spirit, God is present in the world, the source of all goodness and justice. By the Spirit, God convinces the world of sin and testifies to the truth of Christ. By the Spirit, Christ is with his church.

4.2 The Holy Spirit Enables People to Believe
4.2.1 The Spirit enables people to receive the good news of Christ, to repent of their sins, and to be adopted as children of God. As we hear and respond to the Gospel we freely turn to Christ. When we have turned and repented, we recognize that the Spirit enabled us to believe.
4.2.2 The Holy Spirit accompanies us on our journey of faith. We may not always be sure of this presence. Yet God’s Spirit is with us, sometimes gently, sometimes powerfully, guiding us in the midst of life, our comfort and our help. Christian life is a pilgrimage: it begins. continues, and ends in God.

4.3 The Holy Spirit Forms and Equips the Church
4.3.1 By the Spirit, Christ calls the church into being and unites us to himself and to each other. The Holy Spirit is in all who know Christ.
4.3.2 The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth. We pray as a church to be guided into truth knowing that such truth may disturb and judge us.
4.3.3 The presence of the Holy Spirit is seen in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, loyalty, gentleness, and self-control.
4.3.4 The Spirit blesses us with various gifts. We seek to discover those gifts and to use them for our Lord. Faithful loving service is a sign that the Spirit is present. The presence of the Spirit is evident where people are made whole, encouraged, and enabled to grow in Christ.
4.3.5 Come, Holy Spirit!

You can find the full text of Living Faith here: https://presbyterian.ca/wp-content/up…

Minister: Rev. John T. Read

On Sunday November 3 we continued our look at section 3 of Living Faith (God in Christ) and considered: What does it mean for us to call Jesus Lord and Saviour today? What does Jesus save us from? What does he save us for?

This is the fifth in a series on Living Faith, one of the faith statements of the Presbyterian Church. Our guiding scriptures for this week are Acts 2:22-24, 29-3, Luke 6:46-49 and Matthew 20:25-28.

This message reflects on Living Faith sections 3.4-3.6.

Chapter Three – God in Christ
3.4 Jesus is Saviour
3.4.1 Jesus is the Mediator through whom God has come to us and through whom we come to God.
3.4.2 Christ died for our sins. The innocent one bore our condemnation on the cross. He suffered and was put to death for the sin of the world.
3.4.3 God’s reconciling act in Jesus Christ is a mystery which the Scriptures describe as the sacrifice of a lamb, a shepherd’s life given for his sheep, atonement by a priest. It is also the innocent dying for the guilty, the ransom of a slave, payment of a debt, and victory over the powers of evil. Such expressions interpret the love of God revealing the gravity, cost, and sure achievement of our Lord’s work. Yet that love we cannot fully explain. God’s grace, received by faith alone, pardons and justifies, redeems and reconciles us.

3.5 Jesus is Lord
3.5.1 Jesus suffered, died, and was buried, but God raised him from the dead. Risen and ascended, he is alive now, the living Lord.
3.5.2 His resurrection means that our faith is not empty, that final victory is assured over all evil powers which destroy and deform life, and that death, the last enemy, is conquered.
3.5.3 The forces of the evil one still wage war against us. The destructive powers are still present. But their end is not in doubt. We await the full revelation of our Lord’s triumph.
3.5.4 We worship our ascended Lord. Reigning in glory and power he is our High Priest and Advocate interceding before the Father on our behalf. Through him we offer our sacrifice of praise, with prayer for all to the Father.
3.5.5 Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord!

3.6 Salvation in Christ
3.6.1 Salvation comes from God’s grace alone received through faith in Christ. From all eternity, and through no merit on our part, God calls us to life in Christ. Here is the good news of the Gospel! Jesus Christ is the elect one, chosen for our salvation. In him we are made acceptable to God. Before the world was made we were chosen in Christ to be part of the family of God.

3.6.2 We are called for a purpose: we have been predestined to be like Christ and to serve God. As with Israel in the Old Testament, so with the new humanity in the New Testament, God chooses us. There is assurance in knowing that the living God has eternal purposes to achieve through us. God will bring to completion the work of grace begun in us.

You can find the full text of Living Faith here: https://presbyterian.ca/wp-content/up…

Minister: Rev. John T. Read

On Sunday October 27 we explored the next section of Living Faith and asked some more questions: Who is Jesus? and Why does what believe about Jesus matter?

This is the fourth in a series on Living Faith, one of the faith statements of the Presbyterian Church. Our guiding scriptures for this week are Philippians 2:5-11 and Matthew 11:25-30. Rev. John also refers to some recent studies on faith and churches in Canada:

Still Christian? What Canadian Christians Actually Believe. https://www.cardus.ca/research/faith-…

Nine interesting data points on the state of today’s Protestant churches. https://macleans.ca/society/nine-inte…

This message reflects on Living Faith sections 3.1-3.3.

Chapter Three – God in Christ
3.1 Jesus Christ and Israel
3.1.1 To the world in its rebellion and alienation God promised blessing and restoration. The Lord chose Abraham and his descendants and through a covenant with them destined them to be bearers of that promise to all people.
3.1.2 The Old Testament records God’s message and mighty acts. It speaks of God’s grace and judgment. It declares God’s promise and points to the One to come.
3.1.3 From Israel came the Messiah; in Jesus of Nazareth God kept the promise of salvation. We understand his coming in the light of the Old Testament. Born of the seed of David, he lived a Jew among Jews. Child of an Israelite woman, he fulfilled God’s promise that Israel would be a light to the nations. In Christ God came to dispel the world’s darkness.

3.2 Jesus Christ: Truly God
3.2.1 God became man and dwelt among us. In silence we ponder, in awe we confess this amazing truth. Conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, the eternal Son of God humbled himself to be one with us. To Israel and to the world came God in Christ.
3.2.2 To call Jesus Christ the Son of God is to say that he is God of God, Light of Light begotten, not made. To see Jesus is to see God incarnate. To know the Son is to know the Father.
3.2.3 God’s nature is expressed in Jesus, the very Word of God. Through him were all things made. His life is the light of the world.
3.2.4 Jesus Christ is Lord. He is one with the Father and the Holy Spirit.

3.3 Jesus Christ: Truly Human
3.3.1 Jesus was truly human. Tried and tested as we are, yet without sin, he experienced the depths of life. Jesus understands us. He felt the joy of friendship, the pain of rejection, and died a human death. He trusted the Father completely and lived in the Holy Spirit. Neither temptation nor threat prevented him from loving God and his neighbour as himself. He showed us what it means to be a child of God.

You can find the full text of Living Faith here: https://presbyterian.ca/wp-content/up…

Minister: Rev. John T. Read

On Sunday October 20 we explored some more big questions: What is the purpose of human life? What’s the relationship between who God is and who we are? How do we handle the tension between what’s good and beautiful about humanity, and what’s destructive and evil?

This is the third in a series on Living Faith, one of the faith statements of the Presbyterian Church. Our guiding scriptures for this week are Psalm 8, Psalm 130 and Matthew 5:13-16. This message reflects on Living Faith sections 2.2-2.5 2.2

Our Creation
2.2.1The mystery of human existence is that we belong to God and have been made in the divine image. In God we live and move and have our being. Therefore, we know ourselves only when we know God. Our lives must reflect the Creator’s love and purpose for all creation. We acknowledge God as Creator and Lord.
2.2.2 We have been made male and female for our mutual help, comfort and joy. Our creation as sexual beings is God’s loving purpose for us. We are dependent on each other and as men and women, need one another in all of life.

2.3 Our Calling
2.3.1 We are called to work out the meaning of our own lives and to find our true vocation in the love and service of God.
2.3.2 We serve and love God by the service and love of creation especially the care of the needy. Every kind of work that is honest and serves others is a vocation from the Lord.
2.3.3 Calling means the necessity to deny selfish ambition and desire in order to minister to others. In God’s service true freedom is to be found.

2.4 Our Care for the World
2.4.1 Though life is a gift from God, human life depends upon the created world. Our care for the world must reflect God’s care. We are not owners, but stewards of God’s good earth. Concerned with the well-being of all of life we welcome the truths and insights of all human skill and science about the world and the universe.
2.4.2 Our stewardship calls us to explore ways of love and justice in respecting God’s creation and in seeking its responsible use for the common good.

2.5 Sin Separates Us from God
2.5.1 We confess that we are sinners. We do not care for the world as we should. We do not fulfill our calling to serve God. Our lives do not reflect the Creator’s love. Our failure is sin, a rebellion against God, an insistence that we be god in our own lives.
2.5.2 God has given us the law to show us how to live. Yet we are unable to keep the Ten Commandments, and we do not love God without reserve nor our neighbour as ourselves. Above all, our sin is exposed by the perfect life of Christ.
2.5.3 Sin alienates us from God. It offends the holiness of God, separates us from our Lord, and leads to spiritual death. It mars the divine image in us and infects our relationship with others and with ourselves.

2.5.4 Sin is a power present in every human life, even at birth. It issues in such sins as pride asserting itself against God, indifference towards God and neighbour, untruthfulness, greed, lust, laziness, gluttony, envy, and selfish anger.
2.5.5 We cannot escape our sin, nor the sin of the world.
2.5.6 Because we are sinful the societies we live in are sinful. There are no exceptions: every system is flawed. We are part of the evil of the world, of its violence, neglect, injustice.
2.5.7 All people fall short of God’s standards and need salvation. God’s way to salvation has been revealed in Jesus Christ. Through the death and resurrection of Christ our sins are forgiven. Salvation means life, forgiveness, healing, wholeness. It comes from God’s grace received through faith in Christ alone.
2.5.8 Thanks be to God!

You can find the full text of Living Faith here: https://presbyterian.ca/wp-content/up…

On Thanksgiving Sunday (October 13) we explored the questions: Who is God? What is God’s Character? Who is God for us in the this world of many different powers and loyalties? And what does it mean if we believe that God is somehow ‘sovereign,’ and guides what happens in the universe? This is the second in a new series on Living Faith, one of the faith statements of the Presbyterian Church. Our guiding scriptures for this week are Isaiah 40:9-11, 21-31 and Mark 12:28-31.

This message reflects on Living Faith sections 1.1-2.1

Chapter One – God

1.1 There is one true God whom to know is life eternal, whom to serve is joy and peace. God has created all that is. The whole universe testifies to the majesty and power of its Maker.

1.2 God has come to us. The Lord spoke to the people of Israel and entered into covenant with them. From Israel came Jesus Christ, the Son of God, bringing salvation through a new covenant entered by faith. The Lord continues to come to us by the Holy Spirit, God present in the world, and Guide to the church, the new Israel.

1.3 The church upholds and defends the truth given to the apostles and recorded in the Scriptures. The Old and New Testaments witness to God’s mighty acts. They reveal the Creator’s holy love, and lead us to Jesus Christ.

1.4 The creeds of the early church preserve the faith of the apostles who first preached the Gospel of Christ. We receive them as a legacy in which the true interpretation of the Scriptures is protected.

1.5 Therefore, with the one church universal we believe in one God, eternal Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, three in one, one in three, equal in power and glory. God is the Father to whom we come, the Son through whom we come, the Spirit by whom we come.

1.6 We worship almighty God, the source of all life. With thanks we acknowledge God’s wisdom, power, faithfulness, and love. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be!

Chapter Two – God, Creator and Ruler

2.1 God Creates and Rules 2.1.1 The living God is Lord, Creator of all, Sustainer and Ruler of the universe. In the seasons and the harvests, in the rise and fall of nations, God’s goodness and judgment are present. All events in this world are under the sovereign care of the eternal God.

2.1.2 We hold in reverence the whole creation as the theatre of God’s glory and action. God rules the lives of individuals and nations yet does not negate our freedom and responsibility. Ever at work in the world and in our lives God directs all things towards fulfillment in Christ.

2.1.3 We affirm God’s righteous and loving purpose even in a world where evil abounds. This purpose is uniquely disclosed in Jesus Christ. In him we see the greatest paradox of life: the mighty God chose to come into this world in weakness. In Christ, God entered most deeply into our suffering.

2.1.4 We cannot fully comprehend nor is it our task to justify God’s rule of the world. We experience evil in the midst of life. Yet evil cannot ultimately prevail, for it is against God’s will. The resurrection of Christ and the new life he gives us are assurance of his ultimate triumph.

You can find the full text of Living Faith here: https://presbyterian.ca/wp-content/up…