Welcome to your Valley Anglican e-newsletter for Friday March 19th, 2021. Yesterday Bishop Shane Parker announced that, regretfully, we will not be re-opening our churches for in-person worship during Holy Week and Easter this year. As your clergy team, we know that this news weighs heavily on all of our hearts, and we wish to reassure you of our prayers and petitions for all members of our Parish of the Valley and Anglican Diocese of Ottawa at this very difficult time. 

As difficult as having a second year apart at Easter will be, it's important for us all to remember that we are now in a much better place as vaccinations begin to bring hope of better times ahead. Numerous members of our Parish of the Valley have already received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and for this wonderful development we give God thanks and praise! That being said, there are also members of our parish who have been affected by COVID-19, and there are some who have experienced very serious illness as a result of the virus. The global pandemic remains a real and present threat to our local community and we continue to pray that God will grant healing, strength and peace to all those who have been impacted by it.

We are grateful that we can remain connected virtually and hope you enjoy perusing the latest happenings from across our parish and diocese. In the coming week we will be sharing plans for virtual worship and devotional opportunities as we enter into this holiest of times of the Christian year. In the mean time, please stay safe, stay well, and happy reading!

Join us this Sunday morning for another edition of Valley Zoom Coffee Hour! To connect to our virtual coffee hour simply click on the blue "Come to Coffee Hour" button below on Sunday March 21st at 11am. You will need a Zoom enabled computer, tablet or smartphone together with a good internet connection. You can also join coffee hour by telephone using the dial-in numbers below (and if you dial 10-10-710 before one of these numbers, it only costs one dollar for the long distance charge for one hour). We hope to see you this Sunday!

Zoom Telephone Numbers:

+1 438 809 7799 Canada
+1 587 328 1099 Canada
+1 647 374 4685 Canada

Meeting ID: 862 0554 0337
Passcode: 122817

All churchwardens are asked to please hold Wednesday March 24th from 7pm to 9pm in your calendars for our next Parish of the Valley clergy team and wardens meeting. Please watch for a separate email with the Zoom link and draft agenda. The parish's four recently established Working Tables will be bringing forward their initial recommendations for prayerful consideration by our parish's leaders. 

To help raise awareness about the "All Mothers and Children Count COVID-19 Extension Fund," PWRDF Ottawa is hosting a Celebration of Young Artists in our diocese. All children and youth are invited to create an original piece of artwork, inspired by the theme of Mothers and Children; of course, fathers, siblings, family, and friends are welcome, too! Art can feature you and your household, Jesus and his family, or anything you like!

Please email a photo of your art to Rev. Patrick Stephens of St. Barnabas Deep River (thereverendpatrickstephens@gmail.com or pwrdf@ottawa.anglican.ca) and include:

1. The artist's name
2. Age
3. Parish
4. Mailing address
5. permission to publish the artist's art and first name

Thanks to a partnership with Global Affairs Canada, for every dollar we donate, seven dollars will support our PWRDF partners in Rwanda, Mozambique, Tanzania and Burundi as they work to ensure physical distancing, access to clean water, soap and disinfectant, acquisition of PPE and dissemination of reliable health information. The 12-month extension is helping these partners to maintain the important gains in food security and maternal, newborn and child health that have been made, thanks to "All Mothers and Children Count." Donations to this cause can be made through your home congregation or at www.pwrdf.org. Please mark donations for "AMCC COVID-19 Extension".

Have you ever been moved to write a poem or hymn to celebrate God’s work in your life and in the world? Perhaps you have already done so, but your creation is still languishing dormant in a notebook or a computer file.

In either case, you are invited to submit lyrics to a hymn on the theme God in the Valley, celebrating God at work in the Parish of the Valley as we seek to minister to each other and to our communities. 

Entries will be judged by a panel (yet to be named) with members chosen from people experienced in worship leadership.

Besides the requirement that the hymn adhere to the theme, God in the Valley, the only other stipulation is that it can be sung to a hymn tune familiar to members of our congregations. The competition is open to both lay members and clergy associated with the Parish of the Valley.

The goal is to premiere the selected hymn(s) at some future parish event once we can again gather and celebrate together.

Marie Zettler is coordinating the competition, and entries must reach her by Palm Sunday, March 28, either by email to zettler508@gmail.com or by postal mail to 508 Lacroix Bay Road, Westmeath, ON, K0J 2L0. They can also be dropped of at her home into the large pink box on her front porch. Typed entries as well as legibly hand-written ones are accepted.

The names of successful authors will be announced on Easter Sunday, April 4. If you have any questions, Marie will be pleased to receive them either by email or by phone at 613-639-3777.

Building on forty years of experience, our diocesan refugee ministry has been able to support hundreds of the world's most vulnerable people to have a new beginning in the communities served by our diocese. Together, we can do even more to help our global neighbours who are forced to seek a safe place to rebuild their lives.

With your help, the people of the Anglican Diocese of Ottawa will celebrate and support this work by creating 1,000 paper doves and, beginning on Pentecost Sunday, spreading their wings of hope above the nave of Christ Church Cathedral Ottawa.

This will be a unique art installation celebrating the contribution of refugees in our communities, raising awareness of the need for refugee sponsorship, and enhancing our capacity to engage in this life-giving ministry. Please click below to learn how you can participate.

Lois Goldberg, coordinator of the annual Brush Arbor Gospel Sing at St. George's South Alice, is pleased to offer a new two-CD set filled with Gospel favourites as a fundraiser for St. George's. CD sets are $20 each with $15 from each sale benefitting St. George's. Anyone interested in buying a CD set is asked to call Bernard Raglin at 613-732-7101 or email baraglin@outlook.com.

Be sure to show your Valley pride this winter by purchasing your very own Parish of the Valley mug! Mugs continue to be on sale across the parish with all proceeds benefitting our local congregations.

This week we are pleased to offer a service of Morning Prayer filmed on Zoom. Click on the "Click to Pray" button below beginning Sunday morning to view the service on our website. There you will also find our Lenten hymn study, a copy of The Valley Bulletin and an order of service so you can pray with us from home. This week's service includes two hymns with the lyrics shared on the screen so you can sing along with us from home too!

Our services also air on YourTV Ottawa Valley Sundays at 10am and 1:30pm. A reminder email is sent out on Sunday mornings. We hope you will take a few moments to tune in and join our parish in prayer.

During COVID-19 the vast majority of our church expenses continue. All members of the Parish of the Valley are encouraged to make regular offerings to their home churches by mail, online or through pre-authorized remittances to support our parish's ministries. Members of Holy Trinity Pembroke, St. John's Eganville, and Ascension Killaloe/St. John's Tramore can give to their churches online using credit card or PayPal through the website Canada Helps.

Every donation matters, so please click "Support Your Church" below to find out more about how you can contribute. Thank you for your faithful support!

Don't forget to download and read The Valley Bulletin from the Latest News section of our parish website. Click "Read The Valley Bulletin" below to access this week's issue, including our parish prayer list.