By now many of your will have picked up your Advent Appeal package from your local church. This is a reminder that, if you are able, please prayerfully consider making a gift to your local congregation through this end-of-year fundraising effort. Every donation, regardless of size, is gratefully received and will faithfully be used to support the life and ministry of your local congregation or chapel.

There are still a few letters that have not been able to make it into the hands of our fellow parishioners that are sitting at the back of our churches. Because of the ongoing Canada Post mail strike, we are unable to mail out any of the remaining envelopes, so we are asking for your help to hand deliver our Advent Appeal letters to members of our congregations who are unable to pick them up in person. Please speak with any member of the clergy team if you can be of support in making home deliveries.

May the light of Christ continue to give you hope, peace, joy and love this Advent. Thank you for supporting our Valley Advent Appeal!

Enjoy an afternoon of traditional carols and fun Christmas music for all ages. Bring your bells and singing voice and join us at St. George's South Alice this Sunday afternoon at 2pm as we ring in the season with fun and fellowship!

The Sing-a-long will be followed by a hot meal and a freewill offering for the church will be received. All are welcome!

The December issue of Revelations is now available. You can pick up a hard copy at church on Sunday or download it electronically from the link below.

We are consistently blown away by the creativity and community engagement that is happening across our Parish of the Valley. In this issue you'll read about some of the ways that a few of our churches are connecting with their local food banks beyond food donations; learn more about our newest Associate Incumbent, Rev. Christine; follow the journey of the Indian Residential School Memorial Monument; read an update about some of the work of Impact Zambia from this past summer's trip; see pictures from some recent events; find some Advent reflections; and have your taste buds tempted by a wonderful fundraiser that just happened in Barry's Bay!

Thank you to our Editor, Alexis Anderson, and to all who contributed to this issue. This is Alexis' final issue as Editor and we are incredibly grateful for her work over these last few years. We are now seeking a new volunteer to take on the role of Revelations Editor. If this is something that interests you, or if you'd like to learn more, please speak with Rev. Gillian.

This Advent, step out of the hustle and bustle and into a quiet space for a time of reflection and candlelit worship.

Our final Advent Vespers will take place this coming Wednesday, December 18 at 4pm in Holy Trinity Pembroke. The service will also be simultaneously live-streamed for those who would prefer to join in from home, or watch the recording at a later time. You can connect to the live-stream here. All past services are available at the same link.

Each week we have been reflecting on the theme of the upcoming Advent Sunday: Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love. We hope these brief liturgies will offer our parish a quiet centre, whether attended in person or online, and we look forward to sharing in worship with our full-communion partners from St. Timothy's Evangelical Lutheran Church and Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church in Pembroke.

Join Rev. Matthew, Rev. Nick and The Intermittents for a Service of Lessons & Carols at the Upper Ottawa Heritage Centre Museum Church (1032 Pembroke Street East) on Thursday, December 19 at 7pm. We'll sing favourite hymns and hear familiar readings as we prepare our hearts for Christmas.

In 2015 the congregation of St. Paul's Cobden was blessed to receive a generous bequest in the amount of $1.5 million from the estates of Mr. and Mrs. Basil and Greta Yates. In response to this wonderful act of Christian stewardship, in 2016 the Vestry of St. Paul's Cobden established a bequest committee. The committee meets on an annual basis each November and is mandated by the St. Paul's Vestry to prayerfully disburse dividends generated by St. Paul's holdings in the Consolidated Trust Fund of the Anglican Diocese of Ottawa that are in excess of the annual financial needs of the congregation.

For 2024 the St. Paul's bequest committee has been pleased to disburse $16,500 in financial support to various charities and social service agencies across Renfew County. A full listing of the organizations receiving financial support in 2024 can be found by clicking "Learn More" below.

In addition, the bequest committee is very pleased to contribute $8,500 to Holy Trinity Pembroke to help support the cost of shared administrative assistance for the Parish of the Valley in 2024. Similar gifts have generously been made by St. Paul's to Holy Trinity in 2020, 2022 and 2023, and the bequest committee remains committed to maintaining funding at this level on an annual basis (dividends permitting) in the years to come. This contribution represents roughly one third of the annual cost of the office administrator employed by Holy Trinity Pembroke. Since the creation of the Parish of the Valley in 2018 roughly one third of the Pembroke administrator's position has been devoted to parish wide initiatives in support of our clergy team, including producing the weekly Valley Bulletins, funeral bulletins, parish mailings and maintaining the parish list, to name only a few of these important tasks.

The Parish of the Valley is incredibly proud of St. Paul's Cobden's continuing generosity towards the needs of our area parish and towards the needs of our Renfrew County community as a whole.  

Christmas Eve - December 24th

4pm - All Saints, Petawawa
4pm - Ascension, Killaloe
4pm - St. Anthony's, Whitney
4pm - St. Paul's, Cobden

7pm - Holy Trinity, Pembroke
7pm - St. George's, South Alice
7pm - St. John's, Eganville
7pm - Epiphany, Barry's Bay
7pm - St. Thomas, Rankin
7pm - St. Augustine's Chapel, Beachburg

Christmas Day - December 25th

9am - Ascension, Killaloe
10am - Holy Trinity Pembroke 
11am - St. John's Eganville

Worship times and locations for Sunday, December 15th are:

Here you will find our parish prayer list, scripture readings according to the Sunday lectionary, and links to worship by the Parish of the Valley and other Anglican resources and services.

Please download from the link below.