November 13th 2011

The season of Advent starts in two weeks on November 27th. Before we start preparing for Christmas, let us give some thought of preparing for Advent. It is a season of looking forward to Christ’s coming, not only his coming as a Babe in Bethlehem but also as we look forward to his second coming here on earth.

Once again, I fall back on the Collects for guidance and summing up of thoughts for each week. Turn to the BAS (the green book) and page 268. These are the four central thoughts taken from each of the four Advent Collects.

1. May we rise to life immortal

2. May we stand with confidence before his glory

3. May he find us waiting in awe and wonder

4. May we in all things embrace his will

It would be good if we were to meditate on each of these thoughts during the Advent season. Very often I find it hard to distinguish in my thinking between his final coming to the whole world and my own individual entering into his presence when I leave this world. Undoubtedly it all emanates from Number 4 which speaks of embracing his will. What does the thought of embracing his will conjure up for you? Does it mean embracing him in complete surrender to his love? Does it mean submitting to his will and power? Think on these things and more this Advent. Next week, I hope to share with you, thoughts about encircling your family in meaningful preparation to greet our saviour at Christmas.

November 6th 2011

During this past week I have been reading the book of Exodus,  the directions to Moses about how the robes of the priests (Aaron and his sons) would be made. They must have been beautiful. They were to be woven of blue yarn and trimmed with embroidered pomegranates and little golden bells which would give a happy tinkling sound as they moved. Clearly God wants us to create beautiful things just as he created all the countless beautiful things for us.

First let us accept that we all see beauty in our own way. We are made in his image but he is a personal God and relates to each one of us differently. From Exodus and other passages in the Bible, it is clear that God wants the places where we come together to worship him to be beautiful. Beauty uplifts us to God.

What about our own homes, our own attire? This has nothing to do with luxury or heavy spending. It has to do with care and love. The question is – do we express to others who we are by our surroundings and even by what we wear?

Think on these things as you scrub a floor or paint a ceiling. We do not want to self consciously think of the impressions we are making but let us be conscious of our Father’s creative love for us and the gift of beauty he has bestowed on the whole world. Jesus said “Consider the lilies of the field – they toil not neither do they spin but Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.”

Solomon built the temple in Jerusalem and he built himself a very grand palace. It took him seven years to build the temple. His own palace took thirteen years. The throne was set high on six steps with a large lion at the edge of each, made of ivory and overlaid with gold. There he sat, where everyone could see his magnificence He lost sight of building to the glory of God. Let us always work for our Father’s glory

THE MASTER AND THE DOOR

This article about the refinishing of the church doors at Trinity Anglican, Barrie. Different photos of the door have been used for my re-posting of  this article. To see the original photos that ran with this story or to read the article at its' source please click the link below and scroll down to the second page of the paper. I hope you enjoy. -SA  

http://www.trinitybarrie.ca/happenings/30oct11.pdf

THE MASTER AND THE DOOR

What began as a generous bequest from the will of Verdi Wallwin, a much-loved, beautiful and gracious member of Trinity, culminated in a welcoming new entrance to the church at the top of the hill.

Door just after it was painted in 2000

Jack Wallwin, with the help of Jim Laking and Millet Salter, undertook a replacement of the steps and the handrail leading up to the front door.  Then it was time to address the refinishing of the door itself. Jack contacted the very best man for the job, Ben Poernbacher, a master painter and refinisher, who at the age of 14 began a 3 year apprenticeship in Austria, his homeland, and started to work at his trade when only 17!

Ben was used to working on ladders, at 19 he found a job high in the mountain villages of Switzerland where he would paint on rising scaffolds, church steeples as high as 130 feet!  Ben came to Canada by himself in 1957 when he was 24 years old and settled in Toronto. Because skiing was a passion he eventually found his way to Snow Valley and owner, Hans Eder, also Austrian. Soon Barrie became his home.

Door once all paint was removed

Over the years Trinity’s main entrance door had accumulated more than 20 layers of paint.  All of these layers were removed by Ben in painstaking fashion using a propane torch.  To avoid burning the wood, the final two layers were cleaned with paint remover and then scraped by hand.  Once cleaned, scraped and sanded Ben realized that the main part of the door was mahogany with pine mouldings which he stained to match the mahogany and bleached once for uniformity of colour. Then came three coats of clear varnish to complete the natural finishing of the door.

Door as it appears today

The final touch to the completion of the church entrance was the installation of a new threshold. Jack Wallwin provided the wood that had been recently cut from a red oak tree on the Wallwin family farm. Two coats of stain and three of varnish were applied by Ben to protect this very handsome piece of wood. Removal of all the old paint from the door hardware and from the wonderful original light fixture above provided for a fresh new coat of black paint to complete the masterpiece!

It is the hope of all parishioners that the new entrance signals a new vision for Trinity