PARISH NEWS - JULY 23RD

E-blast for July 23rd, 2026

SERVICES AND GATHERINGS THIS WEEK

SUNDAY, July 26 – 10:00am – Ninth Sunday after Pentecost

If you are unable to attend worship in person, the service is live streamed. For links to the service and the order of service please visit St. James at: stjamesdundas.ca or the St. James Facebook page.

The church office has new hours

Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday 10am-2pm.

St. James Mission Statement

“To know Jesus and share Love through prayer, story, and service”

St. James' 50th Holiday House Tour

Put Saturday, December 5th, in your calendar for our 50th Holiday House Tour.  It will be a special anniversary event!  If you can recommend a home to include in this year's tour, please contact Jan Southall at jsouthall@cogeco.ca, and she will follow up with you for further details.

When you make jams, jellies, and preserves this year, please set some jars aside to sell at the Holiday House Tour. They are always the best sellers!

Thank you.

Volunteer Role Descriptions

During the summer and fall months, we will be working with St. James' Committee Chairs and parishioners to update descriptions for all volunteer positions at St. James. This is a big undertaking, but volunteer role descriptions will give us a greater understanding of each role and the contribution each volunteer makes.   Volunteer screening also plays an important role in ensuring St. James's is a safe place for everyone.

Do you have a copy of an old volunteer role description in your files at home?  It is easier for us to work from an existing description than to start from scratch.  If so, please send it to gillian.hendry35@gmail.com or drop it off at the church office.

Stage in Dundas Room

The stage in the Dundas Room has finally been cleared of church chairs and kneelers.  First, any damaged chairs were replaced in the Sanctuary, and the red chairs were replaced with the wooden chairs in the choir area.  Efforts to sell the remaining chairs were unsuccessful, so instead they were donated to a good home with the help of social media.  A church in Toronto that operates a food bank and meal program is delighted to have the chairs.  They are grateful to have matching chairs for their guests to enjoy.

Thank you to Terese Herron, Shawn Cook, and John Naismith, who helped sort and load the chairs and kneelers into the truck in hot, muggy, and smoky weather last Saturday.

The Building Committee will look into building appropriate storage cupboards on the back wall of the stage to meet the church's many storage needs.

Monday Afternoon Games

First and third Monday of the month from 1:30-4pm, in the Parlour. Everyone is invited to participate, ladies or gentlemen.  Any questions, please speak with Jill.

Tuesday Evening Prayer Group

The prayer group is pausing for the summer and will consider

when and how it will resume in September.

Garden Project Update

Last week we were able to secure the work of Meadowbrook Landscaping for the Garden Project.

The first phase of their work will be concerned with the clean up and removal of all vegetation in the gardens and along the driveway.

They will also edge and develop the gardens in preparation for planting.

This work will begin soon.

Sunday Coffee Hour

Volunteers are needed to help with coffee/tea and fellowship after the Sunday services.

Could you help with one of the following:

1. set-up tables and chairs

                   2. set-up coffee / tea and cold drinks

                       3. clean up after (dishes, wiping tables)

      4. put away tables and chairs

Please sign up to help so we can continue to provide this hospitality, the sign-up sheet is in the narthex or speak to Terese Herron or Jill Regoeczi.

 Property Survey

Over the next few weeks there will be a survey company onsite conducting a property survey for St. James, so if you notice surveyors onsite that is what they are doing. In addition, as required by local By-Laws there will be wheel stops (concrete curbs) placed in parking spaces that abutt neighbouring residential properties.

Call out for anyone with a key to the church building.  If you are not the head of a committee, please return your key as soon as possible.

Please don’t make Sam or Leslie have to come asking!

WEDNESDAY – COMPLINE – 9:15 p.m. Compline is a short service of night prayer. The heart of Compline is the recitation of several psalms. There is a short reading from scripture, intercession, and time for reflection. It is a beautiful way to close out an active day. Compline is offered by St. James’ through Facebook to bring the community together. If you cannot join live, the service is available afterwards on St. James’ Facebook channel.

Please keep David Brown’s family in your prayers as they mourn David’s passing on Monday.  Service details will be shared when they become available.

St. James 100^th Anniversary

Did you know that the first service in this building was held on September 5^th, 1926? 100 years ago!  As you may have read in our newsletter “Belonging”, we will be celebrating our 100 years young with a dinner on Friday November 20^th. In anticipation of that event, the organizing committee needs your help.

First, we need photographs! There is a big gap in our photograph archives. Most noticeable is the lack of photographs from 1926 through to the 1970s. Do you or someone you know have early photographs of St. James and the groups that met here? Choir members, WA, AG, Church Schools, AYPA, Men’s Group, and others. Photographs will be digitized and returned to you and memorabilia will be borrowed for an exhibit and then returned to you.

Secondly, to keep track of the myriad of details for this event we need someone experienced in creating and maintaining a spreadsheet to join our committee. Are you this person?  Or do you know someone who can manage this work for us?

Please speak to Janet Cannon-Davison, Anne Washington or myself if you could help us out.

A couple of Sundays ago Canon Missioner Ian Mobsby, and Licensed lay worker for St. James, Rebecca Vendetti worshiped with us.  Ian  preached a homily that many folks said helped them understand the mixed-ecology model of church.  It is attached to the blast for your review in case you missed it, or would like to read it over again. 

I also heard some folks wondering why the ministry with African newcomers wasn't mentioned.  Well, that's because, although a vital and important ministry at St. James, it is just that, a ministry.  What Ian shared from the Gospel message was that God's mission, and our coming alongside it, is through sowing seeds of engagement with folks who haven't been to church for a long while or have never been before.  They are equally important, yet they are very different from each other.    

Yours in scattering seeds, 

Leslie 

Sermon for St James Anglican Church, Dundas by Revd Canon Dr Ian Mobsby 12^th July 2026

Matthew 13:1–9, 18–23

“The Sower, the Soil and the Parish: Becoming the Church God Sends”

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

It is wonderful to be with you this morning to celebrate the work of Rebecca Vendetti your missioner here in Dundas, but I want to start with a story.

Recently my neighbour proudly announced to his other neighbour that he had bought the finest grass seed money could buy. He prepared the soil perfectly. He watered it every day. He fertilized it carefully. Then, every morning, he would go outside and stare at the lawn.

After a week, his neighbour asked, “Has it grown yet?” The man replied, “No.”

The neighbour asked, “Have you stopped staring at it?” He said, “No.”

“Well,” the neighbour smiled, “perhaps that’s the problem. Grass doesn’t grow because you watch it. It grows because life is doing its hidden work.”

There is something profoundly Christian about that – life is doing its hidden work.

We live in a world that wants instant results. We measure success by numbers, by visible achievements, by growth that we can count. But the Kingdom of God does not usually work like that. Seeds grow quietly. Roots develop invisibly. Transformation happens beneath the surface long before anyone notices it. That is why Jesus tells this remarkable story.

Most of us have heard the Parable of the Sower many times. Usually we are encouraged to ask, “What kind of soil am I?”

And that is certainly part of Jesus’ teaching. But today I want us to notice something else first.

Before Jesus talks about the soil, he talks about the sower. The hero of the story is not the soil.

The hero is the sower. And what kind of sower is this?

Well, frankly, if you were running a farming business, you probably wouldn’t hire him. He throws seed everywhere. On the path. On rocky ground. Among the thorns. On the good soil.

There seems to be no careful calculation. No market research. No strategic analysis. No attempt to maximise efficiency. He simply scatters seed everywhere.

At first glance it almost seems wasteful. But Jesus is telling us something profound about the nature of God and mission. God is extravagantly generous.

God never begins by asking whether someone deserves grace. God never waits until someone’s life is perfectly prepared.

God simply keeps sowing love. Keeps sowing hope. Keeps sowing mercy. Keeps sowing the invitation to life in Christ. The Kingdom begins not with human readiness but with divine generosity.

That changes how we think about mission. Many people imagine mission means taking God somewhere God is absent. But the Church has always taught something much more beautiful. Mission begins with God. Before the Church moves, God has already gone ahead. Before we speak, the Holy Spirit has already been whispering. Before we arrive, Christ is already present. Mission is joining in with what God is already doing.

The Latin phrase is Missio Dei—the mission of God. It is God’s mission before it is ours. The Church simply has the privilege of participating in it. That means our task is not to manufacture faith.

It is not to convince reluctant people. It is not even to make the Kingdom grow. Our task is much simpler. Scatter the seed and Trust God with the harvest.

This is one of the reasons I love being an Anglican. Because our understanding of a parish is wonderfully expansive. A parish is not simply a congregation. A parish is a neighbourhood. The parish is a group of streets. Every apartment. Every café. Every school. Every retirement home. Every park. Every family. Every person who lives within its parish neighbourhood.

When the Church speaks of “the parish,” we are talking about everyone who lives or works in this neighborhood whom God has entrusted into your care - not only those who sit in these pews on a Sunday morning.

That is a breathtaking vision. Because it reminds us that our calling is much larger than maintaining a church building. Our calling is to love a neighbourhood. To pray for a neighbourhood. To serve God in a neighbourhood.

Mission then is joining in with God is already doing in your parish of Dundas. You as a parish church have a missional responsibility to sow seeds in this neighbourhood.

To discover where God is already at work in a place, and critically, lean into helping those who have left Church or never gone to church to explore the Christian faith.

That is exactly why I find so much hope in what is happening here at St James as you have begun to sow missional seeds. Many of you will know the wonderful ministry that Rebecca Vendetti is leading as your Licensed Lay Missioner under Leslie’s leadership. Trail and Table and Messy Church are an important mission to families and people who do not know Jesus or are getting to experience God who do not go to church.

It is not an extra programme for churched kids. It is an expression of the very heart of the Gospel.

Think about where Jesus carried out most of his ministry. Not in synagogues. Not in religious buildings. He met people beside lakes. On dusty roads. Around meals. In people’s homes. On hillsides. In marketplaces. While walking together.

Jesus constantly entered the everyday spaces where people already lived. He met people before they ever became disciples. He loved them before they understood who he was. He belonged with them before they believed. That is by definition contextual mission.

It asks a simple question: Where are people already gathering in the neighbourhood? And how might we meet them there with the love of Christ?

That is exactly what Trail and Table and Messy Church seek to do. Families walking together. Children exploring creation and God. People sharing food. Conversations developing naturally. Friendships forming. Faith emerging gently rather than being forced.

That is not a watered-down version of church. It is deeply rooted in the way Jesus himself lived and ministered.

Sometimes churches become anxious about ministries like this. We ask questions such as:

“When will they start coming on Sundays?” “Is this really church?”“Will it make a difference?”

Those are understandable questions. But they are not the questions Jesus asks in this parable.

Jesus simply asks: “Are you sowing?”

Because only God gives growth. Sometimes we can become so focused on counting fruit that we stop scattering seed. The Kingdom is not built by anxiety. It grows through a faithful missional generosity. One of the most hopeful things about this parable is that the soil is not fixed. We often read this story as though people are permanently rocky ground or permanently thorny soil. But anyone who gardens knows that soil changes. Stones can be removed. Ground can be cultivated. Compost enriches poor earth. Weeds can be cleared. The Holy Spirit is the great gardener.

Many people arrive carrying disappointment. Some have been hurt by churches. Some have been told they don’t belong. Some have never heard the Gospel in a way that makes sense in today’s world. Some carry grief. Many carry loneliness. Many simply don’t think church has anything to say to them. But hearts change. Lives change. People change. Because God’s Spirit keeps cultivating the soil. Sometimes our role is not to harvest. Sometimes it is simply to help prepare the ground through friendship, listening, kindness and hospitality.

We often speak today about becoming a Mixed Ecology Church. That phrase simply means recognising that there is more than one faithful way of being Church. It means celebrating the gathered congregation around Word and Sacrament. And at the very same time celebrating fresh expressions of church among those who would never ordinarily walk through these doors.

It is not one replacing the other. It is both flourishing together. Sunday Eucharist matters deeply. So does Trail and Table and messy church.

Your worship in this beautiful church matters. So do conversations on a woodland path. The altar matters.So does the picnic table.Traditional worship and fresh expressions are not competitors.They are companions. Both are part of the one Body of Christ. Both proclaim the same Gospel. Both are nourished by the same Holy Spirit. Both belong to the same mission of God.

I want to say something directly to you as the people of St James Parish Church. Rebecca’s ministry is not Rebecca’s ministry alone. It belongs to all of you. Every prayer you offer. Every volunteer who serves. Every word of encouragement. Every conversation where you celebrate this ministry. Every financial gift that makes it possible. Every welcome extended to someone new. All of these are acts of sowing. Because when one part of the Body is sent, the whole Body is sent. This is not outreach happening over there somewhere. This is St James living out its vocation as the Church in this parish, to engage in contextual mission in its parish neighborhood.

And perhaps that is where Jesus gently challenges all of us today. Not everyone is called to lead a fresh expression of church. Not everyone will help at Trail and Table. But every Christian is called to become a sower. To scatter seeds of kindness. Seeds of forgiveness. Seeds of welcome. Seeds of compassion. Seeds of invitation. Seeds of hope.

Some of those seeds will appear to disappear. Some conversations will lead nowhere. Some invitations will be declined. Some efforts may seem unnoticed. As it was with Jesus, so it will be with us.  But Jesus never tells us to measure success by immediate results. He asks us to measure faithfulness by whether we keep sowing.

As I reflected on this Gospel, I wondered what Jesus might say if he walked through Dundas today.

I suspect he would not begin by asking, “How many people came to church on Sunday?” I think he might ask different questions.

Who did you welcome? Who did you listen to?

Who did you notice? Where did you see me already at work? Did you scatter the seeds I entrusted to you?How are you supporting your missional ministries of the gospel like Rebecca who are sowing missionally?

Because somewhere in Dundas there is someone who feels forgotten. Someone who thinks church is not for them.Someone who has quietly given up hope. Someone who is carrying a burden no one else sees. Someone searching for meaning. Someone longing to belong before they are ready to believe.

That is why Trail and Table matters. That is why parish matters. That is why mixed ecology matters. Because it says to every person in this community: “There is a place for you.”

Not because you have everything together. Not because you already believe. Not because you know how church works. But because Christ has already gone ahead of us and is calling each person by name.

So let us continue to gather faithfully around this altar. But let us also be willing to scatter generously beyond these walls. May St James continue to become the church God is calling it to be:

A church rooted in prayer. Grounded in Scripture. Centred on the Eucharist. Open to the Spirit. Loving its parish neighbourhood. Supporting Rebecca and Leslie in this shared mission. Joyfully embracing both inherited church and fresh expressions. And courageously joining God’s mission wherever God is already sowing seeds of hope throughout Dundas.

For ours is not the task of making the Kingdom grow. Our calling is simply to sow faithfully. The harvest belongs to God. And thanks be to God, the Sower never stops scattering seed.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

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