All are welcome to our Blue Christmas service on Thursday at 10am as well. We are all missing someone and this can be a hard time of year for many. Come to pray, to support others, to enter into the struggle together.
Christmas Services
We look forward to celebrating Christmas, with our Kids Pageant in the morning service, and our Dessert night and Program, both on Decemeber 11th.
Our own FBC Choir will be helping lead worship on Dec 18 - come and support them!
We’ll also have a special “Blue Christmas” service on Thursday Dec 22 at 10am, recognizing that this can be a very hard time for so many of us.
Our Christmas Eve service will be at 6pm, and because the next day is Christmas, we will only have an online service available for you that day. No in-person service at the church.
Fall Kick Off BBQ - Sept 11 after service
Come and join us for a Kick Off BBQ - with games, bouncy castle and some great food!
Everyone is invited!
Christmas Giving Project
This Christmas we have chosen to partner with one of our missions partners in Bolivia to give to a specific practical cause for the blessing of children of Bolivia!
Join us by looking at this website - chagas.hopefulgifts.ca/vernonfbc
AGM - Nov 28!
Voting on Budget, new members and Council members
Help Wildfire Victims
Samaritan’s Purse Canada has been asked by the Regional District of Central Okangan (RDCO) to assist residents that have been affected by the White Rock Lake wildfire. They have moved a convoy of vehicles, staff, and equipment—including a specially equipped Disaster Relief Unit—to the Vernon Alliance campus to help homeowners recover.
You can sign up to Volunteer:
samaritanspurse.ca/BCWildfires
1-866-628-6565
Seeking Justice Together - Summer Sermon Series
Are you wrestling with how to respond to the tensions that have overwhelmed so many this past year about race, equality and justice? Why not turn to Scripture and worship with us this summer as we unpack stories of Seeking Justice Together and continue to learn about God’s heart for us all.
Our response to Kamloops Residential School
Our hearts, thoughts and prayers go out to all who have been impacted by the recent finding of the 215 children buried without record on the grounds of the Kamloops residential school. We acknowledge the many more who will yet be found.
As a church, FBC Vernon has been committed to charting a course toward reconciliation. We have heard the stories of residential school survivors, journeyed through the Kairos blanket exercise and are seeking to learn what it means to love our Syilx neighbours of the OKIB. This discovery only confirms the stories that we have heard. This will be a journey that will be generations long, seeking healing, understanding and reconciliation.
Along with our family of churches (the Canadian Baptist of Western Canada - Approved by the Assembly May 2017) “we agree to formally adopt and comply with the principles, norms, and standards of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as a framework for reconciliation.”
Emotionally Healthy Spirituality Discipleship Course Wednesdays
For those desiring to take further steps in their Christian life and discipleship, to break free from bondage to the past and experience healing, Emotional Healthy Spirituality is an eight-session video-based Bible study.
We all have the opportunity to grow closer to Jesus as we learn to slow down, listen to our hearts and allow God, through the work and Gospel of Jesus, to turn us fully to the abundant life Jesus offers.
Come and join us by Zoom on Wednesday nights from 6:30-8pm - all are welcome! April 28 - June 16
St. Patrick's Day
St Patrick’s Breastplate
St Patrick’s Breastplate, a poem or hymn commonly sung on the Sunday closest to his feast day represent’s this day much better than what happens in pubs around the world. It may not have been written by Patrick but in honor of him. It is an invocation, wrapping the reader in the Trinity (thus Patrick’s use of the clover)–its mystery and its lived expression. This translation is from the 20th century German scholar Kuno Meyer:
I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
Through belief in the threeness,
Through confession of the oneness
Of the Creator of Creation.
I arise today
Through the strength of Christ’s birth with His baptism,
Through the strength of His crucifixion with His burial,
Through the strength of His resurrection with His ascension,
Through the strength of His descent for the judgement of Doom.
I arise today
Through the strength of the love of the Cherubim,
In the obedience of angels,
In the service of archangels,
In the hope of the resurrection to meet with reward,
In the prayers of patriarchs,
In prediction of prophets,
In preaching of apostles,
In faith of confessors,
In innocence of holy virgins,
In deeds of righteous men.
I arise today
Through the strength of heaven;
Light of sun,
Radiance of moon,
Splendour of fire,
Speed of lightning,
Swiftness of wind,
Depth of sea,
Stability of earth,
Firmness of rock.
I arise today
Through God’s strength to pilot me:
God’s might to uphold me,
God’s wisdom to guide me,
God’s eye to look before me,
God’s ear to hear me,
God’s word to speak to me,
God’s hand to guard me,
God’s way to lie before me,
God’s shield to protect me,
God’s host to save me,
From snares of devils,
From temptation of vices,
From every one who shall wish me ill,
Afar and anear,
Alone and in a multitude.
I summon today all these powers between me and those evils,
Against every cruel merciless power that may oppose my body and soul,
Against incantations of false prophets,
Against black laws of pagandom,
Against false laws of heretics,
Against craft of idolatry,
Against spells of women and smiths and wizards,
Against every knowledge that corrupts man’s body and soul.
Christ to shield me today
Against poison, against burning,
Against drowning, against wounding,
So there come to me abundance of reward.
Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ on my right, Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down,
Christ when I sit down,
Christ when I arise,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of every one who speaks of me,
Christ in the eye of every one who sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.
I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
Through belief in the threeness,
Through confession of the oneness
Of the Creator of Creation