Remember you are ash and to ash you will return. With these words spoken, ash is placed on your foreheads in a cruciform shape, reminding us of our mortality. With these words we also welcome the Lenten season on Ash Wednesday. Ash Wednesday is on February 26. Bethesda will hold its traditional Ash Wednesday service…
The final tally is in. Our 2019 Sharecropper Project raised a little over $26,000 for the Canadian Foodgrains Bank and when matched by the Canadian government amounts to $130,000 in food aid and other support to alleviate hunger in the world. We thank all those that donated to the project and especially our project partners…
It seems very early to start talking about our biennial garage sale. Well, it is not if the aim is to ask the members of our church to hold their articles and not dispose of them. Many people, at the start of a new year, begin to think of getting rid of stuff they had…
The New Year is upon us. The dawning of a new year is usually accompanied b the (re)kindling of hope in our heart. Perhaps there is something about the beginning of a new year which brings hope by presenting opportunities to start over again. Then again it may be that last year was so fraught…
“Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy…” Luke 2:10 With these words the heavenly messenger proclaims the message and meaning of Christmas. The message of Christmas is that the promised Saviour is born. God’s gift of love to the world is the Christ wrapped in the veil of human flesh….
Thank you to all of the members of the congregation who have been supportive of the fundraising initiatives over the past year for the Canadian Foodgrains Bank. We thank Galten Farms and the Schickedanz family for their support with the 50 acre growing project at the corner of Warden Avenue and Stouffville Road. We were…
It is hard to conceive that our congregation has been serving the Unionville/Markham community for 225 years. It was exactly this time of year, “just before Christmas we got under way to our land”, that the founding fathers of our congregation moved onto their new lands in Markham Township. It was not easy but our…
It was a great event when Bethesda was able to dedicate its new and renovated facilities on October 31, 1993 after three years of construction. The supervisory roll was handled by a committee of three: Gerhard Schickedanz was the chairman and negotiated all of the construction contracts, Lionel Dawson was the onsite construction supervisor as…
There will be a special fellowship event this Tuesday, November 26, at 7:00 pm. The guest speaker is Jaime Cruz from the Alzheimer Society of York Region. Everyone is invited to attend.
2019 is Bethesda’s 225th Anniversary! Following the end of WWII, in the early 1950’s, Bethesda saw an influx of Lutherans from Europe. In fact Bethesda supported several German speaking immigrant families who came to the Markham/Unionville community. Membership was on the rise and Bethesda was encouraged by the Eastern Synod in the 1960’s to consider…
