Saturday, December 31, 2016

All Together Now January 8th


Our next "All Together Now" intergenerational church experience will start at 10 am on Sunday, January 8th.  Bring the whole family to learn, share, and enjoy!

Meditation Group Special Events, Winter/Spring 2017

We have after-work meditation most Tuesdays and Thursdays at 6:00 pm.  In addition to our regular meditation sessions this year, we will host a number of special meditation events.


Tues and Thu, Jan 3 and 5: New Year's Resolution Meditation


Thu Feb 9: Parinirvana Day: Meditation on Impermanence


Thu March 2: Meditation for Lent: Justice for God, Ourselves, and All


Thu April 13: Death, Resurrection, Reincarnation: Meditation on Easter


Thu May 11: Buddha's Birthday Meditation


Tues and Thurs, June 20 and 22: Summer Solstice & Aboriginal Day Meditation

January and February Lecture and Discussion Schedule

Our History, Philosophy, & Theology Group will meet irregularly on Tuesday evenings this January and February.

Jan 10, Tues (7 pm): Jesus the Jewish Cynic. Academics in search of the historical Jesus have proposed many models from apocalyptic prophet to social reformer to religious zealot and revolutionary.  We’ll look at the case for seeing the historical Jesus as a teacher and philosopher analogous to the Hellenistic school of cynicism. 



Jan 17, Tues (7 pm): Manichaeism: The World Religion that Lost. In the first millennium AD, Manichees were spread from Britain to China and the dualistic religion was briefly a credible rival to Christianity in the later Roman Empire.  We’ll look at the religion’s origin, cosmology, its structure, its rise, its extinction, as well as surviving echoes of its thought in the East and in the West.


Jan 31, Tues (7 pm): Exploring the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas. In our first seminar format discussion group, we will read passages from the gospel of Thomas together and talk about what its ideas might tell us about the historical Jesus, early Christianity, Gnosticism, theology, and philosophy.


Feb 7, Tues (7 pm): The Gospel According to Her: Luke. All the New Testament gospels are anonymous texts whose customary names Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, were assigned by later Christians.  We’ll examine the argument that the author of Luke was a woman. 


Feb 14, Tues (7 pm): Pagan Origins of Christian Holidays. Roman, Germanic, Celtic, and Norse paganism was deeply rooted in European customs, including holiday festivals.  We’ll spend this Valentine’s Day evening looking for possible pagan roots of our present-day traditions. Bring a date!


Feb 21, Tues (7 pm): To See, To Be, To Do: The Landscape of World Religions. Brian Carwana, director of the Encounter World Religions Centre and our guest lecturer for the evening, will take us on an overview tour of the variety of religious traditions around the world and here in Toronto.


Feb 28, Tues (7 pm): Myth in 19th Century America: The Book of Mormon. With the popular Broadway musical, the Book of Mormon has received renewed attention, but to 21st century ears, its central claim that the indigenous inhabitants of North America are descendants of Israelite refugees seems ever more outrageous.  We’ll put the Book of Mormon story into the context of America in the 1830s.  

Thursday, December 22, 2016

Special Collection at the Toronto Congregation Library

In addition to antique published books, our congregation library includes a number of manuscript records dating back to our reorganization in 1891.  These are logged as follows:


MEMBERSHIP REGISTERS MANUSCRIPTS
  • Branch Membership/Sacramental Register 01, “Record of the Toronto Branch of the London District” (Filled) 1890s – 1916
  • Branch Membership/Sacramental Register 02, “Branch Record” (Filled, 10 pages blank) 17 September 1891 – 5 November 1916
  • Marriage Register MS 01, “Marriage Register” furnished to Elder Geo. Virgin, February 16, 1897, (Filled, 40 pages blank), 20 January 1897 – 26 June 1918
  • Marriage Register MS 02, “Reg #5244” (Filled, 17 pages blank) 24 May 1905 – 31 October 1942
  • Marriage Register MS 03, “Marriage Register” (Active Register, 20 pages blank) 7 September 1951 – 17 August 2013

 FINANCIAL REGISTERS MANUSCRIPTS
  • Financial Register MS 01, Receipts and Expenditures (Filled, 50 pages blank) 20 July 1896 – 29 May 1909
  • Financial Register MS 02, “Toronto Branch L.D.S” (approximately one third filled) 11 February 1901 – 9 February 1904
  • Financial Register MS 03, “Temple CafĂ©” (19 pages filled) 26 July 1903 – 3 January 1906
  • Financial Register MS 04, “Soho St Church Building Day Book” (only 10 pages filled) 29 September 1906 – 29 March 1907
  • Financial Register MS 05, “Ledger Soho St Church” (three-quarters filled) 1906 – 1907
  • Financial Register MS 06, (only 15 pages filled) 12 June 1909 – 10 January 1918
  • Financial Register MS 07, “Cash Book” (only 39 pages filled) 31 May 1909 – 3 June 1918
  • Financial Register MS 08, “Toronto Agency” (only 49 pages filled) 11 June 1909 – 4 June 1918
  • Financial Register MS 09, “Toronto District Treasurer’s Book” (only 19 pages filled) 25 October 1909 – 4 June 1918
  • Financial Register MS 10, “Toronto Agency R. C. Evans” (154 pages filled) 1 October 1910 – 4 June 1918
  • Financial Register MS 11, “To Chief Bishop” (only 5 pages filled) 28 November 1910 – 5 June 1918
  • Financial Register MS 12, “No. 782 Dominion Columnar Book” (Filled) 1 January 1929 – 20 August 1961
  • Financial Register MS 13, (Filled), 1 September 1947 – 30 August 1967
  • Financial Register MS 14 (About three-quarters filled), 1 September 1970 – 30 August 1988
  • Financial Register MS 15 (Empty)
  • Owen Sound Financial Register MS 01, “Owen Sound January 1st 1893” (Filled) 1 January 1893 – 15 March 1905
  • Owen Sound Financial Register MS 02, “Owen Sound Sept 1st 1893” (Filled) 1 September 1893 – 11 March 1906

GUEST REGISTERS MANUSCRIPTS
  • Guest Book MS 01, “Our Church Guests” (Filled) 13 January 1955 – 15 January 1956
  • Guest Book MS 02, “Our Church Guests” (Filled) 8 December 1955 – 26 January 1958
  • Guest Book MS 03, “Our Guests” (Filled) 2 Febrary 1958 – 27 January 1963
  • Guest Book MS 04, “Guests” (Filled) 3 March 1963 – 29 March 1964
  • Guest Book MS 05, “Guests of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints Toronto Branch” (Filled, 6 pages blank) 19 April 1964 – 3 August 1969
  • Guest Book MS 06, “Guests” (Filled) 17 August 1969 – 21 January 1979 *Note: Guest registers from February 1979 through December 1999 lost
  • Guest Book MS 07, “Guests” (Filled, 9 pages blank) 16 January 2000 – 6 October 2013 *Note: no guest register was kept November 2016 through December 2016

ADDITIONAL MANUSCRIPTS
  • Semi-Annual Business Meeting Minutes Book, 8 November 1909 – 10 July 1918, 131 pages typed, 2 manuscript pages
  • “In the Supreme Court of Ontario, Benjamin R. McGuire et al. vs. R. C. Evans et al.” 26 May 1919, typed manuscript 761 pages
  • “Addition to the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints” Pentland & Baker, Architects, 30 July 1962, typescript manuscript
  • Women’s Department Record MS 1, (Filled) 13 September 1949 – 7 March 1967
  • Women’s Department Record MS 2, (Only 46 pages filled) 3 April – 3 November 1970

Tuesday, December 13, 2016

Christmas Schedule 2016


Our Christmas church service at Centre Place will take place 11:00 am Sunday, December 18, immediately following our 10:00 am business meeting. We will not hold a service on Christmas Sunday itself. Sunday services will resume on New Year's Day, Jan. 1, 2017.
There is no Tuesday night lecture or meditation hour today (Tuesday the 13th). Meditation will occur as normal at 6:00 pm Thursday the 15th, Tuesday the 20th, and Thursday the 22nd. There will be no meditation the week between Christmas and New Year's.