Thank You for Your Generosity!

Thank You for Your Generosity!

Thank you to everyone who so generously donated to our Harvest Thanksgiving Fresh Food Drive last week. Thanks to your generosity, we were able to contribute an extraordinary 563 pounds of fresh produce to help bless the Thanksgiving tables of our neighbours in need, besting last year’s record by more than 150 pounds!

What marvellous generosity. Thank you for helping us share the abundance of God’s gifts with our neighbours this Thanksgiving.

Good News

Good News: Hospitality for Nearly 900 Years

While travelling in England this summer, Deacon Shane and his family visited the Hospital of St Cross near Winchester, where they took part in a remarkable tradition of Christian hospitality that has continued for centuries. 

Despite its name, St Cross is not a hospital in the modern medical sense. The word reflects an older meaning of hospital — a place of hospitality, shelter and care. Founded in the 12th century to provide for people in need, St. Cross continues that vocation today and is home to a community of older men, known as the Brothers.

Since medieval times, travellers arriving at the Porter’s Lodge have been able to ask for the Wayfarer’s Dole — a small piece of bread and a measure of ale, freely given to anyone who asks. The tradition reflects the original purpose of St Cross: providing care for those in need and hospitality to travellers.

The custom continues today. Shane and his family stopped at the Porter’s Lodge, made their request, and received their bread and ale from the Porter.

There is something rather wonderful about an act of hospitality surviving generation after generation: a stranger comes to the door, asks, and is given something to eat and drink.

Nearly 900 years later, perhaps that is still good news worth sharing — and practising.

An Update from CBC's Ontario Morning with Ramraajh Sharvendiran

We received this wonderful letter from Ramraajh and the team at Ontario Morning;

Dear Penny, Rev. Deb, Rev. Father Jesse, and everyone involved with the food ministry at St. John’s and the Emmaus Cafe:

We were so affected by the work you do and our pleasure at discovering your community that we not only did the full show special you heard in December…. we also felt your story was worth sharing more widely. So we did something we’ve never done at Ontario Morning and submitted that show for an award.

Last night we were delighted to hear from the Religious Communicators Council that we had won an Award of Merit. It is worth noting that although some other CBC programs that entered also won the same recognition, that same award went to much larger, national broadcast and documentary programs with multiple contributors, significantly greater resources, and mortise to produce. We firmly believe that our small team was able to find a place amid those prestigious sister shows because of the power of our story—-meaning, YOUR story. It may be my and Ramraajh’s names on the certificate, but it was your voices, experineces and thoughtful remarks that made the heart of our submission. So we very much want to share this happy news with you because our award is your award as well; we really couldn’t have done it without you, and consider you partners in its success.

Thank you again for your welcoming and generosity in letting us tell the story of all you do. I hope this finds you looking forward to another Wednesday on the cafe offering food, company and dignity as you improve people’s lives.

With sincere appreciation, Marichka, Ramraajh, and the whole Ontario Morning team

CBC visits St John's Emmaus Cafe

Repair Cafe on August 29, 2026

The next Repair Cafe will take place on August 29 from 10 to 1 in the parish hall at St. John's Church. We need volunteers to help prepare the hall, prep the food, effect repairs on items brought in by the public, share skills such as  tech support and provide some programming for children. Repair Cafe is a fun, community-centered, sustainable and intergenerational initiative, and we would love it if you could be part of our next event. For more information contact Penny Nutbrown at pmnutbrown@gmail.com

Teen Reads: The Faithful Spy, a Book Review by Marcus Ciana

The Faithful Spy has got to be one of my favorite WW2 graphic novels of all time. The story follows Dietrich Bonhoeffer a man who has devoted his life to theology but when Hitler comes to power and begins to take over Germany to make him their god or führer, Dietrich must make a choice between sticking to his morals or riding Germany's false god and dictator. The text is written in a way that keeps the main story written normally but along the sides of the pages there are notes and other bits of information that inform you on history and other details to help you understand the story further. Overall I believe that the text and writing are very clever and well done so I believe that it is a 4 out of 5.

On to the illustrations and they’re some of the most beautiful and clever illustrations I have ever seen in a graphic novel ever. The entire book is composed of only 4 main colors red, blue, black and white but they convey so much emotion with only those colors not to mention the amassing symbolism. The book most of the time instead of showing Hitler as simply himself they portray him as a wolf that hungers for revenge.

To be honest the illustrations alone are in my opinion one of the greatest parts of this book and are the main reason why I love this book so much. So, with that being said I have to give the illustrations in this book a 5 out of 5. Given the amazing story, writing and illustrations I would absolutely recommend this book to any teen looking for an incredible WW2 to read. Finally, something I learned from this story was how brutal Hitler really was, going to any means to secure victory in the war even going as far as to kill his own men. That is my review on The Faithful Spy.