St. Thomas' Parish in Moose Factory is hosting a 7 member team from St. Matthews Church, Ottawa this weekend, July 8-10. St. Matthew's has been Prayer Partners of St. Thomas' during the most difficult days of suicides in 2009-2010 through the co-ordination of Cynthia Patterson who is the Suicide Prevention Coordinator of the Council of the North.

The plans for the weekend program include a Service for Our Community which will be held in the EPR building at 2.00 P.M on Sunday, July 10^th. All Christian churches in the island as well as those who follow the traditional ways have been invited to take part in the service. Two youth members from Ottawa and Moose Factory are invited to share the message of Unity through based on their own experiences. The High Ridge Singers who are the young drummers of the island are to sing two special songs.

There will also be a time of Bible Study and Sharing from 3.00 - 5.00 p.m and a time of Hymn Singing from 7.00- 9.00 p.m on Saturday July 9th in the Parish Hall.

The Celebration of Eucharist will be at 11.00 A.M on Sunday July 10th at St. Thomas' Church where the Rev. Allen Box, a member from the visiting team, will be the celebrant and the preacher.

The following article was written by the Rev. John Edmonds, who served as Interim Rector in the parish of Mistissini from December 2010 through June 2011.  It was written for the newsletter of his home parish in Maine.

WE ARE THE CHURCH

I learned something important about Church at the recent Synod of the Diocese of Moosonee on June 2-5, 2011. 'Synod' for a Canadian diocese is like our annual Diocesan Convention. However, since the Diocese of Moosonee includes so much territory and because travel is so expensive in the North, Moosonee generally holds Synod only every three years.