Guelph Museums invites you to celebrate the birthday of Scottish Poet Robert Burns at Norfolk Street United Church

The life and times of Scotland’s favourite poet will be celebrated on Sunday, January 23 from 1:00 to 4:30 p.m. at Robbie Burns Day to be held at Norfolk Street United Church. Those who enjoy all things Scottish will be entertained with special talks, music, highland dancing, spinning and weaving, calligraphy, traditional food (here’s a great chance to try haggis!), and lots of family activities. Capping off the afternoon will be the opportunity for everyone to join in Ceilidh dancing featuring the Riverside Celtic College Celtic Ensemble and Ceilidh caller Kari Kokko.

A full itinerary of special presentations continues throughout the afternoon. Starting at 1:15 pm, the haggis will be piped in and Don Dewar will entertain with a presentation of Ode to a Haggis. At 1:30 pm, enjoy a talk on The History of Scottish Bagpipes by Robin Aggus followed at 2 pm with a lecture entitled 21st Celtic Folkways: The Evolution of Transferred Ways with Lynn Boland Richardson. At 2:30 pm, members of the award-winning Mary Ellen Cann School of Highland Dance will perform. Throughout the afternoon students from Riverside Celtic College will entertain with Scottish music. Ongoing will be demonstrations and displays organized by local groups who continue to keep alive the traditions of Scotland. They include representatives from the Guelph Pipe Band, the Fergus Scottish Festival and Highland Games, the Guelph Guild of Handweavers and Spinners, The Royal City Calligraphy Guild, and the Centre for Scottish Studies at the University of Guelph. Visitors will also enjoy sampling haggis and oatcakes and participating in the many hands-on activities planned for the day.

Norfolk Street United Church is located at 75 Norfolk St. (corner of Norfolk and Cork). Cash only admission for this event: Adults- $6.00, Seniors, Students and Children - $4.00, Families $12.00. Please contact Guelph Museums at 519-836-1221 or visit guelph.ca/museum for more information.

Norfolk United Church ‘miffed’ after thieves make off with antique hitching post

Guelph Mercury October 08, 2010
Drew Halfnight, Mercury staff

GUELPH — Members of Norfolk United Church are upset after someone entered their place of worship and made off with a weighty lawn ornament.

The antique horse-head hitching post had been temporarily shifted to inside the church before it disappeared on Tuesday or Wednesday.

Church administrator Sharon Huska said it was made entirely of cast iron and weighed at least 75 kilograms.

“It was so heavy,” she said, adding it took two muscle-bound contractors to haul it inside the church in the first place.

“You’d have to have a couple of people. You’d need a vehicle. I think this was planned out,” she said of the theft.

Huska said she and her fellow churchgoers are feeling “a little miffed” and “kind of violated,” especially considering the culprit or culprits stole it from within a House of God.

“Who does this? How could they come and take something from the church?” she said. “The church welcomes people. It’s kind of like an abuse of that when you turn around and take something.”

The hitching post, which looks like a black chess knight mounted on a pillar, had stood sentry at the Norfolk Street entrance for 25 years, Huska said. “It welcomes people into the church. It’s a piece of history.”

Before that, it stood in front of a 100-year-old manse on Liverpool Street where, Huska suspected, anyone paying a visit to the church minister could hitch his steed to a ring through its mouth.

The post was to be displayed prominently in a landscape redesign the church commissioned in preparation for its 175th anniversary next year.

After it was moved to a landing inside the church last month to accommodate the landscaping, several people noticed and praised it, Huska said.

Like most churches, Norfolk United is unlocked for large stretches at a time.

Church officials called police, who filled out a report over the phone.

Huska said she expected the post was gone forever, unless “the police find it dragged off some place and they bring it back.”

Anyone who sees a black antique horsehead hitching post — Huska said only a few original hitching posts remain in Guelph — is asked to call Norfolk United at 519-822-6165.

... read full story at the Guelph Mercury

Christians Tackling Climate Change and Peak Oil: Churches in Transition

from TreeHugger.com
by Sami Grover, Carrboro, NC, USA

The Churches in Transition initiative is a project of the interdenominational Christian Ecology Link, and is seeking to provide support and encouragement to Christians of all backgrounds and traditions who "hear the call to cut carbon emissions and prepare for increasing scarcity of oil."

The project was officially launched at the Christian Ecology Link's national conference in Scarborough, Yorkshire last weekend where 50 participants from across the Christian spectrum came together to explore the implications of climate change and peak oil. The group is encouraging individuals and churches to initiate 'ecocell' study courses in sustainable living.

It's good to see faith groups getting officially involved in this important community led initiative. Talk of "hearing the call to cut carbon" and "ecocells" may sound an awful lot like religion to atheist greenies like me, but that's the whole point. This is, after all, a religious group... read the full story on TreeHugger.com