Christmas Meeting

Posted by Barry Smith on Dec 14, 2016
 
 
Attendance: 17 (including Jack Wylie, honourary member, and 3 guests, being Joan and David Masson, guests of Peter Masson, and Lynn Wylie, guest of Jack Wylie.)  Mark Ruhnke, a co-presenter, was also introduced.
 
Acting Chair: Mike Mushet
Anthem: Mark Ruhnke gave us a rousing anthem with musical accompaniment
Grace: Pastor Kevin Moore
 
Announcements:
 
- David Masson, founder of Mackenzie’s Hope Foundation, and father of Mackenzie, was humbled by the Club’s donation to Mackenzie’s Hope Foundation in the memory of Jack Holman. He explained that when Mackenzie was alive and struggling with leukemia, she was invited to a summer camp for children with cancer, but her brother was not allowed to attend, so she passed up the invitation and attended her usual summer camp at Muskoka Woods with her brother. She then decided to help the other silent sufferers, the siblings of cancer patients, by starting a summer camp for these siblings at Muskoka Woods, which camp is now funded through Mackenzie’s Hope Foundation. Over 100 children have been sent to summer camp through the foundation.
- Christmas bonuses were presented by Dhanni Ramdeen to our four regular Baton Rogue servers.
- Roland reminded members that he is still collecting for the X-Mas Greeting. If you have not yet paid, please contact Roland.
 
Marbelous Draw was conducted by Barry Smith and was won, and  lost, by Arthur Retnakaran.
 
Sgt-at-Arms Gerd Wengler collected Happy Bucks from the following:
- Lynn Wylie who was happy to be taken to lunch.
- David and Peter Masson who were happy to be at this festive meeting.
- Kevin Moore donated his loose change to the Rotary coffers.
- Danny Cassidy was also happy to be at the meeting.
- Arthur Retnakaran donated his $5.00 consolation prize credit from the Marbelous draw back to the Club.
 
Program: Christmas Luncheon!
Kevin Moore      
and Mark Ruhnke  were introduced as presenters. Kevin advised us that Mark had now completed his PhD in Music, therefore being more than qualified to lead us in song. Mark led our carol sing and accompanied us on his keyboard, in addition to singing a couple of solos.
Kevin interjected jokes and commentary between the carols, as follows:
- Why is Santa Claus like your boss? Well, because you do all the hard work and the fat guy in the suit gets all the credit.
- What do you get when you cross a snowman with a vampire? Frostbite.
- Kevin reminded us that although Christmas is a time of joy for most of us, in many parts of the world, such as Aleppo, Syria, pain and sorrow still abound. Therefore, we should all be mindful at Christmas of the needs of others less fortunate than ourselves.
- Kevin advised that the birth of Jesus is only contained in two of the four gospels, Matthew and Luke, and that the story of the wise men is in Matthew while the story of the shepherds is in Luke. Kevin’s favourite part of Luke, however, is the portion that gives voice to women, even though it was written 2,000 years ago. Kevin then recited Mary’s Magnificat from Luke:
 
“My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God, my Saviour. For he hath regarded the lowliness of his handmaiden. For behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. For he that is mighty hath magnified me, and holy is his Name. And his mercy is on them that fear him throughout all generations. He hath showed strength with his arm, he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He hath put down the mighty from their seat and hath exalted the humble and meek. He hath filled the hungry with good things and the rich he hath sent away empty. He protects Israel, his servant, remembering his mercy, the mercy promised to our fathers, to Abraham and his sons for ever.”
 
- Kevin has a radio show called “Spirit Talk”, and Anthony Bailey is scheduled to be his guest. Mr. Bailey pastors an Ottawa church that was spray painted with swastikas and other white supremacist propaganda as were several synagogues. The person responsible was a young man who had been indoctrinated by the white supremacist movement, but Bailey and the leaders of the synagogues are attempting to intercede with the courts to help the young man avoid jail time if he performs community service with the church and synagogues. This is an attempt at restorative justice to engender understanding in this young man as opposed to incarceration which will only reinforce the young man’s hatred of religious groups. Kevin hopes that this intervention will be successful. As Martin Luther King, Jr. once said: “I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.”
 
The carol sing closed with “Silent Night”, and Mark added one verse in German. Gerd reminded us that in 1914, both German and English soldiers paused on Christmas Day to sing “Silent Night” together! Christmas can bring people together, even in the midst of a world war.
 
David Seemungal thanked Kevin and Mark for a beautiful presentation, remarking that they made old traditions new again, and reminded us what Christmas is all about.
 
The Meeting was terminated. Our next meeting will be the New Year.
 
Merry Christmas to you and yours!
 
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