Checking out St Simon’s NV audio sermons online
June 25, 2011
St. Simon’s Church NV Sermons
Just dial into
http://www.stsimonschurch.ca/st-simons-audio-sermons.html
What Is Man On Father’s Day?
June 19, 2011 – Rev. Ed Hird
June 19, 2011 – Rev. Ed Hird
Is Anyone Thirsty?
June 12, 2011 – Rev. Ed Hird
June 12, 2011 – Rev. Ed Hird
-an excerpt from my June 12th sermon ‘I am Thirsty’ from John 7
“….I come from a long line of Irish Brewer owners, some of whom liked the product too much. Vancouver has a drinking problem that it does not want to face. Hockey culture tends to normalize alcohol abuse and violence for our younger generation “…I was coming back from the airport on SkyTrain. There were a 100,000 other Canucks fans going one way or the other. They were excited. Thousands of exuberant and mostly well-behaved fans. Surrounding the streets were full of swaggering young men. The Vancouver Province wrote about the police doing liquour ‘tip-outs’ for 891 fans. A lot of these young men were very pumped and it wasn’t the Holy Spirit. It was other ‘spirits’, and they were mostly having a good time. They were on the edge, as they chanted on the Seabus ‘We want the cup, we want the cup, we want the cup!!’ They were getting angry at people that were not cheering with them. I could sense violence, that it has that potential. That is one of the reasons that I prayed that the Canucks will win…just to avoid these grumpy Canucks fans going violent or worse. The Bible says in Ephesians 5:18 “Don’t be drunk with wine which leads to dissipation and disintegration, but instead be filled with the Holy Spirit.’
It Is Not For You To Know
June 5, 2011 – Rev. Ed Hird
June 5, 2011 – Rev. Ed Hird
Do You Love Me?
March 29, 2011 – Bishop Frank Lyon
March 29, 2011 – Bishop Frank Lyon
Show Us The Father
May 22, 2011 – Rev. Ed Hird
May 22, 2011 – Rev. Ed Hird
A six-week series on the importance of Home Groups:
Know Ye Not You Are The Temple
1 Corinthians 3:10-23
1 Corinthians 3:10-23
February 20, 2011 – Rev Ed Hird
God Gives The Increase
1 Corinthians 3:1-9
1 Corinthians 3:1-9
February 13, 2011 – Rev Ed Hird
Nothing But Jesus Christ and Him Crucified
1 Corinthians 2:1-16
1 Corinthians 2:1-16
February 6, 2011 – Rev Ed Hird
The Weakness and Foolishness of God
1 Corinthians 1:18–31
1 Corinthians 1:18–31
January 30, 2011 – Rev Ed Hird
Say No To Division
1 Corinthians 1:10–18
1 Corinthians 1:10–18
January 23, 2011 – Rev Ed Hird
By Rev Ed Hird
We are looking forward to the 25th Annual Renewal 
Mission 2012 on Friday Feb 24th to Sunday Feb 26th. The Rev Dr Bob Grant will be speaking on the theme: Breakthrough into God’s Future: entering the promised Land.
The Rev. Dr Robert Grant has been a church planter and pastor for 45 years. His passion for leadership development is currently being expressed as the Director of Clergy Formation for the Anglican Mission in the Americas. A major focus of his ministry is discovering effective pathways for the Church to engage contemporary culture. Robert hosted a popular radio talk show in Colorado for twelve years, addressing a wide variety of topics about faith and culture. The combination of pastoral skills and broadcast journalism provide deep confidence that every follower of Jesus has the ability to engage incarnational ministry…entering the lives of others for their benefit. As a certified leadership development coach, Robert assists gifted leaders with clarity regarding next important steps for successful ministry.
Robert and his wife Sue live in Pawleys Island, South Carolina where they assist the national office of the AM. They find great joy in their adult children, Richard and Kelley.
The location will be at Kenneth Gordon Maplewood School (420 Seymour River Place) in North Vancouver, just off Old Dollarton Road, by the Maplewood Farms. For more information, please contact the Renewal Mission Co-ordinator Elsbeth Turner 604-929-4224 or et0972@gmail.com
Have you ever been stuck?
June 20, 2011
By The Reverend Ed Hird
-an excerpt from my upcoming book ‘Restoring Health: Body, Mind and Spirit’, a sequel to ‘Battle for the Soul of Canada’.
Have you ever been stuck at a key transition-point in your life?[i] I have. Being stuck sometimes feels very painful. At other times I’m oblivious to it. A key turning point for me was when as National Chair for Anglican Renewal Ministries, I attended the 1998 ARM/SOMA Pre-Lambeth Leadership Conference at Canterbury’s University of Kent. Walking into a seminar, God ‘whispered’ to me that I would be receiving a message. The Rev Freda Meadows, who ministers with the International New Wine Director Rev Bruce Collins, suddenly called me out of the crowd and said:
You don’t need to run in keeping up with others. Enter into God’s rest. Keep your eye on the finishing line (which is Him). You will be moving into new things…word of knowledge… You will be gifted in this area…You are in an apprenticeship time at present. You will disciple others. You are a man of God’s Word, things of the Kingdom. You are a person of vision…a visionary…long-range. God is going to put you in a key place and you will find yourself training and discipling others.
Ten years later, the Rev Freda gave further insight into the 1998 Canterbury prophecy, saying:
…the underlying thrust was to trust God for the outcome of the plans He had in using you and that while you were to do all that was necessary, it was not for you to try and make anything happen but to follow the Lord’s leading using the gifts and skills He gave in the best way you knew and through what you had learned as your experience grew.
I had no idea how powerfully God was going to use the 1998 ARM/SOMA Pre-Lambeth Leadership Conference. Most of us as Anglican Westerners were still stuck in the ‘inside strategy’ mindset. Being conflict-avoiders, we were going to ‘fix’ the North American Anglican churches while still inside the old institution. Institutionalism is a mental virus that can slip inside the mind of even the most sincere believer, turning us toxic. We Canadian Anglicans were still quite ‘gung-ho’, but the American Anglicans/Episcopalians at the Canterbury Leadership Conference were unusually quiet. They lacked their usual American ‘get-up-and-go’ attitude. When Americans go quiet, you can tell that something is up.
At the official Canadian night, Bishop Eddie Marsh of Central Newfoundland invited the Americans to come up and share. I will never forget how Bishop Alex Dickson and Dr. (now Bishop) John Rodgers stood up and repented to our African colleagues for the shame that the USA has brought on the Anglican Church, and for Bishop John Spong’s castigating of African Anglicans as just one step out of animism and witchcraft:[ii]
“(Bishop Spong) has insulted you. We are ashamed for him; we are ashamed for ourselves. We ask your forgiveness and we assure you that he does not speak for us.”[iii]
Hundreds of African bishops and clergy spontaneously flocked forward and hugged the Americans, weeping and declaring God’s forgiveness. Todd Wetzel of Anglicans United said that ‘this was one of the American Church’s finest moments in decades.’ This prophetic action of repentance and forgiveness, I believe, was the birth of the 
Global South Anglican movement.[iv] Archbishops Emmanuel Kolini and Moses Tay were the first Global South Primates to publicly adopt North American Anglicans into their Provinces through the Anglican Mission in the Americas, but many other Anglican Primates have since joined them, resulting in the unforgettable Jerusalem 2008 GAFCON conference and an unprecedented ‘boycott’ of Lambeth 2008 by hundreds of Anglican bishops representing most of the fifty-five million Anglicans worldwide. God used that 1998 pre-Lambeth Leadership conference to help Anglicans to become unstuck.
Rev Ed Hird
Rector, St Simon’s Church North Vancouver
Anglican Mission in the Americas (Canada)
http://stsimonschurch.ca
http://acicanada.ca/
-award-winning author of the book ‘Battle for the Soul of Canada’
http://battleforthesoulofcanada.blogspot.com
-In order to obtain a copy of the book ‘Battle for the Soul of Canada’, please send a $18.50 cheque to ‘Ed Hird’, #1008-555 West 28th Street, North Vancouver, BC V7N 2J7. For mailing the book to the USA, please send $20.00 USD. This can also be done by PAYPAL using the e-mail ed_hird@telus.net . Be sure to list your mailing address. The Battle for the Soul of Canada e-book can be obtained for $9.99CDN/USD.
-Click to download a complimentary PDF copy of the Battle for the Soul study guide : Seeking God’s Solution for a Spirit-Filled Canada
-You can also download the complimentary Leader’s Guide PDF: Battle for the Soul Leaders Guide
The Gift of Family…
June 4, 2011
Uncle Don was one of my godfathers. We loved to visit him while vacationing. This is a photo from a 1993 visit to Don’s Vineyard. He was a fascinating conversationalist, with a deep love for history. Before I had my throat operation, I had a week with my uncle where we shared deeply about life in Christ and John 15.
I thank God for our wonderful parents Ted and Lorna Hird who recently celebrated their 60th anniversary. This was taken at Christmas 1995. I am so grateful to have loving parents that believe in me.
My late Uncle Don (& Myra) Allen started up a Vineyard on the Westbank of Kelowna, after retiring from the Navy. During the War, he was a Deep Sea Diver. I had the privilege of taking his funeral, not an easy thing to do.
It was great for Andrew and his brothers to be able to spend time with their Great-Uncle Don and Great-Aunt Myra in Westbank, BC.
Uncle Don loved to sit outside on his porch on the beautiful summer Okanagan days
Uncle Don, with my sons, loved to learn and pass on his learnings to others.
The Anglican Renewal Ministries days…
June 3, 2011
Being on the board of Anglican Renewal Ministries of Canada was a wonderful and sometimes very painful experience. As Board Chair, God gave me the opportunity to move ARM Canada in the direction of reconciliation with other Anglican movements, resulting in the birthing of the Essentials movement in 1994. The Essentials movement did not accomplish all that we dreamed, but it was a key stepping stone to our realigning with the faithful Global South Anglicans who adopted us.
While on the ARM Canada board, I worked with high-quality faithful Anglicans from across Canada. My Vice-Chair was Emmie Marsh, the wife of Bishop Eddie Marsh of Central Newfoundland. They invited me to do a ten-day mission to their diocese in 1996 in which I did a retreat at Grand Banks with 60 ACW presidents on the beatitudes, followed by a Renewal Mission at Gambo. Rev John Torley was the Rector of St Luke’s Calgary, before planting Holy Trinity Church in a shopping mall. He led one of our early Renewal Missions and had a tremendous sense of humour. My first exposure to John Torley+ was when he led a Renewal Mission at St Matthew’s Abbotsford where I served in the mid- 1980s.
Our ARM Board meet several times a year in what we called the Golden Triangle, either in Ottawa, Montreal or Toronto. We often meet in Retreat Centres, and would always celebrate the Eucharist together. It was wonderful to worship with such Spirit-filled, Jesus-honouring brothers and sisters. We had no idea that the storm clouds were coming in. I remember when I celebrated the Eucharist using the Book of Common Prayer, something that was almost unthinkable in those days for charismatic Anglicans. Why not, I asked, have a Spirit-filled BCP Eucharist?
The St Matthias Oakridge years
June 3, 2011
I was confirmed by Archbishop Godfrey on Ascension Day 1968 at St Alban’s Richmond. At the time, I did not know Jesus personally, but was interested in pleasing my mother who had a deep faith. I do not remember doubting anything of the Christian faith. But it was disconnected. I do remember eating delicious cake and getting signatures from dignitaries after the event, including Rev Harold McSherry who buried my grandmother Nana Allen, Archbishop Gower, and Rev Edward Dossett our rector at St Matthias.
St Simon’s North Vancouver activities & outreach
June 3, 2011
St Simon’s NV Activities
As Publicity Director for the Vancouver March for Jesus, St Simon’s NV was very involved in the MFJ, with a peak of 18,000 peak marching through the streets of Vancouver.
At the heart of the St Simon’s NV vision is worship: Praising, Serving, Sharing Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit.
John Leeburn on drums, Frank Dorst, Janice and Ed Hird. Janice as a professional musician from the UBC School of Music is our Music Director at St. Simon’s NV. She has raised up many choirs and worship bands over the years, helping people to go from good to great.
Every Christmas we have a special Christmas Communion at Kiwanis Care Centre, and going carolling through the complex with our St Simon’s NV Choir. We have been visiting Kiwanis for the past 13 years every 4th Wednesday, giving them Holy Communion. John Leeburn was my first assistant, followed by the Rev Ron Gibbs. Marina Ireland is now helping bring people by wheelchair to the service. Other volunteers are always welcome.
A picture taken of myself in 2001 while on a graduation boat expedition with BCCA School where my three sons attended.
After seven years in the Public School system, we switched to Christian School, and involved our sons in a wonderful Drama program at BCCA, led by Mrs. Birth. Two of our sons Mark and Andrew played the role of Tevye and Lazar Wolf in ‘Fiddler on the Roof’.
Renewal Missions since 1988
June 3, 2011
Renewal Missions since 1988
Rev Dr Murray and Diana Henderson (then of St Aidan’s Church in Winnipeg) led our 1995 Renewal Mission on the theme of Spiritual Warfare. Diana was very involvement in the Crisis Pregnancy Centre ministries.
Bishop Malcolm Harding speaking at Renewal Mission 2003. Between us is the retired Primate of the Southern Cone visiting St. Simon’s NV.
1987 Deep Cove Crier on my St Simon’s Induction
June 3, 2011
As a father of spiritual renewal throughout BC and Canada, Pastor Bob has raised up many spiritual sons and daughters. In 1966, he went down to hear the Rev Dennis Bennett, an Anglican priest in Seattle, Washington. Pastor Bob was deeply transformed by an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. He described this new experience of praying in the Spirit as ‘this very sacred gift, of intimate spiritual communion with God’. His life story is loving recounted by Bev Carson in the biography 
edhird
