ZEPHYR & SANDFORD by Pat Asling

What a lovely week it has been, sunny and warm and blue skies as the trees start their colour cavalcade. We need again rain, but time is short because the plants are getting ready for sleep and harvesting is well underway. First an apology and correction regarding the Greenbank/Seagrave congregations and Rev. Stephanie Richmond’s ordination! To everyone’s delight, she is not leaving this charge. My information came from a reading of the ECORC news, which makes it sound as if she was going elsewhere. Again, she is not! Big news: early in the week, the TV series Schitts Creek won 9 Emmy awards, taking an award in almost every category. Huge congratulations to all the stars, most of whom are Canadians. They shot much of the series in the Goodwood area, but no one ever mentions that, just as few know Lucy Maud Montgomery didn’t spend all her years in Toronto, but for 11 years she lived in local Leaskdale! World News Day is tomorrow, Monday, September 28th. We are fortunate we can get news from larger canters like Toronto, but we are also fortunate we have 3 local newspapers reporting on what happens right here in our own Durham Region. It seems papers are fighting for their existence against the digital medium, but give me a real paper to read anytime! Viral has even gone to auctions now. Gary Hill has a big ad about his upcoming auction on farm machinery, woodworking machinery, and many other things to bid on via the internet. You can find it on Face Book and probably other places if you are interested. It will be exciting to see how it works out! Birthday wishes for the past week go out to Peter Viney. Also best wishes to Mike MacDonald, one of the great pipers for the legion Pipe band. Colin Murphy celebrated a birthday but is missing his theatre gigs and other events. The Murphy family were the ones who bought my other half of the property when Colin was fairly young. Marcia Clark had a birthday, and I am sure her 3 girls and Brad will whip up some delicious treats for her when all their farm work is completed. Nancy Threan Loraine, from Leaskdale, also celebrated. Nancy is always very busy in missionary projects, leading teams to Central and South America for educational and health efforts. Cyndie Jacobs, a retired teacher, is known around the area for her involvement in the Arts, including playing in a band that performs for many of the theatre productions in the Music hall. Best wishes go out the youngest on today list. Grace Risebrough, at 17, is a beautiful, talented and intelligent young lady who no doubt will go far in whatever vocation she chooses, making her parents Mike and Susan even prouder. Anniversary wishes are sent over the miles to Lyn and Gayle Taylor, who were married in Wawa 60 years ago! Congratulations and best wishes. Speaking of anniversaries, both Sandford and Zephyr churches would normally celebrate their anniversaries in the next few weeks. Of course this is not possible this year. The Sandford congregation has been inexistence for 170 years and we have been in the present building for 121 years. Many changes have occurred over those years in both the church and the community. It began as a Methodist church, but that changed with union in 1925. It used to be that the church and Sunday school were crowded every Sunday and people came from great distances and the village which grew up around the church building. Now few regular attendees even live in the village, most coming from the concession roads or in town. The congregations of both churches are aging and have lost several members in the past year alone. How will the end of the COVID-19 restrictions find us?