Blessings and Greetings to You
A very special welcome to you. The Parish of St Matthew - St Aidan is a small country church with a vibrant community of faith in Buckhorn, Ontario. We're right opposite the locks in the heart of town. And, by the way, we're a down-to-earth group of people.
We carry out our ministry throughout the week and we gather on Sundays at 10 am. If you'd like to check out our historical little church, you are most welcome. And, if you'd like to learn more about life in the parish, just ask.
Father Glenn+
Parish Priest
Tickets for parish events sell out quickly
A Peak at (...errrr... a Taste of) our Events...
Snapshot of who we strive to be
A bit of what we're about ...
Community
Sense of Belonging
A lot of people say these days that something that's missing for them is a sense of community and belonging. And people tell us that, for them, St Matthew - St Aidan is like a caring family where they feel connected and where people really care.
Spiritual
More than oneself
It's pretty easy to have a lot of questions these days about life and what's going on. Everything seems so individualized and broken. What about something beyond ourselves, something greater than ourselves in the whole scheme of things? Something that gives meaning.
Foundation
Teachings of Jesus
We base our understanding of life on the Teachings of Jesus Christ as outlined in Holy Scripture. We strive to follow and practise his teachings especially by caring for the poor in the world and for those most in need in our local community and beyond.
The Christmas Season over the Centuries
There were actually forty Days of Christmas in Henry VIII's time
Christmas is much more then than simply the celebration of Jesus’ birth, and neither of the great Christmas morning readings (Hebrews 1 and John 1) is taken from the infancy narratives.
It is, of course, Christ’s nativity that has provided the occasion for this festival of the incarnation, since the end of the third century. The Christmas crib and the nativity play can both be said to descend from the tableau of Christ’s birth that Francis of Assisi arranged when he celebrated Christmas at Greccio in 1223. Christmas carols are a medieval tradition, which has been notably developed from the end of the nineteenth century. The Festival of Lessons and Carols is itself an influential English creation of the late nineteenth century, made widespread by the choir of King’s College, Cambridge, in the first half of the twentieth.
The Christmas season is often celebrated for twelve days, ending with the Epiphany. Contemporary use has sought to express an alternative tradition, in which Christmas lasts for a full forty days, ending with the Feast of the Presentation on 2 February.
The task of the Christmas liturgy is to recall us, amid all the joyful customs and celebrations of Christmas, to this central truth of the Word made flesh for our salvation. The days around 25 December are a principal holiday in the secular calendar of Britain, and commercial pressures have led to much of Christmas celebration being displaced into Advent.
It has become a still greater challenge to celebrate as they deserve the saints of the Christmas season: Stephen, who first paid with his life for following the incarnate Lord; John, who was believed to have lived to great old age in profound meditation on the Word made flesh; and the Holy Innocents, who draw our attention to the plight of children in a world where the implications of the birth of the Christ-child are not yet manifest. Resources for these days may be found in Common Worship: Festivals. New Year’s Day is an important moment in the civil rather than the Christian calendar, but it provides the original occasion for the searching Covenant Renewal service of the Methodist tradition.
Source: Church of England
Thoughts for the Year 2026
Do you think there’s hope for our world? … Do you think there’s any hope at all in our world? That’s a pretty heavy question. It’s an unsettling kind of question too.
I know from my conversations that it’s a question prominent on some of your minds. And from my own experience, I sense that it’s a question that lies beneath the surface in others’ minds. That’s where the unsettling part gets touched, beneath the surface.
Do you have five or ten minutes?
Helpful Resources at your Fingertips
Reference material for lectors, intercessors, officiants and others
Every Wednesday - 15 minutes for quiet and reflection
Noon Day Prayer on Wednesdays
For a number of years, a group of people have been gathering every Wednesday for prayer, a reading of scripture, and moments for quiet reflection.
Popular and easy to connect to Noon Day Prayers
Connect by Zoom
The folks who gather each week say that they find these 15 minutes to be a meaningful break at the middle of their week. They often remark about it allows for centering oneself amidst all that goes on around them. They find the time to be refreshing and peaceful. And there's a great sense of community that's grown over the years. You will be warmly welcomed too.
Would you like to read a bit of scripture every day?
You can have a new reading every day from Holy Scripture. The readings are brief and easy to read. They're from the International Common Lectionary read by Christians throughout the World.
Check out the wide selection of resources available