After the main course, participants gathered at the church for dessert. Several of the dinner parties were late arriving because they were having such wonderful conversations they didn’t want to stop. Doesn’t that say something when you’re so enjoying talking to one another you’re late for dessert?

In the Fireside Room that evening I noticed an interesting dynamic. Whereas during coffee time after worship on Sundays people tend to cluster in cliques, this evening folks were mingling about, really conversing with people they might not usually talk with.  People were taking seriously getting to know one another.

Forest Hill United Church enjoys opportunities to gather and chat: from Muffin Moments to Lunch Bunch to Men’s Breakfast to UCW to … Well, you can add to the list. What activities are most important to you? In one of those activities, do you have an idea for a way we might connect with one another more meaningfully, in order to build a vibrant community and to offer better pastoral care to each other? (It’s not all up to Katharine you know.) Let’s explore ways to develop what we do well and make Forest Hill a stronger Christian community.

Pegi

“Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.”

(1 Thessalonians 5:11)

Blessings,

Katharine

At the Annual Meeting, the Transition Team presented goals for FHUC for the next couple of years. These identify some of the issues, titled: Identity, Governance, Communication, Youth and Children’s Ministry, and Finances. The energy of the conversations as the goals were discussed, one by one, suggests to me that we know what’s wrong. That’s good, insofar as it’s a starting point.

An obvious question is “Now what?” Where do we go from here? What’s the next step?

Perhaps you think it’s up to me, or up to the Transition Team to answer these questions. It IS up to us to offer possibilities and guidance. It’s not up to us to solve the problems.  In fact, I’d say most of the ‘problems’ aren’t fixable. They are directions in which we can move, opportunities for responding to God’s call to be the church.

So:

• What is God inviting you to do?
• What’s important to you for FHUC?
• Which of these problems, goals, concerns matters most to you?
• How?
• How much?

Perhaps you think you’ve done your share. You can say that if you have no more dreams for FHUC, or if you imagine God has nothing more to say to you or through you. Remember, though, that God called Abram at 75 and Solomon reigned for 40 years (in a time of much shorter life expectancies than ours – and then there’s Methuselah who fathered a son at 187 and then lived another 782 years to 969!)

You might be done doing what you did as a young parent or have been on the Board long enough, but baptism is for a lifetime and that means serving God is for our lifetimes too. So, I’ll ask it this way, “Are your hopes and commitment to FHUC, and to God, sufficient to pull you out of your pew, onto your feet, and into working at one of these goals?” What’s the next step for you?

“Let the dreams we dream be larger than we’ve ever dreamed before.”  Gordon Light (M.V #145)

Pegi

It was obvious that the Church Board had a time frame in mind for the annual meeting and they were able to keep to it by adjourning before one o’clock so that those of us who had rumbling tummies could eat.  Within that frame there was a time for discussions about the goals set by the Transition Team on our behalf.  All excellent and along with carrying out the suggestions around the goals, Forest Hill should find itself moving in a positive direction.

One of the goals is around communication, something that is important to the success of any organization and especially a church.  Information about what is happening at the church or on behalf of the church should be easily available to any member of the congregation.

One of the ways things are achieved at most churches is through the work of volunteers.  Most congregations can not afford to exist without the help of volunteers and Sunday worship would be pretty tedious if the minister had to do it all, from greeting people as they enter the sanctuary, taking up the offering, singing in the choir, looking after the children, running the overhead, making the coffee and tea, setting up for coffee time and then cleaning up afterwards as well as counting the offering and making the deposit.

We, the ministers, are praised for having services that are within the hour and only because of volunteers are we able to do that.  So, on behalf of the congregation and the board, I would like to express our appreciation and gratitude to all those folks that make the Sunday Worship run smoothly and pretty much within that sacred hour.

For just one Sunday, volunteers read over the bulletin and check for errors or omissions after the secretary, Connie, pulls together all the information submitted by Wednesday that is to be communicated on Sunday morning, then we have the ones who come in and fold the bulletin ready to be handed out as people enter the sanctuary.  Volunteers arrive early to greet people as they enter the sanctuary and hand them an order of service.  Choir members, after giving of their Thursday evening at Choir practice arrive early to do a run through of the music for that morning.  A few others arrive early to make the coffee and set up for the fellowship time following worship and then clean up the coffee mugs, glasses and plates from coffee time as others

leave for home; there are the different folks each Sunday who run the overhead devices and make sure the sound system is working so we can hear what the minister and scripture readers are saying.  There are the people who take up the offering and then the people who, instead of joining the crowd in the Fireside Room, sit down and sort out and count the offering ready for the bank deposit.  There are those who volunteer to tidy up the pews and replace the envelopes and information cards in the pew boxes.  Then the volunteer who records the givings of each person for income tax purposes.

Now this is just to make a worship service run without a glitch.

Thank you, each and every one of you is a blessing to our congregation and although we tend to take what you do for granted, you are important to worship every Sunday.

There are many others to thank, of course; the people who offer their time and wisdom to serve on the Board and the committees, the person who is putting together this newsletter, the people who fix things when they break, get lost, wear out or just need looking at.

Now I know that I have forgotten to mention something that is carried out by a dedicated volunteer but I hope you understand that you are included in this expression of  appreciation and gratitude too.

Peace to you all.

Katharine

For a week in January, I attended “Epiphany Explorations”, an annual conference sponsored by First-Met United Church in Victoria. A Jewish storyteller and an Imam helped us to experience the richness that emerges from interfaith conversations, and a musician from world music. Shelagh Rogers witnessed to the stories heard by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Seminary Professors of History and of Homiletics challenged us to speak the Word afresh for our day and time.

The conference had two particular highlights for me. The first was to hear, once again, John Dominic Crossan. As he always does, Dom put Jesus in his context geographically and historically, which Dom calls the “matrix”. Then he applied those understandings to our theology of the crucifixion and the resurrection. You will hear that disseminating in sermons over the next few months I’m sure.

The post-conference workshop was also very exciting. Cameron Trimble’s topic was Effective Congregations in a Rapidly Changing Society. This included: creating a compelling vision, transformational worship, and effective communication. Speaking with an infectious enthusiasm, and at a rate of a mile a minute, she barely scratched the surface of her knowledge and experience. I was reminded of what I know and recovered my sense of urgency for what we’re about as church.

Epiphany Explorations was all I’d hoped for in re-engaging me in the opportunities, challenges, theology and complexity of congregational ministry. I look forward to sharing that with you!

Pegi