June 1, 2022

Hello everyone

This has to be my favourite time of the year – it seems we have more sun, the temperatures are wonderful, the greenery is spectacular, the days are longer.  Creation cries out with hope, with comfort, with assurance.

In the church year we move from Easter to Pentecost – again words of hope are uttered – we move from the assurance of Jesus being resurrected each and every day – every Sunday is  called a ‘little resurrection’ and Pentecost promises the coming of the Spirit of God – wind and flame coming down infusing us all with love, grace, kindness, patience, gentleness and the many other gifts of the Spirit

Yes this is a beautiful time of the year.  For me, God seems close and I pray in some small  way that that is your experience as well.

Here are some of the things I am working on this week:

1. Governance team – we had a meeting with the consultant Cathy Stewart from Creedence last night. It was a good discussion, talking about the challenges and struggles we face as a congregation and also the dreams and hopes we have. We talked about how decisions are made – the strengths and the drawbacks of our current committee system, the desire people have articulated to have less meetings and more opportunities for ministry. We also chatted briefly about the undercurrent of conflict that seems to be present at St. Andrew’s and has been for years. This is not new to churches – many, many churches suffer from the same thing – conflict is inevitable. But how do we deal with conflict in healthy ways so that it does not go underground. As I say it was an excellent discussion and I left the meeting feeling hopeful and very positive about the future of St. Andrew’s

2. Planning for the June 22 BBQ for our overnight guests. In addition to the Committee With No Name coming forward to organize and pay for the BBQ, the Property Committee has agreed to do the cooking itself. And some of the youth will be on hand to help in the serving. We encourage as many people from the congregation as possible to come out to this beautiful event. It will enable you to see and experience some of the people who have called St. Andrew’s Iona Hall their home over the last 6 months. The emergency warming centre here at St. A’s closes the next day.

3. Meetings with people in the congregation about what comes next – beautiful conversations with Heather Ingram Smith, Jan Blackburn, Yolanda Grant and many others. Topics included Ferida’s family in Turkey facing deportation back to Iran – how can we help; support for the staff of the Working Centre moving forward; events that promote Faith, Climate Justice. Please look for announcements that will be coming with respect to all these initiatives. (Ferida and her husband are regular attendees here at St. Andrew’s)

4. Working with the staff and congregational leaders to try to take advantage of the low numbers of COVID right now and offering some events help us to reconnect as a congregation. Here are some of the events planned

   1. July 10 – at 10 am – a memorial service celebrating the lives of those within the congregation who passed away during COVID and were not able to have a ‘normal’ funeral service. If you would like your loved one to be included in this memorial service please let us know. It is an opportunity to grieve together as a family, as a congregation. After the service we will have coffee and fellowship in Iona Hall – for the first time in two and a half years. Please come out to this service as you are able.

   2. A congregational family day picnic – date to be determined

   3. A concentrated clean up of the church grounds and the surrounding neighbourhood – picking up trash as a means of caring for the earth and being good neighbours – date to be determined. Jan Blackburn suggests the slogan ‘Be clean, be green, be a pick up trash machine’.

   4. A possible water walk along one of KW’s waterways – if you are interested in helping organize this, please let us know – again Jan Blackburn posted a letter on Facebook referring to this initiative.

5. Creating a stronger online ministry presence. Starting June 17 we will be offering a weekly worship podcast – basically a shortened worship experience including a prayer, two songs and a synopsis of the Sunday sermon from the week before. We have purchased the teleprompter equipment necessary to make this possible and look forward to the impact it may have.

6. And finally last Saturday I baptized Elisha Deanna, daughter of Caitlyn and Andrae, cousins of Maiwenn and Riaz Baksh. Two years ago Rev. Greg Smith baptized the older child A.J. during COVID. It was a beautiful experience.

Take good care everyone

Rev. Marty Molengraaf (he, him)