Wednesday, July 10
Hello everyone – a radical change in the weather is coming for Wednesday, with lots of rain as the remnants of Hurricane Beryl comes bearing down on us. Please take care. Please pray for those who have been far more affected than we will be. Pray for the farmers in this area who may be concerned about their crops when that much rain falls. Please pray for those who are afraid of storms.
Sometimes life is like a hurricane. Sometimes it feels like all we can do is hang on for dear life, pray to God and ride out the storm. For some of you here at St. Andrew’s that may be how it feels right now. There are a lot of changes that the session is planning – some of which are already happening and some which will happen in the next few months. The greatest of these changes involves the use of our building. We have talked about this before, but now it is becoming a reality. Indeed, the congregational meeting Wednesday night in person or on zoom is crucial to making decisions that enable us to move forward. The good news is that we already have some very positive experiences with respect to this new vision of the use of the building. St. Peter’s Lutheran church has been worshipping in Covenant Chapel since October 2023. The session has just renewed their lease until May of 2025. This is good news. The relationship between the two congregations is strong. We are learning from each other and understanding that we can share the same building. The two congregations have been a blessing to each other.
Sharing our building with more congregations and more partners makes some people uneasy. However, it is necessary for two reasons.
One, the cost of our building is becoming prohibitive and greater than we ourselves as a congregation can afford. That’s the reality. It may be hard to hear, but the building costs us between $200,000 and $300,000 each year. Currently we are running a yearly deficit of $150,000 annually. We can’t sustain that deficit so sharing the building becomes important from a financial perspective.
The second reason is perhaps even more important. To meet the needs of the downtown community, St. Andrew’s has always needed partners. With our aging congregation this need becomes more apparent. Two congregations, Nexus and KW Redeemer, both have lots of younger families wanting to become part of our mission and outreach. Younger bodies can expand our outreach in beautiful ways, most notably by expanding the Thrift Store, increasing our ability to meet food insecurity issues, expanding programs and activities that help young families in the downtown core to find a place of belonging and community. This may include a daycare within the church, run by a competent day care provider – Kids and Company for example.
Tonight, at 7 p.m. in the Elizabeth Room, the congregation will be called to hear reports from the Trustees and from the Finance Committee. A creative solution has been found to address our short-term yearly deficits. It is estimated that the deficits will disappear within three to four years if we open our building to partners who share our values and care for the community and with renters who share those same values as well.
There will be two motions for consideration. The one has to do with short-term funding. The other has to do with affirming the direction of seeking out partners and entering into long term leases and short term rentals as appropriate.
It is my prayer that the congregation will respond favourably to both of these motions. I believe they create a strong path forward that will help the congregation to grow, indeed to flourish, in the years ahead as we live out our values of community, connection and compassion with a spirit of inclusion and love.
Take good care,
Rev. Marty Molengraaf (he, him)
Minister, St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church