Wednesday, May 22, 2024
Hello everyone – hope you had a wonderful Pentecostal holiday weekend. For those of you who have not seen it, I saw this awesome picture the other day and I shared it on Facebook:
I have no idea who this child is, but I love the picture – we can fly high on the power of the presence of the Spirit of God within us all.
It’s time to give a further update to you in terms of what is happening with our building and prospective partners and tenants within the building. As I said on Sunday, the vision is to have a building filled with people serving the needs of the community. Partnerships with others in the community will help us to meet our own purpose of being a church that deeply values community, connection and compassion. So here is a list of potential partners.
Nexus Church – they worshipped with us for 4 Sundays in November of 2022. They are a non-denominational congregation of about 120 people including many young adults and children – 80 adults and 40 children. They have very similar values to our own and are looking for a place they can call home. The latest conversations are about them using the gym on Sunday mornings for worship, collaborating with us in terms of church school and church school space on the third floor, midweek activities scheduled with the church office as needed including a regular Wednesday night event in the gym once an month and three evenings a month in the youth room. All of these things will be discussed so that it is a win / win for both congregations and a greater ability to work together to be a strong witness of community, connection and compassion in the downtown area.
KW Redeemer – this congregation is much larger – about 240 people including many young adults and children. They also have strong connections with university students and can expect anywhere from 10 to 50 university students attending on any given Sunday. They have a much more relaxed, contemporary style of worship with only contemporary music. They are very interested in calling St. Andrew’s their home and are looking for a relationship with St. Andrew’s that is strong and lasting. They would need to use the sanctuary on a Sunday morning, so adjustments would be necessary to allow for a 9:30 and 11:00 service or a 9:45 and 11:15 service. They have indicated at this point they would like to have a later service – so 11:00 or 11:15. As well they would make good use of the classrooms on the third floor so negotiations would be initiated for all three churches. KW Redeemer has had several mid week services here in the sanctuary as well as several board meetings. I am meeting with their minister Rev. Paul Dunk again this week to talk about possibilities.
The Hungarian church, under the direction of Rev. Frank Szatmari, has been using the chapel for many years already. They do offer some financial support to the congregation but conversations about a more formal arrangement are necessary. Once St. Peter’s moves back into their own church (we will miss them dearly) we will be looking for another church to use that space on a Sunday morning.
Kids and Company Day Care have a location in Waterloo at Tech Town. They have been actively looking to open a second location. We found that out when we called them a couple months ago. They were highly recommended to us from St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in downtown Toronto. Kids and Company have a solid and proven track record in providing excellent day care. Diana Watson, Pauline Rennie Tomlinson and Bob Fewster met with them and they were excited about the possibilities. So are we. They have talked about potentially leasing 4000 square feet of space during the week on the third floor. Negotiations continue but at this point look quite promising.
Doon Presbyterian Church is undergoing the New Beginnings Program offered by the Presbyterian Church in Canada. It involves hiring a consultant to do work with the congregation and also to study the surrounding community with the intent of presenting three viable options to the congregation for consideration in terms of their future direction. A formal relationship with St. Andrew’s is one of the options they are considering. At this point we have no idea what that might mean, other than conversations are possible. As a note, the Presbytery of Waterloo Wellington is encouraging congregations in close proximity to each other to have such conversations. Within Kitchener Waterloo, they are five Presbyterian Churches. Unless things change dramatically, present trends would tell us that in 5 – 10 years there will not be five churches left because some of those churches will close. Having proactive conversations now to plan for the future is preferable.
I received a call from Sheena Merling this past week. She has gone through a difficult 6 months yet her vision for reconciliation, healing and the strengthening of relationships within community including First Peoples and the church remains strong. I still see a future where St. Andrew’s plays a strong role in meeting needs of indigenous peoples in the downtown core that may include both a food bank and an expansion of our thrift store to have more children and youth clothing. Both Nexus and KW Redeemer have also talked about wanting to get involved in such an outreach.
Through a wonderful connection via Ann-Marie, Judy Hight was able to arrange for the Royal Conservatory of Music to hold their exams for this area within our facility. They will be here on 10 separate days during the next few weeks. If all goes well they may be back again.
And of course the Roy Street Project fits into all of this as well. Dr. Bob Fewster and the Task Force continue to work hard to do all we can to make this project a reality. Meeting the housing, programming and service needs of adults with differing abilities is a huge undertaking but we remain confident that we will find the partners necessary to make it all possible. The Task Force is meeting on Friday with an organization called Trinity Centres Foundation that may be helpful in that regard. Keep us in your prayers.
All of this is good news, but it does mean that there will be adjustments for everyone. It means letting go of the church as being ‘our church’ and recognizing the church building as a gift from God to meet the needs of God’s people, both within the congregation and out into the community. It is an exciting time. It is a Pentecostal time.
Take care all of you
Rev. Marty Molengraaf (he, him)
Minister, St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church