LITTLE CURRENT—Representatives from the congregations of the United Church from Manitoulin Island and the North Shore gathered in the Little Current United Church Assembly Hall in January for a Manitoulin Island and North Shore “cluster meeting” to learn about organizational changes taking place in the structure of the United Church across Canada.
Little Current United Church Pastor Paul Allard welcomed everyone to the gathering as host of the cluster meeting before leading the gathering in an opening worship celebration.
“We are stepping into a new era,” said retired diaconal minister and former president of the old Manitou Conference Maxine McVey as she welcomed the representatives to the meeting and took them through a Powerpoint presentation on the changes. “It is not always easy to change our way of thinking,” she said, but encouraged attendees to embrace “a new age in a new way.”
Manitou Conference made up a part of what is now the much larger Canadian Shield Regional Council. The old conference system was disbanded in favour of fewer, larger regions across Canada.
The first orders of business were to outline the vision statement “engaging with the Spirit to inspire, connect and empower communities of faith.”
Rev. McVey observed that the new name for the Region 6 council, the Canadian Shield Regional Council, was voted on by a large number of participants. “This has been congregationally focussed,” she said. “There were 690 who voted to choose that name.” The new name for neighbouring Region 10, which will be working closely in cooperation with the Canadian Shield Regional Council, is Shining Waters. “These two regions will work cooperatively, lay people and ministry personnel meeting for the next two years.” Shining Waters Region is to the south of Canadian Shield and includes Parry Sound, Muskoka all the way south to include Toronto.
The Canadian Shield Regional Council has 78 pastoral charges and stretches from west of Thunder Bay to Val D’Or, Quebec in the east.
Under the new three council system being implemented in the church, there will be a General Council, regional councils (such as the Canadian Shield Regional Council) and then Communities of Faith, which includes congregations and other ministries accountable to the United Church.
The Canadian Shield interim executive will include chair Jim Jackson, Joy Galloway, Susan Whitehead (admin support), Bella Berbeiro, Helan Smith (DLM), Mardi Mumford, Rev. Peter Hartmans (executive admin), Rev. Eun-Joo Parks, Maxine McVey (DM), Rev. Cindy Desilets, Joy Bott, Janet Ross, Barbara Nott, Kathie Smith, Rachel Howes (admin support) and Rev. Bob Smith.
The first Canadian Shield Regional Council meeting will take place May 31 to June 2 at the Quattro Hotel and Conference complex in Sault Ste. Marie. Rev. McVey reminded everyone to ensure that their regional council representatives are elected at their annual general meetings and to let executive assistant to the executive minister, Susan Whitehead, know who they are.
More information on the changes can be found online at www.canadianshieldrc.ca.
Rev. McVey noted that the new cluster arrangement will ensure better and more local involvement in governance. She gave an example of the shortcomings inherent in the previous organizational structure. “Elliot Lake and Blind River were in different geographic divisions (Sudbury and Algoma Presbyteries, respectively),” she noted. With the new structure of clusters, “this will offer opportunities to work together on local issues.” Blind River United Church is now part of the new Manitoulin North Shore cluster.
Committees will be setting up new covenants of faith and there are eight people identified that will be able to assist communities of faith to put those together.
The church is facing challenging times, bringing opportunities to cooperate, amalgamate or disband.
Under the new structure, the region will see the same number of delegates to regional council. “Western Manitoulin had three, Little Current had two and Gore Bay has one,” noted Rev. McVey. Representatives include all ministry personnel, active and retired, and lay members are elected according to the familiar formula used previously. The old remains in place giving each separate congregation its own delegate. Clergy, as noted, are automatically included.
Under the new structure there will be two council offices for the Canadian Shield, one in North Bay and the other located in Thunder Bay. All ministries of faith will have a presence in a church hub. The hubs will each have an associated web portal that will allow administrators to react securely with the general membership.
Supports to the communities of faith include the regional council executive, a pastoral relations commission, a supports to communities of faith commission, staff members and resource teams focussed on property, mission support, grants and funding, living into right relations, affirming ministry and finance.
In return, communities of faith are to elect representatives to the regional council AGM, create a living faith story, have a presence on the church hub, complete an annual self assessment, complete an annual financial assessment and provide support to the national church’s Mission and Service fund.
Following Rev. McVey’s presentation, Little Current Pastoral Charge Chair Scott Mosher rose to read a letter, addressed to the United Church moderator Richard Bott and entitled ‘Is the United Church of Canada dying? Or will it survive?’ which he said the Little Current charge hoped would be taken back to each of the participating, faith communities.
The letter referenced the recent Toronto Conference and its decision to allow Greta Vosper, an avowed and declared atheist, to continue as the minister at a Toronto United Church.
“We have had one prominent member write directly to the general secretary querying the rationale for this decision. Another member has openly asked ‘what do we tell visitors when they inquire about what the United Church believes in?’ We have other members who, in light of the Toronto Conference/Vosper decision, have elected to ‘step away’ from the United Church.”
The letter went on to recognize the decentralized decision making that was behind the decision and noted that the agreement with the clergy person was not a decision of the national church, but mused about the “unintended consequences” of the decision. “In their desire to reach a settlement, did they choose a pragmatic decision versus a principled one?”
The letter went on to note that the church council has wrestled with the issue and resolved to endorse the New Creed and went on to quote the Little Current United Church’s pastoral charge’s own mission statement: “We are called by God to show, love, care and respect, as Jesus taught us; we will share joy and fellowship, in our worship community, with open spirits. We will welcome all, who share our human journey. Together, we will seek God’s guidance, as we continue to grow, in faith and love” which he said will be the local church’s guiding principles “as the national church grapples with the fallout from the decision.”
The letter made it clear that the Little Current Pastoral Charge’s Church Council disagreed strongly with whatever agreement the (former) Toronto Conference reached with Ms. Vosper that allows her to continue as a clergyperson in the denomination.
The cluster meeting then broke into workgroups to discuss the basic question of how the community of faith will move forward.
The letter was not discussed by any of the workgroups, and at the conclusion of the discussions Beth Emiry from Massey rose reference the Little Current Pastoral Charge’s letter and ask if it was not going to be discussed. The reply was that it would not be at this meeting, but could be the focus of another cluster meeting.
Questioned after the meeting ended, Mr. Mosher noted that the intent was not to discuss the letter at this meeting, but rather it was intended to alert other churches to the issue and discuss how they would deal with the questions the issue raises for both existing and future members of the United Church faith communities.
