Fifteen years and counting

Today, September 6, marks another anniversary for me; and so, I have crafted this blog entry. Fifteen years ago today, I first stepped into the pulpit at Knox United Church in Didsbury Alberta and began my career as a United Church minister. The posting in Didsbury was a student internship and was only scheduled to last for eight months. But I was also a supply minister, filling in for Rev. Nancy Nourse while she was on parental leave. And so, I preached every Sunday and took all the funerals and baptisms that happened there; and I was hired on for another two months, for May and June 2010, after the internship was complete, which filled the time remaining before Rev. Nancy would return to work following the birth her second child, her daughter Jessa, in 2009. 

After this experience of supply ministry at Knox, which ran from Sept 2009 through June 2010, I returned to Toronto, lived in my brother and sister-in-law’s basement suite for 12 months, completed my third and final year of study at Emmanuel College for a Masters of Divinity degree, was ordained as a minister in the United Church of Canada on May 29, 2011, and was settled in Borderlands Pastoral charge in southern Saskatchewan, which began in July 2011.

I loved my ten months in Didsbury, which were the most "successful” of my 13 years in ministry. Although it is a tiny shell of its former status today – it seems to be a branch congregation of the United Church in Olds, which is 20 km north of Didsbury – Knox United was a going concern when I was there. Close to 100 people filled the sanctuary each Sunday. About 20 children took part in Sunday School. There were two youth groups – Junior and Senior – and Board meetings seemed like major events.

I learned I could write sermons each week, attend various committee meetings, walk with grieving families, help with the two youth groups, and sometimes be a presence of the Spirit of Love, which we call God, in Didsbury, a town of 4,000 people that is just west of the main north/south highway in Alberta between Calgary and Edmonton. 

In February of 2010, I took the first of two weeks of vacation from this posting at my sister Catherine’s condo in Edmonton, which is when I created this blog. So, if you navigate through the months on this blog to February 2010, you will find 23 entries, which represent my work there from September 2009 through February 2010.

The sermons basically tell the story of my experience there. Then, I added to this blog when I wrote and delivered sermons in Toronto over the next year. Finally, I changed the name of the blog when I was settled in Borderlands charge in southern Saskatchewan in spring of 2011. As you can guess from the URL of this blog, I had originally named it “Little Church on the Prairie.” I changed the name to “Sermons and Notes from the Border” after my ordination and added all my sermons and occasional notes about my experience in Borderlands, a posting which lasted 2.5 years. 

This blog had remained dormant since December 30, 2013, when I left Borderlands for Mill Woods United in Edmonton. But last month, I added a Reflection I delivered at Wesley United in Rockglen SK at the closing worship service there; and today, I add this entry. I doubt I will add to it very often -- or perhaps ever following today.

Coming to Didsbury presented its own challenges to me. I first had to wrap my mind around a rural, Alberta posting, something which a friend and member of the Toronto Education and Students Committee (and whose name I cannot remember!) helped to convince me. [He was a member of Trinity-St. Paul's United at Bloor and Spadina]. Then, I had to give up my wonderful apartment in The Beach at Violet and Leuty St, buy a storage locker in which to put most of my things, and put five suitcases of stuff on the plane to Edmonton.

I landed in Edmonton on August 27, 2009, and took a cab to Catherine's condo on 100 Ave at 114 St. She and Kip were there, and they welcomed me in the most wonderful ways. The next day, I took a cab to 137 Ave to pick up the Hyundai Accent, which I had purchased over the phone. The staff there helped me to get Alberta registration and licence plates, and I parked in the empty spot for a car under Catherine's condo. Later that day, I bought a cell phone in the City Central Mall downtown. On Saturday August 29, I drove the Accent to Olds to meet with a teacher at Olds College (and in whose home I had rented a room. I went out to dinner with her and her other tenant to Boston Pizza, and then drove the 20 KM south to Didsbury to locate Knox United. 

The next morning, August 30, I set out early west along Highway 27 towards Sundre to see if I could spot mountains (I could not) and then headed to Knox United for the last Sunday service to occur before I began my work. I was delighted to meet Rev. Nancy, her husband Brad, their four-year-old son Zack, and their infant Jessa. The service was ably led by Nancy Blain, and I felt immediately at home.

On Monday August 31, I set out west again on Highway 27, and then headed south on "The Cowboy Trail," Highway 22, towards Cochrane. About halfway south, I finally saw The Rockies. I was so excited, I stopped and called my ex-wife Fran on the phone to tell her. Then I soldiered on to Cochrane, along the spectacular Highway 1A towards Banff, and  spent some time in this fabulous mountain tourist town. 

I chose Highway 1 for the drive back, branched north on the Stony Trail ring road in west Calgary, and found myself in the wilds of suburban Airdrie before wending my way back to Highway 2, where I preceded to Olds. (Stony Trail was not quite complete at the time). 

Then, on Tuesday September 1, I went into the church office for the first time to meet the secretary Charlene Cutler. On Thursday September 3, I drove with a member of my educational team from Crossfield United Church to SSUC in Edmonton, where I met, among other people, Jeff Rock, who was one of the about 15 interns spending eight months in Alberta that fall and winter (Jeff was at McClure United in Edmonton). I also met Rev. Fran Hare from Gaetz Memorial United Church in Red Deer, my educational supervisor. 

[I had hoped this entry would be more comprehensive that it is at present. Some of the things I hope to add later: my first and only "Men's Breakfast" in October 2009, where anti-Quebec racism seemed prevalent and where I gave thanks that no federal election happened in 2009-10; the experience of the 2009 Banff Men's Conference; some details about funerals at Knox United, which had so scared me but which were some of the greatest blessings of my time there; "Darwin Night in Didsbury" on November 24, 2009; my trip to San Francisco in April 2010; and perhaps some photos from the wonderful photo book I was gifted at the end of my internship in spring 2010. 

But all that will have to wait, I guess. For this reason, I am also not sharing this blog on social media. So, instead of 10 readers, it may only get one or two! Who knows.]

Blessings, Ian

In the name of Love

A short reflection written for the closing service of Wesley United Church in Rockglen SK. August 10, 2024

Friends, I am so glad to be here on this poignant day. Thank you for inviting me to say a few words at the final worship service to be held in this building, Wesley United Church in Rockglen SK.

I first came here on Saturday, May 14, 2011. This was just two days after I graduated from Emmanuel College in Toronto with a Masters of Divinity degree and six days after I had been informed by the Settlement Committee of Toronto Conference that as a new minister I was to be placed here in Borderlands. At the time, Borderlands included Wesley United in Rockglen and the United churches in Fife Lake and Coronach.

When I got the surprising news that I would spend the first years of my ministry here and not in an urban region like Toronto, which is where I had asked to be settled, I said “yes,” for otherwise -- to be frank -- I would not have been ordained on May 29th by Toronto Conference. Later that Sunday, I phoned the minister appointed to Borderlands at that time, Kevin Johnston, and I appreciated my long chat with him. 

One of the many things he told me was that Chinook Presbytery was meeting the next Saturday, May 14, at Wesley United in Rockglen. This was a unique event. So, I decided to fly to Regina that Friday afternoon, rent a car, spend the night in Moose Jaw, and drive to Wesley on Saturday morning to attend that Presbytery meeting. I thought this experience would help me decide if I could imagine ministry in such a remote and rural area after living all my adult life in Toronto. 

I liked that Saturday gathering and was glad to meet ministers from the huge area that comprised Chinook Presbytery. The next day, I accompanied Kevin to the three Sunday services in Borderlands and met many of the key people in the three charges. 

I was shocked by the beauty of this border area, how sparsely populated it is, and how poor the roads seemed to me. But I was also relieved to learn from Arlene Colibaba after the first service on Sunday the 15th in Coronach that the family renting the United Church manse there was moving out, and I could live in it if I chose. 

There is much that separates life in Borderlands from life in Toronto, but the five-bedroom bungalow in Coronach, along with cheap long distance phone service, cablevision, and high-speed Internet meant I could contemplate making the leap into ministry in Borderlands. And I’m so glad I did.

On Tuesday the 17th, I flew back Toronto, attended my ordination service at the end of May, and then drove out here at the start of July to begin life and ministry in Borderlands.

Despite all that I learned and loved during my years here, I am not surprised that Wesley is selling this building. The three United Churches of Borderlands were tiny back in 2011, and they didn’t grow during my tenure. Nor was I replaced. Instead, Marilyn Leuty of the United Church in Assiniboia began a circuit that started with a Saturday evening service in Assiniboia followed by Sunday morning services first in Coronach and then here in Rockglen. But after Marilyn retired, it was up to leaders like Carla Yost here in Rockglen and Arlene in Coronach to lead Sunday gatherings with the help of the work of Wendy Gibson, now in Assiniboia. Thank you to everyone who has helped sustain these life-giving churches over the 10 years since I left Borderlands for my first and only call to Edmonton’s Mill Woods United Church.

When I had stumbled back into church in Toronto in 2001, I was aware the denomination was a lot smaller than when I was a child; and it has only continued to shrink since then. But I was OK with this challenging fact. And one reason I was OK with it was the following Gospel passage. 

In Matthew 18, Jesus says: “If two of you agree on something and pray for it, your prayer will be granted by God in Heaven. For wherever two or three people come together in my name, I am right there among you!”

We all need community. We need each other to engage with our deepest values and to try to live into them. We need family and friends with whom to gather for celebrations like baptisms and weddings, and to mourn together in the face of death and other great difficulties.

Happily, we only need two or three people to ensure that Jesus and all the faith, hope, and love we associate with that name are present. 

While I was living here in Borderlands, I was impressed by the 2012 General Council meeting of the United Church of Canada. In the face of the unceasing and radical decline of the United Church, it created a Comprehensive Review Task Group that would “put everything on the table.” But I was disappointed in its discussions over the next three years and with its recommendations, which have now been implemented. I think we needed more help with the radical changes roiling our society and the precipitous decline of religion in our lives.

One of the things that struck me in my time here was the lack of clergy. The only other clergyperson then was our wonderful friend Father Andrew of the Roman Catholic parish. I was not in alignment with Father Andrew on many theological and social issues, but like everyone else I loved his big heart, his deep engagement with our communities, and his wonderful musical abilities. One of the highlights for me were the Christmas cantatas that Andrew, myself, and the music teacher put together. Such good memories.

Now the churches of Borderlands are without clergy and their buildings are empty or being sold. Happily, our tradition gives us all we need for such wrenching and painful changes, I think. The Gospels are about the shock of the arrest and execution of Jesus, and about the surprise of the resurrection. The resurrection does not give Jesus’ first followers what they want – namely, a warrior King or Christ who would overthrow Roman rule. Instead, they receive what they need: an inner Christ living as a beautiful flame within their hearts and a God who is nothing less than universal Love. We and other faithful pilgrims have been receiving the same gracious gift ever since.

Our churches have shrunk and are being sold; our individual lives are marked by the usual joys of growth and the pains of aging, sickness, and death; and our society is confronted with radical disruptions caused by war, climate disaster, and social change. Happily, like the first followers of Jesus we know that Love is our deepest calling; Love is our destiny; and Love is our sure hope both now and always. 

What to do about churches like Wesley United amid all these personal and social changes? There don’t seem to be great solutions at hand. But I know that families will gather around loving tables, friends will be there to help one another in times of pain and joy, and the north stars of faith, hope, and love will help us stumble forward into new communities of wonder, praise, and love. 

Thank you, my friends, for teaching me so much, and for reminding me that where two or three are gathered in the name of Love, God is there. 

Thanks be to God.

Amen.