Annual Congregational Meeting, 2024

 The link for this week's live-streamed service is here.

Questions: How many Presbyterians does it take to change a lightbulb?

Answer: I don't know but I'll form a committee to find out.

We often joke about how many committees we have in our congregation, and in our denomination as a whole. The annual congregational meetings is an opportunity to note the work of all those committees. 

On Sunday morning we held our annual congregational meeting and received reports from the following committees:

• Compassionate Resource Warehouse
• Fellowship
• Friendship Coffee
• Sunshine Lunch
• Garden of Remembrance
• Geneaology Group
• Library
• Mission and Outreach
  
• Dominican Republic Mission
• Pastoral Care
• Prayer Chain
• Sunday School
• Web Ministry
• Music and the Choir
• Property and Grounds
• Rentals
• Finance Committee

And that doesn't include the various volunteers who serve the congregation and the community on the A/V system, cleaning, greeting, office assistance, and a host of other tasks that arise from time to time. 

It is remarkable to see how many groups and individuals operate mostly behind the scenes to ensure the smooth operation of our congregation. It takes a lot of work to make it appear that the place runs itself! 

The ACM was an opportunity to recognize and say thank you to all those worker bees.

It was also an opportunity to say thank you to our choir director and church secretary.  Their work is visible week to week, but there are many hours of unseen preparation as well.

Finally, we said thank you and congratulations to our minister, Rev. Irwin Cunningham, who celebrated his 60th birthday this week. Ministers will tell you that it is the congregation that makes the church, but our congregation will tell you that it is the minister who guides, teaches, encourages, commisserates, befriends, comforts and blesses the congregation.

Happy Birthday, Rev. Irwin, and thank you.

Highlights of Annual Congregational Meeting.

The annual congregational meeting was held following worship on Sunday morning.  Of course, we started with lunch.  
As I read through the reports I noticed that the Fellowship Committee has one of the longest.  Little wonder, since we like to include lunch in almost every church activity.  In 2017, according to the report there were ten special occasions marked with a full lunch or tea and cake. Thanks to the members of that committee for your mission of hospitality.
After breaking bread together, we got down to the business of passing motions and adopting reports.  In 2017 our long-time clerk of session passed away so this was the first ACM for Janet, our new clerk.  She ably took on the duties of secretary of the meeting.  With Irwin in the chair, all ran smoothly.

I was glad to see the report of the Pastoral Care Committee.  This group of volunteers aren't as visible as those serving coffee or singing in the choir, but their ministry brings such comfort to the twenty people of our congregation who are in care homes, hospitals or housebound. 

Finances is always of concern to the congregation.  Happily, we ended 2017 with a small surplus.  The budget for 2018 shows a zero balance.  Unlike corporations, we're not looking to create financial dividends for our shareholders.  The church seeks to spend its money doing good. In 2017 the congregation supported many missions, including substantial donations for relief in Syria, the South Sudan Famine, and the Fort MacMurray Fire (even after the flames were extinguished there was much work to do rebuilding the city.)

20/20 Vision asks, where do we go from here?  In fact, it asks the W5 questions of who, where, when, what and why.  It is always useful for a congregation to ask "why" we do something.  That way we make sure that the current programs are useful and possible, and not a relic of an outdated issue.  If you have any suggestions for what and why and who, talk to Roy.  He'd love to hear from you.

The formal business of the meeting ended, we moved on to thank yous.  There were so many, I can't list them all here.  In particular, Rev. Irwin mentioned session, the choir director, the church secretary, the volunteer groundskeeper, the Friendship Coffee volunteers and the Sunshine Lunch volunteers.  Finally, he commended us all for all the invitations we've extended for others to join us in the congregation, whether for worship or study or coffee.

As moderator of the meeting, Rev. Irwin couldn't say anything about his own role in the congregation, but here on the blog we're not bound by such modesty.  Thank you, Irwin, for encouraging, teaching, managing, praying, suggesting, noticing and empowering members of the congregation to give of their best to the work of the church and to the glory of God.

Let us see what 2018 brings to SPPC.

140th General Assembly

   On the first Sunday of June we welcomed Rev. Noel Kinnon to the pulpit as Rev. Irwin was attending the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Canada. The theme of this year's Assembly is "Light of the World."

This year marks the 140th assembly since our church was organized as the Presbyterian Church in Canada at a meeting held in Montreal in 1875.

At that first Assembly four main branches of Presbyterianism were represented, the Presbyterian Church of Canada, The Church of Scotland, the Presbyterian Church of the Lower Provinces, and the Presbyterian Church of the Maritime Provinces.  

One of the first pieces of business was the creation of a fund for the relief of widows and orphans of ministers of the Presbyterian Church in Canada.

The business of that first assembly was grave, indeed.  The representatives, over 400 of them, were about to constitute the Presbyterian Church in Canada.  Of such weight was this matter, the men were polled by name for the vote.  And it was all men.  The first women commissioners for our denomination attended the General Assembly in 1967 -- 93 meetings later.

Today, the work of General Assembly is open to all.  Click here and you can  see a summary of the reports to be presented, or read the whole report if you like.  If you tune in during the session you can watch them with live-streaming.  You don't even have to a Presbyterian!

Today, we take the structure and courts of our church as a matter of course, but in 1875, all of that constitution and means of governance had to be created -- a monumental task.  Twenty-one committees were formed with mandates as diverse as education, finance, home mission, foreign mission and the state of religion.  I'm not sure what that last one discussed, but there was a motion brought to the assembly concerning the "desecration of the Sabbath on Railroads in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.



Today's commissioners are also confronted with a difficult and complicated business.  There are reports on the Atlantic Mission, Church Doctrine, Ecumenical and Interfaith Matters, International Affairs, Life and Mission, which includes Presbyterians Sharing, Presbyterian World Service and Development, Planned Giving, Justice -- just to name a few.

 There is a report on the Maclean Estate, a 250 Acre parcel in Southern Ontario, donated to the Presbyterian Church in Canada by the founder of the Maclean-Hunter publishing company.  This is the 40th year of operation of Crieff Hills, has provided a "place apart" for 15,000 guests from within our denomination and from without.  

    The manner and conduct of the 140th General Assembly may differ from the 1st, but don't think that those first commissioners were too dour.  On the first day of their meeting, they accepted an "invitation to a social entertainment" offered by one of the congregations of Montreal.  

    May the work of the 140th General Assembly bear fruit for our denomination and may our commissioners return to their daily lives with their spirits refreshed and renewed.