July Newsletter

 Connected... to what?

The prompt for this newsletter was the theme The United Church of Canada seeks to be a connected church. So the first question that comes to my mind is: “what does it mean to be a connected church?”. Which, as often happens in my brain, then leads to a bunch of other questions. Who do we want to be connected to? Who do we need to be connected to? Are the answers to those questions the same or different? Why do we want/need to be connected to them? Who are we already connected to? How are/were those connections formed? Who instigates the connection? How do we maintain the connection? Are we talking about local, denominational, ecumenical, interfaith, international connections?

Maybe I should stop thinking about questions....

When the United Church says it seeks to be a connected church I think it means a variety of things. Coming from the General Council level I think it means we should be connected to each other through the structures of the denomination. I think it also expresses a hope that we will continue to be connected to our various ecumenical and interfaith partners, both in Canada and in internationally. These are all, in my opinion, worthy things to work toward. It seems to me that we are stronger as a denomination when these connections are maintained.

But what does it mean for St. Paul’s to be a connected church? (Oh great, I am back to my questions again.)

First and foremost, I hope it means is that we feel connected to each other within this faith community. As a community of faith I hope and trust that we have developed a web of connections that allow us to support each other, share our hopes with each other, discuss life and faith with each other. Further I hope and trust that we have a web where new strands can be added in as new connections are formed.

Of almost equal importance to me is that we are a church connected to our neighbours. If we want to see ourselves as being a part, hopefully an integral part of Grande Prairie we have to be connected to the community around us. Reflecting on the stories I have heard over the years it seems to me that these connections have waxed and waned over time. There is a question I like to ask from time to time “if St. Paul’s suddenly disappeared from Grande Prairie what, if anything, would people notice?”. How we answer that question speaks to how connected we are to the wider community. I think that we are making new connections all the time. I think that we have built, or are building, relationships with a variety of groups in town. If we are going to grow and thrive as a community of faith we have to be intentional about continuing to build these connections. Also these connections will help us know how best to respond to the spiritual needs of the community.

We also need to be connected to the other faith communities around us. This means the United Churches in the area and the other faith communities in the city. I’ll talk a bit more about United Church connections in a moment. To be honest, connections with other faith communities were not especially strong as it was, and two years of COVID have probably weakened those connections that did exist. I think that as people who all care for the well-being of the community we are at our best if we can build (or re-build) connections with other churches and with other faith groups in town. It may not always be easy but I think it is important for us to think about.

Then there are connections with the larger United Church. One of the recurrent complaints I hear from across the country is that when we re-structured in 2019 we lost a lot of the connections between United Church congregations. I think that is largely true, though I am also quite sure that the pandemic has made that loss more profound than it might have been. Still, how much do we know about how life is going in the other United Churches in the Peace country? Do we know how we can support each other? Looking into the future, I see a time when the United Church of Canada will, in many areas of the country, be forced to look into new ways of being the church. This may, in some areas almost certainly will, include some form of regional ministry – and I think the Peace area is in the almost certainly category. That will only work if we have established healthy connections before we try to work out what it means to share ministry.

To be a healthy, thriving, lively community of faith; to be good witnesses to the Reign of God proclaimed and inaugurated by Jesus; we have to be connected in a variety of ways. I honestly don’t think it is an option. At the same time we can never be equally connected to everybody. So in the end I return to the list of questions I gave in the first paragraph. I don’t have full answers to any of them. I have shared some of where my brain leads me on those questions. Where does your brain take you when you consider what it means to be a connected church?
Gord