jimkenney12
Well-Known Member
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
A church I supervise is on the fringe of the United Church. It is the furthest east church in the EOORC. I am probably the closest minister at about 55 minutes away and I drive through the edge of another region to get there. The closest UC minister in Quebec is about the same distance as me. They need a minister to do a wedding in August. I used Google to search for United Churches, Anglican Churches, and Presbyterian churches near them. The closest ones are in a cooperative ministry which includes a sort of retired minister who lives in Montreal close to the St. Lawrence. There is one Presbyterian church between Gatineau and Grenville and one Anglican church beside the one in Grenville.
I am across the Ottawa River where there are a handful of mainstream Protestant churches in an area of about 15,000 square kilometres The only francophone one that I am sure of is part of our cooperative and it is a small congregation and the only one north of Montreal in the Region with the church I supervise being a bilingual but mostly Francophone congregation.
I feel torn. The systems part of me says this is a shrinking population and let nature take its course. The evangelist in me says our society struggles with increasing loneliness, isolation, striving for meaning and direction and a church centered on people, faith, and caring for the lost is needed more than it has been in a long time.
How much of a moral and faith responsibility does the United Church have in supporting faith communities like the two I supervise in that area (the other is basically a family anglophone church that has one or two services a year when people come back home from wherever they live now to their roots.) This applies to the dozens to hundreds of isolated churches. The United Church Rural Ministry Network works with these issues.
I really do feel torn with a mix of doubts about what is and what should be.
I am across the Ottawa River where there are a handful of mainstream Protestant churches in an area of about 15,000 square kilometres The only francophone one that I am sure of is part of our cooperative and it is a small congregation and the only one north of Montreal in the Region with the church I supervise being a bilingual but mostly Francophone congregation.
I feel torn. The systems part of me says this is a shrinking population and let nature take its course. The evangelist in me says our society struggles with increasing loneliness, isolation, striving for meaning and direction and a church centered on people, faith, and caring for the lost is needed more than it has been in a long time.
How much of a moral and faith responsibility does the United Church have in supporting faith communities like the two I supervise in that area (the other is basically a family anglophone church that has one or two services a year when people come back home from wherever they live now to their roots.) This applies to the dozens to hundreds of isolated churches. The United Church Rural Ministry Network works with these issues.
I really do feel torn with a mix of doubts about what is and what should be.