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News and Ideas from around the Anglican World |
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October 2006
Churches ordinary & extraordinary They are ordinary churches, full of struggles and victories. Some of them are growing in numbers, others just in faith. Each of them has something to teach the rest. Karen Stiller contributes the first in this special TAP series on some great ordinary parishes in Canada.
Photo: Karen Stiller
Some of the youth from Church of the Ascension in Port Perry, Ontario, with their rector, the Rev’d Brent Stiller.
Where: Church of the Ascension, Port Perry, Ontario. It has been perched on the corner of John and North streets, in “historic Port Perry” for 150 years. A small town near a big city, Port Perry is an hour’s drive from downtown Toronto.
Mission statement: “Passionately celebrate and share the love, life and hope of Jesus Christ.”
Living the Mission: “Everything we do, preach and plan is filtered through that mission statement. It was crafted by a representative group from our parish, with the help of an outside facilitator. We agreed on that day that it would set our direction for the future. And it has. At the end of every service, a member of our congregation says it loudly and clearly to remind us all what we are about.”
Thinking Globally: “In 2005 our church sent a group of 20 parishioners to Honduras to complete a church building with SAMS. There were interested community members who were not ‘church-goers’ who wanted to join our trip. We welcomed them. To us, that was being real and missional, even within our group itself. We were a ragtag bunch. And it really worked. The community people who went were impacted by the love the Hondurans showed to them and clearly had for Christ. They met Jesus there, whether they knew it then or not. Our church caught the taste of being in the developing world and we are planning to go again next summer. We have been gradually increasing our outreach and missions budget to an initial goal of 10 percent of all envelope giving. As a congregation we want to tithe to what God is doing in the world outside of our own belly buttons.”
Acting Locally: “We did an outreach this spring called the Un-extreme Home Makeover that took a group of our more “handy” members into the homes of two community members who needed a hand around the house. We completely renovated a kitchen for a single mom. She kept saying to the team ‘I can’t believe you’re doing this for me.’ We knew we were onto something. We have another team who serve in a soup kitchen in Oshawa once a month. The Honduras trip got this church excited about what service can do for others, and do for our church. Once you taste that, it’s hard to go back.”
The pain of growth: “There is no doubt we have had growing pains. We probably lost about 25 percent of our congregation over doctrinal differences, music choices, welcoming of newcomers from different denominational backgrounds and other issues. It was painful for a lot of people. The church is growing nonetheless, with young families, dedicated seniors and everyone in between. The people who are here now want to be here. You can feel the difference.” How we worship: “This is a gifted congregation. We have musicians, writers, actors, doctors, a large group of teachers and lots of people who think outside the box. Our early service is traditional; our evening service has a praise band that often writes their own music, our mid-morning service is a mix of both.”
Strangest Sermon Title: “That would have to be ‘The Joy of Sex is God’s idea.’ Enough said.”
Incumbent: Brent Stiller
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Copyright The Anglican Planet © 2006 |