Rev. Emma Duncan
Gary Evans, Clerk of session

Friday, April 20, 2012

About those rumors


There no doubt has been a lot of talk around the church in recent weeks as to the status of the search process, much of it as a result of rumors concerning our interim moderator. In reality, I suppose, they were not rumors as the Rev. Thomas Kay had been very upfront with his own congregation in that he would be preaching for the call at Knox Leamington, a church where he had held the pastorate a number of years ago.

Rev. Kay had also informed our session at its last meeting that he would be preaching for the call, and in fact, on April 15th he was in Leamington where the congregation, after the morning service, voted to call the Rev. Thomas Kay as its minister.

A note in this Sunday’s bulletin at Knox, Leamington, indeed indicates that he will be starting his ministry at that church on June 3rd.

As a result of that announcement, the obvious question for Knox Burlington is, where does that leave us as far as our search process is concerned? Are we starting from scratch? Will it mean a long delay? Who will be our new moderator?

The answers to those questions?  About the same. No. No. Not sure at this precise moment in time.

Session at its last meeting approved the names of those to constitute the search committee, and their first task will be to develop a congregational profile. On that score, much has already been done, partly because of recent input from the congregation, and partly because the previous profile is not that out of date.

Under normal circumstances, the Presbytery of Hamilton would appoint another interim moderator for Knox, but in this case, session has made a recommendation regarding an individual. That individual has agreed to serve as interim moderator, but the action has not been officially approved by presbytery.

So yes, while there is a slight interruption in the process, it should only be a minor hiccup, and the entire process should be back on track very shortly.

All that being said, there is already a listing on the Presbyterian Church of Canada’s website under vacancies, and while it was intended that it was not to be officially listed until June, it has already created a great deal of interest in the Knox vacancy, 18 applications in fact in a matter of days.

So while as a congregation we are sad to see Rev. Kay leave as our interim moderator, we ask that the Lord’s blessings be upon him as he embarks on another chapter of his ministry.

And more,
• The Knox Quilters recently received a letter from Kenneth Kim, director of PWS&D,  acknowledging receipt of a donation of $2,000 sent by the  Quilters to support Community Based Orphan Care centres in Malawi.  The donation was made in memory of Rev. Mark. The Quilters will continue to raise funds for the same project as they use the fabric Mark brought them from Malawi.  Items made will be offered for sale with the funds going to the orphan care project as decided by the quilters.

• The Congregational Life committee held another successful ham and beans dinner recently, with an excellent turnout for the event, and when all the bills were accounted for, the committee was able to report that $967 was raised for the church budget.

• For the last few years, four churches – Wellington Square, Burlington Baptist, Port Nelson United and Knox – have been involved in joint Holy Week services, and this year, the service was held at Burlington Baptist Church. Their minister, the Rev. Terry Dempsey, notes that the freewill offering collected for the Good Friday service was donated to the Downtown Community Dinner program ($736.85) and the Stephen Lewis Foundation ($1,932).

• There will be a real special musical program as part of the morning worship service at Knox on April 22nd, when Linda Binkley will be singing some of her inspiration offerings.

In order to offer some insight into Linda’s ministry, this testimonial was provided for her website by Rev. Bob before he retired as minister at St. John’s, Grimsby.

Linda Binkley has been an inspiration to our congregation. Her joyful and very professional style of singing accompanied by her taped background music is very uplifting. This is truly a wonderful ministry of music that she shares. Every time Linda sings in our church, numerous requests are received to have her back again. Linda has a gift of tailoring her extensive repertoire to meet the theme of each particular occasion, be it a worship service, a ladies group function, an anniversary or an evening concert. We have truly enjoyed every time she has joined us.