Going and coming

It’s Labour Day weekend, the end of summer for many, the start of a new church year, and so, in the next few weeks various activities will be starting up around Knox, starting with Rally Day Sunday on Sept. 9 when courtesy of the board of managers there will be a barbecue after the regular church service.

In the meantime, everyone is reminded that Sunday’s church service reverts back to the normal time, that is 10:30. The earlier church service was done as an experiment this year, something that many other churches do in the summer, as we tried to address not only the heat and humidity, but also to provide a bit of flexibility for Sunday activities.

And the search goes on
As Rev. Bob explained last Sunday, the search process has continued over the summer with the committee still meeting on a regular basis. There was somewhat of a lull after the flurry of early applications, but there has been renewed interest over the summer months as a number of additional applications have been received.

Rev. Bob tries to get copies of all the new applications out to the committee as soon as possible, so that when they do meet, there is the opportunity for good discussion. And, of course, with the internet these days, there is also the opportunity for committee members to gain additional information on any of the candidates…information that will help find the ideal candidate for the Knox pulpit.

And some other pieces,
• We welcome the Rev. Gordon Ford, from Niagara-on-the-Lake as our guest minister this Sunday. Rev. Ford, who was a classmate of Rev. Bob, will in the pulpit for most of September, that is except for Sept. 9 when Rev. Bob will be with us once again for Rally Day.
• The church office hours will return to normal this week, well, almost normal, as Monday is a holiday. But other than that, Trish will be in the office Monday and Fridays, 9 am-12 noon, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, 9 am- 3pm.
• The Knox Quilters will be holding a fall rummage sale on Saturday, September 22 with the funds raised by this sale going to the Quilters Malawi Orphan Care project

Summer time hours

It’s not only the calendar that tells us that it is summer time, but also the weather, and as a result Knox Church is making a few changes in the timing for summer services and for the church office.

Starting July 1st, the church service will start 30 minutes earlier, that is at 10 a.m. with the hope that the air and the humidity in the sanctuary will be somewhat better. The change in time is for July and August only, so that for Sept. 2, the Sunday of Labor Day weekend, Knox will revert back to 10:30 a.m.

And with so many people being away, and with far less activities around the church, the office hours are being changed so that Trish, our church administrator, has more opportunity to enjoy the days of summer. Once again, for July and August only, the church office will be open from 9 a.m. to 12 noon, with no afternoon hours.

Pulpit supply

This week we welcome Marilyn Repchuck back into the Knox pulpit as the church has reverted to pulpit supply from interim ministry as part of the process as we advance through the stages of calling a new minister.

Strawberry social

And then, after the service, everyone is invited to participate in the Strawberry Social in Fellowship Hall. There will be a freewill offering, and all monies collected, according to the Congregational LIfe committee, will go toward the operating fund.

Defibrillator

In recent weeks, an anonymous donor provided the church with the funds to secure an Automatic External Defibrillator, which will be located in a highly visible location just outside of the sanctuary.

While the new models are highly automated, and in fact will talk one through the steps once the case is opened, there will be a training session following the church service on July 15, and all are urged to attend as this session will provide some practical information, and as well, will provide an opportunity to ask questions of Gary Macdonald from the Burlington Fire Department.

Repaving

The tree is down and now the parking areas will be paved so that might make for some alterations if you are visiting the church at the end of next week. The tree at the end of the driveway was in extremely poor condition, with the core rotting away at an alarming rate, and while it was hoped that it might be on city property – and removed at the city’s expense – it was just over the line and so the board of mangers had it removed.

That was the first step to renovating the parking areas, with the next step to be done Wednesday, June 27 and Thursday, June 28, when the old pavement will be removed, the grade sloped to take rain water away from the foundation and then both lots will be repaved.

But for those two days, visitors will need to park on the street and enter the church by the James Street door. Trish suggests that if you just need to drop something off, phone ahead and she will meet you so that you can avoid parking.

Search committee

And finally, although it is the summertime, the search committee will not be taking a break.  Now that they have completed the church profile, it can be sent out to those ministers who have expressed an interest in Knox, and in fact, some ministers have already responded with their own profiles.

Moving forward

The first week of June has been a busy time in the life of Knox Church with various meetings taking place to address the vacancy, as well as Knox opening its doors for the Doors Open program.

The fact that the vacancy is being addressed is indicated in that the search committee met again during the week, this time to discuss the church profile, a document that will be sent to ministers who have an interest in applying for the vacancy here at Knox.

A great deal of time goes into preparing this document, as it not only offers candidates an overview of the congregation and the community, but also provides somewhat of a vision, so that the ministerial candidate and the church have the same vision as Knox moves forward.

There is still work to be done on the profile, but Rev. Bob hopes that it can be completed in the next few days, ready for Presbytery’s ministry committee, and ready to be sent out on request to candidates.

As indicated in previous blogs, there is an advertisement in this month’s Presbyterian Record, and the vacancy is also listed on the PCC website. Rev. Bob has contacted all those who have already indicated an interest, explaining that the church is moving along on the process, but was not in a position to send out the profile…just yet.

As much as everyone would like to move the process along as swiftly as possible, the search is a step-by-step process, following procedures as established by the Presbyterian Church in Canada.

One of the next steps to be taken does not affect the search committee directly, but in fact is one of the more important aspects of any call. One year ago, the Knox session had started on the process of purging the roll – a normal occurrence since there are many people who move away, or who have not had any connection with the church for a long, long time.

That action was put on hold during the first stages of the interim ministry, but needs to be addressed now because Presbytery will be looking at the level of support in connection with any minister to be called.

It is a time consuming, difficult responsibility, but an ad hoc committee will be meeting to address this aspect within the next few days, just one more step in filling the vacancy.


Doors Open
It may have been a rainy morning, but when the weather cleared in the afternoon, a large number of people came out to tour Knox as part of the Doors Open program.

Volunteers were stationed in the sanctuary and in the Bell Tower Room to welcome visitors and tell them a bit about the history of the church. There is a new set of brochures prepared for this year’s event, providing a list of church timelines, a history of our stained glass windows, a story about the housling cloths, plus a story on the church history.

Knox is just one of many buildings involved in this year’s Doors Open program which will continue until 4 p.m. on Sunday.

One of the added features this year is the presence of Al Clarkson from the Presbyterian Church Museum who has set up a display in the Bell Tower Room. Al knows his church history, and is eager to talk to members of the congregation about the museum, and church history across the denomination.

Pulpit supply
This Sunday Knox welcomes Marilyn Repchuck to the pulpit as Rev. Bob reverts to his new responsibility of interim moderator. Marilyn will be preaching on a number of occasions during the weeks ahead, although Rev. Bob will be back in the pulpit on Father’s Day. That date is important since it is also the date for the church picnic with a large number of the congregation planning to travel out to Crieff to join with the other three Presbyterian congregations for a joint picnic.

Despite the picnic, sessions decided several months ago to still hold a church service at Knox on the same day as many people are unable to travel to Crieff for the occasion, plus, it’s also important that the church doors be open for any visitors.

Anniversary Sunday

This Sunday marks anniversary Sunday for Knox Church, with a special speaker preaching that day to mark the occasion.

Knox is celebrating its 167th anniversary this year, and as part of Sunday’s worship, the congregation will be singing Hymn of Celebration penned by Patty Kirby to mark the 150th anniversary in 1995, and sung each year to commemorate this special occasion.

There wasn’t even a community known as Burlington back in 1845 when parishioners got together for that first church service; in fact, the community would be known as Wellington Square until 1873 when it merged with Port Nelson to become the village of Burlington.

Those early services were held in what is now known as the Bell Tower Room, and while it was only used as a sanctuary for about 30 years, that building is now seen as one of the oldest structures in Burlington.

Rev. Dr. Nancy Calvert-Koyzis of Hamilton, who will be our guest anniversary preacher for the occasion, has the distinction of being an honorary associate minister at Central Presbyterian Church in Hamilton.

 Dr. Calvert-Koyzis has taught for 20 years at colleges, universities and theological schools. She is an ordained Presbyterian Church in Canada minister and academic who has published three books, including Strangely Familiar: Protofeminist Interpretations of Patriarchal Biblical Texts (2009). She lives in Hamilton with her husband and daughter.
There will be a lunch served after the worship service providing for a time of fellowship and the opportunity to meet with our special guest.

Summer hours
 While it would be nice if the sanctuary was air conditioned, such is not the case, and with the hot weather starting much earlier this year, session recently approved a change, which many other churches are doing for the summer months.

Starting July 1 the church service will start 30 minutes earlier, that is at 10 a.m. with the hope that the air and the humidity in the sanctuary will be somewhat better. The change in time is for July and August only, so that for Sept. 2, the Sunday of Labor Day weekend, Knox will revert back to 10:30 a.m.

Picnic and worship
While numerous members of the Knox congregation will be going out to Crieff Hills for the Presbyterian Church picnic on Father’s Day, there still will be a worship service at Knox that day.

When the organizers were planning for the picnic, it was suggested that only St. Paul’s Church would be open to offer worship to those not attending the picnic, but the session of Knox made the decision to remain open and offer worship that day for the convenience of those not able to journey out to Crieff.
The Rev. Bob Docherty, our interim moderator, will be preaching that day, the only time he will be in the pulpit in June as Marilyn Repchuck, a familiar figure to the Knox congregation, will be preaching on June 10 and 24th.

Doors Open
Knox Church will be once again participating in the Doors Open program this year, offering the general public the opportunity to tour parts of the church and ask questions about the history and the architecture of the building.

The main sanctuary and the Bell Tower Room will be available to visit with church members situated in both areas to greet visitors and provide them with information sheets about Knox.

The Doors Open program will be held June 9th and 10th, running both days from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Additional volunteers are required for both the Saturday and the Sunday with no one available at the moment for the Bell Tower Room on either of those days.  The sign-up sheet will once again be available in Reception Room B following Sunday’s service.

New interim moderator

Now that the May meeting of the Hamilton Presbytery is history, there are a number of things that are falling into place for the Knox congregation.

As noted in the last blog, Rev. Thomas Kay, who has been serving as interim moderator since last June, recently preached for the call at Knox Leamington, and on Tuesday of this week, the Hamilton Presbytery approved that call, with Rev. Thomas starting his ministry in Leamington on June 3rd.

In the meantime, Rev. Thomas has had some health issues and as the McNab bulletin this week states, he will not be returning to the pulpit until later this month.

That leaves the question as to what is transpiring at Knox Burlington, and on the recommendation of the Knox session, the Rev. Bob Docherty will be assuming the responsibility of interim moderator as of June 1. Rev. Bob has been serving as interim minister for the past three months and that appointment was extended through May as the formalities were addressed at Presbytery.

Now, as interim moderator, Rev. Bob will take on different responsibilities as we move on to seek a new full-time minister. Rev. Bob has indicated that he plans to be in the Knox pulpit on various Sundays, and will seek out others to preside on a Sunday-by-Sunday basis over the next few months.

One of the obvious questions under the circumstances would be as to why Rev. Bob would not continue to be in the pulpit on a more regular basis during the vacancy, and there are several ways to answer that question:

1. As interim moderator, he has his hands full and needs to concentrate his efforts on helping our search committee in their task at hand.

2. It had been the intent all along the regular stated supply would be re-introduced about this time so as to give the pulpit a sense of a vacancy as we move through the search process.

3. Rev. Bob is after all retired and he would like to be able to enjoy some of those benefits of being retired.

Even before that the formalities of Rev. Bob’s appointment of interim moderator were approved by Presbytery, he was very much at work on the search process, wanting to move ahead as swiftly as possible as we approach the summer months.

As a result, he held the first meeting of the search committee this week, laying out the groundwork for the process, with one of the first steps being updating the congregational profile. This is expected to be completed by the end of the month, and thus will be available at that point to be sent to those inquiring about the vacancy here at Knox.

Rev. Bob also outlined a very tight schedule for the search committee, expecting numerous meetings in the weeks ahead, holding out the prospect of beginning the interview process early in the fall.

The vacancy is already listed on the Presbyterian Church of Canada’s website and an ad will be carried in the June issue of the Presbyterian Record, and while 18 applications have already been received, many more are expected after the June Record is delivered.
There is a great deal of confidentiality associated with the search process, but as much as possible, the Knox congregation will be kept informed of developments over the next few months.

And while the search committee as approved by session was introduced to the congregation recently, for those not present at that time, that committee is made up of:
Gerry Craig, Gerry Dickkeboom, Gord Fergusson, Gwen Gayfer, Lynda Gowing, Janine Jaconelli, Haf Lewis, John McGibbon, Charlie Pearson, and Lynne Rutherford.

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.

Searching

Ministers are now preaching for a call in Knox Presbyterian Church. Next Sunday, Rev. A. A. Gibson, director of Religious Education, Knox Presbyterian Church, Toronto, will be the preacher at 11 a.m. and 7 p.m.

Now, before anyone thinks a step in the search process – or perhaps many steps – have been skipped over, readers should know that this was an item that appeared in the Burlington Gazette on Aug. 8, 1928.

That a newspaper would even give coverage to a Sunday service no matter the search process indicates a much different philosophy on news coverage back then. Then again, the lead item in that column indicated that Mr. Joseph Smith and family spent the holiday at Turkey Point. "Joe made a fine catch of perch and bass and our thanks are due him for a lovely bass."

Times and newspapers do indeed change, except Knox Church is yet again searching for a minister, with the process starting to take shape on several fronts, with the congregation asked to fill out Congregational Profile sheets, with the composition of the search committee starting to take shape and then with a workshop on March 3 entitled Knox Looks to the Future.

There were only about 40 people in attendance, but those attending learned about the search process, some history about the Presbyterian church, received an interesting perspective about why Presbyterian church membership has dropped steadily from a high of 500,000 in 1972, and also had a chance to really get to know others sitting around the tables.

While the names of the search committee will be revealed within the next few days, another step in the process has already been taken as the vacancy is now listed on the Presbyterian Church in Canada website, and there will be an advertisement relating to the vacancy in the June issue of The Record, the monthly magazine for the Presbyterian Church in Canada.  

And more,

• Representatives from the four Presbyterian churches in Burlington met recently to discuss the four-church picnic scheduled to be held at Crieff on June 17th. John McGibbon has seized upon this initiative and has been meeting with the other Presbyterian churches to make this event a reality, providing an opportunity for a joint worship service and a time of fellowship in a most unique setting. Church members received a questionnaire recently, and the results were forwarded to the committee so as to ascertain interest. A church service will still be held at St. Paul’s on that date, while the Knox session will consider whether to still hold a service for those members not attending the picnic.