Reverend Jane Howe has retired from her position as Minister of 22 years at St. Andrew’s United Church, North Bay.
The change of a ministerial team is a critical event in the life of any congregation. A Visioning Committee has been established to gather information and to discern what direction the church will go . The task of the Committee is to help our church define the congregation’s perceptions of itself, its strengths and weaknesses, its relative priorities, and suggestions for future direction.
The Visioning Committee’s terms of reference are:
- Determining how the congregation of St Andrew’s United Church views the Church now and what the congregation desires for the future.
- How the community at large views St Andrew’s United Church
- Review the St. Andrew’s Mission Statement
- Develop a Community of Faith Profile for St. Andrew’s and post it on The United Church of Canada Church Hub
- Develop a staffing profile for St. Andrew’s
The members of the visioning Committee are:
Pat Kirton-Bailey (Chair)
Kim Delarosbel (Secretary)
Jennifer Barnett
Bethany Brownlee
Olive Cote
Julia Morton
Margaret Reid
Kevin Smith
Derek Stott
Bill Ingwersen (Council Liaison)
The following letter was sent to the St. Andrew’s Congregation by Visioning Chair Pat Kirton-Bailey in early February, 2019
February 7, 2019
Dear members of our Church family,
We are working through the coming changes to our church as Reverend Jane moves to her retirement this year. Our first steps will be reaching out to you; the members and friends of St. Andrew’s to see what you feel should be the direction we take into the future.
In the past before the restructuring of the national church this work would have been performed by a “Joint Needs Assessment Committee” comprised of members from our church and appointees from the presbytery. The new configuration of the United Church which consists of regional councils has changed the way we will be dealing with our Pastoral Relations. The Regional Council for the Canadian Shield Region has appointed a Liaison Officer, Karen Brophy, who will act as a resource for us as we work through the new process. We are charged with developing a Community of Faith Profile which consists of a compilation of information describing what our church is. This includes such things as: our living faith story, demographics, financial viability, property etc. Once this profile has been completed we will bring it to the members for approval and then it will be downloaded to the Church Hub. This can be done in the form of a document, a list of facts, pictures or a series of videos, or any combination of all these.
At St. Andrew’s we have appointed a committee which we have titled the “Visioning Committee” to take on this important work. We have been meeting since November 2018, and try to meet every two weeks. We are reaching out to as many people who are connected to St. Andrew’s as possible, meeting with committees, external groups, the present staff etc.
We need your input. Soon we will be distributing surveys, both on paper and on the internet. Please take time to answer these surveys. We also hope to take some time at the AGM on Sunday, March 3rd to have some discussion on how we see the future of our church. Please mark the date.
Our Committee members are: Patricia Kirton-Bailey (Chair), Kim Delarosbel (Secretary), Kevin Smith, Bethany Brownlee, Olive Cote, Margaret Reid, Julia Morton, Derek Stott, and Jennifer Barnett. Please take time to talk to any of us if you have questions or concerns. You may also reach us by e-mail using the address: vision@standrews-northbay.ca .
We are also working with other members of our Church Council to ensure that we have a smooth transition period when Rev. Jane leaves us.
Yours in faith,
Patricia Kirton-Bailey
Chair, Visioning Committee