1970s at Calvary


Calvary in the 1970s


The 1970s in Canada were, among other things, the decade of Pierre Trudeau, the FLQ crisis, Paul Henderson’s amazing goal, and the ‘76 Summer Olympics in Montreal, as well as the beginning of serious inflation worries and an increase in the number of women in the workforce. In the United States the Presidency of Richard Nixon captured the attention of the whole world. By 1975 the first “Baby Boomers” were turning 30, and it was predicted they would influence every aspect of society for the next 50 years.


When Dr. Dahms left Calvary in 1971 to become the principal at a college in Ohio, Reverend Bruce Seebach was called to Calvary Memorial from Linden Park United Church in Hamilton. Bruce was well-known within the former EUB community because of his 16 years of involvement as a camp director at Camp Yucacon for a week each year with his wife, Betty, who was the camp nurse for 4 years. When Bruce and Betty came to Calvary with their four young children they were excited to become part of the Calvary Memorial family.


Bruce set a relaxed and open atmosphere right from the beginning by asking the congregation to drop the “Reverend” and call him simply “Bruce”. He also asked to have the altar railing in front of the communion table moved to the back of the dais and the pulpit moved to the lower level, closer to the congregation. The congregation, however, still apparently wanted literally to look up to him and rejected that idea. Moving the railing back, however, created an open space on the lower riser where the children could come and sit beside their minister for a story and prayer before they left for Sunday School.


With the move to a very active church Bruce gave up directing summer camps but remained on the Hamilton Conference Camping Board. He had increasingly become aware of the number of people who were dealing with serious stress in their lives and turned his attention to counselling. Both he and Betty took advantage of the training offered at the Interfaith Pastoral Counselling Centre to gain counselling credentials which he achieved from the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapy.


A month after the Seebachs arrived, Reverend J.B. Moore became part of the ministerial team. He came from New Hamburg and quickly agreed that Calvary was as wonderful a congregation as he had he had been told. His gift for pastoral visitation was especially appreciated by shut-ins, seniors, and people in hospital.


A well-established camping program was a gift to the United Church from the EUBs. As early as the 1930s wise folks in the Canada Conference had seen the value of camping for children and were committed to being sure it was an experience available for all church children and youth. Did you know that in those early years the camp committee first had to find a suitable site to rent each year before there could be even the possibility of a camp? Eventually Silver Lake in the Goderich area and Golden Lake in the Ottawa Valley provided permanent camping locations.


Did you know that Camp Yucacon (named for Youth of the Canada Conference!) was the first camp to run co-ed programs, something new for church camping? An amazing 90 young people registered for the very first camp in 1936 and in 1959 the camps grew so large that 40 intermediate campers were bussed from southwestern Ontario to Round Lake in the Ottawa area. That was the lengths that supporters would go to make sure no child was deprived of a camping experience. If you ever went to Camp Yucacon, Incacon, or Chicacon you probably have vivid memories of the activities you participated in, the songs you sang, the skills you learned, the friends you made and the closeness you felt to God.


Even if life at Calvary seemed much the same after 1968, there were some adjustments to be made. A major change was moving from a structure in which a bishop made decisions for the denomination, to one in which considerable power was given to an elected Official Board in each pastoral charge. In 1972 thirty people sat on Calvary’s Official Board. Meetings required a double circle around the parlour to accommodate everyone.


In 1973, in light of union, the Personnel Committee was authorized to review the organizational structure of Calvary. The committee became the core of an Ad Hoc Study Group who met at Five Oaks to examine in depth the purpose, needs, strengths and weaknesses of Calvary. Goals, objectives, and plans were developed and given to church groups to study and implement. What a massive, but important undertaking!


However, the work wasn’t over yet. The report had to be presented for approval by the Official Board, Waterloo Presbytery, and finally an officially called meeting of the congregation. The Personnel Committee’s “reward” for doing all this work was to be asked to find people to fill all the positions they had created in the new structure!


It will be no surprise to hear that Calvary’s 50th anniversary celebrations were organized by Darcy Spencer and he would surely have liked to have seen his beloved church reach 100! The committee challenged each church group to take on a project from a list of 50 suggestions. Groups accepted the challenge enthusiastically and a year-long celebration involving all ages was a great success!


There were many other notable happenings in the 1970s.


Spring Alive was held for several years as a program designed to provide spiritual nurture. Lee and Irma Whiston led the program for two years. People marvelled at the energy they had to lead everything from a men’s breakfast to women’s coffee sessions to kids’ events. Lee also preached on Sunday and closed the weekend as the guest speaker at the final luncheon. Spring Alive was a revitalizing experience as its name suggested.


Missions continued to be generously supported. Calvary was accustomed to providing support for as many as six specific missionaries, but the United Church asked that an equal amount be given to the Missionary Fund so that all missionaries serving in the church were supported equally. Calvary honoured the request and doubled its contribution.


In 1975 Dr. Barbara Kellerman was commissioned for Home Missions and moved to Baie Verte in Newfoundland to serve United Church and stayed to work in the province for the rest of her professional career. When she retired she returned home to Calvary – and the choir loft!


Some relationships last a long time and such a one at Calvary began when a request was received from Recovery Inc. in 1975 asking to use space for their meetings. That relationship continued until the pandemic forced NA to find a new location in 2020. 45 years is a long time!


The most anticipated evening of every year was the night of the Christmas Candlelight service when the sanctuary in one afternoon was totally transformed by candles and flowers and garlands and angels. For a number of years chairs had to be put in the aisles to accommodate everyone who came. A service of special music and traditional words added to the splendor of the evening.


For many years the Christmas season ended with a New Year’s Eve potluck supper for the whole family which attracted over a 100 people who came to enjoy good food and good fun.


In 1979 Don Gingerich celebrated his 30th anniversary as Calvary’s organist and choir director by treating the choir to a candlelit dinner. How ironic that in 1949 Don had been hired with a one year contract to see if he would “work out”!


The Trustees were never without a problem to be solved but seemed to face each crisis with hope and faith and a plan! And the congregation responded with gifts of time, labour and contributions to various improvement funds.


For example, the Crusaders class undertook to renovate the vestry as an office for Betty Seebach who began working on the Calvary staff as a counsellor in 1975.


And if you have ever wondered why the Park Street and Choir entrances are panelled, it was because the paint in those areas was peeling and the solution was to put in a vapour barrier and panelling at both doors.


Missing and broken slates in the roof had to be replaced. The damage, of course, was greater than first imagined and far more costly. Calvary no longer has a slate roof!


About the same time flooding in Kellerman Hall was found to be a result of the drainage system malfunctioning. Repairs required digging a trench and replacing tiles.


Most urgently, the architecture of the 1950s which gave Kellerman Hall its impressive high ceiling became a major problem the late 1970s when it was clear the walls were beginning to spread apart and would need tie rods installed to keep them together. When you’re in Kellerman Hall and look a long way up, be grateful they are there.


Bruce valued the support of Reverend John Moore, and later Jean Kellerman as assistant ministers, Betty Seebach as a staff counsellor, and a number of students from Emmanuel College who benefitted from his mentoring them during the practicum portions of their programs. Throughout his years at Calvary Bruce consistently showed a commitment to being both a leader and a companion.


Although Bruce still jokes about his three point sermons, at the heart of his ministry there has always been a prayer that each person might grow spiritually in three ways, in relationship with self, with others, and with God – one step at a time.




Calvary in the 1980s

 

Since ancient Greek times we’ve been told that “everything changes except change itself”, and most of us have lived long enough to know that this is true. Considering that six ministers and associate ministers served at Calvary during the 1980s, it shouldn’t be surprising that it was a decade in which Calvary saw a great deal of change.

 

In the mid 1970s two new ideas were introduced to Calvary. The first was the concept of Wholistic Health. This was a time when a new understanding was developing about the complex relationship between a person’s body, mind, and spirit. That prompted some churches to take a fresh look at the preaching, teaching, and healing ministry of Jesus and wonder if a healing ministry could be part of a modern church’s total program. There were, in fact, examples of churches offering such integrated programs, and in 1980 a delegation from Calvary went to Chicago to see how one such wholistic program worked, and to determine whether such a program would be possible at Calvary. When they returned and discussed what they had learned, the final decision was “no” because of the facilities and the size of Calvary. However, the dream of having some sort of health ministry established at Calvary never died. Much later when folks from Zion brought to Calvary their dreams of funding a parish nurse ministry as a legacy from Zion, the dreams of two churches came together and created the excellent Health and Wellness Ministry now led by Gerti Emslie.

 

The other challenge to traditionally held views came from the United Church national office in a document called Membership, Ministry and Human Sexuality. Two statements in it, taken together, would make it possible for gay men and women to join the ministry.

Some churches chose to avoid discussing this highly controversial issue; however, with encouragement from the current minister, Bruce Seebach, the chair of the CD Committee called meetings to openly and respectfully examine the two statements. There was certainly disagreement and pain, and some people left the church because of the final decision; however, it seemed that for the most part the people participating in Calvary’s discussions worked hard to listen to each other and to understand what the reports were saying. At the 1988 Annual General Assembly of the United Church the two motions passed, but not without a lot of media attention which you may remember well.

 

In September 1988 the first issue of Calvary Comment was published and distributed to the congregation. It was designed to keep the congregation informed about the life of Calvary Church. Each issue was full of news about recent events like the fun-packed Labour Day weekend enjoyed at Five Oaks, as well as notices for upcoming events, and interviews with members of the congregation. Life at Calvary came alive on the pages of Calvary Comment in a way it never could in Minutes books or Annual Reports. Re-reading Calvary Comment 40 years later is great fun!

 

A new experience for Calvary in 1980 was sponsoring a refugee family from Vietnam. The Duong family arrived with four young children and were warmly welcomed by the congregation, especially by the two couples who helped them with the myriad of tasks associated with sponsoring a family. Finding an apartment for a refugee family of six wasn’t easy but, because of the generosity of Calvary folks, furnishing it was easier and a couple of evenings making it ready for them was fun. Anyone who was there will remember one very tall member of Calvary reaching up and painting the ceiling without needing so much as a footstool! Another kind member helped the family learn English and she became their “Grandma” forever. Two years later Lien Duong’s sister and her family of four arrived in Kitchener and Calvary extended the same warmth and generosity to them. The first evening the Nguyens were in Canada, the husband using his limited English said “thank you” to Calvary for giving his family “freedom”.

 

In 1982 when the Seebachs moved to Emmanuel Church in Hamilton, Reverend John McTavish, his wife Marion, and their three children moved to Kitchener from Bracebridge. They met many of the congregation at Five Oaks that Labour Day weekend so that by John’s first Sunday in church the McTavishes were already initiated into the Calvary family.

 

John’s particular passion was drama. He could fill any role – author, actor, director, producer, recruiter, promoter! How happy he must have felt when he learned that within a couple of months of his arrival there was a play to be presented, “A Carousel of Memories,” written, directed, and starring members of the True Friends Sunday School class in celebration of Calvary’s 60th anniversary.

 

John was a little anxious about being the first United Church-trained minister Calvary had had, and he moved slowly to introduce changes to the service. Eventually, more responsive readings, the greeting, and some unfamiliar liturgy like the Kyrie were added to the service and, in truth, these took some getting used to by the congregation.

 

On Maundy Thursday of 1983 the congregation experienced a dramatic presentation of the last days of Dietrich Bonhoeffer in a play written by John and his friend Judith Brocklehurst. The play’s powerful ending led the congregation right into a communion service, a deep, spiritually moving experience for all.

 

Later that year John announced that he planned to put on the musical Godspell. What?!

Godspell?! It was one thing for a group from the church to go to Toronto to watch a production, but to stage it in our church … that was a different matter! Headlines in Calvary Comment read, “What is a Nice Church like Calvary doing Putting on a Show like Godspell?! And after it was over almost everyone who saw it said that what it did was to make the gospel stories come alive! A total of 1700 people saw the play performed during 10 performances by two casts. What an experience for a “nice church like Calvary”!

 

Another dramatic surprise awaited us in 1985 when John and Judith once again collaborated to write a play, Skin Deep, about Martin Luther King and the Blacks’ struggle for equality in the 1960s. The real surprise was that John had contacted Martin Luther King’s daughter Yolanda King and had invited her to come to see a performance. And she had accepted! In February Yolanda spoke to a public gathering at Trinity United Church about her father’s work and legacy. The next day she was standing where I am now, in Calvary’s pulpit, delivering that day’s sermon. Amazing!

 

A drama group was formed and John’s plays were performed here at Calvary, at Hamilton Conference Annual meetings, and at several other churches and venues.

Jean Kellerman retired officially as Assistant Minister in 1986, although she was almost immediately “back in harness” (her phrase), helping to keep the church running before a new Assistant could be called. Did she ever really retire from the work she did at every level of the United Church? It seems not. For her faithfulness she was honoured with the title of Minister Emeritus at Calvary and was designated a Diaconal minister by the United Church of Canada. On Easter Sunday 1986 she expressed the honour she felt being invited to preach her final sermon at her home church, and the congregation expressed their deep gratitude for all she had done.

 

Meanwhile, the normal life of the church had to go on.

 

Do you remember the Task Force on Membership Renewal that attempted to identify what many saw as “something missing” from congregational life? The committee identified several factors and suggested some steps that might be taken to add spiritual depth to life at Calvary.

 

One suggestion was switching the times for worship and Sunday school so that each week at 10:00 John preached a sermon on the theme of “change” and immediately after, small, intergenerational groups met to discuss its ideas. The feedback was positive. People liked meeting new people and hearing the opinions of different generations, but it couldn’t replace the fellowship of regular classes.

 

Do you remember the Improvement Fund campaign that raised money for major building expenses so that these costs wouldn’t have to be paid out of the Trustees annual operating budget? Over a three-year period, the goal of raising $150,000 was surpassed and the Trustees were grateful!

 

Do you remember fundraising activities, including the True Friends’ salad luncheons, the Crusaders’ cookbook and the Christus Amigos’ gigantic garage sales? And how about the “Talent money” that, like the parable of the talents” was given to be “invested” in something, perhaps craft supplies, that would turn $10 into revenue for the church? That’s when we discovered that Calvary had many talents!

 

Following Jean’s retirement Katherine Edmonstone was called to be Calvary’s Assistant Minister. She and her daughter Sarah came to Calvary in July 1986 and they too were initiated into the Calvary family at Five Oaks. As well as visiting folks in hospital or homebound she began to work with the youth of the church giving energy and leadership to the Junior and Senior High fellowships, and to a group of young adults who wished for a discussion group. She even led a children’s choir. Katherine also perceived the need for a daytime group for people of retirement age, many of whom needed fellowship and possibly a hearty meal, especially if they lived alone. She began 55+ and it has been part of Calvary’s fellowship ever since.

 

In the 1987 annual report Katherine compared each person in the church to a piece of a mural, each bit having a significant part to play in the total church. During her short time with us she worked with children, youth, and adults to make sure each had opportunities to add to that mural.

 

In the 1980s many good things were happening at Calvary and yet, in 1987, problems, some stemming from the challenges of a team ministry, and complicated by the involvement of Waterloo Presbytery’s Ministry and Personnel committee, resulted in both ministers submitting their resignations effective at the end of June. In his annual report the Chairperson of the Board described life at Calvary as “unusual and unsettling” and sadly, it was.

 

However, as you will hear, changes at the end of the decade helped to give renewed purpose and direction to the 1990s.

 

 

 


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