Calvary in the 2010s and Beyond

If it's possible for a church to have a family reunions, then Calvary surely hosted one as it moved from the 2000s into the 2010s.

When a vote was held in 1997 to determine whether there would be an amalgamation between Bridgeport United and Calvary, the proposal failed to get 60% support from the Bridgeport congregation. Nevertheless, twenty-four people from Bridgeport decided they wished to join Calvary. That meant that Calvary had a different future than the one it had expected. Although at the beginning of the decade it had seemed clear that a second minister was needed to share the workload, without a full amalgamation it wasn’t financially possible to continue with the current staff of one full-time and one half-time ministers. Presbytery was consulted and decided that the situation should be treated as if an amalgamation had taken place which meant our current two ministers were expected to resign. Both Terry Dunseith and Yun-Hee Noh-Perry did so with grace. It was recommended that an Interim minister be called to help the congregation deal with its disappointments and changes.

Other Kitchener United churches were also facing a loss of membership and regretting the need to put all their resources into their building rather than outreach. Zion United, the church that had endowed Calvary with such a wonderful building, was one congregation that realized they had too large a building to maintain by themselves and after exploring their options reached out to have conversations with other United Churches.  When many folks from Zion made the decision to transfer their memberships to Calvary, their “daughter”, Calvary, welcomed them.

Olivet United Church was in a similar situation, feeling its building required more renovations and upkeep than the congregation could provide. It had begun as an Evangelical Association Sunday School in the east side of Kitchener, also with support from Zion. Olivet had had a long-range plan for the future of their building but when that plan fell through, amalgamation discussions began with two United Churches, St. James~Rosemount and Calvary, that were situated about equal distance from Olivet, but in opposite directions. The final decision was to dissolve the congregation and let people go individually where they wanted.

And so it happened that, in less than a decade, members from four churches with a shared heritage came together as a re-united family, worshipping and serving God together.

When Terry Dunseith and Yun-Hee Noh-Perry requested changes in pastoral relations, Calvary sought an Interim minister to help it through unusual times.  Reverend Lynne Bandy was recommended to the search committee as someone who, although she didn’t have the Interim Ministry training, had all the skills needed to fill the role. After more than 20 years as minister to the Rockwood and Stone congregations near Guelph, she began her ministry at Calvary in November 2010. She was initially designated as an “supply minister”, with the understanding that she could be a candidate for the permanent vacancy after the regulation Interim time was over. The congregation enjoyed Lynne’s worship services and in particular the time she spent visiting with the children at the front of the church before they went to Sunday School. The children’s chatter always brought smiles to the adults’ faces.

There were even more smiles the Sunday that Lynne and the Director of Music, Martin Wall, collaborated to present a Beatles worship service, weaving together Beatles’ songs, performed by Martin and his band, with spiritual reflections on the songs’ words, presented by Lynne. It was so popular that there was an equally successful repeat of the service a year later!

However, nothing stays the same forever and in 2015 Martin Wall resigned as Music Director to explore other career options. Today the fine music legacy that Calvary inherited from our past musicians has continued with the hiring of a Music Team consisting of Kirby Julian, Barb Julian, and Emily Roe. Together they play a variety of instruments, primarily strings and keyboard, and conduct the choir which, despite being smaller since the pandemic, sounds as fine as ever.

As required by all churches during an Interim period, a Transition Team was established to provide support for both the Interim Minister and the congregation as they reviewed the past and planned for the future. Lynne and this team worked well together and didn’t feel the need for a Planning and Coordinating committee.

One of the Transition Team’s first initiatives was to develop a list of Core Values and Bedrock Beliefs to replace the Statement of Purpose. The congregation appreciated that a lot of time went into creating these lists but there was, at the same time, a feeling of the loss for the 1989 Statement of Purpose which had provided a way of determining whether decisions being made and actions being taken were true to Calvary’s reason for being. Today both documents are honoured and you will find them published together in places like our annual reports.

Another initiative that was developed within the Transition Team and brought to the Official Board and the congregation for final approval included studying and recommending a variation of the Carver Model of Governance created for churches by the Rev. Dr. Thomas Bandy, Lynne’s husband, to reduce the size of the Official Board and increase the efficiency of the governance process. As soon as it received approval, the former Board was dismissed and a new Official Board initially consisting of six people was installed. This major change in structure naturally raised some serious concerns but, on the other hand, there was a willingness to try something new. Although several years have passed since it was adopted, the changes have yet to be evaluated, especially because of the pandemic that has disrupted church life since 2020.

Zion United Church, which was so generous to Calvary in its beginning, almost a hundred years later brought to Calvary another valuable gift. Money from the sale of their building was designated to the “new” Calvary in part for the purpose of establishing a Parish Nurse program. The revival of a Health and Wellness Committee and the hiring of Gerti Emslie as Calvary’s Parish Nurse was literally a dream come true for Calvary by adding a healing ministry to its teaching and preaching ministries. Gerti was a Registered Nurse with years of valuable experience in many facets of health care, including Parish Nursing. Her enthusiasm and skill in setting up the program was exceptional.

Gerti worked closely with the dedicated Pastoral Care team to identify the members of the congregation who would benefit from the care she could offer them, and with the Health and Wellness Team to identify and facilitate services that would benefit the whole congregation. Thursday dinners began with 60 or more folks once a month enjoying a three-course dinner prepared by the Health and Wellness Team for $10.00 a plate. Dinner was followed by a guest presenting information about some aspect of health or wellness. These dinners helped to unite the enlarged congregation by bringing together folks who might otherwise not have gotten to know each other. An equally popular ministry of the Health and Wellness Team was the periodic “Souper Sundays” when large pots of soups of every sort were served instead of coffee after worship. Frozen containers of soup are still always available at a very reasonable cost and periodically are delivered along with other treats to folks who can’t get out to church to enjoy them.

Gerti formed a Pandemic Response Team as soon as the seriousness of the Covid 19 virus was realized and has kept the congregation up to date on all the information available about Covid and vaccinations since then. Recommendations for staying safe during Covid have been passed to the congregation through frequent newsletters from Gerti, each containing comforting thoughts as well as vital health information.

After eight years at Calvary, Lynne Bandy retired at the end of December 2018. Rob Parr provided excellent lay leadership on Sunday mornings until Reverend Lilian Mattar Patey, a minister with previous interim ministry experience, accepted a two-year supply appointment to give Calvary time to conduct another Needs Assessment, to form a search committee, and to call Calvary’s next minister. Unfortunately for Lilian, she had barely begun her ministry with us when the pandemic disrupted everything. Time to implement plans she might have had was cut very short, as was the congregation’s opportunity to get to know her, and learn about her life in Palestine, and the journey that eventually brought her to Canada.

When we could no longer worship in person Lilian found herself, like ministers everywhere, having to learn to conduct services, deliver sermons, and lead daily gatherings and Bible studies via Zoom and YouTube. Volunteers videotaped the weekly worship services and carefully cut and spliced the sections of tape into a smooth single tape for viewing on Calvary’s YouTube channel. The services were at first led by Reverend Lilian and, when her period of supply ministry ended in May 2021, by two active retired ministers with valued connections within the congregation, Reverend Marilyn Barnard and Reverend Bev Williams. We were grateful to them for their leadership and for the music provided by the Music Team and two volunteer soloists, John Roe and Marielle Burton.

In September 2020 a search committee was formed and given the initial task of conducting yet another Needs Assessment before the search for a new minister could begin. In the spring of 2021 when the new minister was first named to congregation the news came as a surprise to many members who didn’t need an introduction because Tim had been their minister at Zion in the 1970s! Like Lilian he felt hampered in getting to know the entire congregation because of the pandemic; however, in a short time he upgraded the videos presented on YouTube to live-streaming which has made it possible for everyone to participate in Sunday morning services. Keeping up with changing technology seems to have become a required skill on ministers’ resumes!

Many thanks are due to a small group who came together despite the pandemic to make 2022 a year of celebration through several special events and projects.  For our Anniversary Weekend in October, Calvary was honoured with a visit from the General Secretary of the United Church of Canada, Reverend Michael Blair, who spoke at an open forum on Saturday, delivered the sermon on Sunday and afterwards joined us as a guest at our 100^th Anniversary luncheon. 2022 has indeed been a memorable year!

A Post Script

I hope that these monthly highlights and bits of trivia culled from the church’s accumulation of minutes and annual reports, Calvary Comments, newspapers, magazines, histories, monthly denomination publications and keepsakes of every sort, have given you a feel for Calvary Memorial United Church which has stood in this spot in Kitchener for 100 years. And when you enter the light-filled sanctuary, I hope you will pause to think of all the people who have come here during the past 100 years to worship, and to learn, to feel inspired, or comforted, or loved, or challenged. or simply accepted as part of a spiritual community. This has been Calvary’s gift to our community since 1922.