On November 13, 2021, approximately 100 people participated in our day of encouragement and renewal. This in itself was encouraging! It was a day of worship, prayer, teaching, and discussion organized in partnership with Vaughan Community Church (VCC), an Eastern Han-Ca congregation.
The keynote speaker was Rev. Dr. Dale Woods, Presbyter of Vision and Mission for the Presbytery of Westminster and former principal of Presbyterian College Montreal. His presentation, “Six Stages of Faith,” was an exploration of personal levels or experiences of faith throughout life. Dale’s presentation was augmented by video clips, music and small-group discussion.
Videos from the six breakout workshops are presented on their own, following the Main Session video below.
The main session begins at the 0:00:38 mark (38 seconds in) and includes the keynote speaker, worship led by Ken Michell, and greetings from Rev. Dr. Dan Scott, the moderator of the PCC.
We were similarly blessed with six gifted workshop leaders.
Kristy Short of Alpha Canada: “Engaging evangelism in a COVID World, which has been turned upside down.”
Rev. Dr. Christine O’Reilly: “Salt and Light – church court strategies post-Remits “B” and “C” – pragmatic ways to uphold the Scriptures and the Book of Forms.”
Rev. Doug Cameron and Rev. Cathi Cameron: “Grieving to live – many of us need to engage the loss in order to regain vitality to minister.”
Rev. Dr. Esther Acolatse, Professor of Pastoral Theology and Intercultural Studies, Knox College, Toronto, Ontario: “Recovering the joy – many of us are feeling beaten down, so how do we rekindle the hope?”
Youth pastors Shane Davis from Lakeshore St. Andrew’s, Windsor, Ontario, and Jon Dykeman from St. Andrew’s, Moncton, New Brunswick – “Youth/young adult ministry – how to engage and encourage.”
Cory McKenna of The Cross Current: “Whither our culture – how do we walk as followers of Christ in an increasingly secular world?”
Joo Hyun Chung, of Vaughan Community Church, and Rev. Jin-sook Khang, Associate Pastor at VCC, were busy behind the scenes.
Rev. John Park, a member of the RF board, was our tech host
Here’s some participant feedback:
“The conference was excellent. I enjoyed it all and was blessed.”
“The presentations were excellent, needed and on target.”
“Opening worship a good start to the day. Dale: really inspired by this and look forward to reviewing his slides. Was assigned to Christine O’Reilly’s workshop and found her insights very helpful.”
“Thanks so much to you, the organizing team, and Vaughan Community Church for a wonderful day of encouragement yesterday. It was good to gather together with other PCC folk on the more traditional side of the denomination, to know that we are not alone in the struggle within our denomination.”
“The enthusiasm of Kristy Short was contagious!
“Whither our Culture workshop was a very good presentation in that it helped open our eyes to the challenges of sharing the gospel in our culture today.”
“It was wonderful. The entire event was excellent in every way. I feel encouraged and strengthened. Thank you!”
“This was a great day. Yes do this again.”
“All portions of the opening worship were inspiring. It was good to have the moderator deliver remarks and the laying of hands and prayer for him were most appropriate.”
“Really liked the leader for the worship – excellent song choices – really felt drawn into meaningful worship – thank you so much! Should we do something like this again? Definitely – the coast to coast attendance is very good.”
Our next large gathering will likely be our Annual General Meeting and Renewal Day on April 30, 2022.
As well, we are tentatively planning an event for pastors only in the autumn of 2022. Details to be decided.