The spiritual leader of the United Church of Canada is coming to Barrie Hill this fall.
On Oct. 16 the Right Reverend Jordan Cantwell will attend Sunday service to talk to the Barrie Hill United Church and celebrate its 184th anniversary. It’s been over 40 years since a moderator visited the church.
“All I can say is that nobody thought to ask her in the last 40 years,” said Reverend Lynn Hamilton. “Would she have come? I don’t know.”
Hamilton became the reverend for the Eramosa Pastoral Charge, including Barrie Hill and Speedside United Churches, about two years ago. Since then the churches have been upping their community outreach efforts.
“The Right Reverend Cantwell, the 42nd moderator, [is coming] here and I believe it’s partly because of the energy,” Hamilton said. “And she wants to see us and meet us and encourage us.”
Over the last two years the pastoral charge has revamped its vacation bible camp program in the summer, transforming it into the Eramosa GO Project Children’s Adventure Camp.
The new program took attendance from about 25 kids to more than 60 kids in just a year.
“It’s safe, it’s rooted in mission, taking care of the environment, taking care of your brother or sister, taking care of other people,” Hamilton said.
“And we take them on field trips to environmental things like the arboretum and different places.”
The camp costs $40 a child and no more than $80 a family. It takes place for a full week at the beginning of summer vacation and campers attend for full days if they’re in Grades 2 to 7 or for half days for students in junior kindergarten to Grade 1.
Pastoral charge administrator Marg Dunlop said one of the biggest changes she sees from when she first came to the church as a young child in the 1960s is the number of children attending Sunday service has fallen.
However, she said programs like GO camp are helping.
“I think it will encourage young families to see that the church still has a place in their lives and in their children’s future,” she said.
Another outreach program the pastoral charge is running is sponsoring a refugee family. Through fundraisers and donations the group has now raised enough money to bring a refugee family to Canada and is just waiting to be told who its family is.
“We got caught in the slowing down so we’re remaining faithful … that it will kick in, but we’ve raised the amount of money that we needed to raise, praise God, because it seemed daunting,” Hamilton said.
“We didn’t go into any of the church funds; we raised it separately, of course, we got donations from both churches and the people.”
Hamilton said she wrote to Cantwell about all the different programs her rural church is running and Cantwell chose to make Barrie Hill one of about two visits to the Hamilton conference over her three-year term.
“This is a special place where things are happening,” Hamilton said. “It’s vibrant.”
Cantwell will be speaking at the 10am service at Barrie Hill United Church on Oct. 16. Lunch will be served following the service.
“I’m looking forward to hearing her speak about where the church is going from here on,” Dunlop said.
“And you know we know about our past but I’d like to hear what she has to say about the future.”
At 12:30pm visitors will be given the opportunity to participate in a “circle” in the church’s basement where they can ask Cantwell whatever they want.
“There’ll probably be some people show up … that challenge maybe her position or her sexuality … we don’t know or maybe it will be all love and peace,” Hamilton said.
“I don’t know, but that will happen downstairs after lunch and then it will all be over (by) 1:30 (or) 2(pm).”
All are welcome to attend the service.
“She’s an inspired preacher and a special person so I’m really glad she’s coming,” Hamilton said. “We couldn’t believe it when she accepted.”
Looking to the future, the pastoral charge is planning to hold a Messy Church Friday night worship service once a month from 5:30 to 7pm. The first will be held on Oct. 28.
“We’re going to eat and we’re going to have some tables set up for kids, young adults, anyone … and we’re going to talk about one of the Bible stories very short in a way I think that’s more understandable than reading scripture to people,” Hamilton said.
“We’re going to feed them shepherd’s pie and salad and we’re going to do it one Friday night a month from now on.”
The 184-year-old church has gone through a number of changes over the years, not the least of which is changing denominations from Presbyterian to United. Hamilton said the changes that are occurring now stem from a long-standing tradition.
“The idea is that there’s always been change and there’s always been challenge … there had to be learning edges or leaps of faith associated with that,” she said.
“So we’re just continuing on a long tradition of staying grounded in our foundation but also exploring new ways to serve and live our faith.”
