AnniversarySunday - Richmond Melbourne Pastoral Charge

Anniversary Sunday 2010

On Sunday June 6^th we celebrated the 85^th Anniversary of the United Church of Canada as well as the 172^nd Anniversary of Richmond Melbourne United Church.

For the 85^th Anniversary of the United Church of Canada we were paired with two other United Church congregations; Trinity United Church in Vernon BC and Leaside United in central Toronto .

Bill, Joyce and Jim Stevens visited Trinity United in Vernon on Anniversary Sunday and were warmly welcomed. We were happy to have the opportunity to send our anniversary greetings and best wishes through the Stevens family.

Letters of Greetings were exchanged by Leaside United and Richmond Melbourne United and read in both congregations during our anniversary celebrations. The Reverend John G. Smith of Leaside United was a ministry intern in our pastoral charge in the early 1980’s!

If you would like to learn more about these two churches links have been added on the side bar on your left.

172nd Anniversary of Richmond Melbourne United Church

Our guest speaker,Lee Ann Hogle, has gone forth from this congregation to study and prepare for a life in the ministry of The United Church of Canada. It was a pleasure to welcome her back for this service.

The sanctuary was beautifully decorated with help from our youth who painted doors.

In addition to the doors the young people also drew pictures for the wall

Following the service we headed downstairs to enjoy a delicious Pot Luck Lunch.

Here is Ray loading up a plate

Grace and Elaine... two of our great cooks.

Our anniversary cake was made by Sharon Bean. Sharon is an artist! What a beautiful image of our church.

Special Music was provided fotr the service by Keith Whittall, Victoria Moulton, Lois Fowler, Shanna Bernier and Charlotte Griffith.

This theme was inspired by the book "Doors" by Joyce Rupp

I think we have the best cooks in all of Christiandom!

Back to the table to enjoy his dessert!

Lee Ann catching up on local happenings...

Rev. Valérie cutting the cake

Letter From Leaside United Church, Toronto

On behalf of the congregation of Leaside United Church, blessings and greetings to you and yours!

We are excited to be able to participate in the 85^th Anniversary Making Connections program, and pleased that you are one of our partners! We’ve also been paired up with a church in rural Ontario, so this really is a trans-Canadian experience.

Our minister Rev John Smith was at one time a ministry intern (summer internship) at your charge in the early 1980’s. He speaks fondly of his time with your people, though of course it has been a long while since then!

Our congregation sits on a beautiful site in the middle of a subdivision of Toronto, Leaside. Way back when the United Church itself was becoming a reality, our community was being surveyed and divided; most of the homes from that time period are still here. Our church was built right in a central place; we have a baseball diamond across the street, and a library just down the road. Many of our members walk to church on Sundays, so it really is a neighbourhood church.

Of course we have the same challenges we all face in the church. But we are faithfully looking forward to a future with hope and trust, knowing that God never gives up on the Church, and trusting in God’s Spirit to renew and rejuvenate as needed.

We would like at this juncture to offer you our love and our blessing, and to confirm that we would like to continue to partner with you in some way. We’d like to think that together as family, we can do great things in ministry, both in our churches and in our world. To that end, we would offer a continuation of this “making connections” program, and will follow up with you in the fall, perhaps with a view to doing something more tangible together.

In the meantime, we wish you well, and offer you our best hope for a wonderful celebration of our great United Church family this coming Sunday. (We will be celebrating on Sunday June 13).

Shalom and God bless,

Rev. John G. Smith Dick Cowan

Minister Chair of Church Council