A Report on the meeting of Yellowhead Presbytery
Athabasca - February 19-21, 2004

Thursday, February 19

"Towards New Relationships with First Nations Peoples"

Imagine 40 people from all walks of life and a variety of cultural backgrounds (12 with First Nations heritage), from Hobbema to Saddle Lake, from Slave Lake to Edson, from Leduc to Fort McMurray sitting in one of four circles in the Athabasca United Church. Alice Baron of Athabasca graciously had prayerfully led us in a smudging ceremony to prepare us to be open the Great Spirit and to each other. Floyd Steinhauer of Goodfish Lake had explained the strengths and colours of the four directions that were represented by candles set in a circle on a table in the sanctuary. He also reminded us of the angels that are sent to us to guide our thinking, our seeing, our hearing, our speaking, and our acting from the heart. Hosts for the day, Cecile Fausak and Bruce Jackson, also led in prayer, explaining the use of the talking stick in the circles, and reviewing the dehumanizing assumptions about First Nations peoples and their cultures that comprised the doctrine of assimilation (from Mandate, p.10, Feb. 2003) which has led to much brokenness, pain and separation, and our need for healing today.

In the afternoon circles, whoever held a talking stick or feather or stone, spoke from the heart about their experiences of meeting people from the other culture, and about their knowledge of native residential schools. In each circle, there was at least one survivor of a residential school. The circles nurtured respect and safety, and created an unhurried sense of time. For many, this was the first occasion they had personally heard a survivor tell some of their story. It was not easy listening. A long break followed to give people a chance to walk to the hills on a beautiful day, visit the Athabasca Native Friendship Centre, to talk some more, to take quiet time, or perhaps to peruse a handout on how to use the power of lament to move us beyond denial and guilt.

Before supper we gathered to sing, to pray some psalms of personal and communal lament, including a modern contextualized version of Psalm 137 "By the river Athabasca, we sat down and wept when we remembered..." (from p.17, Toward Justice and Right Relationship: A Beginning: a resource for congregations, United Church of Canada). We also watched a video clip featuring former Moderator Stan McKay as he reflected on lamentation, or sitting in the darkness, and compares this to the church tradition of Lent. Stan identifies that "one of the dilemmas with engaging in reconciliation is that we need to respond from the heart, but we don’t always know how; ultimately, it will only be with God’s grace. Spiritual formation teaches us that we must be in touch with the emotional in order to access our spiritual selves. Sometimes that entails sitting in the darkness until we open ourselves to God’s light." Before supper, Aujke Binnema of Lac La Biche, led us in a meditation, helping us to connect once again to Mother Earth.

After a feast of moose stroganoff, buffalo roast and sausages, wild rice casserole, and all the trimmings, we entered our sharing circles again. This time, as the talking stick passed to the left, thoughts were offered on "how we respond" and "what’s the next step." Not enough can be said about the need to continue to listen to the stories of pain, and to really feel it. There was deep gratitude for the courage that it takes for survivors to share their stories. The church needs to "take responsibility", be persistent and patient in reaching out and understanding, and commit time and resources to this journey of healing "for the sake of the world." For many, the next step is not entirely clear. One elder reminded us to pray to be guided further. Another survivor encouraged us to continue to meet in small circles, even 2-3 people, to continue to build the relationships that were begun today, with the assurance that the circle would get larger and stronger.

Perhaps, one response already, was the presentation of a talking stick to Yellowhead Presbytery (it was made by Thelma Flemmer of the Athabasca United Church) and its use in a circle around the sanctuary at the close of the Presbytery meeting - never before have so many participated so deeply in the time of theological reflection! We are grateful to First Nations for the gift of the way of the sharing circle.

Reporter: Cecile Fausak

 

Presbytery Meeting - Friday, February 20

Opening Worship: The meeting began with worship led by the Chair, Tammy Allan as she invited us to open ourselves more intentionally to the ways in which the Spirit is speaking to us. This included a short discussion in small groups based on the hope and challenge offered in a number of short verses from the gospel sayings of Jesus.

Welcome: Official welcomes were received from Doug Kariel, past chair of the Athabasca United Church board, from Cecil Lewis who shared some of the history of Athabasca United Church, including a story about her baptism and the baptism of her siblings. A mix up in names of the six children resulted in having Dorothy as the last child to be baptised, but with only the name Samuel remaining! An official welcome to Athabasca was offered by Tim Busch, the deputy mayor.

Announcements: Northern Regional Event - St. Albert, May 14-16 with Janet Wolf and Moderator, Peter Short. There is room to feed one hundred and fifty people, so please register early. Sheila Dunbar also announced a women’s retreat she is leading: The Spirit in Me Greets the Spirit in You. March 19-20. More information at 780-418-7231.

Conference Regional Development Co-ordinator - Pat Bourque mentioned how good it was to see so many new faces. Reflecting on the events of the previous day, she mentioned that it is part of weaving a story. A handout on the new structure of the General Council offices was distributed. She also mentioned working with the Church in the World division by providing information from the Justice, Global and Ecumenical Relations group. Don’t forget relationships with Refugee people - resources are available in Pastoral Charges and from the national Church. "Lead 2004" a national Worship event will take place in Banff with the Moderator in attendance. Look for info! Pat also described her ‘suitcase’ of resources. In particular she mentioned Completing the Circle and Holy Conversations as resources that will help with strategic planning and visioning in congregations. The World Parliament of Religions takes place in July in Barcelona. It includes a workshop offered by the Edmonton Interfaith Centre titled "Northern Lights".

Banff Men’s Conference: A group consisting of Clayton McWhirter, Alvin Chambers, Blaine Gregg and Kent Horsman with technical help from Peter Chynoweth made a presentation promoting the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Banff Men’s Conference October 15-17, 2004.

Executive Secretary Lynn Maki addressed the court with some information reminding us of the structure of Alberta and Northwest Conference which consists of a focus on: Healthy Congregations, Effective Ministry and Strong Public Witness. With a story about Authority and how it can be effectively developed, Lynn invited us to consider unilateral authority, dialogical authority and sacramental authority as we went into our division meetings. She also reminded us of the Celebration of Ministry service which will take place as part of the Central Regional Event in Red Deer on June 6 at 11:00 a.m. Walter Farquharson is the Theme Speaker at this event.

Division Reports

Stewardship - Karen Gusek and others reported that they had fun, ate candy and had many "aha" moments during their division meeting. Some ‘aha’ moments: Yellowhead Presbytery met the overall commitment to Mission and Service in 2003. Make note of the Kananaskis Stewardship Event "Gratitude for Grumpy Times" with Mary Jo Leddy. Send a photo for possible inclusion as a bulletin cover and if successful, contribute the earnings to M & S. All but two Pastoral Charges in Yellowhead Presbytery have M & S Enthusiasts - can we make it 100%? They also shared some awareness/education items: M & S offerings should be kept in a separate account. M & S offerings should be forwarded each month. It is illegal to withhold funds contributed to the M & S to cover local expenses on a temporary basis. The report ended with the members of the division singing about Stewardship to the tune of "Part of the Family".

Finance - Stephen Sparks called upon Leslie Penny, who reported on a request for a Mission Support grant from Hinton pastoral charge. The recommendation was to not approve the request based on the possibility of other sources of funding at the current time. Alistair MacKay of Property led us in a consideration and approval of the sale of Thorhild United Church with proceeds to be held in trust with a review in two years of how the funds will be used. Treasurer Lilley Glebe reported that we finished 2003 with a healthy surplus. Her recommendations were to pay back $3000 to the Personnel Emergency Fund. A further amount slightly more than $3000 collected on behalf of the South African Street Kids project will be remitted (see the Church in the World report). A deficit budget was also passed, as a way of using the surplus funds and not incurring additional assessments from pastoral charges.

Ministry Personnel and Education - Pastoral Oversight: The following pastoral charges are due for a presbytery visit: Rainbow, Morinville, Telfordville, Josephburg, Andrew. Education and Students: Val Ellis, Wendy Galloway, Maureen Wood-Engerdahl and Murray Speer are all in the discernment process. A request from Ian Otterbein to be removed from the candidacy process was approved. Craig Nelson and Leila Currie continue as Candidates for Ministry. Marjorie Steele is a Lay Pastoral Minister in Training. A request from Grande Cache to be recognised as a Learning Site was approved. Fourteen people from Yellowhead Presbytery are currently taking the Licensed Lay Worship Leader course. Pastoral Relations - Joint Needs Assessment reps were appointed for Grande Cache. Request from Michael Chandoo to postpone retirement was approved. Transfer of David Crombie to St. Paul Presbytery was approved. A one-time license for Phylis Lyster to perform a marriage was approved in the absence of anyone else nearby with a License to Marry. A request for a change in Pastoral Relationship from Tom Sawyer was accepted and a Joint Needs Assessment for South Cooking Lake was established. Marjorie Steele was appointed as Lay Pastoral Minister in Training with the Westlock Pastoral Charge. A review process under Section 333 of the Manual was approved for Hinton. Appreciation was expressed for Phylis Lyster who is currently supervising a second internship in Grande Cache.

Report of the Chairperson: Tammy Allan announced that the President of Conference, Doug Coubrough will be present at the next meeting of Yellowhead Presbytery in Devon in April. Highlight tapes from past summer’s General Council are available from her. The address of the Conference web site has changed to:

anw.united-church.ca

She also noted correspondence concerning a Visioning Workshop for Youth and Young Adult Ministry (YAYAM) and regarding Camping Standards. Other correspondence from the Privacy Working group with regard to impacts on the church of recently enacted privacy legislation. Highlights from the Conference Executive meeting: YAYAM needs places to hold youth rallies over the next couple of years. Edmonton Presbytery is researching license requirements for the airing of videos with youth groups and church study groups. The current wisdom is that if no admission is charged then the practice is acceptable. Tammy has represented or will represent the presbytery at many covenanting services, and she appreciates others who have filled in for her when she has been unable to attend. It was agreed by presbytery members that we will offer to host the Annual Meeting of Conference in May 2005!

Church Camps - an energetic, searching discussion was held with respect to the United Church Camps in Yellowhead Presbytery. A short summary of this discussion is that unless the camps receive more input and assistance from congregations and unless the congregations have more input and information from the camps, the future of camping in Yellowhead Presbytery is uncertain or unclear. Further discussion will continue at upcoming meetings of the Presbytery.

Saturday, February 21

Worship and Communion: The second day of this meeting of Yellowhead Presbytery began with Worship and Communion led by Cecile Fausak, Bruce Jackson and others from the Athabasca Pastoral Charge and Yellowhead Presbytery. The theme of worship was built around the theme, experience and learnings of Thursday’s event.

Division Reports continued.....

Church in the World - Bruce Jackson led us in the approval of a change in the disbursement of funds collected for the South African Street Kids project. Because of concerns about accountability and the lack of success in contacting those responsible for this project it was agreed that the funds would instead be sent to support the Beads of Hope campaign of The United Church of Canada. A letter to the East Central Health Authority and the Minister of Health regarding the delayed opening of a Brain Injury Unit at the Lamont Health Centre was approved. The Board of the Lamont Health Centre will be contacted before the letter is sent. Tin a Mix shared reflections from Thursday’s event and how it has affected her thinking. She was followed by a number of others who shared some insights and learnings from Thursday and other experiences. It was pointed out that the Beads of Hope campaign raised over one million dollars in less than a year, but the Healing Fund has not yet raised one million dollars in over five years! Other items mentioned included: Uphold the Canadian Foodgrains Bank on May 2, which provides information on empowering ways to work with poverty and injustice in the Dominican Republic. Information was shared about the collection of dollars and signatures for the Beads of Hope campaign and petition. Many hundreds of dollars and over one thousand signatures have been collected for the petition within Yellowhead Presbytery. A "Teaching Peace" conference will be held in Athabasca November 11-13, 2004. Contact Athabasca United Church for more information.

Communication - Peter Chynoweth reported that records and books were inspected for Grande Cache, Hinton, Jasper, Onoway, Grizzly Trail, Leduc, Morinville and Moose Hill pastoral charges. Retired and retained order of ministry folks can contact the Conference office and the General Council office to request being put on the address list for mailings. The division of communication will co-ordinate a process of collecting and sharing information about the requirements for a pastoral charge that has offered to host a meeting of presbytery. The division will also put together a comprehensive contact list for pastoral charges and presbytery delegates that includes the preferred method of contact, whether it be by email, fax or postal mail. The presbytery now has its own domain name and hosted web: yellowheadpresbytery.org You can be provided with an email address or redirect based on this domain name. This might be a way to receive email if you don’t already have an address. Presbytery Prattle will be available very soon after this meeting of the Presbytery. Bret Shuck still has some T-shirts available and will look after new orders if there is enough demand.

Christian Development - Natalka Dreichel introduced Agnes Buchanan who reported on the Yellowhead UCW Presbyterial. The Yellowhead Presbyterial Annual Meeting will take place at Providence Centre on February 28 and 29 with leadership from Phyllis Greenslade and Audrey Mitchell. Agnes also gave information on the Conference Presbyterial Annual Meeting. This is Agnes’ last meeting as the representative from the Yellowhead UCW Presbyterial. Thanks Agnes for your presence, skills and abilities. We’ll miss you!

The CD Division had a nibble with respect to the opening for a Youth Co-ordinator, but it didn’t work out. The Junior High Youth Rally will be held in Calgary with the theme "It Ain’t Hip to Be a Christian". A bus might be going from our Presbytery. If you are interested please speak to Sharon Foster in the Evergreen Pastoral Charge by March 15. The YAYAM Visioning Day will take place on March 6 at St. Andrew’s United Church in Lacombe from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. This group focuses on the 18-30 age range. Please contact Jen Dresser at for more information. Natalka also highlighted information from Denise Davis-Taylor of Campus Ministry. Perhaps you could invite Denise to speak at a local event or during worship. The CD Division is not recommending a particular Vacation Bible School (VBS) programme this year. They are interested in your experiences with various VBS programmes. The Division also approved seven applications for Lifelong Learning. More information was shared about Camping within the Presbytery. The Alberta Camping Association will be holding a Camping Standards Workshop on March 26-28 at Bragg Creek. The United Church is offering a subsidy to allow for increased attendance by United Church Camps. Upcoming Camp Board meetings are: March 21, 12:00 p.m. in Edson for Surprise Lake Camp and March 23, 7:00 p.m. in Westlock for Camp Mackinicholea. A work day for Camp Mackinicholea will take place on May 8. Watch for more information about a work day at Surprise Lake Camp. A reminder that the last Sunday in April is designated as National Camping Sunday - try something creative to recognise the importance of camping in the Christian Development program of our church.

New Business: A discussion with regard to the letter from the Bissell congregation at Andrew was held. Their letter concerned the decision made at General Council with respect to same-gender marriages. A decision was made to conduct a pastoral oversight visit to Andrew with the issue of their letter as one of the items to be discussed during visit.

The next meeting of Yellowhead Presbytery is in Devon on April 20 and 21. Please be reminded that this will be a "Scent Free" meeting because of an extreme allergy of a staff member at the Devon church.

Presbytery meeting reporter:
Peter Chynoweth
Division of Communication