On Saturday, October 21, the Anglican Parish of St. Aidan and St. Bartholomew welcomed participants from St. Bart’s, St. Hilda’s-by-the-Sea, and Living Faith congregations to a Sunshine Coast Faith Community Stewardship Workshop presented by the Venerable Dr. Stephen Muir, Archdeacon of Capilano (the Anglican parishes of the Sunshine Coast are part of that Archdeaconry) and Rector of St. Agnes. It was also Archdeacon Muir's birthday.
The workshop focused on developing a culture of leadership in our worship communities. This means inviting members of the congregation to take a more active role in parish activities, donating time and talents to various endeavours. This helps build relationships and friendships within the faith community, while encouraging members to reach out with hospitality and care. One section that particularly stimulated discussion was stewardship “best practices.” As we completed the questionnaire exercises, we realized that we could all be doing more to build our foundation – and in the discussion that followed, we discovered we weren’t doing as badly with our resources as we thought. All of us felt there was work to be done to build our base, and all felt that this workshop provided good and useful tools to help us achieve that goal.
Participants were very grateful that the diocese developed this very condensed workshop – with start and end times dictated by the Sunshine Coast ferry schedule – so that all could attend easily and in comfort. (Many are unaware that a workshop in Vancouver starting at 9am requires Coast participants to be on the rise at 5am to be on the 6:20 ferry – the next sailing, at 8:20, is too late.) In the midst of the very intensive information session, we stopped to enjoy hearty and delicious homemade soup prepared by Rev. Brian Heinrich’s partner, Nathan Strijack. For this, too, we were very grateful!
Written by Heather Jeal
IMAGES
The Group Shot
Archdeacon Muir with a felt tip pen and flipchart.
PHOTOS Heather Jeal