Between May 26 and June 10 members of Faith, Grace, St. John’s, and Transfiguration congregations gathered to share their hopes and ideas for the future. There was a very high level of participation in this Bible study-based amalgamation exploration process in each of the 4 congregations. Inspired by the picture of the early church as described in Acts 2:41-47, people took the opportunity to think about the future of Lutheran ministry and mission in Hamilton. Our facilitators Janet Marshall and Ron Ewart collected the feedback and new ideas received at these group discussions and wrote up the attached summary. Today, the Amalgamation Working Group shares the summary with you as it represents your voice in the amalgamation process. Please take some time to read the attached. You might recognise your own input! We also invite “feedback on the feedback.” Please let us know, preferably in writing, which of the new ideas you like in particular or if someone else’s comment resonates with you. Please submit your feedback to any of your congregational delegates by August 15. All feedback will be submitted to Janet and Ron who will then present it to us at a meeting scheduled for Sunday, September 16 at 1:30 pm at St. John’s. If you have any questions, please speak with a delegate or your pastor. Thank you for being part of the discussions in May and June and for your feedback on this summary. What you have to say is very important for the amalgamation process. While there were groups discussing each of the 6 ministry categories, the most interest was in categories of (a) forming and sustaining community within the church, (b) outreach and social justice, and (c) evangelism: inviting, welcoming and including people into the church. Worship, fellowship and pastoral care, and teaching and learning garnered the least interest for different reasons. • For worship, there was a sense was that both what was happening now was meeting the needs of your current members well. People are satisfied. This being said, there was strong recognition that you need to diversify worship and music if you are to grow. • People generally feel that you are doing pastoral care well. • For teaching and learning, there is a sense that this mostly happens in worship. Others see that learning happens in all activities. So, there is a sense that this ministry doesn’t have a lot of definition and is an area of potential development. For details please read the document bellow.
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Our JourneyHere you can find all the congregational communication update from the amalgamation working committee (previous task group). If you have any question or comment please use the contact form by clicking the "contact" tag on the top right of this page. Archives
June 2019
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