It’s been a while since the Visioning and Renewal Committee has given the congregation at Knox UC an update on where we were at with our Visioning / Renewal initiative at Knox UC. You’ll recall the various public events that we had in the Spring of 2013 where we set out to discover what kind of church community we are and what sort of projects and initiatives we would like to pursue.
When I use the word ‘we’ in this note, I am referring to the myriad volunteers and committed people at Knox who are involved in the various activities at the church and doing the work of the Lord in general.
During our visioning discussions, a number of common themes emerged in terms of priorities for the months and years ahead, namely:
- alternate forms of worship,
- interfaith dialogue,
- deeper spiritual exploration / small group studies / adult religions education, and
- community engagement
We thought we might give you an update in terms of what we have accomplished as a church community in relation to these themes and what we are contemplating in terms of future initiatives in this post and the next. Let’s start with worship.
Alternate Forms of Worship
We have had visits from groups from the Capital City Bikers Church and the Union United Church in Montreal. We have a glimpse into how these two groups ‘do’ worship and how it feels. The performance by the Men’s Gospel Choir from Union UC really set the place on fire and gave us food for thought in terms of how we might change up our worship service.
We had a recent congregational choir practice and pub night afterwards in February which was attended by an enthusiastic and committed group of singers. We found other ways to have fellowship outside the church building proper.
Roy Norman and John James worked to improve the quality of our WiFi service in the basement of the church building so the Sunday School and other group working in the church basement could have more reliable access to the internet.
To those who find it difficult to make it to church on a Sunday morning, due to conflicts with children’s activities or other distractions, we have a number of activities that we are investigating.
Tricia Stanish is moving ahead with her YAK (Young Adults @ Knox) group. This group is comprised of young people still in university or who have finished university within recent memory. This group provides them with an opportunity to stay connected with the church and to engage in age- and interest-appropriate activities like barbecues or get-togethers in cafes.
We have instituted a ‘Knox Talks’ blogging site where we post items of interest to members of the congregation including notes about sermons by Reverend Jensen and invite them to comment. We will also be launching a Knox UC Facebook page soon which will be another vehicle for facilitating communication within our church community.
We will continue our update in our next blog post.
Summary
So you can see that collectively we have been busy in pushing forward the KUC renewal initiative on many fronts. Lots of work remains to be done, but there is plenty of excitement on the horizon. We welcome you input and participation.
If you have a Knox related project that you feel passionate about and that you would like to put some time and effort we would love to hear from you and see how we can help you make it happen.
Knox United Church Nepean 