Shane Claiborne's 12 Hopes for 2012

Love your neighbor as yourself.

12. Do something really nice – that no one knows about.

11. Spend more money on other people than I spend on myself. Love my neighbor as I love myself. And love myself as I love my neighbor.

10. Laugh often… especially at advertisements that try to convince me that I must buy more stuff in order to be happy.

9. Learn a new life skill – like carpentry, pottery, or canning vegetables. Teach someone else I life skill I know how to do.

8. Love a few people well, remembering that what is important is not how much we do but how much love we put into doing it.

7. Write a letter to someone I need to say thank you to. Write another letter to someone I need to ask to forgive me.

6. Track down a critic or someone I disagree with and take them to lunch. Listen to them.

5. Compliment someone I have a hard time complimenting… and mean it.

4. Choose life. Do something regularly to interrupt the patterns of injustice – do something to end violence, bullying, war, capital punishment and other mean and ugly things.

3. Pause before every crisis and ask “will this matter in 5 years?”

2. Get outside often and marvel at things like fireflies and shooting stars. And regularly get my hands into the garden… so when I type on the computer I can see dirt under my fingernails.

1. Believe in miracles. And live in a way that might necessitate one.

Shane Claiborne is a Red Letter Christian and a founding partner of The Simple Way community, a radical faith community that lives among and serves the homeless in the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia. He is the co-author, with Chris Haw, of Jesus for President.

The recent round of coffee parties were well attended and the conversation lively.  We have gathered the ideas shared in those gatherings here and grouped them under ideas/headings that the session and stewards discerned at their retreat a few weeks ago. 

Please look these over and let them inspire you.  What new ideas come to mind when you see these?  We will continue to listen and pray to know where God is calling us among the mix of possibilities.

PLEASE USE THE RESPONSE FORM BELOW TO GIVE US YOUR THOUGHTS.

DONWOOD Coffee Party Ideas

Sorted by headings that were created during the Session/Stewards retreat

Passion

- Choir, worship, and Music are our biggest asset

- Promote our lively music

- Senior Citizens’ complex at Donwood

- Zimbabwe

Focus on being active in the community, individually & as a congregation

- Life Skills Seminars:  bring in speakers to advise on financial management,

  debt management, environment, baby/child First Aid, etc.

- Ask the community – would you be interested in coming

- Partner with other churches; rotation of seminar location, to be considered

*these could be classed under “Making an invitation to be part of the journey of

   welcome, service and learning that we are on” as well

- Promote our space for rent

- Focus on young, single moms.  Find and connect to them.    [Trinity has a program]

Focus on welcome for all – demonstrate a fundamental openness to others

- Much of the congregation lives outside the community.  There are still some families with young children in the Donwood area. (many churches in the East end)

- Change of time or day for worship service?  With the busy lives of young families, could they find an hour at another time?

- Move Cantata to daylight hours

- Announce the Friendship Time in the bulletin the week before

- Keep working at welcoming

- Make the church less formal (e.g. seating)

- Get “Out of the Box”.  Remove the pews, different type of seating, bring the organ

  forward

- Physical location of the church is a challenge (i.e. no bus service, not well known)

- Visit other churches to learn how/why they appear to be successful

Focus on finding a spiritual path as individuals and as a congregation

- Mall Ministry for Teens

- Trent University Chaplain contacted (come to speak?) to look for ways to reach

  students

- Donwood equals Zimbabwe – the students could really get involved

- Ageing congregation – hard to get the energy to tackle a big new project

- More time in Prayer – individually and collectively

- Continue to actively support Brian’s Zimbabwe project

 Focus on making an invitation to the community to be part of the journey of welcome, service and learning that we are on

- Reach out to Donwood’s neighbours

- Bring a friend to church

- Knock on our neighbours’ doors with church pamphlets

- Re-connect with past active members

- Each person bring one ‘friend’ to church

A number of the suggestions could be placed in more than a single category.

The late Murray Humphries became the chair of the church building committee.  He was the local V.L.A. representative (Veteran's Land Act) and was familiar with building codes and construction practices.  Murray had built a home in one of the two tracts of land secured by the V.L.A. from the Wood farm.  The local firm of Gray and Banks were the contractors for the church building and William Ridpath was the architect.

The congregation has been blest to have members who took up a cause to improve our facility and amenities.  We had acquired a small organ that had long outlived its usefulness.  The late Tom Arnold spearheaded a fund raising campaign to raise $12,000 for a new organ.  In the fall of 1988 a new Galanti organ was installed.

The need for a lift had been voiced many times over the years.  Glenn Brown took up this cause raising $40,000 and providing supervision for the Barrier Free Access Project.  On September 30, 2001 we celebrated the dedication and blessing of the lift.

Across the breadth of the United Church the artistry of musicians and visual artists draws us together and helps us to celebrate our faith in ways that words alone cannot accomplish. The tapestry hanging at Donwood is an extraordinary example.

 The tapestry was one of the most participatory projects ever undertaken at Donwood.  At that time Friedel was coming to church with her daughter, our organist at the time.  Friedel, an internationally known weaver and artist, wanted to do a tapestry for Donwood and concurrently the late Dorothy Bolton gave $2,000 to Donwood in memory of her husband, George.  Congregational meetings were held to gauge support for use of this donation for a tapestry and also meetings to view designs.

 On April 23rd, 1980 the volunteer spinners met to learn how to card, spin and twine while others joined together for the tasks of dyeing, mothproofing, weighing and winding.  By fall Friedel started weaving the 16' x 8' tapestry and it was dedicated 14 April 1981.

 "We pray that the presence of the tapestry in our sanctuary will remind us of God's many gifts and help us in our commitment and praise to Him."

Rev. Fred Edmondson was settled here as minister of the Peterborough Suburban Pastoral Charge (Donwood, Stewart Hall and Coldsprings) in June of 1963 following his ordination.  Rev. Fred provided leadership for 10 years and had the distinction of building two churches -- Donwood (1964) and St. Matthews (1968).

Donwood's first church board was appointed as follows:
Session - Tom Gall, James Rayment, Dave Friesen, Stan Wood, Bob Howes, Harry Mont.
Stewards - Aub Morrison, Joe Hinan, Gerald Wood, Arn Sage, Stan Leeper, John Sutherland.
Treasurer - Gerald Wood

No women served on these boards, but the United Church Women's organization had just become the official women's group of the United Church.  We were spared the agony of disbanding the Women's Auxilliary (W.A.) and the Women's Missionary Society (W.M.S.).  The new U.C.W. quickly took up the tasks of providing fellowship, connecting families to the church, and raising money.  The late Peggy Neely  was the first U.C.W. President.

Our first church organist was the late Jean Drimmie who faithfully served the church for 16 years.  She probably played 'pro bono' for a while and then the Stewards started to pay her the princely sum of $5.00 a month.

The Donwood Building  .  .  .

 Following the constitution of the congregation, the search was on to find money with which to build a church.  The following funds were secured:

$12,500 Gift from the United Church Board of Home Missions
$1,070 Funds on hand or donated during construction
$16,700 Loan from the Royal Bank
$15,000 Loan from the 'Church Extension Council', Peterborough Presbytery

Donwood United Church was built at a cost of $45,270.00.

 Aparcel of land had been donated to The United Church of Canada from the farm of Stanley Wood.  In June of 1963 the sod was turned for the new church.

On Christmas Sunday, 20 December 1964, the first service was held in the new church.  That evening, the choir started its tradition of the annual Christmas Carol service and Miss Shirley Lang (now Lannen) was the guest soloist.

This was a booming time in the national church history with several new buildings and expansions being opened every month.

I came across this  video in the last day or so and invite you to take a minute or two to watch and feel what it stirs in you.  What would it mean for you to live this Charter of Compassion?  What would it mean for our world?

This link takes you to six other short videos that open up the subject of compassion from six unique perspectives.  Take a few minutes to watch one or two or more. And explore the Charter for Compassion website. May I suggest making compassion a focus for your prayer in the next while to deepen your understanding of how compassion should shape your life.     Dick

The Beginning  .  .  .

 In the late 1950's a Sunday School was offered in the Donwood community under the auspices of Mark St. United Church. 

It was a time of great expansion in the United Church of Canada and hundreds of churches were being built across Canada. A few residents of the Donwood area thought there should be a church in Donwood.  Presbytery agreed to lend some support and Rev. W.E. Wright, a retired minister, was appointed to conduct services.  The first service was held September 6th, 1962 in the Donwood Community Centre.

In October we took over the former Rifle Range School located on the 10th line of Otonabee Township.  For the next 27 months the school was the home of the new Donwood United Church.  On March 31st of l963 the congregation was constituted as a congregation of the United Church of Canada with 65 people named as charter members. 

In June of 1963 Donwood was joined with the congregations of Stewart Hall and Coldsprings to form the Peterborough Suburban Pastoral Charge.