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North Bay area United Church congregations to mark 100th anniversary with special service on Sunday
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United Church congregations in the North Bay area will gather Sunday for a special service to celebrate what they're calling a century of love and justice.
Rev. Ted Harrison, of Trinity United, said in addition to celebrating the milestone, the service will be an opportunity to consider "what North Bay would look like if the churches did not exist, and how much the churches have contributed to the quality of life in the area."
The service will be held at the community centre in Callander, starting at 11 a.m.
"We're just trying to find the biggest central venue that we can all be there with a massive choir and having communion in much the same way that the church did 100 years ago at Mutual Street Arena, in a hockey arena of all places, which is where the United Church first met," Harrison told CBC News.
Harrison said the United Church has changed in many ways over the last 100 years.
"Now, instead of every congregation trying to do everything, we are learning to draw on our own strengths and our own particular and quirky gifts," he said.
He spoke about some of the activities individual congregations are involved in, including providing a secondhand bookstore in a small community, providing foodbanks offering groceries to those in need, offering inspiration to join Indigenous powwows or march on Red Dress Day, and offering special services and vigils at tough times.
"They all do things together too. Many members from these congregations join under a United Church banner to support the Gathering Place on the Coldest Night of the Year walk, or in a Pride parade," Harrison said.
'Loving your neighbour, loving even your enemy'
Harrison said his birthday wish for the 100th anniversary of the United Church is that "maybe we get to be weirder … 2,000 years of Christianity, 100 years of the United Church of Canada, maybe we really get to lean into that radical love of loving the world, loving your neighbour, loving even your enemy."
Caitlin Smithers, Minister at St. Andrew's United Church, said she was drawn to the church from an early age.
"Growing up, I knew that I wanted to be a minister, but I needed to find a place that I could be a minister where I would be welcomed and able to be in leadership as someone who identifies as queer," Smithers told CBC News.
"The United Church of Canada had always taken such a clear stance on social justice and on being there and ordaining queer ministers, and so it was a place that I felt like I could find a home in. I started taking classes in the United Church of Canada and will be ordained in less than two weeks," Smithers added.
A 100th anniversary party will be held after the service with a barbecue, Sunday school picnic, games and cake.
Other events on the anniversary weekend include a children's musical, Happily Ever After, at Trinity United, on Friday at 7 p.m. and Saturday at 2 p.m.
A Stained Glass Tour of several area churches will be held on Saturday at 8:30 a.m., while Hops and Hymns, with local musicians, will be held the same day at Moose's Cookhouse, 134 Main St. West in North Bay at 6 p.m.
