Category Archives: Congregational Development Archive

Thank you!

By Blog, Christian Education Archive, Congregational Development Archive, WMS Archive

I thank my God for every remembrance of you, always in every one of my prayers for all of you, praying with joy for your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work in you will continue to complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. (Philippians 1: 3-6 NRSV)

A Merry Christmas and a blessed and joyful New Year to you all. We are grateful for your ministry and your ongoing commitment to the gospel and to the church wherever you are. 

This is the last message that we will be writing for the synod website. At the end of December, 2023, we will be retiring from our ministry positions with the synod and transitioning into the next chapter of our lives together. This is the culmination of over 40 years of Tori’s ministry and almost 40 for John-Peter.

As we consider the trajectory of our ministry over the last decades we could never have imagined how far ranging our work would become. Nor could we have comprehended how our lives would be touched by so many people in so many ways. We are grateful for the care and love of friends and colleagues throughout the synod, the denomination and indeed the world. It is a true privilege to be partners in ministry.

As we retire, please be assured of our ongoing prayers for your ministry and situation. Also, please remember that even as the world changes, God is faithful. Paul writes to the Philippians from prison, not to complain but to rejoice and to offer hope. He speaks of his confidence that God’s good work would continue in the hearts and lives of the people of God’s church. And further he prays that their love will continue to overflow as they determine their future. Our prayer for you is the same; that the work of love and discernment will continue in you until the glorious day of Christ.

A Happy New Year and every blessing in your work for the kingdom

And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you to determine what really matters, so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God. (Philippians 1: 9-11 NRSV)

In Christ

Tori and John-Peter Smit

Please know that the synod is in the process of making decisions about future staffing and this website will be a place to stay up to date on these decisions. They will be continuing to maintain the website for those who wish to use the resources posted here.

An Announcement from the Synod of CNOB

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Dr. Tori Smit and Rev. Dr. John-Peter Smit

March 29, 2023

Greetings!

I am writing to tell you about upcoming changes to the regional staffing for the Synod. After serving as the Regional Minister for Congregational Health for 17 years, The Reverend Dr. John-Peter Smit has given notice of his intention to retire December 31, 2023. Dr. Tori Smit has also let us know that she will be retiring as the Regional Minister for Faith Formation at the same time having served in this role for 11 years.

John-Peter and Tori have had distinguished ministry careers, and in their roles with the Synod of Central, Northeastern Ontario and Bermuda they have assisted countless congregations and people. They will each continue to be very active in their roles until they retire at the end of December. They continue to welcome people being in contact with them.

While we will greatly miss them, and the expertise that they bring to their respective roles, we wish them health and happiness in this next stage of their lives.

The Regional Consultative Committee will be seeking input as we plan for the future. Watch the synod website for more information.

In Christ’s Service,

The Rev. Gale Macdonald Convenor
Regional Consultative Committee

Won’t You be My Neighbour?

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Thank you to Paul Hanaoka and unsplash.com for this image

Happy Mr. Roger’s Day!

It is not only a beautiful day in the neighbourhood, it is a beautiful day to go out and meet our neighbours.

Mr. Rogers was above all else a good neighbour; more important than being a teacher and entertainer of children (and even their parents), Fred Rogers sought to show us how to be the very best kind of neighbour we can be in the communities in which we live, work and worship. 

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Closing Is Easy – Opening is Hard: An Update

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Thank you to Headway and unsplash.com for this photo

Wouldn’t you know it?

As soon as I uploaded the blog post on Saturday about the challenges churches are facing in deciding when and how they will reopen their church buildings I came across a great resource coming out of the Presbyterian Church USA. It is a document entitled Seeking to be Faithful Together: Guidelines for Presbyterians in Times of Disagreement and comes from their Presbyterian Peacemaking Program.

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Closing Is Easy – Opening Is Hard

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Thank you to Tavi White and unsplash.com for this photo

Two years ago today, the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 to be a global pandemic. I remember those first days and weeks; not sure what to touch or not to touch, getting used to wearing a mask, and most of all assuming that we would all be back in church by Easter at the latest.

How unprepared we were.

This week, the Ontario government has announced that most mask mandates will end on March 21, 2022 with the remaining pandemic rules lifted by the end of April. It seems as though we are moving from a pandemic to Covid being endemic in our world.

What a long strange trip it has been.

As I have talked with friends and colleagues over the past few days and weeks, I have heard and noticed a couple of important themes.

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Rest for the Weary

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Thank you to Eduardo Flores and unsplash.com for this photograph

I just canceled the Zoom check-ins on Christian education planned for this week. Unfortunately only three people signed up and they were divided between two meetings. This low level of participation where once there was an enthusiastic number for Zoom check-ins seems to be symptomatic of what I’ve been seeing across the board with people’s participation in bible studies, Sunday school and leadership development.

I have found over these last couple of months that our church leaders and our people are more than exhausted from the ongoing stress of just keeping up during this pandemic. With the first year of the pandemic and its church building closures and protocols, leaders had a surge of energy and imagination for thinking about educational ministry in new ways and even began to focus on some things we’d been overlooking in the last number of decades. During the second year we established new ways of doing educational ministry and even began tweaking what we were doing as we got better and better at Zoom Sunday schools, porch meet ups and virtual worship. Moving into this third year I’m beginning to hear from many of our leaders that they just feel flat, without imagination, and are simply doing their very best to stay above water. 

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The Omicron Variant and Our Congregations

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Thank you to Michael Marais at unsplash.com for this image

This morning, the province of Ontario returns to Step 2 of our roadmap to reopen. This decision was made in light of the staggering increase of Covid infection rates due to the Omicron variant. To give you an idea of how quickly this variant is moving, consider that the rolling average of cases in the province is now 14,598 compared to 10,327 a week ago and 926 a month ago.

The good news is that it appears that for the fully vaccinated this version of the virus is less serious than the Delta variant, but, it is still very serious.

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A Memorial Liturgy for All Saints Day

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Thank you to Tina Witherspoon and unsplash.com for this image

November 1 is All Saints Day in the Christian Church. While we do not venerate saints in the same way other traditions do, we do have enough Knox and St Andrew’s churches along with other saint named churches to know that we take the concept of saints seriously.

We also have a further, more informal understanding of the communion of saints; namely those faithful Christians who have gone before and make up ‘that great cloud of witnesses’ that we read of in Hebrews 12. In the season of Covid, it is appropriate that we remember them.

As we head towards two full years of Covid-19, I have been reflecting on the communion of saints and in particular the opportunity to remember our cloud of witnesses on this coming All Saints Day. As I consider the past pandemic season, I realize that almost all of us have had the experience of being unable to faithfully respond to the death of loved ones. 

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