Nearly 500 United Church members urged to 'Expect Great Things'

BY SYLVIA JACQUARD

There were no ministers in the pulpits or people in the pews of most of the United Churches in Kings County and area Sunday morning, June 15.

Why? Because they were together celebrating the 83rd anniversary of the United Church of Canada at Acadia’s University Hall in a worship service called ‘Expect Great Things’.

“Representatives of area churches meet regularly at regional cluster meetings to discuss how they express their ministry,” said Rev. David Hewitt, minister of the New Minas United Church.

The idea of having a shared service “to celebrate who we are as the United Church of Canada” was one they kept coming back to so in the early spring they began working on it, starting with the choice of the Sunday after the church’s June 10 anniversary as the date for the service.

Three months and hundreds of hours of preparation later, over 450 clergy, staff and members of churches from Hantsport to Berwick gathered for a service of togetherness and celebration. Presiding over the service were Rev. Michael Gibbons of the Canard United Church; Dr. Homer Noble, Chairperson of the Valley Presbytery; and Rev. Robyn Brown-Hewitt of the Wolfville United Church.

The prayers were led by Sue Betuik, Anne Cameron, Ray Francis and the Reverends Robyn Brown-Hewitt, Randy Crozsman, Ray Francis, Michael Gibbons, David Hewitt and Glennis Smith. Diana Bishop and Homer Noble read the scriptures.

Special music was provided by The Message, a contemporary religious band that write and compose their own music. It consists of Vikki Reid, vocals and keyboard; Stephen Spencer, lead vocals and rhythm; Nathan Beeler, vocals, mandolin and guitar; Catherine Barkhouse, vocals and rhythm; and Bruce Campbell, drums.

An 80-voice massed choir

The 80-voice massed choir conducted by Bob Rushton was made up of singers from the participating congregations. They led the hymns and sang an anthem, “Deep in Our Hearts”, a hymn which has become an unofficial anthem within the church. Presiding at the organ was Ken Hassell, with Wayne MacDonald on drums, Charlie Hewitt on bass guitar and Bob Rushton at the piano.

The hymns chosen for the celebration came from each of the four hymn books produced by the United Church. “Holy, Holy, Holy,” the first hymn in The Hymnary, published in 1930, was followed by “The Lord of the Dance”, from the 1971 Hymnary published jointly by the United and Anglican Churches of Canada. This hymn was controversial at the time for portraying Jesus as a dancing piper.

Words from the last line of the next hymn, “We Praise You, O God”, “With voices united our praises we offer . . .” were the fitting title of the 1996 hymnary. The offertory hymn, to mark the anniversary was Northern Lights, published this year by Catherine MacLean.

On display was the Maritime Conference Heritage Quilt, first opened at the 2006 annual meeting of the conference. This very large and beautiful quilt is constructed in three upright panels that when closed look like a wooden door and when open look like church windows.

The two outside panels represent rural and urban churches with the left panel showing the blues, greens and browns of a bright day with a small church sitting among tilled and grassy fields of a rural setting and the right panel showing the dark purple shadows of an urban night. The central panel glows with the many colours of the various symbols of the heritage of the Christian church as expressed in the Maritime context of the United Church of Canada.

The service was very family-friendly, with Imagination Stations run by Joanne Olive, Karen Naugler, Thea Burton, Debbie Mailman, Susan Moores, Andy Pitter, and Kathy and Andrea Schofield set up in the lobby where parents could take their children at any point in the service to do crafts and have fun with other kids.

Message: “Expect Great Things”

The message of the service was given in the form of a play “Expect Great Things”, performed by members of The DEN Youth Group from St. Andrew’s in Wolfville. The title and idea came from a phrase in the opening prayer of the inaugural service 83 years ago. The intent, said author Brown-Hewitt, was to remind the audience in a humourous way that “they came from people in challenging circumstances, expecting great things . . . that days can be challenging, but nothing will change unless we are always expecting more.”

The play was set at the home of Abraham and Sarah on Father’s Day as they have visits from some of their many descendants. Well-known sons and daughters like Jesus, Ishmael, Paul, Miriam, and Queen Esther all had something to say in a light-hearted way to the United Church of Canada character, based on the essential nugget of their own story: from Queen Esther that you have to have courage; from Paul that you’ve got to forget what’s behind you and reach out for what is ahead.

After the service, the event was commemorated by a group photograph taken on the steps of University Hall.

The service was well received so there may be another one next year or the year after. Many people commented as well on the diversity of ages present and the impact of the music; hearing the large choir and the sound of hundreds of voices raised in song when hymns were sung.

Hewitt’s hope from the beginning had been for a well planned and executed quality event that would make those in the audience feel glad they had come. And when they talked about it to others who hadn’t attended, it would make those people think, “If I had known it was going to be that good, I’d have come.”