Sunday Services 10:00 followed by a time of fellowship.
Church school the second Sunday of each month (and some other Sundays)
Office hours are 9:00-noon, 1:00-4:00 Monday to Friday.
Please use the Accessible Entrance near the kitchen to visit during the week.
The East Entrance is for the day care only.
On Sunday, October 13, we kicked off our annual Stewardship campaign. Questions and suggestions picked out of a suggestion box were answered by people all over the congregation. Here are the questions and answers.
Yes, there will be a Stewardship Fair on November 17th, which is the same day that the fall stewardship campaign ends with the filling out of our pledge cards. There will be information about the activities of the various committees in the church, and I am sure most of those committees will have job jars, where you can sign up to help in whatever way you are able. There will also be coffee and goodies, provided by members of the stewardship committee. So please stay after church on November 17th, fill out your pledge card generously, and learn how you can support the church and its various programs through giving your time and talent.
I can think of one job that I would dearly love to fill: programme coordinator for Club 2000, a group of challenged adults that meets here at Woodroffe. It's a daytime job; Thursdays from ten o'clock to one o-clock, 8 months in the year. You get more holiday time than the teachers do. Reading the job description, I don't see the word committee, but I do see the word fun. Are you interested? Come and see me (Bob Walkington) to find out more.
The food need is ongoing for those less fortunate. In the month of September the Britannia food pantry distributed food to 524 adults & children. Food needs are always spaghetti (not lasagna noodles or spirals etc.) just spaghetti. Cereal and juice are next on the list and right now baby food is much needed. Every Monday eight volunteers from Woodroffe clean, receive, sort and stock the shelves. We need and rely on your generous donations.
Over the past several years we have completed renovations on the parking lot,the entrance washrooms,the lower hall,the banquet room, air conditioning, and the Chancel. It has cost almost $150,000 but with the upgrades we have been able to offset this cost with user rentals totaling $100,000 this year.We have had from time to time had a hard time to find a parking spot in our lot because of the workers behind us using the space. However on the plus side, they have paid us about $20,000 for the inconvenience
We would like to complete our bucket list ie: the 4 washrooms on the north and west end as well as some work in the Scout hall.This costs money and the building fund is empty. The A&F committee has asked the Stewardship committee to launch a new building fund drive to allow us to continue to make this place a warm,clean,welcoming church to come to every day. We need your help and I promise you we won"t put all the old toilets back in the narthex as long as the money is coming in.
Your Treasurer would love to take the proceeds from the Bazaar and use them for Building Renovations. However, our regular church expenses such as salaries, heat and hydro, presbytery dues, insurance, etc have to be dealt with first. We have three sources of income that are used to pay these expenses, they are your Sunday givings to the church, use of building revenues from organizations using our church, and fundraising events. And as of now these revenues basically just cover our expenses from year to year. Sometimes we have a surplus which we can then use for renovations.
You know at home you have a chequing account to pay normal expenses, and if you are fortunate, you have a savings account for special events such as holidays, renovations and emergency expenses. Here at church we don't have a savings account. Rather we have special Funds that are used for special things. For example we have a Memorial Fund were moneys donated to it are used for special projects decided by your Memorial committee. We also have an Outreach Fund and a Mission & Service Fund were moneys donated to these funds are used for these special organizations. For building renovations, we have a Building Fund which is used to pay for church renovations. Because of all the improvements we've done to the church over the past two years, we've used up this fund. It's basically zero. This doesn't mean we're broke, rather we done have much in reserve to pay for renovations. The replenishment of this fund is our theme for the Stewardship campaign for 2013. You'll be hearing more about this campaign in the following weeks. Thank you for your continued financial support of Woodroffe United and I hope we can raise these funds to do the needed renovations here at Woodroffe.
Here at Woodroffe, we are quite blessed for having two ministers, a very active Pastoral Care Team and an active Membership Relations Committee. As a community that comes together once a week, it can be difficult to know what is going on with the whole church family.
If you see that someone is missing in your pew or if you hear some news and are wondering if anyone knows, please mention it to one of the ministers or John Patton and we'll make sure that they get a phone call or visit. You can also call the office. If longer term visiting is needed, we have someone who visits people who cannot get out to church. We would rather fuss over someone so they feel a tiny bit uncomfortable than miss them completely. All information is kept confidential.
M&S stands for Mission and Service. The M&S committee promotes the work of the United Church of Canada M&S fund at Woodroffe, usually through our monthly Minute for Mission. Every year WUC pledges a certain amount to M&S and this year we've pledged $40,000. We are a small committee and are always looking for new members, if anyone is looking to get involved.
M&S giving help fund national and international church agencies, and support their work in more than 25 countries. Some agencies are local, such as Centre 507 on Bank St, while other are small church missions in countries from Guatemala to Tanzania to China.
The Membership Relations Committee has been talking about that. We understand that people will be moving in next July. We will put together and information package and perhaps find a way to have tea and treats with them. We'll see if we can use some of the ideas about practical hospitality that we will develop at the retreat in November. We are looking forward to meeting with them.
At the Membership Relations Committee we have been thinking about how to engage people in discussions of topics that are meaningful to them. I know some Churches have monthly get togethers--maybe for an hour or hour and a half after supper with coffee and desserts--where they bring in interesting speakers to stimulate discussion on some of the big questions and social issues facing us as a country and as Christians. I think it would be worthwhile for us to start up something like that. We could have our own Woodroffe Cafe!
COVID note: Although in person services have resumed, some church meetings may have alternate locations or virtual arrangements.
Click on any event to see more information.
During the pandemic, if you wish to provide your givings, or make a one-time donation, you may send a cheque to the church, use our secure PayPal connection or use e-transfer and direct your email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..