Greetings,
It is still January and so I want to wish you a very “Happy New Year” from your friends at Woodroffe United. Today was very blustery in the morning – and the billows of snow blown up by the strong wind made the streets look like we were in the middle of a wild winter storm. Yet this afternoon, I look out at a calm blue sky, and sparkling curves of snow. Old man winter is very changeable!
Major news at Woodroffe…Jan Lougheed has decided to retire from ministry. Jan announced her decision first at Council last Tuesday, and then to the whole congregation yesterday. Jan has travelled with us for 17 years – and we all wish her well in her retirement. It is sad to think of her going; and we wish her well in this new, next chapter of her life. Her last days with us will be in June…date to be determined. A party will definitely be planned to send her off in style!
Last evening, the Membership Relations Committee hosted a Woodroffe United Café in the Banquet Room from 7 to 8PM. Dave Chaplin, on a CIDA secondment, and Milan Kollár, the Slovak ambassador to Canada, described the part played by Canada in 2002-2004 to counsel the new country of Slovakia (1993) as they created a governmental agency to provide money and expertise to the international community. Slovaks wanted to ‘pay forward’ the help and support they had received from countries, like Canada, to emerging countries who could benefit from Slovakian experience. The coffee, tea and poppy seed desserts and the conversation made it worth the trek!
We are planning a congregational workshop for Tuesday, February 3rd, from 7:30 – 9:30PM. It will be a facilitated conversation to define ‘the personality of our church’. If you would like to attend, please call me; all are welcomed to the workshop. We intend to use what we learn about ourselves, in 2014 language, in our promotional materials.
And, lastly, we are in conversations with Riverstone Retirement Community – the new building just behind us, to introduce ourselves, and to get to know what relationship we might create together.
All warm thoughts from your friends at Woodroffe!
Sue Smarkala
Woodroffe United Church
Woodroffe United Church ... we are not alone, we live in God's world.