2017 will be an exciting year for Canada, in its 150th year, and also, for Woodroffe United Church. What does that mean, you say? Well, here’s the scoop!

At a special meeting on December 12, 2016, Council approved a challenging new Revitalization Project. Woodroffe United Church, like many others, is faced with declining numbers of attendees; more than half of us are 60 years of age or older.  This project creates the opportunity for the congregation to look back on our considerable achievements, consider new avenues for growth as a church in our community and chart a course for a viable, renewed future.  Woodroffe will work with a consultant from EDGE - a United Church of Canada partner for congregational development.  All congregants are warmly encouraged to participate in the journey towardrenewed meaning for Woodroffe.

The scripture that guides our revitalization journey is Matthew 22:38 - Love God and Love your neighbour as yourself.

Revitalization Team

Erin Bruce, Marlene Patrick, Dave Chaplin, Kathryn Peate, Wesley Dearham, Sue Smarkala, Trish Hassard, Cathy Seaborn, Mary Frances Laughton, Gregg Smith               

All ideas and participation are welcome in this Revitalization initiative. 

AUGUST 28, 2016

MATTHEW 6: 7-13

A.J. Gordon was a Baptist pastor of the Clarendon Church in Boston, Massachusetts in the 1800’s. One day he met a young boy in front of the sanctuary carrying a rusty cage in which several birds fluttered nervously. Gordon inquired, “Where did you get those birds, son?” The boy replied, “I trapped them out in the field.” “What are you going to do with them?” “I’m going to play with them, and then I guess I’ll just feed them to an old cat we have at home.” When Gordon offered to buy them, the lad exclaimed, “Mister, you don’t want them, they’re just little old wild birds and can’t sing very well.” Gordon replied, “I’ll give you $2 for the cage and the birds.” “Okay, it’s a deal but you’re making a bad bargain.” The exchange was made and the boy went away whistling, happy with his shiny coins. Gordon walked around the back of the church property, opened the door of the small cage, and let the struggling creatures soar into the blue. The next Sunday he took the empty cage into the pulpit and used it to illustrate his sermon about Christ’s coming to seek and save the lost, those who by the standards of many would be worth very little, but for whom Jesus paid with His precious blood. “That boy told me the birds were not songsters,” said Gordon, “but when I released them and they winged their way heavenward, it seemed to me they were singing, “Redeemed, redeemed!”

JULY 24, 2016

MATTHEW 6: 9-15, 18:21-35

There is a topic in church circles that is really an enigma. Many church committees and boards at all levels of governance spend most of their time discussing the topic in some form or other. It is fought over, cried about, pleaded for and occasionally celebrated in these meetings. But heaven forbid this same topic be brought up in the sanctuary. Somehow, we think God is only interested in spiritual things and God is only listening when we are in the sanctuary. The topic, of course, is money.

JULY 3, 2016
LUKE 11: 1-4

One of the things parents do while waiting for a child to be born is to pick a name for their baby. They usually begin by bouncing names off one another. How does this one sound, or this one? How does the name sound with our last name? How about naming a daughter after my grandmother? How about naming the baby after my last girlfriend? Names can be part of a family history or they might have come from a grocery store booklet with the imaginative title “What to Name Your Baby”. Names may be made up because Mom and Dad can’t agree on a name or names may be chosen because they happen to be popular that year, like when all the little girls are named Brittany and all the little boys are named Kyle. What’s in a name?