 By Leandro Palacios, Director of Communications
This weekend we celebrate Thanksgiving in Canada—all are welcome to join us! What are you thankful for this year? Thanksgiving is not a thing when you grow up outside North America. I only knew about this mysterious holiday from cartoons and movies. “I hope you’re happy, Bart. You’ve ruined Thanksgiving!” Marge Simpson yells in fury after Bart destroys Lisa’s handmade centrepiece for the Thanksgiving table in a 1990 episode of The Simpsons. Poor Marge had had a rough day already. Her sisters told her that her turkey is always too dry and her mother reminded her she never does anything right. What could someone in that situation be thankful for? And in the 1995 film Home for the Holidays, a family gathers for Thanksgiving and things get ugly. Resentments quickly surface and escalate. “I’m giving thanks that we don’t have to go through this for another year,” the mother character in this story cynically remarks. It seemed to me that Thanksgiving made people feel anxious more than thankful. But in both cases, the story ends on a hopeful note. Rays of light pierce through the storm of frustration and anger. From that very chaos, sacredness sprouts and blooms. People begin to see one another for who they really are, rather than as someone they hold a grudge against. Reconciliation follows. Deeper connections are formed. It’s like the Buddhist image of the lotus flower that extends its roots deep into dark swampy waters but emerges immaculate above the surface. Life may seem like a storm of negative emotions at times, and our problems and obligations can make us feel swamped. But maybe Thanksgiving is an opportunity to intentionally shift our attention to the things in life we can be thankful for. So, what are you thankful for this year? I’ll be honest. If you caught me off guard with that question, I wouldn't know what to say because I’m often focused on the “bad things.” It’s our negativity bias: our minds tend to focus on potential threats. In prehistoric times, it was useful to think a predator could be hiding in the bush in front of us. Translated to our modern lives, this trait can make us act as if a virtual lion or hyena could ambush us every time we open an email. When we only think about problems, the good things become invisible. Perhaps that’s the reason we fail to see that the Kingdom of God is already unfolding all around us. In the Gospel of Luke, when the Pharisees demand an ETA for the coming of the Kingdom, Jesus tells them that it is already among them [17:21]. The non-canonical Gospel of Thomas preserves a similar saying: the Kingdom “is spread upon the earth, and people don’t see it.” This will be our focus scripture on Beyond the Walls this Sunday, so I’ve been reflecting on the signs of the Kingdom that I fail to see around me, as I also think of reasons to give thanks this weekend. What am I thankful for? Where do I see the Kingdom around me? I realized these are two ways of asking the same question. For this Thanksgiving, I decided to intentionally take a break from focusing on the problems in the world, the church, and my personal life — don’t worry, I’ll resume my habit on Tuesday. I chose instead to look for things that happened this year that make me feel gratitude, or signs that the Kingdom of God is already here. To my surprise, it didn’t take long for me to start noticing that sacredness has been sprouting and blooming along the path we have walked together in Community of Christ in 2026. I would like to share some of these with you, and I would also love to hear from you. What are you thankful for this year? When did you see the Kingdom of God unfolding in 2026? Please reach out to me at [email protected] I’m thankful this year because…
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 By Leandro Palacios, Director of Communications
In Community of Christ we often say that we are a non-creedal church. This means that to belong in this church, to participate in church activities, in other words, to be welcomed, an individual is not required to embrace a specific belief. Of course, this does not mean that anything goes. As a church we do have basic beliefs, but we do not exclude from our ministry and mission people who come to church while embracing beliefs that differ from our formal statement of basic beliefs. So how can we discern our shared path forward when some might disagree even on something that seems as central to the life of a church as what to believe in? In Community of Christ we have Enduring Principles: Grace & Generosity, Sacredness of Creation, Continuing Revelation, Worth of All Persons, All Are Called, Responsible Choices, Pursuit of Peace, Unity in Diversity, and Blessings of Community. These nine shared values are grounded in our heritage, including our history and scripture, and “define the essence, heart, and soul of our faith community.” They are our response to our community’s experience of God as together we walk the path of the disciple, allowing us to discern our shared path forward even when disagreements on matters of belief may arise. Yet, as individuals, our diverse backgrounds and life journeys have shaped us in unique ways, each one of us holding our own set of values. Earlier this week, the members of the Community of Christ in Canada Leadership Team gathered for a retreat at the storefront church facility of the Calgary congregation, located in downtown Calgary, Alberta. As a team, we regularly meet online since we are all scattered across great distances. So this was an opportunity not only to dive into the details of our strategic plan and envision the path forward with clear, measurable goals, but also to learn how to work together as a team by getting to know each other a little better, building trust, offering support, and nurturing personal connection. The retreat opened with an activity led by Director of Leadership Development Lanette Vawter, where we were given a long list of values and each of us, step by step, narrowed the list down to just two values that best represented us personally. In my experience working in marketing, I had done similar exercises that aim to reveal the values a brand represents or communicates to its customers, but there was a fundamental difference between those exercises and what Lanette had us do. The usual marketing approach is top-down: starting with brand values, we look at how individuals respond. But in our activity, we did it bottom-up: starting from our individual values, we looked at how these could guide us as a group. What emerged was a fascinating list of shared values: Co-creation, Adaptability, Spirituality, Kindness, Creativity, Vision, Integrity, Justice, Generosity, and Making a Difference. Then we assigned tangible action items that the church can carry out to each other’s values. The most surprising moment happened the next day, when we could not remember who had written what, which shows me that we were successfully working as a group that, albeit diverse in many ways, is able to find common ground by building upon shared values. I feel blessed to be part of this team. As we prepare for our First Annual Mission Centre Conference, we will continue to share how the team is turning the Onward Together strategic plan into tangible action—including programs and ministries that address challenges and opportunities across Canada and beyond—building upon the foundation of our Enduring Principles and our shared values. I hope you will stay tuned, and do not hesitate to reach out to us with your comments and questions.  By John Hamer, Director of Outreach and Innovative Ministries The archive of the Woodfield Community of Christ in London, Ontario, preserves a “Preaching Chart” drawn in the 1930s. In the early 20th century, ministers from our church traveled in circuits, visiting congregations, cottage meetings, and revivals, holding preaching services that could last for hours. Much of the preaching was extemporaneous: the speaker would begin with a passage of scripture and perhaps a rough outline, then expound from that jumping-off point. Preaching charts served as both a memory device for the speaker and a visual aid for the audience.
From the church’s central tower, we see two great walls supporting windows labelled to the right: “FAITH, WISDOM, KNOWLEDGE, DISCERNMENT, HEALING” — which are still in keeping with how we see the church today, especially if we understand “healing” as spiritual restoration. The labels to the left are less familiar in today’s church: “MIRACLES, PROPHECY, TONGUES, INTERPRETATION OF TONGUES, DREAMS/VISIONS.” Our predecessors in the church were far more Pentecostal than we are today. Services at reunions frequently included the spiritual practice of glossolalia, where one member caught up in the spirit utters syllables they believed were an unknown language. A second minister would then “interpret” the tongues, by speaking a pronouncement in English that was given the weight of revelation. The practice could be used irresponsibly when commands were directed at others, and it consequently was phased out. Although these beliefs were earnestly held, they were factually incorrect. Scholars have now reconstructed the development of the early Christian movement, giving us new insights into our history. At the earliest stratum, the movement was spread by committed disciples who sold their property, gave the proceeds to the poor, and lived a life of voluntary poverty, begging for their daily bread as they spoke in the spirit and shared the gospel. These mendicant disciples were alternatively called “teachers,” “apostles,” and “prophets” — all of which were synonyms. In the next generations, as fixed congregations were established, they began to require ongoing local leadership, calling “helpers” διάκονος (deacons) and “overseers” ἐπίσκοπος (bishops), along with πρεσβύτερος (presbyters) — a word that the King James Bible alternately translated as “elders” and “priests.” Elder and priest are thus synonyms for the same early priesthood role. As the apostolic age ended, the mendicant apostle/prophet/teachers were fully replaced deacons, priest/elders, and bishops. If we go back to our preaching chart, we may ask: what about evangelists, pastors, and seventies? There are three references to “evangelists” in the New Testament, which literally means “bringer of the good news” — essentially a synonym for “apostle.” (Over time, “evangelist” developed the technical definition of the author of a gospel.) “Pastor” is Latin for shepherd (ποιμένας poiménas in the original Greek) and has a single mention in the New Testament as a priesthood office, likely meant as the leader of a congregation — making it a synonym for bishop. Use of the word pastor was revived during the Protestant Reformation as some Protestants rejected the evolution of the episcopacy during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Finally, “Seventy” is not really an office at all. Historically, there were many more than 12 apostles (the “Twelve” were a subset of the larger group of mendicant teachers). In the 1830s, early members of our church read the story in Luke of Jesus sending out “seventy” more disciples after the twelve and used that story to create the office of “Seventy.”  The foundations for the two great walls on the chart are labelled “AARONIC PRIESTHOOD” and “MELCHISEDEC PRIESTHOOD” and include the offices of each, as understood in our tradition: “PRIESTS, BISHOPS, DEACONS, and TEACHERS” to the left and “HIGH-PRIESTS, SEVENTIES, ELDERS, PASTORS, EVANGELISTS, APOSTLES, and PROPHETS” to the right. Speaking at a revival a century ago, a minister could expound at length on all of these offices. Their conclusion would inevitably be that these offices were established by Jesus himself; that they were essential to the functioning of the true Church of Jesus Christ on the earth; and that our church alone operated with the fullness of this structure. To them, this proved that ours was the one and only true church.
This leaves us with the office of “High Priest” and the two priesthood orders: Aaronic and Melchisedec. Members in the 1830s based these on their interpretation of the Epistle to the Hebrews. The author of Hebrews develops an extended argument contrasting the Old Covenant of Moses with the New Covenant in Christ. At the heart of the Old Covenant was the Jerusalem Temple, led by a mortal High Priest descended from Aaron, who performed a ritual sacrifice each year to atone for his sins and the sins of the people. But this practice has been superseded, according to Hebrews, by “a better covenant.” Christ has given himself as an atoning sacrifice for everyone and for all time and thus has become our eternal High Priest. The author of Hebrews quotes Psalm 110:4, “You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchisedec,” as the basis for this image. Early members of our church got the idea that we should have two orders of priesthood from Hebrews, but they clearly misread the point the author was making. The priesthood of Aaron with its High Priest was part of the Old Covenant and has been done away with. In the New Covenant, there is only one High Priest after the Order of Melchisedec: Jesus Christ, our eternal High Priest. Centuries of study have given us a window in Christian origins that our ancestors in the Restoration could only imagine. Learning about things that they got right (and wrong) is not an occasion for discouragement. As the Community of Christ “Principles of History” teach: “The responsible study of church history involves learning, repentance, and transformation.” Understanding the path we’ve taken, allows us to be better informed for the path ahead. Recognizing the intersection of devout conviction and the inevitable imperfections of our predecessors renders our shared narrative far more authentic and grounded in reality. In creating two orders of priesthood and the many offices referenced on the preaching chart, members of our movement believed they were “restoring” practices established by Jesus in the First Century. Instead, they were creating something new, which has now become part of our legacy and inheritance in Community of Christ. Generations of faithful ministers have worked to magnify their callings, finding new and innovative ways to serve as servants of Christ. Doctrine and Covenants 162:1e reminds us: “The spirit of the Restoration is not locked in one moment of time, but is instead the call to every generation to witness to essential truths in its own language and form.” As we discern our path forward as a sacred community, it’s important that we understand and honor the many inheritances that have informed our journey, while opening our minds and hearts to new light and knowledge for the road ahead.  This year, we will gather for our first Canada Mission Centre Conference on November 7–8. Because Conference is about much more than business, we are responding to the call to “risk something new” from our Mission Prayer, inviting members and friends of the church across Canada to:
“Awaken · Risk · Bless” is a spiritual cycle that guides our shared journey. Awakening to the presence of the Spirit gives us courage to build bridges of understanding and risk conversations and ministries that only moments ago seemed beyond our capacity, but now spread blessings all around us and beyond. How to prepare for Conference?
Celebrate mission What are the things that happened at your congregation or campground this year that we must remember and celebrate together? We want to hear your story! We invite you to share how your local or camping community is living Christ’s mission and making a difference. Please send your reports by October 2 to ensure your stories are included in our Conference program. Don’t forget to send photos if they’re available! Conference remote sites Although the Canada-wide sessions will be online, we encourage congregations and groups to gather locally. Members who gathered in person for our Jan 17 Organization Meeting had a chance to enjoy fun activities and fellowship while attending the Zoom sessions. We hope many more groups across Canada will choose to join Conference following this “hybrid” format, but it is important that we make arrangements ahead of time to ensure the nationwide online sessions run smoothly while everyone joining locally is able to see what’s on screen, hear what other remote participants are saying, vote on motions, and be heard if they wish to speak from the lectern during business. Please send your remote site applications by October 2. This will provide time for our IT department to assess your technical equipment, provide training, and help you make sure you are ready to run a successful remote site. Things you can start considering are:
There is much to celebrate as we continue to move onward together as one Mission Centre. We hope you will join us in these opportunities to connect, learn, and live Christ’s mission together. Hopeful signs of courage and creativity — Apostle Lach Mackay reflects on his Ontario visit7/2/2026  By Apostle Lachlan Mackay
Apostle Shannon McAdam and I spent the second week of June visiting members and friends from eight Community of Christ congregations in Ontario. Accompanied by Sam Smalldon, Bishop of Canada and member of the Mission Center Presidency Team, we began our journey at the Grand Valley congregation, followed by a detour to see the home of Joseph Smith III's wife, Ada Clark. From there, we shared tea with members of the Proton congregation before visiting the Proton building and cemetery. The day ended with an evening gathering at Owen Sound. On the second day, we spent time with the Wiarton and Port Elgin congregations. On the third day, Mission Center Presidency Team members John Hamer and Leandro Palacios joined us as we attended the weekly home gathering of the Guelph congregation and an online evening with the Willow congregation. Everywhere we went, we were met with warm welcomes, delicious food, meaningful fellowship, and thoughtful questions. Throughout our visits in Ontario, we were impressed by the faithfulness, warmth, and resilience of the members and friends we met. Many congregations are sustained by long-serving disciples who continue to offer ministry with commitment and care. Again and again, we experienced communities shaped by deep relationships and a clear desire to steward what has been entrusted to them for the sake of mission. Their relationships with one another are central to their identity. In some places, congregations are also recognizing the need to move beyond a building while continuing to serve faithfully and creatively. These visits also revealed the many ways congregations are gathering and serving during this time of rapid change. Some communities remain deeply connected to their buildings as places of mission, memory, welcome, and ministry. Others pioneered what it means to continue as a congregation after selling a church building, while some have more recently transitioned to home gatherings. Still others are gathering in hybrid in-person and online ways. Together, these settings showed us that congregational life in Ontario is not defined by one model. It is shaped by faithful people discerning how best to embody Christ's mission in their local context. Several consistent themes emerged throughout the journey: the importance of strong relationships among field, mission centre, and congregational leaders; the need to name honestly the challenges we face; and the willingness to risk something new. In many places, there was a growing recognition that the future will require taking church to the people rather than waiting for people to come to the church. Our Ontario visit offered hopeful signs of courage and creativity as congregations continue discovering faithful ways to live Christ's mission in changing times.  By Lanette Vawter, Director of Leadership Development
Recently, I read through the All Voices testimonies gathered from Community of Christ members across Canada in 2021. These testimonies revealed how faith and community are essential for nurturing hope and progress in the church, and I felt heartened and hopeful about our future. Over and over again, I read testimonies from people both young and old who spoke of the deep meaning and value of being in community with both God and others. I was touched by the faithfulness expressed in times of challenge and the hope for the future. In one testimony that deeply resonated with me, Doug Middleton says, “I am overjoyed at being a part of a progressive church, not a stagnant church—a church that works toward the fairness and equality of all people.” One of my mother’s favourite scriptures is Ecclesiastes 3:1: “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.” It reminds me that while seasons change, our response to God’s call for goodness and mercy continues to be possible. Our faithfulness and hope are so needed in our weary world.  By Lanette Vawter, Director of Leadership Development
Over the last week, the Leadership Team of Community of Christ in Canada had the opportunity to meet in person to strategize, plan, and get to know one another better. We shared ideas, plans, and the sense of calling we all have for the mission of the church. I am thrilled to be working with this compassionate and hard-working group of people! We also had the opportunity to visit with several congregations and leaders in the Greater Toronto Area and beyond, including the following:
We were also grateful for the participation of Joshua Bennet, Leadership Development Coordinator for Community of Christ in India and Nepal, who joined us as a guest facilitator to share leadership development insights. This was my first trip to Ontario to see Community of Christ in action in this province, and I was heartened by the dedication and commitment of all the various groups we met. These experiences have deepened our sense of community and renewed our enthusiasm for the church’s mission. Thank you for your ongoing support and warm hospitality!  By John Hamer, Director of Outreach and Innovative Mission
Somewhere on a shelf, many of us likely have a yearbook from our senior year in high school (or perhaps a whole set of yearbooks from our school days). If you ever take one down and open its pages, you might be instantly transported into memories of a completely different era of your life—pictures of people you grew up with, friends and acquaintances from long ago, activities, and a community that likely had been your whole world at the time. As we come together in 2026 for the first time as one Community of Christ in Canada, I’m proposing that we assemble and publish a kind of yearbook of our own. This won’t be made up of rows of individual portraits, but it will include pictures, stories, and descriptions of everything we are doing as a church across Canada. I want to include descriptions and stories of every congregation, every program and ministry, every campground, every reunion and retreat, and every one of our charitable affiliates. I want to include stories and artifacts from our past—how we became who we are. I also want to include our hopes and vision for the future as we move onward together in mission. Compiled, edited, professionally typeset, and illustrated with photos, maps, and other diagrams, the volume will be published in print so that every one of us can hold a book in our hands. I think this is important, as so much of our lives are lived virtually. The combined Canadian Mission Centre encompasses a vast geography; bringing our stories together in one book will help us get to know one another better. The volume will serve as a useful source of information and memory for years to come—and for our spiritual heirs who follow us. (As a historian, I can imagine how amazing it would be to have an artifact like this for the Canadian church published in 1881, 1926, 1950, or any year from the past!) The first-ever “yearbook” for Community of Christ in Canada will require an enormous amount of work, so I need to enlist help from everyone. This might begin with congregation historians, communications officers, and pastors, but to get as complete a picture as possible, I want all hands on deck. In the coming weeks, I will share sample descriptions for congregations and other expressions of the church, along with instructions and questionnaires. Meanwhile, begin thinking about what you would like to share with members across Canada in the present—and with future generations. As both a positive note and a gentle warning: 20 years ago, I compiled a yearbook featuring my mother’s extended family (all of my dozens of aunts, uncles, and cousins), along with our family history. The final volume was 306 pages long and fulfilled its purpose beautifully. It allowed a generation of cousins to get to know one another as we were coming of age, and two decades later, I still refer to it to remember names, birthdays, and other details. In fact, it was so beloved that the main regret some expressed was that they had not filled out more than the minimum on their questionnaires or shared more pictures. In retrospect, they wished they had written and shared more so that more of their stories would have been preserved. (I leave that as a cautionary tale to motivate everyone to contribute!) This is an exciting project, and I hope you will help make it as rich a resource as possible as we share with one another who we are as Community of Christ in Canada!  By Leandro Palacios, Director of Communications
I am deeply thankful to all those who took a few minutes to offer feedback about your experience participating in our Organizational Meeting on Saturday, January 17. Although we have held Canada-wide online gatherings in the past during our All Voices discernment process, this was the first time members from across the country participated in a business meeting with full voice and vote, including those gathered in person at nine remote sites. This is an important step that reflects our commitment to moving onward together in innovative ways. Your feedback about this milestone matters. Everything we learned—especially how you felt about this experience—will inform how we prepare for future events, particularly our upcoming Canada Mission Centre Conference on November 7. What are participants saying? As of January 28, 78 participants had responded to the survey. Almost 82% of respondents indicated they are in the 65+ age range. This reflects the demographic reality of our membership, and it also points to the ongoing need to work together to imagine new ways of engaging younger members and seekers in this important aspect of the life of the church. Most participants reported that technical aspects of the meeting ran smoothly, including ease of access and audio quality. While 91% of respondents expressed satisfaction with advance communications and the availability of key documents, a small number indicated they had difficulty finding this information. We will continue to refine our communication practices to make them as clear and accessible as possible. Overall, participants felt the pacing of the meeting was appropriate and that taking additional time for voting was understandable in order to include those participating from remote sites. At the same time, some respondents noted frustration with delays and suggested more clarity when announcing voting results, such as sharing percentages. Many participants identified the highlight of the day as the sense of connection with members from across Canada. Other aspects that stood out included the clarity of process and leadership roles, the worship service, and the voting and decision-making process. When asked about future Canada-wide gatherings, most respondents indicated a preference for online or hybrid formats. When in-person participation is possible, respondents most often named shared meals, fellowship, and opportunities for learning and discussion as meaningful experiences. Thank you for sharing your voice. Please continue to reach out with your feedback. I look forward to the next opportunity to put into practice what we learned from this first Canada-wide meeting, so that each time we gather, technical challenges and great distances do not stand in the way of experiencing the presence of the Spirit leading us onward together.  By Lanette Vawter, Director of Leadership Development As the newest director for Community of Christ Canada, I am pleased to introduce myself and look forward to our work together. I am committed to fostering inclusive communities where everyone feels they belong and can contribute meaningfully to our shared mission. My role involves connecting with and supporting current leaders, as well as overseeing and implementing a leadership development strategy across Canada. Growing up in the Prince George Mission of Community of Christ in British Columbia in the 1960s and 1970s, we met primarily in each other’s homes. I learned at a very young age the value of the scripture: “For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.” (Matthew 18:20, NRSVUE) It was in this small mission that I learned how the Spirit of God infuses even the humblest of gatherings with meaning and purpose. The humility and faithfulness of this congregation continue to inspire and support my own faith development. The knowledge that each life matters and has something to contribute has shaped my approach to leadership. My values of inclusion and belonging have influenced my work as a director of community services for an organization that supports persons with intellectual disabilities. These values also inform my personal relationships, my work as a spiritual director, and my life in the church as a member and an elder. As we move forward together, I hope we can deepen our engagement and act with greater love to make the peaceable kingdom a reality. |
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