Please welcome Rebecca (Becky) Middleton to the Canada West Mission Centre presidency! Some may wonder why we are adding a fourth person to the team. Succession Planning is why.  When I agreed to be part of the volunteer mission centre team I was asked to commit to 2 years.  Well, 2 years is over and I am just starting to understand the needs of all of you!  I am not going anywhere this year but retirement is calling me.  With succession planning, I can leave and in a few years might step back into the team.
 
Becky will be adding her thoughts and ideas on what our mission centre needs.  She will be learning alongside us.  As we continue the journey,  Becky will learn some of the pieces that we have learned.  I am sure she will discover things we haven’t!
 
Becky and I are first cousins.  Becky’s mom Mable and my dad Alfred were sister and brother.  Even knowing her all my life, I am sure to find out so much more about her and how capable she is.
 
Succession planning has begun in the mission centre.  From the beginning of the new volunteer team, we have been mentored by Steve Thompson, Art Smith and Dar Shepherdson in the ways and means to navigate within the church.  Lisa Neudorf mentored showing me how to work with REGGIE.  Andy McArthur and Briana McKenna worked with Jean Cravy to help with succession in the camp director field for Canada West.  More plans are coming to assist the Mission Centre to meet the needs of the members.
 
As we approach Mission Conference, consider whether you can extend mentorship in some areas or whether you would like to be mentored in some of the areas of the church that you are interested in volunteering for.

​Yours in Christ,
Gwyn, Kat, and Shannon
gwyn@communityofchrist.ca
​kat@communityofchrist.ca
smcadam@communityofchrist.ca

This week we bring you a few highlights from Youth Camp at Samish Island. Lots of fun was had!

We are busily planning Mission Centre Conference with the theme "Courage to Act" and are hoping you will join us.

Remember that you don't have to be a delegate to have a say in our business meeting! All members in Canada West can have voice and vote in our conference. Registration is open now.

Visit www.cwm.events to register and learn more!

Where is God's Spirit leading you next? Toward these cookies decorated by the kids?!

Enjoy these snaps from last year and next week watch for new memories being made!

​Yours in Christ,
Gwyn, Kat, and Shannon
gwyn@communityofchrist.ca
​kat@communityofchrist.ca
smcadam@communityofchrist.ca

​Yours in Christ,
Gwyn, Kat, and Shannon
gwyn@communityofchrist.ca
​kat@communityofchrist.ca
smcadam@communityofchrist.ca

​Written by Kat Goheen
Canada West Mission Centre Co-President

Shannon asked me last week if I could write a piece about being a parent of a SPEC camper. This is my child’s first SPEC experience, and by the time you read this, she will already be down in Independence along with our other seven CWM campers, getting to know the Northwest delegation and eating, relaxing, and finding their place on sports teams along with everyone. Not to mention getting their matching delegation T-shirts!

A lot of being a SPEC parent is meeting registration deadlines and keeping up with communications from the delegation. It’s checking in with recent campers about what our kids will really need down there for those ten days. Driving down to SEATAC for a 4:30 am prayer circle before the flight. It’s sharing her excitement about the electives offered and having too much good stuff to choose from!

I am so excited that our best and brightest people offer ministry to our SPEC kids and will have carefully planned so much for them – from the theme of the week, to the music, to the testimonies shared.

I was fortunate to go to SPEC through high school and mostly remember the sports and worship activities from back then. I had a real feeling of being part of something bigger than myself, and that the church cared for me. It was fun – and it meant a lot to me to see how fun church could be!

For all of you who support campers going to SPEC and to our camps, I am truly grateful. Our Mission Centre provided significant financial support to each of our campers’ families to help with the fees, and that is thanks to your giving. Here in the CWM we’re always learning how to live in community and how to support one another in love. Having campers from Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia journeying to SPEC will be leaven to our gatherings, bringing back enthusiasm, stories, and concrete ideas for how we can share together as Community of Christ – different horizons for how we can view ourselves and how we can reach out in mission.

​Let’s embrace these stories and show our kiddos that they are also part of something bigger than themselves here, and that they are so deeply cared for by God and by us.

​Yours in Christ,
Gwyn, Kat, and Shannon
gwyn@communityofchrist.ca
​kat@communityofchrist.ca
smcadam@communityofchrist.ca

Several months ago, I shared with you my take on the roots of spiritual discernment here in this space. Since that time, I’ve continued to learn and explore group discernment, and I have another offering to share, this time about the middle of the discernment process. My course has shown me a wonderful application of this image that Steve Veazey has compiled of six lenses for listening to God, seeing it as a framework for gathering data. These six lenses seek feedback from various perspectives based on their very nature, realizing that all of them are necessary and valuable. What does scripture have to say about our situation? Continuing revelation? When it’s hard to find data for one of them, it can signal a blind spot.

​​Yours in Christ,
Gwyn, Kat, and Shannon
gwyn@communityofchrist.ca
​kat@communityofchrist.ca
smcadam@communityofchrist.ca​

In recent weeks, with consultation from various volunteers, our mission centre had to make difficult decisions about cancelling our youth and kids camps at Hills of Peace this summer. While we have all been prepared for a few seasons of slow return to our pre-covid camping program, it is still difficult to admit that as a mission centre, we don’t have the capacity to hold these important gatherings this year.
 
I think back to my own camping years with fondness. So many memorable experiences, and always a feeling like camp was the only time all year when I felt like I could truly and fully be myself. I had friends who liked me for me, and I looked forward to seeing them. Just a few months ago at a Creating Connection retreat I had a joyful reunion with an old camp friend and it was all we could do to not stay up all night talking just like we did at camp thirty years ago!
 
I think of the leadership skills I learned during my camping years, and how when I was old enough to be a counsellor, I was so excited to be able to volunteer my time in the years when my summers were free of work and school.
 
I think of the many hours of volunteer time so generously offered to create these memories that I hold so dear. Just a couple of months ago at world conference I ran into a number of people who are beloved to me because they directed camps or counselled at camps that I attended as a young person. I still look to them for inspiration and role modeling of how to be a leader.
 
I wonder what memories you have of church camp in your youth? I wonder what memories you have of offering leadership in our camping program? I wonder what time, talents, testimony, or treasure you have capacity to share now in order to help our youngest Canada West Mission Centre members and friends create similar memories in the years to come?
 
We have some extra time now to begin planning for next year’s summer gatherings of our young people. In this liminal season you are invited to help discern how best to ensure we have a full schedule of programming in 2024. All hopes and dreams are welcome! Please consider how you can share generously of your time, talents, testimony, or treasure as we move forward together.

​Yours in Christ,
Gwyn, Kat, and Shannon
gwyn@communityofchrist.ca
​kat@communityofchrist.ca
smcadam@communityofchrist.ca

I returned from our retreat Creating Community: Where Spirit, Nature, and Justice Meet at Samish Island with renewed hope for the planet, and bathed in the rich spirit that comes with any visit to Samish Island.

This year, the Nurturing Justice team joined the Nurturing Spirit team to create a retreat that combined the contemplative experience with a learning and sharing model.  Our special guest, Isabelle Hachette from World Accord, shared stories of her experiences with, and before she joined World Accord, which helped us better understand the plights of people around the world and the climate crisis on our planet.  I think Isabelle left renewed by our spirits, just as we left with a new energy to support social justice issues.

Our 38 attendees included 4 people from the Climate Action team, Americans, and Canadians.  6 people had never been to Samish Island, 4 had never been to anything Community of Christ.

As we move forward exploring new expressions of mission, our retreats are a wonderful place to introduce your friends and neighbours to Community of Christ.  Remember to offer the invitation.
​
Creating Connection is exploring new ways to reach new people.  If you have an idea you need a little help with, or you’d like to learn more about Creating Connection, contact me, Debra Donohue, debra@creatingconnection.ca

​Yours in Christ,
Gwyn, Kat, and Shannon
gwyn@communityofchrist.ca
​kat@communityofchrist.ca
smcadam@communityofchrist.ca

YOU Are Invited!  We have saved a place for YOU!

Thank you for your patience as preparations have been made in getting Spiritual Retreats, Family Camps and Kids Camps ready for you to register!  Big THANKS to Lisa Neudorf for helping us this year with REGGIE! 

Hills of Peace and Samish Island are sacred places for all of us!  Join us at either place and feel that wonderful homecoming!  If you have never been to the campgrounds, you are invited to come and join us for a weekend, a whole week or even just one day! 

• Spiritual Retreat (end of June) at Hills of Peace welcomes Art Smith.
• Family Camp at Hills of Peace welcomes Janne Grover.
• Reunion at Samish Island will be a shared camp with Inland West Mission Centre and will welcome Scott Murphy and Art Smith.

While Samish Island and Hills of Peace are beautiful places, they become even more special spaces with YOU there.  Greet old friends and make new friends!  Spend time in classes, over the dining room table, washing dishes, going to the waterfront, join in singing at the campfire and walk the grounds.  It is your time to just BE.

Register for a retreat or camp!  We have saved a place for YOU!

During May, for our discernment of future leadership in Community of Christ, we were to consider the following question:

​Yours in Christ,
Gwyn, Kat, and Shannon
gwyn@communityofchrist.ca
​kat@communityofchrist.ca
smcadam@communityofchrist.ca

More Conference memories: On the Sunday evening of Conference, we had an “Experience the Temple” event combining visual and musical arts all around the Temple complex. Shannon used her fabric art to stitch and visit with people passing by in Shalom Place upstairs by the World Plaza, surrounded by painters, quilters, and a synthesizer. I played my violin with the European delegation singing Taize music in the Meditation Chapel while a potter threw pots and vases.

​Reflections on World Conference

​This past Sunday our Vancouver zoom service centred on a recap of our delegates’ experiences. Each person who spoke evoked memories of people and meaningful moments for me!

One important thing that I want to share with you is the truly international feeling of this Conference. Shannon and I had roommates from Germany and Norway who shared with us daily about their church experience growing up in Europe and continuing today. We had apostles and delegates speaking in their native tongues as we English speakers waited for translations. All kinds of sessions were translated into French and Spanish as well as American Sign Language, and legislation and worship sessions were also translated into German and Tahitian (perhaps more!). It was such a reminder to me that faithful followers of Jesus in our Christian expression of Community of Christ eat, pray, worship, and sing in their own unique and beloved ways.

During the week, we roomies realized that we have all studied different languages on the same learning platform, so we became language friends on the app and continue to do friend challenges together. I was studying French just for fun before, but after using it ‘for keeps’ during Conference, I have a renewed interest! I would encourage you to consider learning or brushing up on another language as a spiritual practice in solidarity with our spiritual siblings around the world. We sometimes forget that we are part of something bigger that is vibrant and beautiful: we truly have unity in diversity and it makes us stronger.
​
PS – Email me if you want to be language buddies!

A great deal of my joy in World Conference came from deepening relationships. We had a crew of Canadians who would often end up in the Temple lunchroom after the morning legislative sessions with leftovers, bought brown bag lunches, or homemade sandwiches. It was a joy to visit with Doug and Becky Middleton, and I want to share what they’re supporting in Honduras. Becky writes:

I am attaching 2 photos. One is the completed renos on the school. It consists of 2 separate classrooms with a kitchen building in between. The walls of the existing school were ok but the roof, doors and windows and floors were all replaced as well as painting inside and out. New white boards and desks were also included. World Accord had some money that was contributed last year as it was a project promised last year and unable to complete due to Al Wigood's passing.

The Senlac congregation and other people from the community contributed funds to take on the balance of it as well as build the office/admin building for Asocialayo. It is going to be a 2 story building as the footprint of land wasn't quite large enough to get it all in one story. It should be completed soon but attached is a picture in progress.

Doug is exploring ways that building may be able to continue as there is an ongoing need for it. World Accord's partnership with Asocialayo is to do with agriculture and is not planning to continue with building projects but may be able to help with refurbishing projects - just not sure at this point.

When I wonder what mission looks like, it’s this! Developing deep friendships, being with and listening to people, and then figuring out the best way to make a difference even before being asked. I am very grateful for the work Doug and Becky and the community in Senlac are up to, and I pray that you feel inspired to respond to your true capacity as well. If there aren’t any vibrant projects like this happening in your area right now, consider helping finance the rustic cabin reno’s at Samish Island, helping our eight campers go to SPEC, or responding to the June appeal for Hills of Peace.

​Yours in Christ,
Gwyn, Kat, and Shannon
gwyn@communityofchrist.ca
​kat@communityofchrist.ca
smcadam@communityofchrist.ca

​We’ve returned home from World Conference and are filled with inspiration from our experience.
 
Here are some early reflections:
 
Gwyn: "I was so moved by the Tuesday night ordination service where the World Church was so prominent.  The mission prayer was given in so many languages and during the ordinations, I felt God's spirit present!"
 
Kat: “I really felt I’d come home at the end of the communion service when we stood and sang ‘The Spirit of God like a Fire is Burning’ in full voice with the Auditorium organ in all of our languages.”
 
Shannon: “I was so inspired by the theme of ‘Courage’ and found that it was a spiritual practice to listen with love to each courageous person who rose to speak from their heart on the conference floor.”
 
We will continue to share our thoughts in the weeks ahead, and if you’d like to learn more, keep checking the conference page of the church website (click on the button below).

​You can already see a beautiful recap video there! 

​​Yours in Christ,
Gwyn, Kat, and Shannon
gwyn@communityofchrist.ca
​kat@communityofchrist.ca
smcadam@communityofchrist.ca

Dear Friends,
​
We are so happy to be sending you this virtual postcard from our Community of Christ World Conference in Independence Missouri, USA!

So far we are having a wonderful time sitting with our friends from across Canada West and reuniting with friends from far away.
 
We’ve especially enjoyed the words of home and encouragement in the messages shared by church leaders and we encourage you to check out all the recordings online at cofchrist.org
 
We will share more here after we return. We hope you enjoy these few snapshots from our time so far.
 
 
With joy, 
Gwyn, Kat, & Shannon