Celebrating 20 years since our first conference

By: Stephen Thompson Canada West Mission Centre Historian

I hope you have enjoyed your summer. I took a somewhat longer “sabbatical” from this column than I had intended when I finished the last article in May. So – like everything else in September - let’s get going again...

Elsewhere in this week’s Weekly Wire you will find information about the upcoming Mission Centre Conference scheduled for September 27 to 29, and being hosted in Edmonton. This conference will mark the 20th anniversary of the FIRST Canada West Mission Conference, held September 3 to 6, 2004, and hosted by the Calgary Community of Christ. Here are some interesting notes about that conference.

Although this was the first in-person conference, there had been a “tele-conference” – yes, by telephone conference call (no Zoom or other computer conferencing tools were yet available!) - held December 7, 2003, to do the initial set-up of this new thing called a mission centre. Darrell Belrose was sustained as our first Mission Centre President on the recommendation of the church’s Human Resources Committee. Similarly, Bob Hodgson was sustained as our first Mission Centre Financial Officer. Authorization to set up a bank account was given, and signing authorities were approved. A budget of $119,000 in expenditures was approved for 2004 – not including $490,000 being contributed for World Church Ministers’ salaries (including Darrell and Bob and other staff persons yet to be hired). Congregational “assessments” were also approved so that each congregation, in a proportion mostly based on membership, contributed to that total budget for 2004.

Thirty-four people “attended” that teleconference, consisting mainly of current congregational Pastors, Financial Officers, and District Presidents and Financial Officers from the four about-to-be disbanded districts (British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba).

Moving now to the September conference... It was held on Labour Day weekend. This had been the practice of the Alberta and Saskatchewan Districts, as part of the Northern Plains and Prairie Provinces Region, to hold their annual “Institute” that weekend. (I do not know what had been the practice of the former jurisdictions that BC and Manitoba had been a part of. I invite anyone who knows to enlighten me!) It continued to be held on that weekend for many years until very recently.

Guest ministry for the conference was “headlined” by President Grant McMurray, along with Apostle Mary Jacks Dynes, and Bishop of Canada Jim Poirier. A total of 122 delegates (of a possible 155) attended, representing 19 congregations and missions.

A full weekend of activities and meetings were scheduled from Friday evening to just after noon on Monday. At the business meeting held Saturday afternoon decisions were made concerning: 

•    sustaining the MC President (Darrell Belrose) and MC Financial Officer (Bob Hodgson) for the next year; 
•    sustaining other MC volunteers (Sandy Woynarski as Recorder; Mable Levitt as Historian; and persons to serve on the MC Advisory Council)
•    support of two calls to the office of Evangelist: Tom Beer and Charles Lester
•    approval of the 2005 mission centre budget
•    approval of the Samish Island Campground Bylaws
•    approval of a process for managing “Fees and Donations for Camping Programs.” (which has been a continuing and ongoing discussion ever since!)

The schedule for the weekend included a number of specified “visiting” times as parts of breaks and meals as well as discussion groups. This was the first time that members from British Columbia and from Manitoba had met with members from Alberta and Saskatchewan (who already were familiar with each other due to the previous regional alignment). It was an enjoyable time spent getting to know each other. Those relationships have continued to grow and become stronger over the last 20 years. We look forward to getting together yet again in Edmonton at the end of September.
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Thanks for reading!