From July 2nd through July 6th 2024, I had the opportunity to attend Uplift, a conference coorganized by the Presbyterian Church in Canada and the United Church of Canada at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario. Formerly known as Canada Youth, this conference attracted close to 450 people from all over Canada for four days of fellowship, fun, and learning opportunities.

I first learned about Uplift in late March of this year from the Rev’d. Alex Bisset, minister at Riverdale and Westminster Presbyterian Churches in the Presbytery of East Toronto, whom I first met in 2015 when he was serving as a clergy consultant to the now-defunct Presbyterian Young People’s Society. Rev’d. Alex wrote to ask about whether I could help facilitate a small group of high school-aged young people as they worked through a curriculum based around the theme “Audacious Hope.”

This being the first time the PCC and the UCC had partnered in developing an event of this kind, it was decided to pair a Presbyterian with a representative of the United Church to oversee these “Daring Disciples” groups, of which there were about eight in total. My co-leader was Brianna Coutlee, who presently serves as Children, Youth & Young Adult Ministry Lead at Islington United Church in west Toronto. Brianna and I travelled together from Toronto to St. Catharines via GO train and bus, arriving on the afternoon of July 2 for some additional training and introductions to other leaders. That evening, a service of Holy Communion took place for those of us involved in conference leadership.

After some free time on the afternoon of July 3rd(during which I was able to visit with an old friend from the Kawartha Lakes museum sector who now works in St. Catharines), the conference proper began in the evening with a service of worship in one of the university auditoriums. The preacher was the Rev’d. Mitchell Anderson, who serves as the lead minister at St. Paul’s United Church in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Mr. Anderson is a 34 year-old dënesułiné and is a member of the English River First Nation. He spoke of how he has grown his congregation considerably over the last few years. When I asked him later that evening what the secret sauce was, he replied, “There is no secret sauce; we practise radical hospitality.” This was encouraging to hear.

The next two days were taken up with our Daring Disciple groups, which met at 10:30 a.m. and 3:00 p.m., respectively. Over the course of four sessions, we explored Hope as Faith, Hope as Fuel, Hopelessness, and Hope as Response & Action. (During the session about hopelessness, participants were asked to draw with markers on a small tile something representing hopelessness. These tiles were then broken and the fragments used to create a mosaic of the Uplift 2024 rainbow dove logo. The completed mosaic will be displayed in the joint Anglican, Presbyterian, and United Church headquarters on Bloor Street in downtown Toronto when it is completed in a few years.)

Much learning and revelry transpired over the course of the conference – but perhaps the most interesting and enjoyable aspect of it were those opportunities to visit with clergy and laity from both the PCC and the UCC over breakfast, luncheon, and supper, among other times of fellowship. It is easy to think of the Church in a vacuum, not looking beyond the confines of one’s home congregation and its traditions, habits, and idiosyncrasies – and yet as my experience at Uplift showed, other churches have a wealth of bold new ideas worth considering as we look forward with audacious hope.

Contributed by Ian McKechnie

July 26, 2024 Newsletter

MANY WORE RED & WHITE ON JUNE 30

ADDRESS

OFFICE HOURS

EMAIL

PHONE

Info