All About You: Alice Hanson

Alice Hanson is 2012 graduate of the Centre for Christian Studies.  In Alice’s words:

“My roots were deeply embedded in the Lutheran tradition, growing up in a clergy family and then offering my music gifts in worship leadership in my adult years.  A two-year volunteer program with Lutheran Missions overseas as a teacher in Papua New Guinea during my twenties led to a global perspective and a deeper appreciation of Canada’s place in the world.  When I returned, I began theological studies at the Lutheran Seminary in the late 70s and then decided to return to teaching where I remained for thirty-some years.

My area of teaching combined two specialties – Music and French.  Both called forth creative and energetic leadership. In time, I embraced my spiritual home in the United Church.  In recent years, the call to return to theological studies led to discernment and then the Diaconal Program at the Centre for Christian Studies.  To do this, I “retired” from teaching and have been working in part-time ministry (Northern Lights Presbytery) and full-time CCS studies.

I would describe my leadership within the church as diaconal – not so much in the actual task of ministry, but in my way of doing ministry.   In rural and smaller urban churches this most often calls forth ‘all things needed’ as I embrace my joy and commitment to Word and Sacraments, Pastoral care, Christian Education and Community Outreach.   I see the call of ministry as an invitation focused on strong vital team building and empowering one another to offer their gifts as service to and for others.  I lift up the personal and communal call to seek justice and invite all to embrace acts of kindness for the sake of the well being of all.   Rooted in spiritual practice, in the love of sacred scripture and liturgy, energized by theological conversation and attentive to creative ways the Spirit speaks in our lives today, I offer my gifts so that together we can move forward as the people of God in life-giving ways as we seek together to live faithfully in today’s world. 

After my four years with CCS, I am now in the process of accepting first call placement just north of Edmonton (Morinville / Redwater) in the Yellowhead Presbytery, Alberta Northwest Conference.  Commissioning is just around the corner and then I am off with her partner Paul to a celebration holiday in Nova Scotia and Cape Breton Island for two weeks.”

Strategic Thinking and “Wiggle Room” at CCS

Principal Maylanne Maybee writes:

Once every three or four months, the CCS staff team holds a longer than usual meeting that includes lunch, and allows us to delve more deeply into issues we want to address in common.

We did just that last week. Our purpose was to reflect on the realities of being a staff team “with very little wiggle room” to absorb personal or organizational crises, to balance our many-layered and complex workloads, to do justice to the routine tasks in our job descriptions.

The process was brilliant – and should be copyrighted for other staff teams! As a preparation, each of us – Ann, Ted, Scott, Marc, Liz, and I – took our job description and summarized it into main headings. We also attached our picture as a way of linking an abstract job description with a real human being. At the meeting, with help from the SMART board, we took turns giving a general description of our work, sometimes making comments or a time percentages.
We then went around saying what gives us energy and what drains our energy in our work, attaching stars and “X” marks and other graffiti to our job summaries as we spoke.

The best part of the day was responding to what we heard from each other: what we observed, what was missing, what surprised us, what we affirmed.
It was an exercise that invited risk, built trust, and offered very valuable information about each other’s responsibilities and areas of strength and struggle. We ended with a commitment to recommend changes to the HR Committee in our job descriptions where needed, and to hold each other to account for doing the “important but not urgent” work that often gets neglected.

This week, at least, we did NOT neglect the important but not always urgent work of living out or staff mission statement: “Sharing a commitment to CCS, the staff will value and risk mutual encouragement, support, and deep reflection in a spirit of trust, laughter, and a sense of the sacred.”

Welcome back, Marc

Our Development and Community Relations staffperson, Marc Desrosiers, was on sick leave for a few weeks in early May, which meant no regular “Common Threads” update emailed out to our community (and no re-posting of some of those articles here on the CCS blog).  Marc is back in our midst and we are happy to have him.  Welcome back, Marc.

SMART board covers

 At the beginning of this year we installed two SMART boards at CCS.  (If you’ve never seen one, a SMART board is like a large touch-sensitive computer monitor that you can use like a whiteboard to write notes, show slideshow presentations, etc.)  They’re a lot of fun and they’re inspiring us to think about how we can get the most educational mileage out of them.  … But when they’re not in use they’re kind of big and white and blah.

So we put the word out to our community, inviting anyone who felt so moved to create a quilt or “smartboard cosy” for us.  Here are some of the fine creations.

Kimberly Roy's colourful cover

Kimberly Roy says: “The colorful abstract cover was birthed out of a journey I am currently on. It was to have a border, but with the changes to the size and dimensions, its identity changed a bit. Enjoy!”

Kimberly Roy's diaconal identity cover

Kim says: “I created two covers.  With the history we have been covering this past academic year I felt called to display bits and pieces of what I see as my diaconal identity. It is more plain and not “completed” but that is what I also see as part of my identity – further learning, and added experiences to life’s journey”

Laura Richardson's provincial flowers cover

Laura Richardson says: For the past twenty-seven years, my husband Jim and I have been part of the Glebe-St. James United Church congregation in Ottawa. In the early nineties, I was honored with the title of Minister in Association (precursor of ‘Volunteer Associate Minister’) there. In my response to receiving that, I told the story of how I was named the ‘official paper cutter’ when I was working at Wesley Memorial UC in Moncton in the late sixties. (The title stemmed partly from making friendship chains of paper people.) I went on to say that my interests were music, sewing and other related crafts, and people, and that it was not just cutting paper but the important element was to share in the fabric of people’s lives.
More recently, I have been involved in quilting and embroidery and, having these embroidery blocks already done, I was happy for an opportunity to share my passion for the Provincial and Territorial flowers which I felt would represent the Centre’s national identity. We have strong quilting and craft groups at Glebe-St. James whose members help each other with various projects. I would particularly like to mention Judy Wolanski who also supplied me with the light blue and dark blue fabrics for the quilt.
So enjoy! I hope this can be tangible evidence of the strengthening of the bonds of CCS grads who have come from all parts of the country over the 120 years of the Centre’s existence.”

Jo-Anne Muldrew's weaving cover

Jo-Anne Muldrew says, ““the pattern for this quilt is called ‘Weave It To Me’ and was designed by Judy Dohrman and published by Black Cat Creations. I must confess that no deep thought went into the choosing of the pattern. It was one I have had for some time, but never had the occasion to use, although I liked it and wanted to make it. The fabrics I used were also just ones that I had in my cupboard. Blue and yellow always seems a cheerful and hopeful color combination to me and as I had an idea of where the quilt was going to go I thought they would suit the room. Making a quilts is often a solitary activity and this allows lots of time to think as I work and sometimes my mind goes on a journey of its own..The colors began to represent the many different groups of people that are connected to the centre as well and how through time the individual pieces can work as one unit. It was as I worked on the quilt that the symbolism of the weaving of the fabrics seemed to be similar to what happens at the Centre for Christian Studies with the many different groups, lives, and activities that are interconnected in the building. Making mistakes and having to correct them ( I had trouble getting the size right) also seemed symbolic of troubles that individuals and groups that use the centre might have and how with persistence and patience a whole cloth, a strong group or a better life can be the result.”

Finally, another one from Kim Roy.  This one’s not a Smart board cover, but a banner she made as a gift to CCS.

Kim and Clement Roy's colourful banner

Kim says, The banner is a special gift from my partner and me. It is made up of some of the same materials as the one cover…It however, has its own journey of growing, stretching and faith for both my partner and me. The dowelling the banner hangs from was hand made by my partner out of an old willow bush not far from home. He set out to find that special piece of God’s world to be a part of this creation. He arrived home with this perfect piece of wood and went to work on the lathe, knowing that his caring nature and love went into this piece of art… These special pieces of art and the time they afforded me to deeply reflect upon my personal theology and growing edges. Who would have thought that making SMART board covers could come to mean so much to one’s faith journey.”

Work Bee – May 12

Expecting to be in Winnipeg on Saturday, May 12th?  Feel free to join us at Woodsworth House for a work bee.

Fresh air!  Lending a hand sprucing up the exterior of CCS!  Meeting wonderful co-workers.

We are looking for a group of committed volunteers to gather at CCS on Saturday, May 12 (rain date May 26). Join us in pruning branches, painting our front metal fence and other repairs.  Lunch and refreshments will be served.

In order to plan for supplies and tools, please send your intentions to Liz at 204-783-4490 (lbachmann@ccsonline.ca)

All About You – Irene Rainey

Irene Rainey is a diaconal minister, she has been on the CCS Central Council, and was a guest at the recent Pastoral Care Learning Circle.  Irene says…

 “ I recently had the privilege of joining the Pastoral Care Theme Year Learning Circle this Spring for 3 days as a “seasoned” diaconal minister. At the end of our time together I shared that in the midst of a period of significant disillusionment about the state of the church and the future of our world this experience had restored my hope. The many gifts and skills, the deep faith and commitment and the amazing creativity and vision that I saw being developed and nurtured in the Circle and offered as leadership to the institutional church and the world beyond sparked afresh my own passion for justice and faith in a God who asks only for our companionship in building that “kindom” where all are included and loved.

I was commissioned as a Diaconal Minister in 1998, after 15 years of paid ministry in the United Church as a Staff Associate and 5 years of intensive study, learning and growing through the Western Field-based Training Program in Diaconal Ministry. I then had the amazing good fortune to be settled with a diaconal teammate into outreach ministry in inner city Winnipeg. For 10 years we had the privilege of shared ministry, walking with folks who live on the margins. We learned again and again that the poor and disenfranchised have much to teach us, We learned that speaking truth to power is difficult and discouraging. We learned that an ongoing community of support and accountability is essential to maintaining commitment to the possibility and vision of an inclusive community where all have a place. CCS and the diaconal community became central components of that support for me.

When, in 2006, I was asked to join CCS’s Central Council as a United Church rep I was excited to be involved in a new way with the Centre and their visionary model of participatory theological education and ministry training. It was a challenging 6 years of discovering how difficult it is to actually live out a theological vision of justice, compassion and mutuality and how painful it is to fail. A time of transition turned into a period of chaos, certainly not the first to be lived through by the organization and likely not the last, but nonetheless one in which people were deeply hurt and faith was sorely tested. Yet the vision prevailed. It has been inspirational to me to see and experience the commitment of staff and volunteers that has brought us back to a place where hope is tangible once again.

Micah 6:8, “What does God require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.” has been my challenge and my inspiration throughout my adult life. My head knows that the way of justice seeking will never be a smooth or easy road but when my heart grows weary and my energy falters, I give thanks for companions like those at CCS who have the grace to call me back onto the path. My 6 years on the Central Council are finished but my belief in the training that CCS offers to ministry students and in the lifelong learning opportunities that we are all invited to embrace is strong. I am deeply grateful for the ongoing witness of the Centre for Christian Studies in seeking ways to live a theology of justice and am honored to be counted as one of CCS’s friends.” – Irene Rainey

From the Principal – Celebrating Diakonia

Christ is risen! Alleluia!
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

As a student in England in the mid seventies, I lived in an ecumenical Christian community run by the Russian Orthodox chaplaincy. It gave me the opportunity to attend the Divine Liturgy on Sundays, to sing occasionally in the choir (alternating services in Slavonic, Greek, and English) and to participate in ecumenical dialogue with other Orthodox and Anglican students.

From those two years of sharing worship, song and prayer with that community, I took away a couple of strong images that have stayed with me ever since – of the deacon as a vital figure in the liturgy and ministry of the Church, and of the solemn joy of the resurrection, proclaimed weekly in the Divine Liturgy and with special exuberance at Easter. Christos voskresye! Voisimos voskresye! (don’t know how to transcribe in English!)

It was therefore doubly delightful to have CCS host a retreat last Friday on these two favourite themes: diakonia and Resurrection (see below). More than 30 people came to Woodsworth House to share in worship, music, fellowship, quiet reflection and learning. With dedication and creativity, our staff designed and set up stations throughout the house, prepared and served lunch and refreshments, and ensured that all the parts were running smoothly.

The day was a high point for me since taking on the office of Principal (which was, in fact, offered to me a year ago on April 13!) It was a moment of opening the doors of this school to the community, of sharing the treasures we have learned about Jesus’ understanding of leading, teaching, and serving, and of simple celebration of faith, hope, and hospitality.

The Centre for Christian Studies is a wonderful place to work, to learn, and to be. I am proud and grateful to be part of it.