All Canada Church Summit: Keynote Speaker Presentations

Dear Canadians, The passion is palpable, the desire, delightful and the hope, healing. These are just three ways of describing what’s happening as we move toward the All Canada Church Summit in Kitchener. From the Wednesday afternoon registration and community dinner (Nov. 5), through Sunday morning worship (Nov. 9), we will spend time together first grieving what churches have all lost, and then inspiring hope for the new day.

Three highlights (among many) will be the keynote speaker presentations by:

• Dr. Melanie Humphreys (Thursday evening: Cultivating a community at The King’s University that is both diverse and welcoming),
• Rev. Paul Verhoef (Friday evening: Stories from campus: how God transformed me through my calling to campus ministry),
• Mr. Shiao Chong (Saturday morning: The pathway toward unity and diversity).

These will be both open (and no cost) to the public and livestreamed. Thursday will begin with everyone participating in thoughtfully facilitated sessions of sharing, connecting, and discerning. By Thursday afternoon, two tracks will have emerged that will be followed for the rest of the time together:

1. Workgroups: these groups will wrestle with specific questions around what a new network of churches could look like, as we seek to build something valuable for ministry, mutual support, and learning. These workgroups will present to each other and the larger body from time to time for feedback and more conversation.

2. Workshops: there will be four of them, addressing a variety of topics such as disaffiliation, “Navigating the Times” (with Dr. Humphreys and Rev. Verhoef), “The Canadian Ecclesiastical Landscape (with Angela Bick), and “GPS for Churches” which will be a discussion of the workgroup presentations.

Throughout our time together, there will be plenty of intentional community-building, of communicating hope and dreams, of prayer and worship, of sharing concerns and joys, and experiencing the communion of the saints as we look forward with holy confidence and courage. The Core Commitments of this Summit will broadly be:

• Rooted in the Bible and the Reformed tradition
• Honouring local church leadership
• Listening and leading together
• Creative and engaged in our culture
• Open to learning and growing.

 

Registrations are already coming in from across Canada. The passion, the desire, the hope is being felt by folks in churches from west to east. It’s a new day; be part of it.

 

Blessings,

Peter Bulthuis