This committee’s primary focus is as follows:
- Coordinate Sunday worship services, including service readiness, ushers, readers,sound, decorations, communion, special music;
- Coordinate youth interaction, such as Sunday school, youth group, nursery;
- Coordinate other literature of spiritual learning; and encouraging stewardship of theChurch.
The 2022 year started similarly to the last couple of years with in-person Worship gatherings paused due to COVID-19 public health restrictions in place. Worship Services were once again recorded and produced by Fred Cattroll and Kim Benjamin through the months of January and February, with Rev. Laura and Mary-Lynne regularly participating in them. Thank you.
The public health restrictions were lifted in the late February time frame. Thankfully, for the rest of 2022, we saw the lessening COVID-19-related restrictions. This allowed in-person Sunday Worship Services to restart in early March. Restrictions were further relaxed with mandatory face coverings becoming optional (but recommended) and humming of hymns becoming singing again.
We saw members of the choir come back, slowly at first, and then more regularly later in the fall, so that – once again – choir music was part of our Sunday Worship Services. We were able to celebrate in the Church building for Ash Wednesday to start Lent and Holy Week, including Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday. We continued in-person services throughout the summer (except for the power outage in May!). In August Rev. Laura held her Mysteries of the Bible sermon series (my favorite!).
The fall time frame was kicked-off with a welcome back luncheon after an early September in-person Service. With autumn in full swing, members of the congregation came out to rake up leaves on the Church grounds. Thank you.
In October and November, we had two guest speakers: Rev. Steve Zytveld shared with us his work with the Carlington Community Chaplaincy; and Elaine Kicknosway shared her thoughts about the Residential Schools and Reconciliation process. At the beginning of Advent, the sanctuary was decorated for Christmas. Thank you to all those people that helped with the decorating.
As part of City View’s Christmas giving, Chris Tibelius once again ran the Christmas tag fundraiser. “Thank you to everyone who contributed to the Christmas tag project to raise funds to support projects in Iqaluit and the north this year. A total of $440 was raised. Of this, $137.76 was used to send supplies to a woman in Iqaluit (originally from Ottawa) who welcomes children to drop into her home for crafts, snacks, games etc. It provides a safe, warm, and fun place for them to be. Items included stickers, cookie dough, icing, construction paper, colouring books and other things that are very expensive to buy in Iqaluit. In addition, $300 was used to support an initiative based in Gatineau which prepares Friendship Art Kits to send to children in various northern communities including Iqaluit. The focus of the project is to tap into the creativity of children and youth to bring healing, provide an outlet for positive self- expression, and to strengthen cultural learning.”
The calendar year culminated with the holding of an in-person Christmas Eve Service; the first in-person Christmas Eve Service in two years! The year ended with Rev. Jim Baldwin leading a New Year’s Day Service! Upon reflection, it is remarkable to think that it’s been over two years since the congregation was able to physically attend in-person Services at Church for most of the year.
Although we could not have large groups of helpers come together, there were several of you who volunteered on an individual basis. Thank you to the volunteers who participated in the weekly Bible readings as part of the Services. Thank you to Phyllis and Colin Potts who stopped by on several occasions to decorate the sanctuary with floral arrangements. Thank you to Joanne Lewis for spearheading and participating in the Blue Christmas Service with Rev. Laura and Mary Lynne Harvey. Thank you to the ushers who volunteered this year.
Although early in this year, thanks to my boys Adam, Evan, and Ethan Bergman for helping me take down the Christmas decorations, as well as our custodian Pat Pearson for getting the big tree set up and taken down.
One new item to in-person Church Services was our ability to record and broadcast the Services “live” via YouTube. With the successful installation of the cameras in 2021 (but unfortunately not many chances to use them), this past year saw the continued broadcasting and recording of the in-person Services. This allows members of the congregation, and others, to view the Service live at 10:30 on Sundays away from the Church or watch it later. It has taken a fair bit of trial and error to get the broadcasts looking and sounding ‘right’. Thank you to Craig Suitor and Jim Watchorn for taking on the extra duties of ‘turning on’ the livestreaming at the start of the in-person Services. For those that may have interest, or know someone that may have interest, in learning how to and being part of a livestream (e.g.: YouTube orientated youth), please reach out to me.
The online recorded Services are viewed on average over 60 times after the first two weeks. We have several recorded Services with over 300 views! This is wonderful to know that there are many people enjoying the Services that Rev. Laura and City View congregation members offer.
Thanks to Robert (Bob) Hall who provided fresh and inspirational music for the in-person Services, as well as wonderful singing. We unfortunately had to say good-bye to Bob in early September.
We welcomed Svetlana Logigan in October as our new Music Director. She has added a wonderful new sound to our Services. Thank you, Svetlana.
Early this fall we also welcomed Rev. Jim Baldwin, our new volunteer associate minister. He has participated in several Worship Services since his joining. Welcome Jim and thank you.
And special thank you to Mary Lynne Harvey who continued to perform her in-building coordination and administrative duties, as well as participating in many of the recorded Services themselves early on in 2022.
Unfortunately, with extended shutdown, we have been unable to restart the Sunday School and Youth programs. For most of 2022 we were unable to engage with our kids and youth. We continue to look for help to restart this program.
In closing, 2022 was a year where we “restarted” many things as we worked towards a more “normal” Church Worship experience. The ongoing focus of this committee continues to be to help foster a positive Worship experience, to engage our kids and youth, and offer means to learn God’s Word through various activities. If you have any ideas about worship, both in-building or online, or want to help out, please feel free to reach out to me or Rev. Laura any time.
Respectively submitted,
Steven Bergman, Chair, Worship and Education Committee