CONGREGATION VOTES OVERWHELMINGLY TO EXPLORE NEW VISTAS

 

Following what obviously was a very meaningful communion service, Trinity’s congregation adopted a rather festive atmosphere in the Fellowship Hall on Sunday, May 3^rd and voted overwhelmingly to explore redevelopment, relocation and amalgamation possibilities. By a secret ballot vote of 118 to 1, Council has been given a mandate to seriously look into these ideas and bring an initial report back by the end of October.

 

Members also were asked whether or not they support the specific Four Churches vision of a joint properties redevelopment initiative and joint management of the resulting redevelopment as reflected in the Four Churches project vision. On this matter, also conducted by secret ballot, the vote was Yes 72, yes with reservations, 26 and No 22.This means the rate of acceptance of the Four Churches initiative is 81.67% and Council should not ignore those ideas.

 

Everyone was given a paper on which to express, anonymously or not, as they wished, any reservations they might have about Four Churches. Twenty people chose to write them out. The results were interesting and, obviously, must be carefully considered. Eleven people mentioned costs. (A premise of the vision is that there will be no major expense to the congregation other than real estate). Eight people are concerned that the organ be saved. A major refurbishing of the organ occurred five years ago. Eight people were concerned to preserve the stained glass window s and artifacts. Architects can be instructed to keep these concerns in mind when designing a project. As well, there was concern that the church should not be directly involved in the development or landlord business.

 

To put the decisions in context, the congregation considered the church’s Annual Report of 1947, the year Dr. Orville Hossie answered our call and began the 44 years of Dr. Hossie, Dr. Morgan and Dr. Kirker, what some might consider the golden years of church attendance. It became clear that even the year Dr. Hossie arrived was a very different time in terms of church attendance. Attendance dwindled, in fact, during those 44 years and every year since. Curiously, Trinity has a great deal of energy right now and this could be the year membership actually starts to climb again, as is evidenced by the weekly testimonials we are receiving from new members.

 

All together, it looks as if this is going to be an unusually busy summer for Council. They will need your help and input. A list of Council members is found elsewhere in Trinity News. They all have e-mail addresses. Feel free to contact them and offer your input as to where our explorations should take us now.