Recently a cheque arrived from St. Andrew’s Kirk, a congregation on the Andrew Donald Pastoral Charge in Saint John Presbytery. It came with a story and a prayer!
The Rev. Karen MacNeill explains: “This spring, our congregation invited people to make a donation to the Conference Centre in memory of Rev. Doug Woods. Doug was raised in our congregation and was sponsored into ministry from here. His sister still attends regularly. We gave people three or four weeks to consider what they would like to give, made sure that gifts of any size were welcome and then we took the total and dedicated that total during worship.”
Karen continues: “I was thinking that other congregations might like to do the same either in memory of or in honour of a favourite minister. So I’ve attached the Dedication Prayer as something you might want to make available to others.”
Thank you Karen and the pastoral charge of St. Andrew’s Kirk for your creative and generous support.
Dedication of Donation to Maritime Conference Building
In the name of the holy and triune God:
Creator, Christ, and Holy Spirit,
we dedicate this donation for the Conference building to the glory of God.
In loving memory of ….. the Rev. Doug Woods, brother, neighbour, friend,… and minister who served our Conference so well,
we dedicate this donation for the Conference building to the glory of God.
For the on-going work of the Maritime Conference – that the new building might be a place of gathering, of prayerful reflection, of faith lived and stories shared,
we dedicate this donation for the Conference building to the glory of God.
Gracious God, we give you thanks for the life and ministry of your servant, The Rev. Doug Woods. We also give you thanks for all the ministers we have known – for their faith, their witness, their compassion and their insight. We ask your blessing upon the new Conference building, that with this new space, we might strengthen and encourage the ministry of all your people within the Maritimes. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
