Greetings again to all the Communities of Faith in Region 15, from your Faith Stories and Community Covenants Committee.
We want to thank the 85 Communities of Faith in our Region who responded to our request last May to submit your Annual Self-Assessment. We got replies from all over the Region, from rural and urban, from single point and multipoint Pastoral Charges, and from campus ministry. Thank you for your feedback about how the form worked (or didn’t work) for your Community. The information you gave us will help all our Committees in Region 15 to do their work in the year to come.
We will begin more detailed analysis on the data in November. Even before that, we are already using your answers to the question about what you need from the Region, as input to discussions about how to put our new Strategic Plan into action. By the end of the year, we will have a summary report of the answers you gave to our questions, and we’ll put it up on the Region’s website so everyone can see.
Also, I have attached to this letter a Word Cloud that we made from the answers when we asked you to find five words that describe your Community today. Bigger words indicate more Communities of Faith answered with that word. The words reveal struggles and joys from our pandemic year, and your faithfulness as you sing our God’s songs in a strange land.
If you haven’t yet completed the Self-Assessment Form for your Community of Faith, we are still accepting them until the end of October, and we would be very happy to hear what you have to say to us about the work of the United Church in your part of the world. You can follow this link, or search on the Regional Website.
https://ucceast.ca/62012-2021-rc15-self-assessment-form-for-communities-of-faith-2/
If you have questions about the form, please direct them to me, the Chair of Faith Stories and Community Covenants, at revheatherfraser@gmail.com
Also, we are asking for all Communities of Faith to send their Annual Reports from 2020 and 2019 to the Regional Office, if you haven’t already. An electronic copy is preferred, mail it to Tracey Rose at TRose@united-church.ca . If you only have a paper copy, just pop it in an envelope and send it to Tracey at Regional Council 15, THE UNITED CHURCH OF CANADA, 21 Wright Street, Sackville, NB E4L 4P8
Thank you very much for your help in this important piece of our work together, and for the many ways your Community of Faith is answering the call of being Christ’s hands and feet in the world.
Yours in Christ,
The Rev. Heather Fraser, Chair, Faith Stories and Community Covenants Committee of Region 15.
