Dear Friends,

        I want to begin my first message to you by thanking you for the warm, gracious and hospitable welcome that I have received since my arrival on December 1^st.

        Change and transition brings the surprise and delight of newness and is sometimes accompanied with a bit of anxiety... that is natural enough. We live in a epoch in human history where advances and changes are taking place at rates never seen before. More things change in a decade than in previous whole centuries. There is a saying that the only thing that really likes change is a wet baby! However, I do not believe that is true. Welcomed or not as physical living beings we are constantly being altered. We shed and grow millions of cells each day as our bodies are transformed. We gather new information, new concepts, new ways of thinking, new ideas, which has the impact of having us reinterpret the world. With the advances in internet technology we have more information available to us at our finger tips, in our homes than many libraries can contain.

        All of this can have a destabilizing effect and one of the results is that within society, particularly within younger generations, there is an enormous about of questioning taking place. There is a spiritual search about meaning and purpose. This search is about community and connectedness. It is about how we live in this world and how we affect and are affected by one another.

        All this has an impact on congregational life and congregations that embrace and engage society and the changes in society around them are ones that are relevant, vital and growing. Please take note of the "Renewal Week-end" notice in this current issue of the new Beacon. This week-end is being created to tease from the congregation its vision and ministry focus areas for the future. You can expect three outcomes:
   First, it is designed to build our community by getting to know each other in new ways;
  Secondly, we will assess and evaluate the church's health and begin an inventory of our human skill base;
  And finally, we will through mutual negotiation arrive at the top priorities that we need to work on in our parish's life. I invite you to be part of the process that I will be leading and guarantee that it will be a time of personal renewal, humour and hard work. Child care and lunch will be provided on Saturday. In order to prepare we ask that everyone please call the office to register and at that time let us know if child care is required.

        I hope to see you all at this event as it will be pivotal in our congregation's future.
 

                                                                  In Christ,

                                                                    Shaun E. Fryday
 

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