Outreach in Blue Mountains community: St. George’s Waygate project
GROWING BEYOND THE DOORS
By Rev. Canon Grayhame Bowcott
DIACONAL MINISTRY is often described as being the place where bridges are built between a Christian congregation and the wider neighbourhood. The places where the grace of God, as experienced in worship and faithful community, spills out beyond the doors of the church.
In my congregation, we have been reflecting on our Bishop’s Charge: Turning to Grace; and to the various ways that our congregation might respond to the three pillars of 1) a Learning Church, 2) a Just Church, and 3) a more Diverse Church. Much of this reflection has been taking place among our leadership team at a time when we are training two new deacons for service in our community. At this moment in the life of our parish, outreach seems to be front of mind within our community. Our postulants, our parish council and our members are asking the question: how can we extend the love that we feel within the relationships of our church congregation to others in our wider neighbourhood? And, how might we do this is a way that furthers our engagement in making our church a more just church?
With thanksgiving for the leadership of our Diaconal Postulant, Michelle Hughes, St. George’s is in the planning stages of a new project that seeks to even further extend our care to the residents of our neighbourhood and Blue Mountains Community. And so, let us introduce St. George’s Waygate Project!
In English Christian tradition, Waygates, or often better known as Lychgates, were places at the edge of a church property where charitable services were made available: including food, clothing, sometimes a place of respite, and with some churches, even a covered porch where funeral services could be offered.
At. St. George’s, The Blue Mountains, we are blessed to still retain our original church yard, including a historic gated property that retains a traditional horse and buggy gate. In the spirit of English Lychgates of the past, our proposed Waygate Project hopes to include a number of outreach elements that will offer support to residents and visitors in our neighbourhood:
- new park benches for guests and visitors to rest (just outside of the location of our historic horse and carriage gate).
- a public water fountain with a bottle refill station and a dog fountain.
- a community services announcement board (to share advertising posters for local organizations that are helping the neighbourhood).
- a neighbourhood prayer mailbox (which would allow anyone to submit a prayer request. These can be confidential or could ask for a visit from our clergy).
- a community food box that would augment the current food scarcity programs in the Town. This box would carry free items for local individuals or families to take whenever needed.
- a historical marker showing pictures of how St. George’s has been serving the neighbourhood since 1862.
- Town of the Blue Mountains garbage and recycling bins.
- and, an indigenous Treaty Marker (St. George’s is located on the boundary of Treaty 18, dating to the year 1818).
Each of these outreach components are unique in that they are offered for the benefit of non-members of our congregation. They hope to extend a sense of hospitality and support for the most vulnerable in our community, even beyond the front curb of our church.
St. George’s is thankful for the leadership of our postulant, Michelle Hughes, in her meeting with numerous community groups and leaders, to listen to the needs that they have expressed in our neighbourhood, and to partner with them in these upcoming projects.
Our Waygate Project is also serving as a teaching ministry, to share with Michelle, and our congregation, the various steps of implementing a community outreach project, including: community consultation; prayerful discernment; fundraising elements; upcoming presentations with diocesan Land and Property, Grants and Loans, and Diocesan Council approvals; and coordinating the completion of the project itself.
Once this project is in place, it will also require a trained team of outreach volunteers to maintain it. We are proud to share that we already have interest from both congregation members and non-members who wish to be part of St. George’s vision of being a more just Church, as expressed in our local community.
All of this is just one way, one example, that one congregation in our Diocese has been inspired and motivated to respond to Huron’s Turning to Grace Campaign. I hope and pray that others will seek out their own ways of responding to the three pillars of loving service.
Rev. Canon Dr. Grayhame Bowcott is passionate about fostering congregational relationships and sharing our Anglican vocation with others. He serves as Rector of St. George’s, The Parish of The Blue Mountains, and as Program Director for the Licentiate in Theology program at Huron University.