What a weekend! Smythe Street Cathedral celebrated 25 years in the building on Smythe Street this past weekend. What a fun, and exhausting time! Saturday night we had a great (allbeit LONG) evening of remembering where SSC came from. Pastor Mart Vahi returned from Estonia to reflect on his days bringing SSC up the hill from Argyle Street, there were newspaper articles and pictures from tent days and baptisms in the frozen river. The present day choir sang a few songs, the old Argyle Street hymn circle sang a few songs (how I loved those ones as they were what I grew up in Moncton on as well). And Pastor Mart closed the evening off with a talk on Success, Vision and Fullfillment.
I must admit that sitting the majority of 3 hours in a pew is not such a great idea for an 8 month pregnant lady like myself, but I couldn't help but see the and feel the awesomeness of the evening as well.
Sunday morning dawned early but with lots of excitement as Pastor Verner had been preparing his Vision casting for the next 10 years sermon. Never have I seen service go so long (25 minutes overtime the 11am service was starting to file in before we'd finished the 9am service) but what a powerful time and exciting time for our church as well. As Pastor Verner committed to the next ten years of values and focus areas for our church, it was hard not to get caught up in the vision and imagine where 10 years will take SSC. You can listen to the podcast at http://www.smythestreetcathedral.com, it's good stuff.
Sunday afternoon we had the priviledge of going down to the Lord Beaverbrook Hotel for a reception for all those people who made the journey up the hill from Argyle Street to Smythe Street 25 years ago and remained with us. It was quite something to see the 40+ people who had stuck it out through some very difficult times with the church. SSC gave each one a silver sailboat for their 25 years of service, it was really neat.
Sunday night was the big finale, and what fun family time it was. We started off at 6pm with a bbq and potluck which is always a fun time as a church family. Then we moved into the sanctuary for a worship time and testimonies. I was so moved during the worship time as families and individulats brought their cards filled with their hopes, dreams and faith in God to the front and put them in the time capsule. It was one of those moments that just sort of happened, but this was worship, more than the song service, this was worship...it was beautiful! Pastor Verner and Pastor Wayne shared how SSC had been a place of healing for them and their families during really difficult times, Brad Gunn also got up and talked about his transition back into church life and finding a home at SSC, and Bill & Liz Kent got up and talked about their journey to God and finding a place at SSC. It was exciting to imagine in 10 years when we crack open that time capsule what other stories we'll hear of people who have found God.
Chad had all the children come up on the stage and he asked them what they liked about our church and then asked them for help singing Happy Birthday to Pastor Verner. They wheeled down a big cake for him and he blew out the candles. As much fun as having all the kids sing to him was, I can imagine that there was no better way for Pastor Verner to spend his birthday weekend, then in remembering and seeing how God has used his life and ministry to affect so may others.
Then we all piled out into the foyer where they cemented the time capsule into the display case, and had a massive balloon drop with little scriptures printed on small paper inside each one. This was so much fun! Seeing families gather together, hold hands and children and pray for the next 10 years of their lives. It is hard to believe, but in 10 years we'll have a child nearly 10 years old! I'll be 37, Chad will be 41....wow....definilty hard to believe!
We cut the cake and called it a night, well called it a weekend actually! and what a great weekend it was!
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