What's Happeningat Church of the Holy Trinity, Guildwood

Missional Outreach and Discipleship Lay Pastoral Associate

Church of the Holy Trinity, Guildwood

Ministry Allocation Fund Grant

Year 2 Report (2022)

This expanded ministry of Missional Outreach and Discipleship is allowing Holy Trinity, Guildwood to deepen our relationships within the community; create experiences to augment our worship; and strengthen our digital communications, as well as further our vision of building a fully vibrant, diverse, multicultural, and multi-generational self-sustaining parish with the young people and seniors of southeast Scarborough. Thanks to the grant, we will have an opportunity for the church to extend into the community and provide services that are not currently available to young people or seniors through shared in person and/or virtual activities and ministries. 

We are enhancing our ministry particularly to youth and seniors with seven new platforms to be introduced incrementally over a five-year period: 

1. Tech Skills Workshop (Media Club);

We have three seniors participating in the senior’s residence and three in the community. We look forward to partnering with Rotary Club of Scarborough and University of Toronto Scarborough Campus on future initiatives. We look forward to students and seniors working together with these digital initiatives in Fall 2023. This strand had a soft launch as pandemic restrictions lifted from March 2022. 

 

2) An integrated Values, Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (V-STEAM) Program; We had 14 students attend our In Person March Break STEAM Camp “Lights. Camera. Action!” on March 14 to 18, 2022. One of the great stories is one mother brought her two children only for the first day, yet they begged her to bring them every day of the camp and they are looking forward to summer camp. We are one of the few camps (of those that my friends coordinate) that finish with providing money for the budget. Thank you to the co-coordinator, and special guest presenters. The camp was capped off by a film showcase on the last day and all the parents were very proud of their young ones. One young one even had a dentist appointment and couldn’t attend the session but made sure that his parents brought him for the showcase. Our first STEAM camp in 2021 was online with 7 students. 

3) Vacation Bible School (Summer Camp)

Imagine a world where curious kids become hands-on inventors who discover they’re lovingly crafted by God. It was a great success with 26 participants from our parish, the community and St. Jude (Wexford) Anglican Church. It was quite an exciting experience doing bilingual (English and Spanish) sessions. We held the camp outside on the church property and enjoyed beautiful weather for most of the week from August 8-12. Highlights were: pipe cleaners (chenille wire), the games, finger painting, definitely the snacks!, and the final activity day with inflatable, obstacle course, scavenger hunt and magic show. Laurier students were great helpers. Thanks to the Coordinator, Photographer, Coordinator, Snack Assistant, Magician, Games Leaders; Set up and Crew Leader, Imagination Station Leader, Registrar, Amazing Support; Ian Physick – Storyteller from Church of the Holy Wisdom, Communications Support, Prayer Team. And the saints and angels behind the scenes helping to make things happen. The 2021 camp had 15 participants.

4) Missional Outreach and Events;

• Holy Trinity, Guildwood’s food pantry currently supports 20 community families with food, toiletry and cleaning items, grocery gift cards and tokens/tickets. Community partners’ generosity has kept our food pantry well stocked despite unprecedented use: Cob’s Bread Bakery at Morningside Crossing, Rotary Club of Scarborough, residents of the Condos at 20 Guildwood Parkway, Chartwell Retirement Residence, Sir Wilfrid Laurier Collegiate Institute, YouthLink and concerned village residents. We are getting more consistent donations financially and gifts in kind since last year. We have been keeping more formal records of the ministry.
  

• Family Day Winter Fair’ We hosted children, 15 youth, 20 adults and 6 packages were delivered to families who wanted to participate but didn’t feel comfortable attending in person yet. The 2021 version as at home and online with pandemic restrictions; we delivered to 35 families with 10 families participating in a photo scavenger hunt.
  
• Palm Sunday Parade and Service. We had 14 young people Good Friday was a great celebration with 34 young people remembering and celebrating in age-appropriate ways. I am super grateful to the two special event assistants for doing most of the coordinating. It was great to welcome back our families and some community families as well. For Easter Sunday, more than 700 eggs were prepared for the egg hunt. 20 young people came for messy church and 40 the egg hunt. In 2021, we had 5 families who participated in Palm Sunday, 10 families in Good Friday Facebook party and 12 families in the Easter Sunday Event.
  
• This year we hosted a Candy Cane Hunt for families to enjoy at the same time as the bazaar. It was very well attended with 25 young people participating with 10 participants from the community. The 2021 event had 45 families participate outside during pandemic restrictions.
  
• We hosted and Ascension Sunday Prayer Walk. We had 10 people participate in our Easter and Pentecost Walk to Jerusalem. Our labyrinth was completed on the church property for walking, meditation, reflection, and other spiritually nurturing activities in the spring of 2022.
  
• We hosted 70 families at our the Guildwood Community Halloween Haunt. It was a great way to connect with community families. Thank you to the special event assistant for her help.

5) Christian Education and Discipleship. 

• Church School continues to have a vital program, with 50 young people on our roster with whom we connect online and in person monthly. It was very special to have families participate in the Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany liturgy. Our average attendance since re-opening in person classes on Palm Sunday has been very good with an average of 16.5 per week. We now have a monthly youth class. In 2021, we had 38 young people on our roster.
  
• We are thankful to the Bishop’s Youth Ministry Committee and Canadian Lutheran Anglican Youth who arrange regular special in person and online events for youth and leaders. 
• There are 70 young people who have engaged in ministry programming in the last three years and 50 in this last year alone. 50 packages were prepared for the Feast of St. Nicholas. 17 young people were in person at the service with a total of 42 packages being distributed to our parish young people. Thank you to St. Nick and special event helper who helped to make the day a great success. In 2021, 27 children and parents celebrated in the church parking lot.
  
• Adult catechesis included our bi-weekly Bible study, monthly discipleship class and a Lenten Study on the Seven Last Words of Jesus with a special in-person evening prayer to cap it off. Groups gathered on Zoom and in the park during the warmer months with 3 to 8 participants each session. This is consistent compared to last year. Our goal will be to improve this in 2023.
  
• Our seniors have expressed a deep appreciation of our online worship, bi-weekly bible study and monthly book club. These initiatives help them stay connected with others and combat the depression caused by prolonged social isolation.  

6) Drama 

We have a resource of 90 liturgical dramatic readings and scripts that have been written and performed in house by Holy Trinity, Guildwood’s drama troop, DramaWorks.  We will begin recruiting a new drama ministry coordinator in 2023. 

7) Leadership and Mentoring

The leadership mentoring program will connect elementary and high school students to senior partners.  The program will focus on building relationships in the community. We anticipate activating this platform in 2023. Volunteers from Sir Wilfrid Laurier Collegiate assisted with special events – church bazaar, yard sale, Family Day Winter Fair, and summer camp in addition to young adults in our parish. I am in conversation with the local high school to begin the program in winter 2023. 

Staffing

The Corporation of the Church of the Holy Trinity, Guildwood evaluated the needs related to a Missional Outreach and Discipleship Ministry in preparing for the Ministry Allocation Fund Grant application.  Recognizing that we had limited time to achieve our goals and move this ministry from something that was financially supported through Ministry Allocation funding to something that Holy Trinity, Guildwood could sustain, we determined that hiring Denise Byard, whose energy, enthusiasm, experience, and skills were known to us was the option that we wished to follow for the staffing component of this initiative. Having a dedicated Missional Outreach and Discipleship Lay Pastoral Associate has allowed for the development of more enriched connections with community partners, which have resulted in collaborative activities that allowed Holy Trinity, Guildwood both to serve the community and to enhance our profile with other groups and residents. 

Financials/Funding

We are grateful for the support and encouragement of the Diocese.  We have a great story at Church of the Holy Trinity, Guildwood, and look forward to sharing our story with current partners and advocates to encourage them to support our evolving ministry programs. 

Grant funds have supported two primary expense lines – salary and benefits for the Lay Pastoral Associate and program supplies/equipment.  The salary and benefits related cost for the period of January – December 2022 was $47,000.  

The parish financially supported the ministry during this reporting period by funding a portion of the salary of the Missional Outreach and Discipleship ministry salary from January to December 2022, encouraging in kind donations from parishioners towards events and activities and soliciting donations from both inside and outside of the parish.  The Incumbent and Wardens supported and advised the staff person, and a host of volunteers were involved in programs and events.  For reference, please find our audited 2022 financials attached, in addition to a link from last Sunday’s livestream.

 

 Communication

Local publicity 

• word of mouth – we have seen growth in our parish as a result of these personal invitations and that is a strong signal from God about the value of personal connections
• postcards for visitors to the parish – both for those coming to services and those coming to other events such as the Church bazaar – again, this has been successful in promoting our family events such as our Advent event
• Church newsletter – available at the Church in Bulletins and sent electronically to our mailing list
• brochures/flyers at businesses in the neighbouring plaza and on the community notice board there – successfully used in the past for Back to Church Sunday, Advent Family Event and Easter Eggstravaganza
• flyers for school community bulletin boards as well as information sharing at School Advisory Council meetings
• Guildwood News and Views – newsletter of the Guildwood Village Community Association- we can place both articles and advertisements in this publication
• Bluffs Monitor – we have successfully used articles and advertisements in this publication to promote our Christian education programs
• Scarborough Mirror – community events listings in print publication and website listing
• Rogers TV Talk of the Town – used before once to promote the Church bazaar

Social media

• Church website
• Church Facebook page
• Social media sites of other organizations – see those listed above and below
• Instagram
• TikTok
• Twitter account – which could leverage the local connections of some of those in the parish and in the community who could reach others not connected to the parish through the Church website or Church Facebook 

Wider community

• Diocese of Toronto website – post events, press releases
• The Anglican Newspaper (Toronto) – post events

PLANS GOING FORWARD

Based on our experience in Year Two, we believe that the original plan is still relevant.  

The parish is engaged in a Joyful Giving stewardship campaign.  The results of this campaign, both in terms of commitment of monetary donations and donations of time/talent, inform our plans for the Missional Outreach and Discipleship Ministry.  We have continued parish commitment to use existing funds, primarily from our own resources, to fund the parish’s portion of the Year Three financing, but we are also cognizant of the need to make this a line item in future operational budgets.   Targeted giving is another thing for us to explore, but currently, we are addressing concerns re: keeping regular offerings on target. We are preparing to launch a special partnership/sponsorship program for companies and organizations in our area. In addition to applying for more external funding through Community Food Centres Canada, the Government of Canada, the Government of Ontario, the Anglican Foundation as well as specific family funds. 

Through these initiatives, we will be continuing to build on what we have done during the second year of this grant and seeking to enhance ministries and increase reach and attendance at initiatives.   While it is sometimes easy to feel daunted by challenges, the exercise of pulling together the information for this Year Two report speaks to what has been achieved and inspires us moving forward.  We remain hopeful and committed to the ministry we can undertake because of our partnership through this Diocesan funding and our own resources.

If any further information is required related to our 2022 activities, please contact Stephen Kirkegaard, Incumbent or Denise Byard, Missional Outreach and Discipleship Ministry Lay Pastoral Associate (denise@nulltrinityguildwood.org or 416-261-9503).