Montreal Unit 50th Anniversary Dinner
September 11, 2008
It is always a good time to say thank you and to give recognition to those who contribute to the life of their community. So it was not a difficult decision to make. The Montreal Unit of the Primate's World Relief and Development Fund realized that they wanted to begin the 2008-2009 season with a dinner to honour those of its past and to launch the Unit into the next fifty years.
The format of the evening was quickly and easily decided. The time, the order of events, the guest speaker and the meal became the frame around which would be placed all the "trappings", the things that would give meaning to the evening.
If the Unit wants to live in the present and look to the future it must know from whence it grew. For PWRDF this meant research to learn more about the mine disaster of Springhill in 1958 that devastated that small community in Nova Scotia but prompted Anglicans across Canada to donate generously to the relief of the miners' families. Two more completed displays portrayed the event and the families involved. A greater focus was placed on one individual miner. A relationship could be created.
Another eight completed displays outlined and detailed not only national and international stories about PWRDF during its first fifty years but also stories that involved those persons very familiar and those less so to the Anglican Church of Canada in Montreal. Guests were able to recognize themselves and so many others in the photos of events and individuals that were gleaned from the diocesan archives. The relationships deepened.
The evening began with a sign-in, a remembrance of those attending and pre-dinner cocktails. Two members of the Montreal diocesan planning committee welcomed guests upon their arrival. Another two greeted guests at the wine table and another two introduced guest speakers and special guests, ecumenical partners and the recently ordained clergy of the diocese to each other and to all those gathered.
The diocesan chair (or coordinator) offered a sincere welcome to all, followed by Grace Before Meals. Everyone was invited to sit to be served by a group of young teens, who gave of their time. They too became part of this growing relationship, which it is hoped, will continue to develop with service and maturity.
It was over tasty but simple fare that the one hundred people who gathered for the 50th Anniversary celebration learned more about each other, their relationship within their parish and their relationship with other parishes within the diocese. During coffee and dessert the guest speaker, Bishop Philip Poole was introduced. Bishop Poole was known to some recent arrivals in Montreal through his connection to many different areas within the Diocese of Toronto. His childhood was recalled by the member of the Unit who introduced Philip to everyone. She was the big sister of his childhood friend. Such links again highlighted relationship.
But it was the relationship of those present to all of God's creation that underpinned the bishop's address. Not only were others in developing countries and in our own aboriginal communities transformed, but most importantly we of PWRDF are transformed through the relationships created as we partner to move forward, to journey together. PWRDF can and does contribute to the spirituality of both individuals and to the parish. It is not an armchair spirituality but one that gathers up those involved to transcend themselves in service to others.
Bishop Barry Clarke, Bishop of the Diocese of Montreal, affirmed the contribution of so many who were in Fulford Hall that evening. He called upon those who represented their parishes, who took leading roles to advance PWRDF and those whose efforts helped to raise the necessary funds that permit PWRDF to partner with so many throughout the world.
The evening of celebration came to an end - joyous in the knowledge that as the members of the Montreal Unit, their commitment to each other and to those not yet met was strengthened. For it is on the journey of relationships that we do meet Christ along the way.