Of the Jane Finch Community Ministry

The first work of the Presbytery with in the Jane Finch community was in the 70's through the West Indian Ministry. Before bringing this particular ministry to an end in June of 1981 a Jane Finch Mission Committee was established to explore future ministry options. Robert Hunt and Allen Hobbs were key figures in this process. In the summer of 81 through a government grant David Murata was hired to coordinate a summer program. In October of that year til May of 82 Riverside Emory with some help from Beverly Hills developed the Beacon Program which was mostly a Sunday School program with some midweek activities for children. With some cooperation with a Mennonite community ministry operating in the Jane Finch neighbourhood of Tobermory a major report was released with the recommendation to hire a Chaplin to build relationships of trust and work in a spirit of shalom to enhance spiritual and physical wellbeing of the community.

Peggy Cambell was the hired in Sept of 82 and worked in the Firgrove MTHA community until March of 88. She helped set up programs for youth and young mothers.

Some of the highlights included life skills programs, craft mornings, job readiness training and a camping trip at Cedar Glen. Her work was one of witnessing through action not words and she was excellent in finding resources to help people meet specific needs and link to other workers in the community. She was part of an Ecumenical Advisory council in Jane Finch and helped establish the Firgrove planning group. To free up some of the office work Carole Scott was hired and in addition to office work made many valuable contributions to the ministry.

David Murata took over for Peggy in 88 and worked as the second community minister until 1994. He worked quite closely with the Firgrove tenant's association in trying to clean up some of the drug dealing problems in Firgrove. He was involved in Race Relations work in the local community as well as the larger church. He was also instrumental in setting up a youth employment program which was run out of Beverly Hills.

Before Barry Rieder, the ministry=s third community minister, started in the fall of 1995 Love Koduah on a part-time basis continued to be a resource in the office and coordinate the monthly food day. Barry=s role has been one of being a resource to the community providing community development support, pastoral care and advocacy through coalitions and networks. Some of the recent highlights with the ministry include increasing voter turnout in the last civic election which contributed to the Jane Finch community receiving the Trillium Caring Community award, establishing a gleaning project with York region farmers and helping to establish some student nutrition programs in local schools.

In trying to provide a brief snapshot of the almost twenty year history of the Jane Finch Community Ministry I realize that I have left many things out. But to sum things up, the Jane Finch Community Ministry has been a valuable partnership that the United Church has shared with a low income, culturally diverse community. It has been a way to walk in solidarity with the poor and oppressed among us, not only sharing their pain but also sharing their hope and joy.