Thanksgiving for Shalom Community Ministry
Toronto West Presbytery, November 20, 2007

Introduction:  In 1981, now a quarter of a century ago, Toronto West Presbytery discerned its Mission Strategy and sought to reach out to communities of need in its midst.  Partnering with the Anglican Diocese of Toronto, the local Baptist and Presbyterian congregations and The Sisters of Zion, we established the Parkdale Ecumenical Ministry, a new witness to our commitment to be with those challenged and isolated by illness and economic disadvantage.  Later, as our vision changed and grew, we established the Shalom House Community Ministry as a ministry of this Presbytery.  There a ministry of hospitality and welcome grew and thrived and we were among the first to offer community kitchens, community gardens and good food boxes as a just way of building community and providing access to nutritious and affordable food with participants.  As bodies were fed, souls were nourished and people were drawn into a safe community of acceptance and belonging.  Lives were transformed and friendships grew.

When plans for further development of housing included the King-Dunn location, the ministry was welcomed at Emmanuel-Howard Park United Church.  With help from congregations in this Presbytery and from us, the kitchen there became a new gathering place and home for our ministry.  Many hearty meals have been shared there around the kitchen table as participants have gathered and cooked together and shared the warmth of table fellowship.  But many were left behind and could not make the move to the new place.  Many others already participated in the significant feeding program offered as an outreach of Emmanuel-Howard Park Church.

And so, with gratitude and deep regret, we acknowledge that the time has come to say good-bye to Shalom Ministry, to celebrate its work of justice-making, love and compassion, and to pass its legacy on to Emmanuel-Howard Park Church.  The time has come to pluck up what has been planted and leave the well-worked soil to the planting of others.

(Tom Connolly is the Kitchen Co-ordinator at Shalom Community Ministry then shared what the ministry has done for him saying that it has given him life and personal growth and although he is said of the closure of the ministry he is extremely grateful for what it has done fro him and many of the other partcipants)

Prayer of Thanksgiving:

God of Love –
You set forth a vision of Shalom, of love, peace, welcome and acceptance, and call us to live in it with you.  Hearing that call, this Presbytery responded and gave life to Shalom Community Ministry. In it and through it we have all grown to know your spirit of grace and welcome and many have been nurtured to healthier bodies, and life with hope.  We give thanks for the visionary leadership that brought this ministry to life and for the work of its ministers to sustain it and those in its care --- Nan Hudson, Sue Crowe-Connolly, Eleanor Belfry-Lyttle, Tom Connolly, Jodi Hoar, and Sue Fleming.

We give thanks for the many volunteers who have shared their commitment, time and work as partners in Shalom, and for the congregations and individuals who have provided resources to support this work.  And for the wider church and its faith in the vision expressed in grants, we offer our gratitude.

O God of unending love and mercy, we confess that we can never do enough to meet cries for justice, healing and hope that rise all around us. Yet today we give thanks for participants in this ministry who have given generously of their own faith, hope, and vision for wholeness, and helped us to understand again the depths of our humanity and our own need for healing and hope.  As we prepare to end this ministry, we pray for them and where our human efforts have not been enough to help them, we commend them to your unceasing care.

Keep alive in us all a strong vision of your community of Shalom and draw us ever closer to the courage and strength, conviction and hope to live it boldly and with never-ending praise.

Amen.

Song of Community    Words & music by Carolyn McDade

We’ll weave a love that greens sure as spring,
Then deepens in summer to the fall autumn brings,
Resting still in winter to spiral again,

Together, my friends, we’ll weave on, we’ll weave on.
A love that heals, friend, that bends, friend,
That rising and turning then yields, friend,
Like the mountain to rain, or frost in the spring,
Or darkness that turns with the dawn.
It’s by turning, turning, turning, my friend,
By turning that love moves on.

We’ll weave a love that opens our eyes
To see one another beyond all disguise,
Where our trust like water will wash away lies,

Together, my friends,……..

We’ll weave a love that touches our pain,
That comes like the water to drought-fevered plains,
So the roots once withered sing praise to the rain,

Together, my friends,……..

We’ll weave a love that holds the despised,
The stranger who wanders, the focus of lies,
We’ll stand sure as mountains with earth’s victimized,

Together, my friends,……..

We’ll weave a love with roots growing deep
And sap pushing branches to wake from their sleep,
Bearing leaves burnt amber with morning’s full sweep,

Together, my friends,……..

And now, as we must, we declare that Shalom Community Ministry, God’s work and ours for a season, will be closed December 31, 2007.  The vision of Shalom continues in us, in our church, and in our communities.  We are all called still to be those whose acts in the service of Shalom transform the world with life-giving love, peace, welcome and acceptance.   With God’s help, let it be so.

And now we invite you to greet one another with the blessing of Shalom.