Shared Ministry Information
At the May Leadership Council meeting and subsequently at the congregation Town Hall meeting some McDougall UC (MUC) leaders presented the idea of MUC becoming involved in shared ministry with other United Church congregations. For the past 2 years Ogden UC (OUC) and MUC have held worship together in a shared ministry that is working well. We recently have had the opportunity to enter into a shared ministry arrangement with Red Deer Lake UC (RDLUC) as well as continuing the OUC/ MUC shared ministry. RDLUC is currently without a full time minister but has an appointed part time minister who is currently on holiday. Discussions between some representatives of MUC and RDLUC over the past 2 months have resulted in an arrangement for an 8 week trial of shared ministry involving the 3 ministers currently serving MUC and OUC to additionally serve RDLUC. The potential advantages of a more effective and efficient shared ministry plan were discussed at the Town Hall meeting. RDLUC folks are enthusiastic about the potential of this arrangement, as are we. This is a trial and we will meet again early January 2024 to discuss if each congregation wants to continue the arrangement. The ministers have developed a plan for how their time will be allocated to meet the ministerial needs of the 3 congregations. My expectation is that OUC and MUC will not see much change except that our worship services will be led by one minister; that is one week Joanne Anquist will lead worship at MUC while Bill leads worship at RDLUC, then the next week Bill will lead worship at MUC and Joanne will lead worship at RDLUC. Danah has other duties but will occasionally take a service in the rotation and may have some events at RDLUC mid week. Pastoral Care, administration, spiritual nurture, and outreach ministry needs for the three congregations will be shared between the ministry team.
Since RDLUC is currently without a minister, they will make a cash payment to MUC, some of which will be forwarded to OUC, to compensate for their share of ministerial staff costs. Each minister will continue to be paid by the congregation they are currently designated to serve.
We have a good ministerial team who complement each other and have sufficient time to meet the needs in this shared ministry plan. Our shared ministry plan begins October 16. For further information or to make comments, please contact Barrie Clayton, Joanne Pritchard, or Daren Patterson.
To learn more about the Leadership Council, please visit the Leadership Council Webpage.