Place of Meeting April 2016

Place of Meeting

A time of new beginnings On Easter Sunday, many of us gathered by the lakeshore at sunrise to mark the Resurrection, and the renewed life that is ours in Christ. March was a time of many new beginnings, including the completion and furnishing of Aurora House and the arrival of our latest refugee family. More inside.

Toronto United Mennonite Church

April 2016

Place of Meeting

Scene around TUMC

is the meaning of the Huron word “toronton,” from which our city gets its name. Fittingly, it can also mean “plenty” or “abundance.”

Place of Meeting is also the monthly newsletter of Toronto United Mennonite Church. May you find plenty here to enjoy and ponder. Opinions expressed are those of the writers and not necessarily of the congregation as a whole.

Contributions of all kinds are enthusiastically received, through the mail folder in the lobby or at dmartens@pathcom.com Next deadline: April 26 Have you discovered the all-colour online version of Place of Meeting, complete with live weblinks? Check this month’s issue out here: issuu.com/pomeditor/docs/ pom_april_2016l NOTE: New address for submissions: dmartens4@cogeco.ca Editor: Doreen Martens

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Top: Little hands help with furnishing Aurora House (photo by Shelley Lepp). Centre: worship can be exhausting! Above: Diem and Liam share a common (cozy) fashion sense.

Beyond the plywood: A report from the Building Committee

T

he middle phase of the building project continues to be busy as the committee works on various aspects of the project.

Change Orders Although the plans on which the design and pricing were based are quite detailed, various issues arise when the foundations are excavated, walls are taken down, or ducts moved. The committee is reviewing about a dozen small changes, from window sizes to the nature of the Lark Street sidewalk ramp and whether the city will permit bike rings on 6 Lark St. Our most significant change order, enhanced foundation support for the second story addition, has been completed. The city has agreed that neither a sprinkler system in the new addition nor a two-hour fire separation between the old building and the addition is needed. The details and cost of the required replacement, an enhanced smoke and heat detection system, are still pending. Overall completion is still scheduled for mid-July.

Upcoming Worship Events April 3 - Taize service, 7-8 p.m.

April 17 - Guest speaker Stuart Murray, author of "The Naked Anabaptist" May 1 - Taize service, 7-8 p.m.

May 15 - Pentecost June 5 - Taize service, 7-8 p.m.

June 10-12 - TUMC retreat at Silver Lake camp - no service at TUMC June 19 - Start of the summer schedule

Lark Street The 6 Lark house has been completed. Perhaps you had the opportunity see the renovations during the open house on March 20.

Some minor work, such as adding air conditioning, remains to be done in the spring.

Work with the Property Committee The addition and renovation of the building has enlarged the roles of all of the groups involved in the building. The New Life Centre and New Life Church have been very helpful in accommodating the construction disruption and offering temporary office space during relocations of staff. Christian Education has also given up classroom space for temporary office use. The role of the Joint Management Committee and the Property Committee in dealing with building issues outside of the work directly involved in the renovation has been significant. Examples include the sound system, door intercoms, sump pump, and roof repair. Donny Cheung, representing the TUMC Board, has attended Building Committee meetings to make sure the connection between property maintenance and new construction is smooth.

Design Features By the time you read this the construction of the steel superstructure should have begun. The outlines of the remodeled first and second floor are now clearly visible. We are also planning changes to the front of the sanctuary based on strong support for these renovations when we started the project. We will cover the right alcove (right when facing the front) while enlarging and letting more light into the centre alcove.

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Finances

Expected Income (as of June 2015) Funds raised before pledge campaign Pledges Mortgage – spending plan Mortgage – 6 Lark rent net income Total

Forecast Expenses (March 2016) 6 Lark 1774 Queen Total

$ 16,878 1,040,691 262,000 197,000 $1,516,569 $ 433,023 1,129,321 $1,562,344

The future expanded lobby/meeting room area.

The forecast total above reflects a relatively small shortfall of about $46,000. We expect to cover part of this shortfall by having lower costs on some of the change orders. The estimated cost of the smoke and fire alarm system costs is still preliminary; we are forecasting a relatively large cost and hope it will be less. We also plan to use less expensive materials in some areas, such as folding doors in the first floor meeting room. It appears as well that the operating costs for 6 Lark will be lower than first forecast, resulting in larger net income that could support a slightly larger mortgage. Also, some of you have donated more money to the building project than you had pledged, which could be used to increase our initially estimated income.

Summary Many persons are involved in implementing this complex project. Besides the committee, our architect Melana Janzen, the finance committee, the design committee, our staff and the staff of our building partners, as well as volunteers on Property Committee and JMC are all involved. Your prayers and financial support continue to be essential. Thank you for your support in all these ways.

The window bay and the expanded cross niche will be filled with coloured reflected natural light.

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Aurora House: Revealed!

As HGTV-style “big reveals” go, maybe it wasn’t so much –– after all, many TUMCers have had a hand in designing, cleaning, painting, furnishing and otherwise working to make Aurora House a reality.

But the open house on Palm Sunday was still a great chance to see the completed house in its entirety, and imagine it serving soon as a cozy and safe home for victims of human trafficking.

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tumc.ca: Not your grandpa’s website

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f you haven’t checked out TUMC’s new website yet, you’re in for a pleasant surprise. The new look, based on a Wordpress platform, is cleaner, brighter, easy on the eyes and more modern looking.

It’s also “responsive”, meaning that that images, text and various widgets and menus on the page will automatically shift around to accommodate different formats. It looks equally great on a laptop, desktop wide screen, a tablet or cellphone held horizontally –– or vertically. (Try it out for yourself!)

Our old website, which came online in the fall of 2009, was based on a Joomla platform that was no longer supported after Jan. 1, which hastened plans to replace it with something more up to today’s standards. Big thanks are due to Donny Cheung, who worked with outside web designer Dave Chodos to come up with a new design and to do the considerable work involved in transferring all the old materials, such as about eight years’ worth of sermons, to the new site. You should find be able to find just about anything you need on the new site, especially thanks to –– ta da! –– the new built-in search engine, which pops up on every page.

Another feature that’s really nice is the calendar, which is much more readable than the old one. Upcoming events are listed on the right side of the home page (or at the bottom if you’re looking at it on a small screen). If you want to see the whole month at a glance, just click on the title Upcoming Events or on the Events tab at the top, and a colour-coded grid will pop up. (Unfortunately, the grid doesn’t work on tablet or mobile, but you will still see daily listings.)

Click on any event to get more details about it.

The new website accommodates embedded video (check out the Our Beliefs page for an example), allows us to use photos in a splendid way, and is generally much easier and more intuitive to operate, meaning that anyone authorized to do so can easily contribute to or manage certain pages –– for instance, committee chairs.

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tumc.ca: Not your grandpa’s website Information of a more confidential nature, such as minutes, or that contains personal information, such as the church directory, remains in the login-only section of the website so it’s not available to the general public.

(A reminder that TUMC’s privacy policy allows people who do not wish their names or photos to appear on the website and/or in a printed directory to make that request via an opt-out form available through the church office. Except for staff, people in photos appearing on the public website are never identified by name, for privacy and safety reasons.)

Every regular attender at TUMC should have access to the full site, so you can pull up things like duty rosters, up-to-date email addresses and budget reports. If you were registered before, or never did get around to it, it’s easy to register for the new site. All it takes is to visit tumc.ca, click “log-in” under the TUMC Community tab, then Join Us. Fill in the registration information, choosing your own password. Click the box to verify you’re not a robot, then click Register, and you’re done. As soon as Mike DeHaan, our office administrator, verifies that you’re an authorized user, you’ll be able to see everything on the site.

Over the next few months, we will continue to update old content on the site. Our new technical webmaster is Mark Andrews. (Talk to Mark about getting authorized/trained to contribute to the website.) Mike and Doreen Martens will continue as content administrators –– Mike with more day-to-day things, such as announcements, schedules and minutes, and Doreen with more permanent content. If you have comments or suggestions, please let one of us know.

Good church websites are continually refreshed, and we’re doing our best to make it worth your while to visit tumc.ca –– and to make it a welcoming portal for people seeking a church home. Tell your friends!

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Hosanna, blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!

Children played a big role in this year’s Palm Sunday service, from the traditional procession to a performance by the kids’ choir. Later, they were invited to recall Jesus washing the feet of his disciples by “washing” the hands of others with sanitizer.

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Reflecting on the Crucifixion

Journeying around the church building, families who attended Good Friday’s morning service experienced the story of the Crucifixion in an experiential way, from hand-washing and symbolic Lord’s Supper in the Upper Room to reflectively walking a labyrinth in the basement.

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Reflecting on the Crucifixion

Participants were invited to help make a mural that would be revealed as a sunrise scene of the cross on Easter Sunday; and, as Pastor Michele told the story of the burial, to be anointed with sweet smelling oil.

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In the bilingual evening service, below, quiet song and a dramatic telling of the Passion story were accompanied by a service of Communion.

Hallelujah! He is risen!

For those who braved a chilly but brilliant dawn on Easter morning, the sunrise service was a beautiful way to remember the Resurrection and the feast of fish and bread (salmon and bannock) that the risen Jesus prepared for his disciples.

Singing, prayer, passing the peace and a steaming early morning picnic.

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Hallelujah! He is risen!

Glorious music featuring brass and strings, as well as the Easter choir, made for a memorable Easter worship service, with the fellowship time highlighted by the traditional paska Easter breads and other symbols of the season.

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Scenes from a GERMy retreat

TUMC’s Junior Youth group, affectionally known as the GERMS, spent the last weekend of February together with Pastor Michele and sponsors in a cozy house at Crieff Hills, enjoying the best of winter with the traditional boxball free-for-all, learning, and building community.

Photos by Michele Rizoli.

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Scenes from a retreat

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Scenes from a retreat

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