One priest, two churches, three denominations, four congregations

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This article was published 23/12/2023 (670 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

On Christmas Eve, archdeacon Jonathan Hoskin might just be one of the busiest people in Manitoba if you don’t include Santa Claus.

The Anglican priest will perform four services for four congregations represented by Christians from three denominations in Brandon and Souris.

This is the first Christmas that these different congregations will be coming together like this, so it’s fitting that the circumstances that led to their partnership resemble those in the classic short story “The Gift of the Magi.”

In that story by O. Henry, an impoverished husband and wife make personal sacrifices to get each other meaningful Christmas gifts, only to find out that the wife sold her hair in order to get a watch chain for her husband and the husband sold his watch to buy his wife a set of combs.

But in this Westman edition of the tale, it was a set of churches who have come together to share what they possessed to make up for what the others did not.

Last winter, St. George’s Anglican Church at 1011 Fifth St. encountered a crisis not of faith, but of finance.

As an institution, St. George’s has been in Brandon for the better part of a century, but its former home has stood in place since 1956.

Its boiler stopped working properly and the congregation wondered how it would afford a $70,000 bill necessary to keep the people inside warm and its pipes from freezing.

Around the same time, Redeemer Lutheran Church at 114 Ashgrove Blvd. experienced a crisis of personnel. Pastor Laurel Seyfert was retiring and though there was a retired pastor who could fill in occasionally, Redeemer did not have another permanent priest lined up to tend to its flock.

The way Carole McCurry, a member of St. George’s, and Kathy Maxon, a member of Redeemer, tell it, the partnership between their churches started because of friendship.

Two women, one from each congregation, were chatting when their daughters were getting Irish dance lessons together.

They figured out that the Anglican church had a priest but was in danger of losing their physical location while the Lutheran church had a building in good condition but no priest.

After some discussion, the two churches decided to give a partnership a try.

“We had the preacher, Redeemer had the building,” McCurry said. “It just made sense to put the two together and have a complete package.”

“We were in financial straits that we didn’t really pursue getting anybody at that time,” Maxon said. “And so when this opportunity came up, we thought ‘there’s God leading us in this direction’ because we were going to go under.”

Despite a difference in ceremonies and traditions, Hoskin said the partnership was made easier because the Anglican Church of Canada and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada have been in full communion since 2001.

That means members of both denominations can receive communion from each other’s churches, participate in ceremonies and have clergy from both serve interchangeably.

“I think it was in June, we had Pastor Jonathan come and do a service just to get a feel and their members were able to come and sort of get a feel for what the building was before any final decisions were made,” Maxon said. “We had lunch together, a barbecue. It’s just gone so well.”

Despite the high-level agreement between the churches, the local partnership’s success was going to depend on the people involved getting along and finding a way for both of their traditions to be honoured.

For example, at St. George’s, the congregation has typically read out psalms during service while the folks at Redeemer have sung them.

“We’ve even found that with some of the hymns that we know, the traditional way that Anglicans sing it, the tune that we use is not the one that the Lutherans use,” Hoskin said.

“When we came here, I sat down with … the cantor — she sings the parts during the services — and went through them with her. She was able to advise me on the tunes they use and what page to turn to next.”

The Anglicans have typically referred to their priest as “father” while the Lutherans call theirs “pastor.”

During advent, the period that begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas, the Anglicans have typically had specific services to mark the occasion the like hanging of the greens, where the congregation decorates the church.

There were even some differences in how people at both churches took communion. At Redeemer, a practice had been adopted of distributing sacramental wine in individual cups while Anglicans received theirs from a communal chalice. Now both options are offered to everyone.

The final service at St. George’s was on the final Sunday of August. Hoskin said there was a regular Sunday morning worship followed by the local bishop holding a deconsecration ceremony.

“For a lot of people, this was where they had been baptized, married and had their own kids baptized,” Hoskin said.

“St. George’s has a big history in town that way. And so, we wanted to give that moment for people to have some closure on not going to be in this space. But the church is always, has always been the people, not the building. Unfortunately, a lot of churches that close, it’s because they don’t have people anymore.”

One thing that made the transition easier is that another church purchased the Anglican building and is working on making it their own. Even though it will no longer be Anglican, the departed congregation is comforted to know that their former home will be looked after and loved in much the same way they loved it.

In September, the Anglican congregation brought over their worshippers, their priest, some decorations and furniture while the Lutherans opened their arms and made them feel at home.

That includes photos of past clergy from St. George’s, as well as lists of congregants who served in the world wars.

On the church’s stage, there are two nativity scenes. One, from the Anglican church, depicts the stable where Jesus was born, with congregants adding various animals as the weeks pass and then eventually, the messiah himself along with his parents.

The other, depicting Mary, Joseph and Jesus, belongs to the Lutheran congregation.

Though the sign out front still bears Redeemer’s name, Hoskin said some discussion has taken place on modifying it to list both churches. When McCurry answers the phone at the church, she tells callers they’ve reached “Redeemer/St George’s” now.

Providing for two churches in one building is new for Redeemer/St. George’s, but it’s a unique situation for Hoskin.

By the time he arrives in the Wheat City each Sunday, he’s already preached for both St. Luke’s Anglican Church and St. Paul’s United Church in Souris.

According to Hoskin, the congregation at St. Luke’s was dwindling but still had a priest and St. Paul’s, in a bigger building, had a larger congregation but no preacher.

“They’d cut back even on communion, I think they said they used to have it once a month but during the pandemic they’d cut back to about four times a year,” Hoskin said. “We’ve started up once a month again.”

Like in Brandon, the two congregations have come together to share what they have that the other does not, with around 60 people coming together from both groups every Sunday.

Though Hoskin said he misses being able to stick around after service in Souris for coffee and snacks like he used to when those services were held in the afternoons, he’s glad to see that the congregants have taken it upon themselves to keep that fellowship going when he’s on the road to Brandon.

“What I’m really looking for is that there’s a healthy community of people, because I know I won’t be with them forever,” Hoskin said. “I’m not planning on going anywhere but … eventually I won’t be their minister anymore even if that means I’ve retired in 20-some years. I want to know that they’re healthy together, that they’ve got good relations together.”

Every weekend, Hoskin drives out from his home in Souris to perform a service at Redeemer. One week, he gives an Anglican service and the next, a Lutheran one.

Though Hoskin said he is working on learning the local traditions at Redeemer and has no problem delivering Lutheran services, he always wears his Anglican vestments to be true to his ecclesiastical origins.

“I think the one hope is that it’s not going to be as defined as a Lutheran and Anglican service (going forward),” Maxon said. “It’s going to be our church’s service. That’s really the goal.”

Another hope, they said, is that the partnership might draw in more people to their services or to at least give them a shot. Many services at the church are livestreamed on YouTube for those who can’t attend in person.

These partnerships are not new, or even unique in Manitoba. Swan River has a joint Anglican-Lutheran church and there are scattered Lutheran-United churches around the province.

Hoskin pointed out that the United Church, almost 100 years old, was itself a merger between four denominations of Protestant Christianity.

“I think we’re all short on clergy,” Hoskin said. “And so, it makes sense that where we can, we would co-operate … the important thing is that people are receiving spiritual care that they need and the communities that are having trouble providing that if they can

McCurry thinks these mergers will become more common over time.

“The young people are just not coming in and joining,” she said. “They’re going more to the city churches, they’re not coming to their home churches. And so, yeah, I think it’s becoming more the norm.”

The priest also believes these partnerships will become more common, though he’s not sure what partnerships between different denominations in different parts of the country will look like.

“I think Christians have often at least paid lip services to (knowing) that we believe in the same Lord, that we hold the same faith, that we recognize baptism in each other’s churches,” he said.

“And so we recognize that we share so many important parts of our faith and have been getting over the hump that we just have our own ways of negotiating what it is to be people of faith.”

Looking to the future, Hoskin said he is hopeful that these mergers will reinvigorate the communities he serves, that it will serve as impetus for his congregants to share their faith and the impact Jesus has had on their lives with others.

“If the purpose of churches being in the community was to make sure that churches keep being in the community, then that’s not a great reason for doing anything, right?” he said.

“To give glory to God, that makes it worth any difficulties we have getting along or figuring things out … tackling the logistics of making it work is worth it. Because God is worth it and honouring him is worth it.”

On Christmas Eve, Hoskin’s itinerary will look something like this.

In the morning, Hoskin will drive from Souris to Brandon to deliver a service recognizing the final day of advent.

Then, he’ll drive back to Souris for a late afternoon Christmas Eve service and following that, he’ll return for an early evening service along the same lines in Brandon. Finally, the priest will return home to Souris and perform midnight mass before heading to bed.

After all of that, he said he’s going to take a well-earned holiday.

If even God got to rest after the seventh day, surely one of his busy servants deserves to do so as well after a busy year of community building.

» cslark@brandonsun.com

» X: @ColinSlark