Christ Church has been sharing the Gospel in Rawdon for more than 200 years. Strong in tradition, stalwart in keeping the faith; yet, like most parishes in Canada, it had been in gradual decline for many years.
Decline was seen in decreased participation at worship, and in decreased giving; and in the lack of weddings, baptism, and confirmations. Christ Church had maintained the appearance that things were OK even as some repairs were delayed and as they went from a full time to a half-time cleric.
Bishop Mary, after discussion and concurrence with the wardens of Christ Church, licenced the Rev. Rodney Clark in the fall of 2021 as part-time priest in charge of Rawdon.
It had been more than 15 years since Fr. Clark had served in a parish; and though he is a priest with more than 30 year’s experience, he had not previously lived in a rectory, nor served a single-point charge.
When Fr. Clark was ordained in 1993 his first parish was in the Appalachian highlands of Quebec where he served as half-time incumbent responsible for six congregations. The other half of his job was as a community animator funded by a Quebec City non-profit corporation, where he worked for five years, expanding minority language community and social service delivery.
While there, he learned how to identify a mission field; how to geolocate people for ease of community engagement across a large territory, how to participate in on-the-ground social service animation, how to discern and reinforce the threads of a worn-thin social fabric.
From this work came the Megantic Community Development Corporation and with it a template which was picked up by the Network Programme Initiative of the QCGN. The QCGN NPI assisted with the creation and funding of social service agencies across much of Quebec – agencies such as ECOL in the Lanaudière where Fr. Clark now serves.
The work to encourage growth at Christ Church Rawdon started in 2021 with the identification of the mission field and the work to discern paths to growth. In the last two years, Christ Church has increased the parish from a roll of 70 to a roll of 270 households.
This has been due to the hard work of wardens, ACW members and its 168 volunteers [Rawdon knows the actual number of its volunteers as they are named and their hours are tracked for inclusion in the annual report], and many others.
Meetings were held with neighbours and family. Much time has been spent speaking with and listening to ACW members and aged parishioners. Phones were used – a lot. Data bases built. A parish-needs assessments completed.
The most important activity has been time spent BEING VISIBLE in the community as a whole: knocking on doors to say ‘Hi’, marching as a parish in parades, inviting up to 90 people to share in lawn games at the Rectory in the summer months, working with local non-profits to strengthen ties and relationships; becoming known by municipal councillors, the firemen and local SQ, and diving into community activities.
Fr. Clark and members of the parish are seen at AA, NA, & CA meetings; at the Legion, the Quilt Guild, the Multi-Ethnic Center, the ACW, at Friday Friends, and at ECOL events; and at almost all community concerts and meals and fundraisers in Greater Rawdon.
With an identified mission field, coupled with intentional listening to learn why people stepped back, and a focus on making the parish central to the life of the community once again; average attendance at worship on Sunday Mornings has more than doubled from what it had been pre-covid.
On Saturday July 13th Christ Church Rawdon had its annual Auction and FunFair. The day started before 7am and ended after 9pm – and then 45 were in Church @ 10:30 the next morning!
Christ Church had had no confirmations for a decade. The Bishop confirmed six in Rawdon in 2024 and will confirm another six in 2025.
Christ Church has youth and young families worshipping with them because the congregation is listening, hearing and responding to their needs and program and animation requests.
Music has become an opportunity for growth, and people gather as a community to sing 60-strong twice a month. Christ Church has 40 voices in the choir singing at special events [there had not been a choir for several years, and no one dreamed of a 40-voice choir].
Christ Church has built in partnership with the municipality a concert series [15 concerts have been booked for 2024-25] to open the doors of our church to newcomers, so they SEE who we are – and we have a dressed altar and lit tabernacle lamp to telegraph our theology to those coming for concerts; and a few moments are spent at each concert telling people what an Anglican Church / what the Anglican tradition is.
Attendance is up. The numbers on the parish roll are up. Average worshipper age is down. The average parishioners age is down. Christ Church has found vectors for growth.
This fall Christ Church will host two 1-day workshops called the Rawdon Youth Initiative in an effort to respond to the needs which we have learned of through our 18-month SWOT analysis process [SWOT = Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, Threat: it is a business tool which charities and non-profits use to aid them to see themselves more clearly and to discern paths for growth and renewal].
There is MUCH work to do to see Rawdon become a long-term sustainable parish; but the greatest impediment to growth was overcoming the inertia of being a shrinking parish. Christ Church Rawdon has overcome that inertia.
The journey from here to sustainable and self-supporting ministry needs love and work and continued consultation and a willingness to listen.
One of the important things which Christ Church Rawdon has done is pray for each other. The entire parish roll is prayed for each week by our ACW. The roll has been divided into 52, and each parishioner is remembered in intercessions at least once a year. These are small things to do; but the trust and the conversations which this simple discipline fosters is not small – it is parish changing.
There will soon be another English school in the parish, bringing the total number of students in English school in the parish to more than 1000.
The population is growing and becoming more diverse. The parish is growing and becoming more diverse. Christ Church Rawdon has legs and a promising future.
Together the incumbent and wardens and volunteers along with the many who look to this parish for care and support – are taking steps to ensure the long-term sustainability of the parish and are working to cultivate new avenues for outreach.
