Pastoral Letter from the Minister - Rev. Tiina Cote - Oct 2017
Greetings to my new sisters and brothers in Christ at Calvin!What an exciting time to join your journey as a community of faith in Pembroke. What a delight to move into your City and begin to explore God’s creation in this part of our province. I am humbled once again to directly experience God’s hand in guiding the unfolding of these possibilities. From the persistent requests to come for an interview to the tremendous touch of welcoming assistance to the joy-filled embrace by you the congregation, all have reshaped my life once again and brought clarity to God’s care and purpose for my life. Thanks. I arrive here with over 20 years of ministry with The United Church of Canada and their partners globally. For the first 10 years I was a Staff Associate at Trinity United in Grimsby. My focus was on Christian Education and Outreach which included developing small groups, alternative worship forms for the youth and women’s spirituality. I started my part-time theological studies at Emmanuel College in Toronto at that time. Several years later I experienced a call to ordained ministry, though not before I lost my faith and found it once again! This was to be my third vocational calling – out of university I became a Redevelopment Planner with the City of Welland. Ten years later I choose to stay at home to raise my 2 children and grow food organically. Thirteen years and many joyful moments later, I began my long journey towards formal ministry. Following ordination in 2007, I was settled at Rock Chapel UC, a rural church in the greater Hamilton area. There I discovered the joys of deep roots and profound hospitality as expressions of faith. Shortly after settlement, I did some part time contract work at the General Council Offices in the Global Partnerships Unit. Subsequently I was called to a second part-time position with St. Paul’s UC in downtown Dundas as their Christian Education minister. Integrating the arts into the Sunday School and Youth Ministry were some of the blessings there. An unexpected request from General Council Offices changed my life profoundly. In 2011 I was asked to go to Tanzania, East Africa and work as a Chaplain at the state-owned University of Dodoma. Our largest global partner, the Christian Council of Tanzania was in critical need of clergy to support their many students (7,000) at this nearby University. Stories and learnings about the nature of hope and faith and love in the face of adversities will fill my conversations with you. After two years, all overseas personnel were called back to Canada because of financial challenges. Although I was given the option for another year of Chaplaincy, God made it clear that I was to go back (a great discernment story once again!) God called me to Trinity UC in downtown Kitchener with growing ministries in Messy Church, Intercultural/Interfaith communities and a seventeen-year redevelopment project for the church building. Four years later and a growing sense to slow down to nourish my creative urges, I began to look east, to come closer to my son and daughter-in-law in Ottawa. Accompanied here to Pembroke by my daughter, my small family is already building new connections and for that I too am grateful! And I have now arrived among you and I give God great thanks for that! I wonder what God is going to do with us? It will be a blessing to discover that together.
