2020 Annual Report

ANNUAL REPORT 2020 TABLE OF CONTENTS Margaret Miyagishima Interim Council Chair Rev. Dr Greg Glatz Minister Chellan Hoffman Music Director Josh Gordon Finance Josh Gordon Regional Representative Tim Bell Ministry and Personnel Ellen Lang Community Life and Justice Kay de la Ronde Strategic C0mmunity Partnerships Chuck Curry Church Management Greg Glatz Board of Trustees Interim Council Chair I am very proud with how Knox people rose to the occasion again and again over the course of 2020 and continue to do so. As we all know so very well, 2020 in Calgary and at Knox started off uneventfully but that came to an abrupt halt in mid-March, with the decision to close the building, and therefore to suspend in person services. This decision impacted virtually every area of Knox life. The first missed in person service was to have been followed by the AGM at which time, the congregation was asked to vote on Knox’s new vision. Knox life in many ways was on hold while we took stock and determined the way forward. The speed at which Knox staff and key volunteers regrouped to launch online services via Zoom was just amazing. Many thanks to everyone who worked together to commence our now so familiar Zoom services. Special appreciation needs to be given to Chellan Hoffman and Steve Miller, as well as choir members and community musicians whose musical and technical talents, not to mention sheer hard work, led to the creation of close to a hundred musical videos for Sunday services and special services. Starting with the first lockdown period and continuing to this day, Council meetings are held on Zoom. We continue to look after the needs of the congregation in this new normal. At start of the pandemic, this included a call out to make sure that congregants were coping, and to offer support when it was needed. Council had approved the hiring of a consultant, Don McLeod, to work on building stronger leadership teams at Knox. This work was underway when in early 2020, it became clear that the ministerial team could not move forward. Dave Holmes made the decision that he would step down. His last service with Knox was July 26th, 2020. We wish him all the best in his new endeavors. The work of Council continued over the course of the year. A series of Town Hall meetings was carried out over the summer and into early fall, where congregation members were updated first on the state of Knox finances particularly in light of the impact of the pandemic; then about changes to Sunday worship and music; and lastly heard more detail about the proposed governance model in September 2020. In October 2020, the congregation then voted to accept in principle the new governance model at our AGM. In March 2021, Council is asking the congregation to vote on the new proposed governance model. The impact of the pandemic on Knox was, and continues to be, profound. We have a long journey ahead of us. However, we are finding our way forward. We will someday once again be able to gather in community, to worship together and to sing together. Chellan Hoffman, our Music Director, notes that the last hymn sung at Knox before we had to close our doors was Amazing Grace. Maybe Amazing Grace can be the first hymn we sing when we can sing together in person to recognize that even on the midst of all of the challenge and heartache, there have also been, and will continue to be, moments of grace. May the year 2021 see some of the things that make us Knox return. Respectfully submitted, Margaret Miyagishima, Rev. Dr. Greg Glatz Minister’s Report 2020 was an unforgettable year. We ended 2019 with anticipation of the year ahead. Then, the pandemic arrived and everything changed. COVID-19 became our new reality. We closed the building on March 13, 2020 and moved our services and programs to Zoom. Just as we began to adjust to these changes, Rev. Dr. Dave Holmes announced his resignation at the end of May and departed at the end of July. He is deeply missed by Knox. We rounded out 2020 dealing with a shift from two ministers to one, retooling worship services, re-opening Sanctuary Coffee, and continuing to adapt to a series of changing COVID-19 health and safety protocols. What a year it was. We’re still catching our breath. Despite, maybe because of, these challenges, 2020 turned out to be a year of significant growth for Knox. Here’s a summary of some of what we achieved: • We learned how to hold Sunday services on Zoom. Wednesday noon services resumed too, first on Zoom only, and then also in person with up to ten people permitted to attend. Knox and community musicians initially recorded or broadcast from home, then we brought them back to the sanctuary to broadcast their music live. In the last half of 2020, Chellan Hoffman (music director) began collaborating with community artists participating in our services—selecting and arranging music, and providing instrumental and choral backup. • The Knox community was updated twice a week via email newsletters (MailChimp), and updates were posted daily on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. • We expanded our online giving platform. • We held funerals and celebrations of life on Zoom. • Council meetings moved to Zoom and the congregation participated in three well- attended Zoom Town Halls as well as Knox’s first Zoom-based AGM. • The Knox daily devotional, Lectio Divina, supported all those who signed up to receive it by email. • Inner Sanctuary, a study/meditation group was launched on Zoom in Spring and continues today. It is now available both live on Thursdays nights and as a podcast. • The Sanctuary Coffee install was completed and the cafe re-opened in October, adapting several times to a series of changing COVID health and safety protocols. Most of our baking is now produced in house. The Espresso Shot newsletter produced by Sanctuary Coffee provides updates, support, and information to Knox and the extended Calgary community. • We produced a video series of readings and music to celebrate Christmas. We will see more ministry and programming developments in the first half of 2021. Visio Divina, a pilot project for Lent, has already launched. It publishes pictures every weekday, provided by Knox and community members, to inspire reflection and prayer. Daily Prayer, an Instagram stories project, will launch after Easter. A Holy Week video production, featuring readings and music, is currently being produced and will be uploaded to Vimeo in April alongside our Christmas 2020. Finally, audio and video recordings of our services will be a permanent part of our worship services, even when in-person attendance resumes. The quality of work in the services being put forth by staff and church/community participants continues to grow and we will develop professional-level recording and mixing to distribute their work on the web. We’ve all been feeling the effects of this pandemic, but we are holding together as a community of faith, and growing in response to the challenges we’ve faced. Current Realities According to the Manual of the United Church of Canada, Knox is a community of faith that exists to “explore faith, worship, and serve." The Manual goes on to say that the community of faith "joins the hearts, voices, and resources of the community to witness to the gospel and vision of Jesus for a compassionate and just society, both in Canada and around the world." Our identity as a community of faith informs the programs we develop, the money we collect and spend, and the way we use our building. There is room for lots of ingenuity and variety here: social enterprises, rental programs, and community partnerships, as well as worship services, small groups, and events and performances. The key is to make sure all of these activities help us grow and develop as a community of faith. Here, in the third decade of the 21st century, finding our way forward as a community of faith is challenging. This is partly a reflection of what it takes to be a community of faith today compared to what it meant during the heyday of the United Church of Canada in the 1950s/1960s. Things have changed significantly, and our approaches and perspectives have struggled to keep up. Plus, each of us has connected to Knox at different points in its history, so our understanding of Knox has been imprinted by our connecting point: much of what was happening when you started attending Knox likely feels “normal” today. Consequently, our community of faith currently represents a mix of ideas about who we are, what objectives we hope to achieve, and the best ways to achieve them. Sometimes, this mix is our strength, creating well-rounded points of view and much-needed versatility. Sometimes, this mix results in competing visions for Knox, which slows our progress and leaves us tripping over ourselves. All this while church attendance figures continue to dwindle nationwide, the Calgary economy continues to struggle, and the pandemic continues to create unprecedented challenges for us. The need for more clarity, focus, alignment, and movement has become critically important at this time. Proposed Changes At our last AGM in October 2020, we pivoted our vision to becoming 1) vibrant, 2) community-focused, and 3) sustainable. The proposed changes in governance and staff structure at this AGM are a significant part of achieving this vision. Knox’s current governance model relies extensively on volunteer-led leadership and there is increased difficulty getting people to serve in long-term leadership roles.

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