{"id":22079,"date":"2018-11-01T11:40:27","date_gmt":"2018-11-01T15:40:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=22079"},"modified":"2018-11-08T11:55:20","modified_gmt":"2018-11-08T16:55:20","slug":"this-church-has-seen-some-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/this-church-has-seen-some-days\/","title":{"rendered":"Voices soar to mark 200th anniversary of Aurora United Church"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThis church has seen some days,\u201d said Nora Sanders, General Secretary of the United Church of Canada\u2019s General Council, to a packed house on Sunday morning as Aurora United Church officially marked its milestone 200th anniversary.
\nA service filled with moving words, sounds from a team of musicians some 40-strong, and stories of service and partnership, it was one more momentous day in the storied history of the church, and shone as much of a light on the path forward as where they have been for the past two centuries.
\nThe 200th anniversary service took place at Trinity Anglican Church, which has been the spiritual centre of Aurora United Church since the devastating 2014 fire which destroyed their church building at Yonge and Tyler Street, a plot of land which, for the past two centuries, has been their spiritual home.
\nAt the start of the service, reminders of the church\u2019s early foundations, as well as symbols of hope that rose from the ashes, were placed on the altar for all to see.
\n\u201cWhen we were new to this sanctuary, having come out of tragedy, we were offered this table by our Trinity friends to centre our worship,\u201d said Rev. Lorraine Newton Comar, who leads the Aurora United Church congregation alongside Rev. Andy Comar, gesturing to the slightly weathered wooden table at the front of the church. \u201cWe had nothing for the table that didn\u2019t smell of smoke, and then those from other churches who cared for us began to bring to us the practical elements of worship.\u201d
\nThose practical elements were initially collected in a very practical way, in a simple gym bag, and, as Rev. Lorraine spoke, parishioners Nancy Kerswill, Lori North, and Holly Williamson conveyed the blue gym bag to the table, carefully unwrapping and placing each item in turn.
\n\u201cEvery week thereafter, the communion table would be set in the centre here,\u201d Rev. Lorraine continued. \u201cThe pulpit would be brought down from the altar and out of that bag would come the things we set our hearts on in this time: a cross, given to us by New Hope United Church; a Christ Candle, cobbled from our homes, base and handle alike; a yellow brick, recovered from our burnt church, a prayer shawl given to us from Newton Robinson United Church, wrapped around the cross every week as it wraps us all still in love; a hymn book representing the many given to us by our sister churches in our presbytery and beyond.
\n\u201cWe commune from this table. We have become attached to all of this, this way of things, this expression of the presence of God that touches each of us in its simplicity.\u201d
\nThere, at the Bicentennial Service, the past became the future, she said, and this was reflected in the messages and readings delivered to the vast congregation and dignitaries, including Ms. Sanders, Terry Davies, Chair of the Living Waters Presbytery, Mayor-Elect Tom Mrakas, and, representing Trinity Anglican Church, Minister Patrick White and Associate Minister Philip Josselyn-Hamilton.
\n\u201cThis anniversary year has seemed to have passed by very quickly and we have enjoyed a number of special events including the AUC exhibit here at the Aurora Museum & Archives, concerts, worship, of course, teas and dinners, the production of a history book and so much more. Today, we look back to look forward, celebrating together in this sacred space, embraced by the good people of Trinity\u2026and their leadership these four-and-a-half years now,\u201d said Rev. Lorraine. \u201cMany hands and voices contributed to our celebrations today and they come from every part of our church community and we offer our deep thanks and appreciation to everyone.\u201d
\nFirst among the guests to speak was Mr. Davies of Living Waters, who light-heartedly touched upon some of the heavier issues that AUC has had to address over the years, from cyclones knocking down spires to the latest fire.
\n\u201cYou have gone through an enormously difficult time in the last four years and it was just an awful, awful event,\u201d he said. \u201cIt has been a very challenging time and you have done wonderful things. You\u2019ve created now a design for a new [church] and I am sure you\u2019re all anxious to get that ground broken to actually start doing it as opposed to taking up the things that shouldn\u2019t be there when you can build, which you have been working on too. I would not want to go any further without honouring the brothers and sisters of Trinity Anglican Church who not only stepped up to help\u2026for four years Trinity Anglican Church has provided space, support and comfort and true brotherhood and sisterhood.\u201d
\nThese sentiments were, in turn, reflected by Trinity.
\n\u201cI arrived a year after the fire and I had only heard downtown at the diocese of this amazing thing that these two communities were doing together and I was a little skeptical at first when I heard about it,\u201d said Josselyn-Hamilton. \u201cAnglican churches and United churches don\u2019t always do so well together, but we are so glad. I really feel like we\u2019re going to miss you when you move to your new place.\u201d
\nAppropriately, the plans for the new church and associated retirement home, were cleared just days before the service on October 22 by the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal.
\nAfter a reading from the Book of Job, Ms. Sanders said there was much in the air to \u201cstir the soul,\u201d not the least of which are the stories of community and partnership that have come out of AUC\u2019s last four years and its relationship with Trinity.
\n\u201cThis church has seen some times,\u201d she said. \u201cYou have experienced some trials and tribulations and somehow you have continued as a Christian presence in this community through it all. I saw a quotation from The Auroran earlier this year, \u2018two centuries of joy, sorrow and spirituality in the community\u2019 and that is a great way to describe the life of this church. You have nurtured generations of people in the faith. Sometimes as the United Church of Canada we think we play a role in the statements we make as a church nationally and I think we do, but I really think the greatest role that our church plays is in the lives of the individuals who come through and are nurtured in the faith.\u201d
\nHardship plays a significant role in the story of Job, hardship which ultimately leads to salvation. In Ms. Sanders\u2019 view, this is a journey also exemplified by Aurora United Church.
\n\u201cIn the midst of hardship, look forward, have faith in the possibility of better days ahead, even when things are so bad it seems impossible that life will ever get better,\u201d she continued. \u201cRemember that God is faithful to us, even when we\u2019re not given the answers we want. I know I am speaking to a congregation that knows something about that. I have a feeling that the people in this congregation, those who saw the church through cyclones, lightning, fires, that most recent fire, you people of this congregation knows something of this.
\n\u201cYou know how hard it is to feel God\u2019s presence in the midst of adversity. You also know the importance of faith in God\u2019s accompaniment to those better days ahead. Yes, God is with us through the ups and downs, through the highs and lows, through the joy and pain.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThis church has seen some days,\u201d said Nora Sanders, General Secretary of the United Church of Canada\u2019s General Council, to a packed house on Sunday morning as Aurora United Church officially marked its milestone 200th anniversary.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":22071,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/2018-11-01-02.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-5K7","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-26 06:27:59","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}