{"id":36773,"date":"2025-09-04T16:57:22","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T20:57:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=36773"},"modified":"2025-09-11T12:50:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T16:50:11","slug":"trauma-grief-and-renewal-our-job-description-was-ultimately-written-by-circumstance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/trauma-grief-and-renewal-our-job-description-was-ultimately-written-by-circumstance\/","title":{"rendered":"Trauma, Grief, and Renewal: \u201cOur job description was ultimately written by circumstance\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cAnd the world will be a better place.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They are the timeless words brought to life by Jackie DeShannon in her 1969 song Put A Little Love In Your Heart,\u201d refreshed by Annie Lennox in more recent years \u2013 and they took on new resonance once again on Sunday as members of the Aurora United Church raised their voices as one to say farewell to long-time church leaders Reverend Andy Comar and Reverend Lorraine Newton Comar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For parishioners, they made their faith community a better place as they used their strong leadership to keep the congregation from scattering following a 2014 fire which destroyed their spiritual home of more than 150 years. Then, just six years later, they were on the forefront of reinventing the church to a virtual realm in the face of global turmoil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur ministry will be remembered as a time of trauma and grief and then renewal,\u201d said Lorraine on Thursday, reflecting on she and Andy\u2019s 16 years at the head of Aurora United Church. (AUC)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But their ministry was about so much more than that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Comars first came to Aurora United Church after serving at Guelph\u2019s Trinity United Church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They weren\u2019t looking for a move, but as AUC was coming out of what Lorraine describes as a \u201cchallenging time,\u201d the congregation was looking for stability \u2013 and that\u2019s just what they found in the husband-and-wife preachers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both Lorraine and Andy followed similar paths to seminary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They both grew up within the Aurora United Church, embracing what they describe as their \u201cservice ministry\u201d of community outreach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They both became intended candidates at the age of 16, making good on their calling as full candidates at university.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe both knew this was our life\u2019s calling because we had very loving congregations that nurtured us and were very supportive of what we wanted to do in life,\u201d Andy recalls. \u201cWhen we were going into seminary in the early 1980s, basically everybody in our classes had that same pathway \u2013 but, later on, more and more ministers are coming from second, third careers, they\u2019re older coming into the ministry, but young people are also coming back in.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re kind of a dying breed that way,\u201d says Lorraine of being younger grads. \u201cThat cohort of younger undergrad, masters and ordained \u2013 there are not a lot of us left. We\u2019ve often met clergy who are older than us, who were just ordained a year ago, and that really speaks to the change in the church.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What doesn\u2019t change, however, is their Social Gospel Church, which is what the couple was keen to bring to Aurora after they decided they were, in fact, ready to move on from Guelph and take on a new challenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe did a workshop with them about what we thought we could help them with and, given their needs for the church and where we thought we could assist, they offered us the call and we came,\u201d says Lorraine of talks with the AUC, emphasizing that the quest for stability was key. \u201cWe felt that as a married couple, certainly, with a united front, we could help in that regard, and I think that proved out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of their first tasks was taking part in AUC\u2019s Visioning Group to chart its future. Coming out of that group was a renewed mission statement and a new logo and brand, \u201cUniting Hearts and Hands on the Journey.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s funny because people at the time were saying, \u2018Gee, I wonder what the journey is going to be,\u2019\u201d says Lorraine, with a slight chuckle, hindsight now on her side of how that journey unfolded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a journey of uncertainty that was certainly aided by their two sets of stable hands as fire ripped through the church at the corner of Yonge and Tyler Streets just before Easter 2014, bringing them into an unimaginable situation just a few years into their mandate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their community outreach and quick thinking ensured at AUC and its community work, including its Rise and Shine Breakfast for underserved members of the community, continued barely skipping a beat, speedily forming a new partnership and shared space with Trinity Anglican Church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou always come in with a job description and we created our own job description with the aid of the search committee, etc., but our job description ultimately was written by the circumstances,\u201d says Lorraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adds Andy: \u201cThey don\u2019t teach any of this at theological college!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cComing in, you had to learn how to adapt on the fly and that is not really a big thing you learn in seminary,\u201d Lorraine continues. \u201cI mean, church often is so much \u2018same, same, same\u2019 and it has been a very dynamic experience. You just never know what\u2019s coming \u2013 and I think that\u2019s not a bad thing, in a way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rebuilding a long-established church \u2013 something else they don\u2019t teach you in seminary! \u2013 has certainly been a challenging experience for the Comars, but it has also been a rewarding one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Work on the new building and sanctuary continues apace with construction tentatively expected to be complete by the end of this year, while the Amica Retirement Community being built in conjunction and partnership with AUC will most likely welcome its first residents this fall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the church began to quite literally rise from the ashes once again, COVID-19 was the next hurdle they had to shepherd their congregation over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was another instance where being married preachers helped as they, with the help of some tech-savvy parishioners, were able to almost-seamlessly deliver services to the AUC community via Zoom directly from their living room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs the pandemic became a reality, people still had the vision of going home to Yonge Street,\u201d says Lorraine. \u201cIt was a pandemic, we were all experiencing it, we were not alone in it, but we were still keeping the dream alive. Whatever we had to do to maintain our ministries, our pastoral care team, they were on the phones all the time calling people, making sure folks were okay. We adapted to all we had to \u2013 to keep going.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re very organized people. I hope people know that we also reach out to get help because we cannot do everything on our own. That\u2019s the whole ethos of the church, right? You reach out, you do it together. We\u2019re happy to lead in that way, but so deeply happy that we had these amazing people who were so adept at different things that enabled us to continue most of our ministries in that time, even the breakfasts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, all good things must come to an end \u2013 and that\u2019s how the Comars feel about their retirement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having made the decision to retire earlier this year, the last few months have been as much about celebration as it has been about tying up loose ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They participated in the traditional Return of the Symbols service this past June, bringing it up a bit ahead of their actual retirement before parishioners scattered for the summer, and they were particularly happy to be able to preside over the reinterment last month of 180 early pioneers whose long-forgotten remains were uncovered during the reconstruction process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite hanging up their vestments, they are excited about Aurora United Church\u2019s future and hope to be able to participate in its grand re-opening in the New Year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere have been a lot of changes in the 16 years we have been here, but certainly a lot has stayed the same,\u201d says Andy, pointing into one unshakable partnership, AUC\u2019s participation as one of seven churches in the ecumenical organization Welcoming Arms, which provides invaluable services to residents in need, as a prime example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo think Aurora provides five-plus meals every week for a Town this size? That\u2019s incredible. There\u2019s still enough of the old Aurora here when you talk to people, but there\u2019s also the new and people from every continent under the sun seem to be here in Aurora \u2013 and we noticed at the Street Festival this year people coming up to the church site that hadn\u2019t been here in 2014 who didn\u2019t even know a church was on this site.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a beautiful change,\u201d Lorraine adds. \u201cIt\u2019s a lot of years to cover and looking back in time, in years to come, people might ask, \u2018What happened when Andy and Lorraine were there?\u2019 \u2018Oh, well, our church burned, then there was a pandemic,\u2019 and that\u2019s what they\u2019ll remember, right? Definitely our four years before the fire was preparation, learning, making connections with people, relationships \u2013 Get ready, go! Our true ministry came after that \u2013 that\u2019s what will be remembered. It was a time of trauma, it was a time of trauma and grief, and then renewal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur theme running through our build and the design is the rising of the phoenix and that will certainly be the case for the organization feeling like, finally, we\u2019re back home \u2013 we\u2019ve risen from the ashes and that is coming true.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Comars retirement from AUC closes chapter of community change.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":36774,"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-36773","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\/2025\/09\/2025-09-04-02.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-9z7","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-17 00:56:42","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\/36773","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=36773"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36773\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36775,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36773\/revisions\/36775"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}