Musings: 34 Years of Ministry...

Yesterday, on Sunday May 25th, I realized that it was the anniversary Sunday of my ordination. Thirty-four years ago, on this Sunday in May I was ordained at what was then, Maritime Conference. I was overwhelmed by the kind responses and comments and over the course of the day found myself reminiscing… and so this little (maybe too long) piece of writing is more for me than anyone else…

During my last year at the Atlantic School of Theology, I served the Wentworth New Annan Pastoral Charge as Weekend Supply. This was a five-point pastoral charge and on Saturday I would do visits in the community and on Sunday I would do three services before driving back to Halifax. I remember, among many, Morely Bently, Shirly Swan and the Cameron family and of course Jimmy and Shelly of the Train Station Inn. The folk of the  Wentworth/New Annan Pastoral Charge would have loved for us to stay with them, but we’d heard the call, “go west”.

In those days new Ministry Personnel were subject to Transfer and Settlement. In early spring my name was transferred to the Alberta Northwest Conference and just before ordination I learned that I’d been settled with the Acme Pastoral Charge, located 45 minutes northeast of Calgary.

Following ordination in May, Anna and I headed west stopping in Berwick, Nova Scotia and Winnipeg, Manitoba to visit the communities I had served with on my two summer internships.

Highlights in Acme included walking to get the mail and taking all day to get there and back because of the many conversations that would unfold on the journey! Foothills Presbytery Youth and the many events that Paul Rumbolt and I would do with Rick and Margaret and other parent volunteers, including ski trips to Banff with 75 youth! Justin, in 1993, was the first and only child ‘born to the Acme manse’ and he watched his dad play at being a cowboy and came to be loved by those families I had come to love: Bates, Becker, Boake, Davis, Fox, Hannah, Hay, Neufelds, Price, Reiger, Uffleman, Welsford, Wittstock, just to name a few…

In 1995 after completing a Ministry of Educational Supervision course and supervising my first student in Alberta, I accepted a call to Sault Ste Marie, Ontario where I served the busy congregation of John Wesley United Church. Zachary was born in the Sault in 1996 and life was busy and sometimes challenging. There were a few summer Saturdays where I did four weddings and on at least two occasions, five weddings… one that included arriving at the Church in a double decker bus to find a full-size wooden carousel horse on the communion table! on Over the course of six years, I had the opportunity to supervise three candidates for ministry and serve alongside faithful folk with names such as: Orr, St. Amand and Young, to name just a few.

The east coast beckoned. In 2001 Anna and I moved to Moncton, New Brunswick where I had accepted a call to Wesley Memorial United Church. Moncton was Anna’s birthplace and still the place her mom called home – where Justin and Zach would get to spend some quality time with their grandparents: visits to the cottage in Caribou River and camping trips to PEI. While at Wesley, with the support of people like the Ken Cameron, Marlene MacLeod, George Mundle and countless others, I supervised one more Candidate for Ministry, shared in many Sunday services and far too many funerals, and began to explore ways to use the training I’d received in dispute resolution and mediation. I began volunteering with the RCMP doing Community Justice Forums and with the John Howard Society as part of a court diversion program, offering Victim Offender Mediation. It was likely this work that led to repeated invitations to consider serving as a prison chaplain…

And so, it was in 2005, that Anna and I and Justin and Zach moved to Sackville, New Brunswick and I began serving as Interfaith Chaplain at Springhill Institution in Springhill, Nova Scotia. For the next nine years I would share in some of the most profound and deeply moving relationships of my life, including a ministry partnership with my Roman Catholic colleague Peg and countless other chaplains, inmates volunteers and staff. There were marathons, searches, Tuesday Fellowship, chapel picnics, Sunday Gatherings, Chaplaincy retreats and meetings, and so much laughter, tears and love! During my years at Springhill, I used some of my spare time to serve the Cumberland, Sackville, and McCully pastoral charges at various points in time in the capacity of Weekend Supply. And in 2013, when the Conservative government moved to change the model of chaplaincy delivery, I with four other stepped up to form Kairos Pneuma Chaplaincy Inc., going on to employ over 250 religious professionals who delivered chaplaincy services in 63 federal institutions across Canada. From 2013 to 2016 I served as Operations Officer with Kairos Pneuma Chaplaincy. In 2014 while running the company I completed a Human Resources Management program as offered by UNB and NBCC.

Unfortunately, our bid in 2015 for the next contract was unsuccessful, and we five, and the chaplains we employed, had to find other employment. I debated entering the human resources field, but in the end, decided to return to my first calling: pastoral ministry. Also unfortunately, in 2015 my marriage with Anna ended and in 2016 I left Sackville to accept a call to the Parrsboro Pastoral Charge.

On the day I arrived at the manse in Parrsborough I learned that a vacancy had been declared at the Sackville Pastoral Charge… and that was where I longed to be again, for by this time I was dating Jennifer, and it was looking like it would be long-term. I faithfully shared in ministry with the communities of Advocate, Port Greville and Parrsborough for the next eight month, up and down the shore, and in January of 2017, after many conversations with Eldon Hay, I submitted my name to the Search Committee of the Sackville Pastoral Charge, and accepted a call to the Sackville Pastoral Charge where I began ministry with in May of 2017, and have been here ever since. Regrettably Eldon died far too soon after my arrival but his legacy lives on!

I arrived in Sackville as the congregation was being recognized as an Affirming Ministry of the United Church of Canada. In October of 2017 Jennifer and I were married and I believe that over the past eight years we have together, both as a couple, and as minister and congregation, lived even more fully into this identity: “drawing the circle wide and making room at the table for everyone”.  We have reached out, looked inward and then reached outward again. There have been countless projects and programs, book studies and meetings and Sunday Gatherings, beginnings and endings. We have shared both deep grief and celebration with one another, we have been blessed. And these blessings continued as we entered a Collaborative Pilot Project with Visions United Church and Central United Church in September of 2025, welcoming Julia Ye in ministry with us as a Candidate for Ministry with the United Church of Canada.

No one, not one of us knows what the future holds, but if the past 34 years are any indication, we can trust that the years ahead will be full and rich and filled with even more blessings. May it be so.

Faithfully,

Lloyd

Looking Ahead

As this is the last Monday of the month the highlight of my day is lunch with United Church Ministry Personnel who are connected to Sackville United Church. The morning was spent writing and sharing in a Staff Meeting with Zoom and after lunch I am off to the Sackville Memorial Hospital for pastoral visits. The afternoon will also include a couple of home visits.

Tuesday morning, I will again be in Sackville for meetings and visits and in the afternoon I am in Moncton where I have two pastoral visits scheduled in addition to visits at the hospital followed by a meeting with the Collaborative M&P Committee in the evening.

Wednesday morning I will gather with Open Sky and others for coffee in the morning before taking Rasta for his quarterly grooming. At 6:30PM I will gather with the QS4A group.

On Thursday morning Rasta has his annual checkup with the vet and in the evening I’ll make my way to Sackville for the book launch, North of Nowhere.

On Friday the Annual Meeting of the Regional Council begins. At 10AM there is a gathering to honour the life and ministry of Kendall Harrison at the Mount Allison Chapel with other events beginning after lunch.

A highlight for me will be lunch on Saturday with the Maritime Progressives and I am certain that a pint or two will be enjoyed at Ducky’s over the course of the weekend.

The Celebration of Ministry Service begins at 10AM on Sunday morning and I will be participating virtually as we make our way to Wolfville where we will be sharing time with Justin and Emily and our soon-to-be daughter-in-law’s parents!I