Married couple to retire from team ministry at Transcona Memorial United Church

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This article was published 24/06/2023 (839 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

For half of its 70-year history, the people of a Transcona congregation could depend on the same two faces greeting them at the front doors.

That will change on June 30, when married ministers Carol Fletcher and Jeff Cook retire from team ministry at Transcona Memorial United Church.

“One of the benefits of being here is people know they can count on us,” says Fletcher, 61, who moved with Cook from Esterhazy, Sask., to take up the position in 1988.

“When you’re here for a long time, you’ve become one of the constants in their lives,” adds Cook, 66.

Fletcher and Cook will be recognized for their 35 years of service at a community open house, 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, June 27 at the church, located at 209 Yale Ave. E.

Like many other church members, Breanna Drennan-Bilyk can’t recall anyone other than Fletcher or Cook as ministers of the congregation. Now serving as chair of the church board, she’s been shaped by their ministry and inspired by their leadership.

“One thing about Carol is she’s everyone’s champion,” says Drennan-Bilyk, who was confirmed and married and had her children baptized by the pair.

“She sees things in me I don’t even see in myself.”

They’ve also overseen physical changes in their worship space and community extension building just north of downtown Transcona downtown and shepherded the congregation of about 600 through periods of transition and growth.

Now formally an affirming ministry within the United Church of Canada, the congregation is welcome to all people, regardless of abilities, age, gender identities, sexual orientations and race.

“They been a community that’s struggled to change and be part of what we are now,” says Cook, who recently wrote a mystery drama based on an inappropriate use of a hymnal for the church’s theatre group.

“There’s a sense that God and the congregation are still dancing together and finding new ways to express their faith.”

Several renovations, including a significant addition connecting the 1953 sanctuary with the 1963-era community space, have changed the look and the efficiency of the building. The $1.8 million renovation completed in 2017 added an elevator, exterior ramp, meeting rooms and new offices, and formalized the welcoming ethos Fletcher and Cook articulated through their ministry.

“It’s a different church (than when we started), but it’s a really active church,” says Fletcher of the regular meetings of choirs, book clubs, a drama troupe, Bible study groups and United Church Women. Recently, church members invited Ukrainian newcomers for English conversation practice, with two groups meeting weekly at the church.

More improvements to the building will be underway soon, including a solar panel installation and other initiatives to reduce the building’s carbon footprint, says Fletcher, who worked on many grant proposals over the years.

“We’re starting a greening project that is going to speak loudly about our commitment to the environment and be a beacon of safety to the building and the longevity to the community,” she says.

In addition to the church programming, hundreds of folks from community use the building weekly for exercise classes, pickleball games, social events, and a food bank.

“I think Transcona Memorial United Church has given Transcona a gift of presence and a sense of welcome,” says Fletcher.

“Our building is our table that we’re inviting people to, so we have to add more leaves to the table.”

That expanded table includes Transcona Council for Seniors, where Fletcher served on the board and lent a strong voice to topics important to seniors, says the council’s Colleen Tackaberry. The group uses space for an Alzheimer’s support group, art classes and a congregate meal program.

“It will be difficult to replace these two wonderful people, who have so much talent and enthusiasm for the community,” she writes in an email.

“The best way we can thank them is to carry on the vision they have helped set for our community.”

That’s also the sentiment of the congregation, says Drennan-Bilyk, who admits continuing without the pair will be an adjustment for everyone.

“We’re going to try to live out being the hands and feet of Christ, loving our neighbours as ourselves and take that forward,” she says.

Although they won’t be working at Transcona Memorial United Church for much longer, Fletcher and Cook plan to stay in the east Winnipeg suburb where they built a house and raised two sons and is home to Carol Fletcher Way, a new street named after Fletcher in 2016.

“We’re retiring from ministry and not from being people of faith or from God,” says Cook about their retirement plans, which include travelling and resuming hobbies like sketching. “And God has a tendency to surprise us and take us places we didn’t necessarily expect to go.”

Brenda.suderman@freepress.mb.ca

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