NADC Classis report (March 2021)

Northern Alberta Diaconal Conference: A Classis ministry of which all churches are members. The full board consists of a representative of each church. This representative is usually, though not always, a deacon. We exist to encourage congregations and communities to grow in living lives of stewardship, justice, mercy, and compassion. This is done by regularly meeting, collaborating, communicating and sharing of experience between members and ministry partners. Since we met last fall: 

1. DOE 2020 happened the first Saturday of November with an online format. We explored the topic of Care and Connection through many great speakers and stories. We were unsure of the appetite for zoom meetings but we had a modest crowd of about 70 people. One encouraging thing was that we did have participants literally from coast to coast (as well as one from the USA). While we missed out on the obvious advantages of meeting in person, we gained the accessibility of distance, being able to make a video recording of the event and providing some unique audio/visual content. The day was well received and we got positive feedback. You can watch the sessions at: 
   https://youtu.be/O0GA52YfdX8 - John Van Sloten 
   https://youtu.be/4y6nJO4BeZE - Richard Bodini, Anita V.S. & Mel Slomp https://youtu.be/_Bc7buwk7Oc – Sarah Roelofs, Dena Nicolai & Rick Mast. 
2. Later in the fall I started ongoing participation with a group of CRC people in western Canada to explore a revival of the Hearts Exchanged program; that first took place in 2000. The initial event was a step towards reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples and, while some of our churches have been active in certain ways, it was meant to be a more formal and ongoing process. We are exploring ways to facilitate further learning, relationship building and promotion. 

3. Looking at 2021 so far and what’s to come: 
a) The Deacons and reps met on February 11th by zoom to connect and encourage each other. We heard from Chris Artola who is a new area rep, for World Renew in their finance department. We also heard from Dona Abma, who is one of the founding directors of The Broom Tree Foundation in Lacombe. She shared about this vital ministry for women, the impacts it is having and how churches in our Classis can be involved. If you were unable to attend but want to hear more, please check out the website for the recording (www.classisalbertanorth.ca/nadc). 
b) Involvement in various zoom meetings with deacon chairs, connections to Classis ministries like the Cuba Connection, and our denominational partners of World Renew and Diaconal Ministries Canada continues as best it can during covid. Online connection has been a blessing to be able to at least engage in some interaction and things like justice book clubs, neighborhood engagement learning and benevolence workshops have been some of them.  
c) My involvement continues with prison ministry connections, but in disrupted ways because of covid. I have helped facilitate community reintegration group meetings; both online and limited capacity, physical distanced. With things being locked down again, I have had to visit inmates by phone and online. Morale is low with the guys in prison and half-way houses and they seek connection and hope. So far there have not been major illnesses in the facilities that I interact with but that is sadly not true of everywhere. Things are worse off in larger facilities and we are holding out hope for a quicker vaccine roll out for everyone in Canada. 

Jesse Edgington - yournadc@gmail.com