Knox Villages: Faith-filled Community in Pandemic Times
“Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favour of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.” — Acts 2:46-47
Hello Knox family!
You may remember from the ministry update Pastor Phil and Session provided that, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, much of Knox Church’s ministry will take place online—but that doesn’t mean we’re not prioritizing togetherness as a church community.
Our Knox family comes from all over the Greater Toronto Area—so how can we follow Jesus together while spread across the city and with public health restrictions? By growing local and smaller. As part of our ministry plan, we are calling our church to fellowship and serve in your own neighbourhoods during a time where our church building isn’t as central to ministry as before.
We see that being local—being geographically close—will be an important factor in our ability to be the body of Jesus—to potentially gather with others, experience relational connections and love others through acts of service (e.g. dropping a meal off, grocery shopping).
To that end, we’d like to introduce you to Knox Villages!
Knox Villages
Knox Villages are a new way of doing faith-community together during this pandemic season. We’ll be organizing ourselves into seven geographic groupings of about 50 people each from the Knox Church family. This will enable us to maintain our common identity, mission, vision and practice, while providing a local and COVID-appropriate sized venue to follow Jesus in the city, together.
Each village will be encouraged to develop deeper relationships in geographic areas, extending care and support to one another, and to consider how God might be leading them to meet local needs within their area, living out our calling to be the hands and feet of Jesus where God has planted us.
Our church Elders will shepherd and oversee the different villages across the GTA, and we invite you to connect personally with the Elder or Elders overseeing your village to get more plugged into the Knox community right in your area.
Downtown South - Patrick Twaddle and Ray Chin
Downtown North - Greg Summers
Central Toronto - Norine Love
York and West Toronto - Geri Rodman
Etobicoke and West GTA - Karen Williams and Donna Dong
North York (and North GTA) - Eva Aboagye and Jacob Chandler
Scarborough and E. York/E. Toronto - Sabrina Simmons and Jim Williams
Stay tuned for more information on special village Zoom gatherings with your Elders and others who are part of your village coming up later this month! We’re looking forward to how God will be working through you and your communities in this new way to be together in this pandemic season.
Love in Christ,
Your pastoral staff
