Welcome to the MCM blog! Bienvenue!

Growing up in Halifax on the Atlantic Ocean, I was anxious to set sail for new horizons – to experience other cultures and learn different languages.  Studies and travels in Germany, Mexico and Chicoutimi, Quebec finally led me to Montreal where I put down roots in the late 70s. After various jobs, it was my volunteer work that landed me a position with Montreal City Mission in the mid 80s as community worker. At the time, I recall thinking, this is probably going to be the best job I will ever have!  And I was right! My work at MCM not only turned into a great job but also into a vocation. The opportunity to build on a strong, now centenary, foundation,

 and expand the vision of collegiality and hospitality has been life-giving. Underpinning this evolution is ‘right relation’: putting into place practices and policies that allow healthy inter-personal dynamics at the work place and in the community. These, in turn, allow all of us at MCM to connect with our inner wisdom - our mystique - where creativity, compassion, love for one another and a sense of justice reside and give life.

While completing my Masters in ‘Intervention sociale’ at the Université du Québec à Montréal in the 90s, I explored the concept of latent social development and the need to attune one’s senses to things below the surface - emerging ideas and realities. More recently, the work of social theorist Otto Sharmer in his book Theory U – Leading from the Future as it Emerges has once again reminded me of the importance of observation, listening and creating the space for the ‘other’ to be. At MCM, we are constantly exploring new ways to do just that: be present as listeners and advocates, and together with refugees and immigrants, create the opportunity for giving back. The courage of the people we serve provides us with daily inspiration; their vulnerability, talent and strength create a latent story in our collective narrative, a story that needs to be lifted up and shared.

‘Life is a journey and the journey itself is home’, once said a 17th century traveling Buddhist monk. My life journey seems to bring me back frequently to the classroom. I have recently embarked upon a two year part-time Masters of Divinity program through the United Theological College with the goal of ordination in 2013. The United Church of Canada, like all mainline Christian denominations is in major transition – one could even say crisis or upheaval.  But it is also an exhilarating time of change and new possibilities – a time when what constrains and limits us can be discarded, and what heals and energizes us can be embraced.

Photo: La Presse / Rémi Lemée

The current challenge for all of us will be to find ways to create a counter-culture narrative based on interdependence, love and justice. No matter what our system of beliefs and values, we are all connected through the human story of struggle, pain, hope and joy. Finding ways to make and strengthen those connections is indeed a life journey and the journey itself is home!

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