About St Paul's, Knowlton

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"We're going there, aren't we?" Sara said.

Until that moment, it hadn't really occurred to me.  The question came as a bit of a shock.  

It was July 17, 2004.  We were driving back to a cottage that her parents had rented on Lake Memphremagog.  We had just come from a lovely dinner at Peter and Joan McKinnon's house (Costco chicken pot pie, now a favourite of mine) overlooking Brome Lake.  

On May 29th, Rebecca Elizabeth had been born and Joan, the chair of the St. Paul's Rector search committee, had also called asking if I might like to interview for the position of the next Rector of St. Paul's.  

On June 10 I had a day-long interview.   I met Joan and then was shown around the parish by Gary Crandall. John Rosevear was the "lion at the gate" informing me of some of the ongoing issues in the parish.  After a rest in the afternoon, I met the other members of the search committee for dinner.  

I felt that the interview was a good interview.  I felt as though I was clear about my ideas and vision of what a church should look like.  As I left I thought "If they don't want me, they don't want ME."

Two weeks later... They wanted me.  

But I wanted to be sure.  I was interested in doing some unusual and non-traditional things like focussing on intentional community involvement and Powerpoint and a projector to replace the old overhead acetate projector.  So I asked for another meeting.  On July 17th we would be once again on Memphremagog so Sara, Ellyn and baby Rebecca could go along.  

The Search Committee confirmed that they were interested in my ideas and would support my ministry.  

That was when Sara said "We're going there, aren't we?"

And we were. 

We arrived on October 3 greeted by Gary Crandall and John Rosevear, the wardens at the time.  

Joan McKinnon said at the time and many times since "we never promised you a rose garden" but there have been many roses and even a few thorns.  

Thus far, 2026 has been one of the busiest and most exciting years in my 28 years of ministry.

We have more weddings, more baptisms, more babies, more children (a Sunday School coming this fall).  We will have more music thanks to Pierre and Athena, a renewal of our French Facebook page and a beginning of our Hispanic Facebook page to go with our Sunday Spanish screen.  

We have many roses blooming.  

There will always be some thorns, but they are not always bad things. 

This past June we celebrated the extraordinary life of Alex Paterson, a humble man who helped change the history of Quebec and Canada.  This past week I had an interview with Holly Bailey of CIDI 99.1 and Joe Singerman, a former reporter for CTV, regarding Alex.  I was reminded of a quote from CS Lewis' "The Horse and his Boy."  Shasta (later King Cor)... "had not yet learned that if you do one good deed your reward usually is to be set to do another harder and better one."  Alex's life was one where he was continually set harder and better tasks and he enjoyed every one.  

By the grace of God and in the strength of the Spirit of Jesus, we will have many more harder and better tasks yet to come.  Thanks be to God!

As I look back on our time here at St. Paul's and forward toward our future together at St. Paul's, I am reminded of St. Paul's words in Philippians 1:3-6:

"I thank my God every time I think of you!  I always pray with joy, whenever I pray for you all, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. Of this I’m convinced: the one who began a good work in you will thoroughly complete it by the day of Christ Jesus."

Onward and Upward, Tim 

PS- REMEMBER- CHRISTMAS IN JULY- JULY 26 at 10:00!!!