Serving the community

St. Andrew’s Picton charts a new path forward

Last week, the Rotary Club of Picton presented Reverend Lynne Donovan of St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church with the Paul Harris Award for her service to the community. Since arriving at the church in 2007, Rev. Donovan has, with the support of a circle of friends, led a number of initiatives that have benefitted the wider community, and even beyond the borders of this country. She helped establish a Ten Thousand Villages store in downtown Picton, which directly supported many people in Third World countries. Closer to home, the Reaching for Rainbows program provided much needed support and mentorship to vulnerable young girls, and that is a benefit that could last beyond this generation. In addition to music and art events, the church has also provided a venue for a discussion of mental health issues as well as the exploration of aging and dying with dignity. The qualities of compassion and caring for community that Rev. Donovan embodies were instilled into her from her childhood, being raised on an Indigenous reserve where her father was a minister and her mother was a nurse. “The more I think about my parents, the more I understand why I approach this ancient spiritual tradition from a different place,” she says. “The commitment of my parents was to the public good. My earliest intentions of the spiritual tradition didn’t come from Sunday School, but came from being raised in the home of Walter and Gay Donovan, à la Rotary model of service above self.” She initially felt the appropriate direction to serve would be through studying political science, but that did not ignite the deep passion for service and her vision of a healthier world. She then ventured into social work before studying theology at McGill, and was in charge of a church and congregation for 12 years in Châteauguay, Quebec. She came to St. Andrew’s in Picton in 2007 with a mandate and a vision for change. “I had a very good conversation with the congregation here, and I said if you would like me to help you be imaginative and help you consider new ways of reaching out to your community and being a good neighbour in your community and looking at the core values coming from the Gospel, which is love of neighbour and hospitality and inclusivity, I can come and help you do that.”

Reverend Lynne Donovan with a model of the proposed changes to revitalize the interior space of St. Andrew’s Church, using light and colour to provide a deep sense of spirituality.

Together, Rev. Donovan and the congregation established Ten Thousand Villages; they transformed the sanctuary by taking out the pews and making the church a much more flexible and welcoming space; they created the Reaching for Rainbows program to change the life trajectory of vulnerable young girls; they engaged the community in conversations about the human condition; they made the space available to other spiritual users. Despite all of this progress, it became clear to Rev. Donovan that the congregation was in decline, and a new approach was needed to revitalize the role of the church, or more precisely, the role of the building in the community. “I thought to myself that we’ve worked so hard, so what might be left for us to do? I suggested to the congregation that we needed to find somebody who would help us transform the sanctuary so that it would become a 21st century sacred space, bigger than the Christian tradition, but a home for all those who want to connect with the glory of God and whatever way that might be manifested.” Last year, she invited Doreen Balabanof—an architect, stained glass artist and teacher at OCAD—to come and meet with the congregation and determine how to move towards a more open and welcoming space. One consistent vision was to connect the sanctuary with the open spaces of earth and sky. Over the next few months a design for a transformation of the existing church building took place. The current stained glass windows would be replaced by panels of translucent coloured glass, with coloured glass skylights in the ceiling. The interior of the building would now be awash in light that would be dynamically changing depending on the season and time of day, bringing with it a manifestation of outside world.

In the interim, though, the COVID pandemic hit, and the outside church space has taken on a greater importance. The labyrinth space has seen more use, and there is now a firepit so that fellowship can be enjoyed outside on cooler days. There will be new outdoor lighting installed as well, which Rev. Donovan says will be projected on the tall pines and be reminiscent of the northern lights, providing another link between nature and spirituality. The Reaching for Rainbows program is on hold until September 2021, when it will be reinstated, partially in person and partially online. In the meantime the church is seeking partners as it transitions to becoming more relevant as an institution in the 21st century. The proposed re-imagining of the interior space has won the approval of a large majority of the congregation, and the whole project follows the mandate of “curiosity, creativity and courage” that Rev. Donovan established when she arrived in 2007. All of the projects that she and the members have undertaken have had the aim of being more inclusive, embracing a wider meaning of spirituality in the community. Rev. Donovan frequently uses the metaphor of a table where there is a place for everyone. The revitalized sanctuary will be the equivalent of a larger table. “A sacred space now doesn’t mean just a Christian sacred space, but a bit larger understanding. What takes place in a sacred space—beauty, music, dance, theatre—these activities are for a larger purpose of healing and restoring us to one another and also restoring us to the world in which we live. So how can this sacred space we have at St. Andrew’s be a centre for sacred activity that will make our entire community healthier.”