Rejoice! Sanctuary Café is now open starting at 7 am. This is a big milestone for the café, as it allows the morning commuters the opportunity to experience the café before they arrive at work, and establishes us as a coffee destination. The café is also currently testing out daily specials pertaining to the days of the week! An example of this is “Mocha Monday”, when mochas are on sale. Having these specials on during the week while also opening earlier will garner more external interest and business.
Better know our barista!
Get to know Jenn Young further.
Jenn has always been invested in coffee, but has committed herself extensively to the career of coffee making three years ago. Previously working in corporate Vancouver (as well as stints in Japan and London!), she decided to move to Calgary to be closer to family and to allow God to lead her on a path that incorporated social good fully into her professional life. One of Jenn’s life goals is to give her full self into making the world brighter, while pursuing her love of coffee, teaching, and social enterprise. How delighted she was when she found our job listing at our Café!
Jenn was inspired to lead a life involving the creation and execution of social good through her experiences of volunteering in China. By working with babies with disabilities, she realized that her calling in life is to make the world brighter using her skills.
During the short time that she has been working at our café, Jenn has been inspired by the connections happening within our space; people of many backgrounds and varying stories in life have consistently been intermingling and creating community over a cup of coffee. These conversations tend to be vulnerable and honest in nature, yet cheerful and powerful. Through watching these interactions take place, Jenn firmly believes that our café is not only a sanctuary in name, but also a sanctuary in practice by creating a space for many walks of life to open up and connect with one another. Jenn is ecstatic to be a part of the Knox community!
Some other interesting facts about Jenn are:
She is proficient in three languages: Japanese, Korean, and of course, English, she has a love for travel, and has a deep love for architecture. Welcome!
This month, we've contracted Arcade to create a branding identity (name, logo, and colour scheme) for our coworking space. While Mike and his team at Arcade work on branding, we're selecting the first rooms for our coworking pilot, drafting a coworking membership agreement, and writing up terms and conditions. Once this work is completed, we can welcome our first members into our coworking community (we have a small waiting list). More updates coming soon.
Listening with respect
Toward Reconciliation and Right Relations
This week, we had our first Elders Circle meeting and things seemed to go very well. This meeting was with participants from the churches: 3 from Knox, 2 others from the United Church, 2 Lutherans, 2 Anglicans, 1 Unitarian, 2 Presbyterians, and 7 from the Roman Catholic diocese. We had mostly talked about protocols and respectful behavior, and got to know one another. The consultant who is organizing the project, Suzanne Dzus, also gave us a gentle introduction to some of the issues around colonization/reconciliation. We will begin to meet with the elders, who will be guiding this process, in October.
As far as we know, this process is unique in that it is funded by the churches but under the direction of the elders. In essence, we as church leaders have been invited to be taught by the elders for six day-long sessions. We are hoping for the following outcomes:
The beginning of trusting relationships between these church leaders and the elders, as a foundation for future work.
That we as church leaders can more clearly see our own colonialism, and that of our churches, and begin to outline steps to move our churches beyond colonialism towards a more faithful Christianity.
That we can, together with the elders, outline some future work towards reconciliation and right relations.
For us at Knox, obviously this fits in with Initiative 2 of the Next 1100 Days -- working to become a post-colonial church. To me, this is about finding a more faithful, lively, and transformative identity as a church, and is at the heart of the every-500-year reformation happening in the church right now. At this point I do not know what this journey with the elders will involve! But we will do our best to pass on what we learn, and engage the congregation of Knox in what promises to be an exciting and challenging journey.
Inspiring Visit
Shaun Loney, Author and Social Enterprise Guru
Shaun Loney popped by our café this week to get his take on our social enterprise. Shaun’s work around finding cheap, community focused solutions to social problems has been a huge inspiration for our N1100D vision, and it was an honour to have him swing by!We were happy to report that this expert was impressed by what we are doing here at Knox, and is eager to see what comes of our initiatives as outlined in our N1100D vision!
Shaun Loney is an Ashoka Fellow (first in Canadian Prairies) and Ernst and Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year (2014). He has cofounded and mentored 11 social enterprises including BUILD Inc (2011 Scotia Band EcoLiving Green Business of the Year and 2013 Manitoba Apprenticeship Employer of the Year). Shaun was Director of Energy Policy for the Government of Manitoba (2002-2008) and a political advisor to Gary Doer’s NDP (1997-2002). Shaun is also the author of An Army of Problem Solvers: Reconciliation and the Solutions Economy of which has over 6,000 copies sold.
As part of our Next 1100 Days vision, we’re launching new, emerging ministries as we sustain and shape existing ministries at Knox. That means reconfiguring how we use our space, how we design our budget, and how we define the roles and responsibilities of our ministers.
To provide more info on the changes underway and get your feedback, Knox is hosting a Town Hall on Sunday, October 14, after the 10:30AM service, to discuss how we anticipate Dave’s and Greg’s roles will be changing as we continue to carry out our vision. Your participation is important. Lunch will also be served! Thanks in advance for planning to be there!
Check out our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram feeds!
This month, Knox has garnered quite a bit of attention on our social media feeds! Jenn Herring, our strategic communications coordinator, has been promoting to our social media accounts and gathering analytics about recent happenings at the church: DoorsOpenYYC, and the benefit concert for the Inn From The Cold affordable childcare center at Knox. Jenn H has also been assisting Jenn Y with the naming and organization of promotions of the weekly cafe specials.
