I was gone part of this past week to a conference in Toronto. It was good to go to it and good to be back. I think I was the only U.S. citizen at it and it caused a little confusion. Several people read my name tag and said: “‘Rochester, MN’, is that Manitoba?” It is not bad to be an honorary citizen of Manitoba, but better, to me, to be from Minnesota. My favorite moment in coming into the Rochester airport in summer is that the plane is so low you can see the corn and check how its doing. But it never ceases to thrill me to look down at the landscape from way up high. Everything is green hills and farms. You have a sense of things being good.
The conference was called: “More Franchises: A Second Cup”. This is an unusual name. I think it is based on a comment that the United Church of Canada has more franchises (congregations) than the big national chain of coffee shops called Tim Hortons has stores. And there are a lot of coffee shops. There is another chain called Second Cup. This is also the follow-up to a previous time the conference was held. That name has a warm down-to-earth feel, like, “Please, stay for a second cup”. In Canada, as in the rest of the world, time with people is important and often that takes place over a beverage. Significant discussions can take place.
At these conferences I hear some new ideas and have some of my own. So I came back and wanted to start a conversation with you all, kind of like a chat at the coffee shop. And this is the question I think would be good to discuss: We have good things in the Parish. What are they? I would like to know what you think.
This is the photo I forgot to add to my previous post, the Toronto skyline at night:
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