Conference—“More Franchises: A Second Cup”

This past weekend I attended the United Church of Canada conference in Toronto, “More Franchises: A Second Cup”. It was a good conference. I believe the name is a play on words. The local version of the big coffee shop chain, like Starbucks here, is Tim Hortons, with many stores, and I think there was an earlier conference with the idea that the United Church has more franchises than Tim Hortons. This now is a situation that they are wrestling with—many declining churches, often with multiple locations in a town. This was the second go-around for the conference and Hortons also has a chain called “Second Cup”. I left Rochester on June 16. I like flying out of Rochester. It is usually pretty simple. This time, my flight was delayed. There was no explanation. I started to worry and wonder what the cause was. But that doesn’t really get me anywhere. The need is just to wait. And if there is a cancellation, then it is time to deal with it. There was some anger among the waiting passengers. When things go wrong we look for people to blame, even if the blame doesn’t make sense. Especially for those things that “ought” to always be there for us. I think there is a little lesson there for those frustrated with the decline of churches. In the end American Airlines did OK. I got to Chicago and made my connection with a couple minutes to spare and flew to Toronto. I found the bus “The Airport Rocket”, then the subway (I like to travel on the cheap), and got settled in my room. I took a picture from my window. More on the trip to follow.