Charitable Status and More News Updates
We’re hoping that Spring is in full bloom wherever you are in Canada and that you’re still basking in the resurrection glow.
We’ve continued to assemble this beautiful new association in our post-denominational reality, and regularly pray for each of the names on this list. We’re grateful for you.
We are sharing a few updates and some good news!
Charitable Status Update
Will you celebrate with us today? The Good Table has officially received charitable status! Sooner than we thought and without a need for revisions! Thank you so much to all who supported us financially and prayed for us during this process. This wouldn’t have been possible without your support!
This means a few things:
We can offer you receipts for your charitable donations! Right now, our immediate budget needs are paying for the remainder of our lawyer's bill, day-to-day operating costs for the website, email, and CRM, and one day of admin and organizing work.
Giving Options. Currently, we have two ways of giving:- Direct Giving (Our preferred method): Use the form on our website to donate directly to us by credit card. This option ensures that more of your gift reaches us. Eligible donors will receive a single, consolidated tax receipt at the end of the year. You can send an e-transfer to giving@thegoodtable.ca. We are also signed up for giving through Canada Helps: If you’d prefer to receive a tax receipt sooner, you can give via Canada Helps. Receipts will be issued immediately by Canada Helps.
Having charitable status means that we can officially apply to begin the process of obtaining our ability to offer marriage licenses in provinces across Canada. We'll share more as we learn more!
Working Groups
We’re so excited that working groups have started again. Both the Governance and Theology groups are meeting!
The Governance Group consists of a pastor or representatives from almost all of the churches that have been travelling with The Good Table so far. They have discerned that the work before them is twofold - to explore the spirit of membership & propose structures that support but do not substitute for this spirit.
The Theology Group consists of pastors, ministry leaders, seminary professors and academics from across Canada. This group has diversity of theological backgrounds, locations, ethnicities and sexualities. This group has discerned the work before them is threefold: to provide increased clarity to the beautiful collective theological positions of The Good Table that were previously created, consider what, if any, is the process for minimal alignment necessary for incoming communities and pastors; and begin to reimagine about the educational processes we want to champion at The Good Table.
Reimagining Ordination: The next working group that is being formed is around reimagining ordination, and what that might look like in our context, not just for incoming leaders and churches for the next generation. If you are interested in adding your gifts and wisdom to this conversation please reach out: elle@thegoodtable.ca.
If there is a working group that you're dreaming of and sense could use some collaboration let's talk.
Continued Conversations
We’ve continued meeting with pastors, ministry leaders, chaplains, seminary professors, etc., from Newfoundland to British Columbia, bearing witness to their disaffiliation stories and listening to their hopes and dreams. While there is grief and difficulty for those in the middle of a living process, there is also synergy and hope in continuing to take steps towards affiliating together across tradition and province. Elle regularly speaks to interested individuals, pastors, church boards, and churches. If this would be of value to you reach out to elle@thegoodtable.ca.
Local Connections
Whether open skies and flat lands, ocean and coast, mountains or escarpments — our watersheds, neighbourhoods and those relationships we find there, will nourish and unite us as The Good Table. We all want to be seen and known. We want our belonging to be radically place-based while freely offering local wisdom and nourishment to the broader national community. We see this as weaving together webs of mutual relationships, belonging, shared resources, prayer, collective action and contextual discernment. This is the good way we want to follow from the start.
We are hosting an event in Victoria, British Columbia in June and in Ontario this Fall!
Victoria One Day Event
If you or someone you know is in proximity to Victoria, British Columbia we would love for you to join us for our next one day event. We will be gathering together with like-minded pastors ministry leaders, and churches. If you were interested in hearing more about The Good Table or connecting with some of the people that are calling this community home join us. Please register and let us know you are coming.
Ontario Two Day Gathering
We want to follow this momentum and desire to gather, build friendships, flourish together, and nurture our collective desire to follow and lead in the Jesus Way. We are currently working on the details for a two day gathering in Ontario this Fall. Look for more details as soon as we know more.
Good Table Hubs
We are always searching for regional leaders who would be willing to host regular conversations and friendship-building opportunities, specifically in:
Vancouver
Surrey/Abbotsford
Calgary
Halifax
If you or someone you know would be interested in helping organize in these cities, or in a city not on this list, please reply to this email and let us know.
Adding Your Church To The Website
While the wider collective, through the Governance Working Group, is co-creating the beginning criteria and imagination for formal affiliation, we want to continue to offer a public list of pre-affiliated churches. This list will help us find one another and others who are looking for a church that aligns with The Good Table’s values. It will also be an exciting sign that something is happening!
If your church or group is ready to say, “We want to be on this map!” then fill out the form so we can get you included.
How Can We Help?
Know that our prayers are with you. You're more than just a name to us; we often reflect on your stories, communities, and ministries with gratitude. It’s an honour to be on this journey together, sensing God’s presence with all of us!
Is there some way that the collective group that is gathering around this table can help you, your church, or your organization? Is there a need we're not addressing that would be helpful? We want to hold this new association open-handed as we collectively discern our next steps, so please don't hesitate to reach out if there is something you sense we could be doing together.
Thank you for tracking with us and supporting this team working to lift this off the ground.
If you have any questions, would like to connect with someone or would value prayer or support, please don’t hesitate to let us know!
With love, grace and peace,
Elle and the Board of The Good Table
