Keltie:
Last spring a voice called in the wilderness, “Help   Liz is leaving and we have to call a new minister ”  Seeing as Whitehorse and Yellowknife are practically neighbours, or so the southerners think,     

I was asked to help this church in the wilderness first with their joint needs assessment and then with the big search for a new minister.  

Soon I was hearing a collection of voices over the phone as through the wonder of conference calls,
    I discussed with members of the Yellowknife committees how to best describe this church and the larger community.  

From there we moved on to the call process, a true exercise in listening for God's voice.  
Right from the start, a number of voices kept saying the same name.
     “I hear Peter Chynoweth in Jasper might be looking for a change,” came a voice from Conference office.  “You might contact Peter Chynoweth,” came another from our Presbytery.
      “But we want Peter in Fairview ” wailed yet another presbytery voice.  

For the search committee, our biggest challenge was making sure that we listened for God's voice among all these other voices.  

    Yes, Peter sounded like the perfect candidate, but we knew we had to keep our ears open for God's voice and not jump to our own conclusions.

Peter:
    Not long after Northern Lights Presbytery heard a call, I received one too! The phone rang. That’s more what it’s like to receive a call anyway. It was Liz Richards, telling me that she would be leaving Yellowknife at the end of June, and she thought I might like to know. Now those of you that know Liz would not equate her voice with one that has the power to knock down mighty cedars or thunder across the waters, but it did translate into a kind of distant rumbling, not because of Liz, but because it what might mean for us. I have to admit, my first thought was, “Oh, I never thought about Yellowknife. Whitehorse, maybe, but not Yellowknife!” My second thought was, “How hard is Sharon going to laugh, when I mention the phone call to her?” Well, Sharon didn’t laugh at all! Surprisingly after a few days, she said she was willing to think about it. And so was I. But that’s about as far as it went for us. Something to think about - nothing much more than that.

Keltie
The call of the North is strong, I'm sure most of you know that.  When those of us who live in the North read Psalm 29, we know exactly what it means to hear God's voice in the mountains and trees and rivers.  
But ministry in the north has its challenges.  

It's not easy being the only United Church for a thousand kilometers.  It's not easy having your closest colleague even further away, as is often the case for ministers in Yellowknife and Whitehorse.  

As many of you know, it's not easy having family so far away and it costing so much to see them.

Peter:    
All of that and more were the things that went through our minds as we considered where God was calling us. Jasper has mountains, and rivers and for many people in Southern Alberta or along that strip of land 200 km north of the 49th parallel from the eastern coast to the western coast (you see already I’m aware that there is a pretty important coast that often gets left out!) which holds most of Canada’s population, Jasper was already in the north. Mountain people love the land and that’s what we were - mountain people. When people in Yellowknife ask us where we came from, you can see the look that asks the same question that was going through our minds at least some of the time. Oh yes, and some of our friends in Jasper, asked it too. And you want to leave Jasper because? The call of the north is not necessarily God’s call. The call of the mountains is not necessarily God’s call. And God does not call us to places of ease and contentment, although it could be like that. The psalmist ended with these words today: You give strength to your people, O God. Now give to your people the blessing of peace. There’s a kind of encouragement there - you will get what you need from God, and being at peace with the result is what the psalmist asks for. The decision by us to come to Yellowknife was not the easy one that it seems now - it was a difficult decision at the time. The call of the north was strong - but so was the call of the mountains. I know, some of you are thinking Whitehorse again! North and Mountains! The call of God is not always the definite “yes” we are looking for. It means weighing things like family time and trips and what we want to do with what God wants us to do and whether God is calling us out of our ease and contentment to something that puts us on an edge - a growing one we hope. And while the way seems very clear now, at the time it was not clear. I’m sure many of you can do the same with important decisions in your life - remember the turmoil of being in the midst of a decision and then look back and see that the way is much clearer in retrospect than it was when everything was whirling all around you.

Keltie
Despite the challenges, the rewards of northern ministry, of being the church in the north, are many.  In the north we have a deep sense of community.  
    Church becomes family because so few people have biological family nearby.  

In our baptism service at Whitehorse United, after the baptism I take the child around the sanctuary and introduce him/her to the new family,
    saying how all those people are his/her new cousins, grandparents, aunts, uncles etc.  

In the north that isn’t just pretty imagery, seniors do become like grandparents to the children, children do seem to “belong” to the whole congregation.  
    A covenanting service reminds us of that sense of family and brings the new minister into it.

Mark 1 has God using the words “beloved” and “well-pleased” in reference to Jesus.   Those words can be applied to us too.  A covenant service is a moment to be pleased, to be joyful.  

Churches can be awfully hard on themselves, always feeling they should be doing more, giving more, being more.  

A covenant service is a time to recognize all that is good, all the things about this congregation that made this minister want to be with you.  
    In turn, it’s a moment to recognize in you, Peter, all the things about you that made this congregation want to call you.
    
Peter
The attractiveness of this congregation was never an issue. This community (Yellowknife and Yellowknife United Church) as described in the Joint Needs Assessment and made real by the visit and conversations with the people here were extremely attractive not only by the obvious energy, enthusiasm and commitment, but by the possibilities that those characteristics presented for me in ministry. And yes, the way does seem a whole lot clearer now in retrospect than it did when I answered the phone in my Jasper church office almost a year ago now. But this isn’t about how attractive we are to each other - and it’s not about the journey we took to get here - as interesting and helpful as that can be - it’s really about the journey we have ahead of us - together - in ministry. I thank you for the opportunity to make that journey with you. We began today by singing - In Loving Partnership and in a moment we will sing - We Have this Ministry. We, have this ministry in partnership. Amen.