Tämän vuoden Suomi-Konferenssi, Kanadan suomalaisten seurakuntien yhteinen tapaaminen, järjestettiin Sudburyssä, Ontariossa. Pastori Matthewin lisäksi matkaan oli Montrealista lähdössä seitsemän hengen joukkue yhteisellä autokyydillä. Valitettavasti Mirkku ja Rauha joutuivat viime hetkillä jäämään kotiin, joten matkalle pääsivät lopulta Eeva-Liisa, Ismo, Riitta, Helen ja Ilona kuskina. Sudburyssä tapasimme tuttuja ja tuntemattomia seurakuntalaisia Vancouverista, Thunder Baysta, Sault-Saint-Marysta, Torontosta, South-Porcupinestä ja tietysti Sudburyn kahdesta, nykyisin yhdistetystä seurakunnasta. Kirkkohallituksen alaisen Kirkon ulkosuomalaistyön uusi johtaja Mauri Vihko Suomesta viihtyi koko
A photo of seventeen “Finnish” Pastors, and what this photo tells us about the future of the Suomi Conference… Look at this photo of the “Finnish pastors” at this year’s May 2018 Suomi Conference in Sudbury Ontario. Seventeen smiling faces. Seventeen pastors who, for the most part, like each other, share jokes, help each other out, support each other, and share an eagerness to be the best leaders they can be, helping faith to grow, in a renewed, vital Finnish-Canadian church. But as they say, a picture tells a thousand words. And this picture, taken in the closing minutes of the Suomi Conference 2018, says a lot about what the Canadian Finnish church is, and what it might become. 17-6= 11
When you’re the pastor to Finns, watch what you wish for…you just might get it! Back in February, I suggested to the confirmation youth and to their parents that we take a spring hike. Living, as I do, close to the sidewalks and cafés of Montreal, I forget that the end of April is still winter in most of Canada. I imagined a nice ramble through Quebec’s trees, a bit wet with thaw perhaps, and lacking some colour since the leaves wouldn’t be out yet, but otherwise a pleasant stroll. I was surprised. As I often am in activities with the Finns! One of the parents, Mari Sulkala, found our group a wonderful log cabin style building in the Laurentian mountains near Rawdon QC. There was even a saun
