2026 Report of the Maritime Area

Maritime Area of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) Society [Maritime Disciples Board]

Greetings of Peace to All‒All of God’s Children in the Name of Jesus, Our Lord and Saviour:

We pray that those gathered at the All-Canada Convention and annual general meeting of our national church will have good fellowship, inspiring worship, much learning and relationship building, and safe travels!

In the Maritime Provinces, we celebrated our 173rd annual convention or meeting this past April. We have three active congregations in West Gore, Milton, and Summerville, Nova Scotia, along with ministry on Prince Edward Island (Rev. Scott MacIsaac) and strong and existing individual connections in the Halifax/Dartmouth area. We have also inherited a valuable camping ministry at Johnston Christian Park (J.C.P.), shared with many volunteers from within and without the Disciples of Christ movement in the Digby area. We are so thankful for the financial support of our churches, individual supporters, and the Church of Christ Development Company for helping undergird our ministry with young people at J.C.P.

We continue to ask ourselves what we must do with the Good News of Jesus Christ in our region of Canada (Newfoundland and Labrador included) and how is God calling us to act together and share at this time and place in our history in God’s mission of hope, justice, love, and peace.

Our current leadership team includes Debbie Thibault (Vice-President), Sharon McKenzie (Secretary), Shirley Francis (Treasurer), Deborah Stewart (Past-President), and me as our president. We were also blessed with the help of longstanding directors, trustees, and committee members over the past year: Elizabeth Nickerson, Robert Howell (retired), Patricia Howell (retired), Debbie Weatherhead, Janet Fountain, Wendy Kinney (camp), Scott MacIsaac, Gerald Clarke, Diane Poole (Disciplefest 2026), Ardis Bond, Mary Dahr, Jill McNeil (Disciplefest 2025), Benjamin Orme (NSCYF president), Kenton Sefcik, Ada Frank, and Dean Sherman (JCP camp cook extraordinaire)!

The Maritime Disciples Board has been trying to stabilize its leadership and attend to the most important parts of our ministry and calling over the past year, especially the work of Johnston Christian Park. We were pleased to have 126 children and youth participate in our camping programs this July with the help of approximately 40 volunteers, both young and old. Our campers this summer learned about their relationship with God and about navigating the world around us with an eye to peace, mercy, love, and grace. Wendy Kinney directed our Counsellor-in-Training program, and six youth were challenged to practice camp counsellor skills and grow their faith. We were very pleased to have Samatha Gilby direct our Beginner Camp for 7-8 year olds, Sarah Thibodeau oversee our Junior Camp for 9-10 year olds, Hannah Allbright lead our Intermediate Camp for 11-12 year olds, and Elizabeth White direct our Chi-Rho Camp for ages 13-14. Plans are underway for a Nova Scotia Christian Youth Fellowship (NSCYF) event late this summer/fall for 15-19 year olds. We were delighted with two baptisms at JCP this summer, and two other campers expressed interest in being baptized later this summer or next year.

This year, we offered our hearty and genuine thanks and thanksgiving from God for the hard work of two servants of Jesus Christ, Bob and Pat Howell, as they retired from their roles as Camp Chairperson and Board and Camp Treasurer after many years of volunteer service. We are humbled by their contributions, and we continue to thank them as faithful servants.

Our Maritime Christian Women’s Fellowship (CWF/Disciples Women) group remains active. The group organized a camp of twenty or so women at Johnston Christian Park this past June and a rally in the fall. We continue to uphold and thank our women for their faithful superintendence of the Lord’s work and of their prayers and financial support! We thank Dean Sherman for completing her recent two-year leadership as President of the Maritime CWF and to Debbie Weatherhead who begins as President until 2028. Thanks also to the other members of the Maritime CWF executive: Vonna Walker as Secretary and Pat Howell as Treasurer.

Our Nova Scotia Christian Youth Fellowship was able to participate in three main events over this past year, a summer fun weekend at JCP with nine youth and eight leaders (“Road Trip with Jesus”), a corn maze visit in cooperation with a Christian youth group from the Digby Neck and Islands area (“Oasis”, led by Angela Love and Pastor Kelly Tidd) in September (17 youth and 8 adults), and attend with a group of eleven youth and young adults at the One Conference in Moncton, New Brunswick (a large youth event organized by Baptists and Wesleyans in Atlantic Canada).

We also celebrate several successes this past year as a family of God:

· Pastor Mike Poworoznyk who served West Gore Disciple Church over the past few years until recently graduated this spring with his Master of Divinity, and we are delighted to offer him warm congratulations! He is currently serving as the lead pastor at Halifax Metro Vineyard, based in Lower Sackville, Nova Scotia.

· Pastor Debbie Thibault was commissioned and licensed at Summerville Christian Church in April. Congratulations, Debbie! Debbie currently assists with ministry at Summerville and Milton as she is able, is guest preaching at local United Churches and in other locations, served as the worship leader at Johnston Christian Park this summer for 13-14 year olds, and leads a grief ministry based at Liverpool Baptist Church and Milton Christian Church.

· Rev. Dr. Darlene Brewer continues to keep connections with our congregations and ministries and is currently serving a United Church charge in the Truro area of Nova Scotia. Prayers for your ministry with us and others, Darlene!

· Pastor Kenton Sefcik has joined the folks at West Gore Disciple Church while a student at Acadia Divinity College and a professional in private practice. We are delighted to have Kenton in our church family and serving in the historic West Gore pastorate! Congratulations, Kenton!

· We hope that God will allow us to strengthen our connections with Rev. Dr. Marjorie Lewis who serves as the University Chaplain at Acadia University, Wolfville, and who has strong connections with the former Disciple of Christ group in Jamaica and the United Church of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands. Prayers for your ongoing and loving ministry at Acadia, Marjorie!

Here are a couple of highlights from each of our active congregations and participating ministries this past year:

· West Gore Disciple Church - Mike Poworoznyk completed a successful ministry with West Gore last September (Thank you, Mike). Kenton Sefcik was hired as their new pastor and commissioned in June of this year. West Gore’s C.W.F. raised important money for the church and gave $500 to help Kathy Lucking and the Madagascar School Mission. They continue to host an important “Meals to Go” ministry and self-service food cupboard. The church will host their Annual Outdoor Ecumenical Worship Service on August 30, 2026, at 11:00 am with a light lunch to follow. Kenton will be the speaker. If you are in the area, please join them!

· Milton Christian Church - Milton raised important funds over the past year to help in several situations, including a growing need for benevolent help and food in the community and to help a five-year old boy and his family go to Sick Kids Hospital in Toronto for a major surgery. They held a VBS/Day Camp in Milton last month, and they were pleased to support Pastor Debbie Thibault in her commissioning and in her grief ministry. Rev. Dr. Wayne Smith, Rev. Carole Smith, and Pastor Debbie Thibault led worship services and pastoral care while Russell was on his Sabbatical last fall. They sponsored two children to attend JCP camp this summer.

· Summerville Christian Church - This congregation was able with God’s provision and the help of others to put a new roof on its building and begin to make preparations to repair its aging floor in the Vestry. They sponsored and hosted the commissioning service for Pastor Debbie Thibault this spring, and they sponsored three children to attend J.C.P. camp this summer. They plan to support Cathie Dexter of Maryland and Summerville Centre in a short-ministry to reach out to the Herring Fishing fleet at Port Mouton this fall.

· Prince Edward Island ‒ Rev. Scott MacIsaac has been active in ministry this past year. He resides in Charlottetown. Among other things, Scott acts as the Chaplain of the Charlottetown Police Force and is the pastor of Christ Church, Anglican parish in Cherry Valley, PEI. He has also encouraged an ongoing ministry at Geneva Villa, a senior’s home in Charlottetown. He is involved in restorative ministries, as well.

We were saddened by the death of long-time leader, Rev. Neil J. Bergman in the middle of July. Neil acted as a pastor or interim pastor of most of our churches in Nova Scotia at one time or another, as our longest serving Area Minister over the years, as a promoter and builder of ecumenical relationships nationally and regionally, and as a strong friend to all in our movement. We thank God for his service and are keeping his family and friends in prayer!

We continue to work on the need for more institutional chaplaincy and community chaplaincy in hospitals and institutions, and we work hard to keep our shared ecumenical relationships with Maritime Baptists (Canadian Baptists of Atlantic Canada), the United Church of Canada, our neighbouring Restoration and Campbell-Stone congregations in Atlantic Canada, and others whom God allows us to create connections with on this of the East Coast.

On a personal note, I wanted to thank Milton, Summerville, and the Maritime Area for allowing me to take a Sabbatical in the later part of 2025. I delighted to visit a week with Rev. Bob Shebeck and his then congregation as a pastor at the United Protestant Church of the Annunciation in Paris, and to get some schoolwork and personal things completed. Thanks to my congregations and the Maritime Area for supporting me and allowing me the time.

I am dreaming about another mission trip to Newfoundland (Mercy Christian Church, an independent Christian congregation) and Saint-Pierre and Miquelon in 2027. Debbie Stewart and I led a similar trip of young people to these two places in 2022 as part of a Covid-time National Youth Encounter. I am giving warning that I will be in touch to see how several of you might participate in or support this effort, should God allow it to unfold and happen!

Please keep our people and congregations in your prayers, as we attempt to keep each of our sister Canadian congregations (former and present) and our national leadership team (Jean-Daniel, Zuzanna, and Awit) in our prayers and hearts.

May God grant us boldness and forgiveness as we seek to follow Jesus in Atlantic Canada and beyond. We pray for the Holy Spirit’s guidance for ourselves and for our General Church units, our national church, and on our sister congregations across Canada and the United States. Salutations à tous nos fidèles et à toutes nos églises du Québec.

Yours very truly,
Russell Prime, President