Minister & Staff

Minister

I recently attended a national United Church gathering during which I was reminded of the importance, in community building, of sharing the stories of our lives. With this in mind, I am looking forward to meeting all of you and over time hearing your stories as individuals and as a community of faith. You will also hear many of the stories of my life and we will get to know one another as we begin a journey of faith in ministry together. For now I’ll introduce myself so that you will have a sense of who I am when we meet in person at the beginning of August.

I am a lifetime member of the United Church of Canada having been baptized as an infant and nurtured in several United Church congregations over the years. During my adult years I served in various ways as a lay person and then answered a call to ordered ministry with the sponsorship and support of Duncan United Church in 1995. I completed a five year course of theological studies with the United Church’s Centre for Christian Studies and was commissioned as a Diaconal Minister in the spring of 2000. During the past eleven years I have served in congregational ministry at Nelson United Church with reverend David Boyd.

When I began my theological education, with the Centre For Christian Studies I felt as if I had “come home” theologically and ideologically. The educational ethos of collaboration, collegiality and mutuality, combined the liberating theological perspectives was a rich environment in which to learn and grow personally and theologically. The integrated experiential and academic “Learning in Community” components; Congregational Field Placement (Duncan United Church); Social Ministry Field Placement (Nanaimo Correctional Centre – prison chaplaincy and Loaves and Fishes outreach ministry); and Global Perspectives Education (Guatemala and Costa Rica) were invaluable personal and educational experiences that continue to influence and inform my perspectives as a person-in-ministry.

Another aspect  of my life that has a significant influence on my approach to ministry is my experience as a wife, mother and grandmother. My husband, Jody, is a wonderful person who is very supportive of my call to ministry. we have two adult daughters, Lisa and Heather, and three grandchildren: Kaleb-7 yrs, Anika-5 yrs, and Isobel-1 yr.

I anticipate, with great enthusiasm, meeting all of you and serving in ministry with you.  In this time of transition and change, I pray that God’s presence and guidance will be a blessing to you as we meet and grow together as people of faith.

With warmest thoughts and prayers,

Christine.

 

 

Church Secretary

The church secretary is Linda Johnson.  The secretary works two half days per week (generally Tuesday and Thursday morning), and will be happy to answer your questions.  Please leave a message if the secretary is not in when you call, and Linda will get back to you on her next work day.

Choir Director

Laurel Ralston is the choir director at Kimberley United.

 

My name is Laurel Ralston, and I’m a trumpet player. For better or worse, there is no 12-step treatment for that. I’m also the Kimberley United Church choir director, in the sense that I’m the one with my back to the congregation, flailing my arms, making strange faces only the choir can see (I hope), and trying to give the impression that I know what I’m doing, which much of the time I don’t.

I’ve been a musician for as long as I can remember, although I haven’t always thought of myself that way. My parents plunked me into piano lessons at the tender age of 8–Dad lobbied for violin, but Mom shouted him down–which I resisted until age 17, when I was finally allowed to quit. I took up the flute in grade 7 and got a sound out of it after only three months of trying. I took up the trumpet at the end of grade 11 on account of a crush I had on someone in the high school band trumpet section. I quickly developed a crush on the trumpet instead, and we’ve now been together for fifteen years.

I studied music at the University of Ottawa and spent three summer sessions at l’Academie de Musique et Danse Domaine Forget learning from some of the most renowned brass teachers in North America and being humbled by amazing students from around the world. After university I got a real job, but continued to go to concerts at every opportunity and started freelancing on trumpet and flute. At some point along the way I recognized the value of all those years of piano lessons. Please don’t tell my mother. Now, as well as conducting the United Church choir, I play principal trumpet with the Symphony of the Kootenays and conduct the Kimberley Community Band. I also have a Master’s degree in Philosophy, which authorizes me to talk in long and convoluted sentences (the choir loves that!).

Accompanist

Terry Macham is musical accompanist at Kimberley United.

Terry has been banging away on the piano since the age of 6. As a teenager, he took up both guitar and alto saxophone subsequently forming a Rock and Roll band with a few friends. “We didn’t make any money at it but met a lot of girls.” Around the same time he was recruited to play saxophone in a small “old time” dance band. They played every second Friday evening at a local community hall (Vancouver Island) for which he was paid $20 a night. Big money in 1960. Although he didn’t much care for the Lawerence Welk musical genre of polkas, schotisches and waltzes, Terry learned at a tender age the meaning of that old cliche, “he who pays the piper, calls the tune.”

Although he has not blown his Alto Sax for a number of years now, Terry has not totally abandoned wind instruments having taken up the Celtic Tin Whistle which he describes as “a primitive but infernally dfficult instrument to master.” Not quite ready for public performance yet but getting close. He has also been known to privately plunk on the banjo and more recently the Mountain Dulcimer. He also has been caught pounding the Djembe although strictly speaking a drum is not a musical instrument. Although he enjoys playing other instruments, Terry is most comfortable behind the keyboard. “It’s always good to have something large between you and the audience.”

Terry, for a number of years was supply organist as well as junior choir accompanist for Langley United Church and after moving to Kimberley in 1996 he substituted for long time organist Mary Vohratsky until her retirement a few years ago. For many years he was also Music Director and accompanist for Kimberley Summer Theatre writing much of the musical material for a number of theatrical productions. He has written and directed a musical adaptation of Charles Dicken’s “A Christmas Carol” which has since been produced on three separate occasions; in 1998, in 2002 and most recently in 2008. He also was Music Director for Cranbrook’s Bard In Your Own Backyard 2010 production of Romeo and Juliette, composing original renaissance dance music and a Gregrorian style chant for that show.

Terry has also written a number of sacred choral works some of which are performed from time-to-time at Kimberley United Church.

He often chooses to play his own compositions for prelude and other incidental worship music.

Terry continues composing music as both time and the spirit permits.