— APPLE PIE MAKING —
An annual event which provides a place for everyone — working cooperatively and with purpose and good humour.

This is an example of our stewardship: fundraiser and fun-raiser; community and communication building; pastoral care; outreach into the community…

APPLE PIE becomes a metaphor for our community of faith at KUC

 What we need in the assembly of Stewardship:

DEEP DISH PAN — We need depth to hold plenty of good things.

BOTTOM CRUST — Firm foundation to build upon but also requires great flexibility; requires wisdom and knowledge passed on from generation to generation; mentoring and richness of taste and texture.

FILLING — Apples: peeling the tough outer surface to reveal the succulent inner fruits; Juiciness: nourishment of body and soul; Tartness and zing: reality in life — not everything is sweetness
Sugar: Sweetness (love)
Spices: Adds zip and zest to the mixture; Interesting flavours; definitely not bland.
(We have many active retired folk in our congregation who are often away travelling. People come and go and are active when present — always spicy but never exactly the same mixture.)

Put all these ingredients together and they represent a good mixture of love and comfort-food for body and soul:
Pastoral care offerings: home visits; potluck suppers etc. 
Outreach into the community: Community profile through advertizing and then people come to pick up their orders and see us having fun working together. (Eg. Eileen went to the local Home Hardware to pick up something we needed during our Apple Pie work-bee and came back with several more orders and added enthusiasm and energy.)

TOP CRUST — The top crust has holes to vent the steam when cooking; it’s good to have system for safe “venting” in a community of faith. Also, steam is symbolic of the mysterious movement of the Holy Spirit moving within the pie (community of faith) and then in an outward movement into the world. 

CRIMPING  together of the seams in a harmonious way — joining the foundational layer with the layer that is presented to the world. Crimping requires creativity to make a sealed seam that is decorative and beautiful but also highly functional.

Creating a great apple pie takes teamwork and cooperation; organization; laughter and good humour; patience and graciousness.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The result of this creative process is an apple pie which is good food… for the body and for the soul.

The sharing of these pies is done with gracious and welcoming hospitality that reaches out into the wider community.

This is an example of our community at it’s best: organized but not perfect (one year there was a miss-count of pies ordered and made. With good humour we had another smaller work-bee a couple of days later to make another 50 pies.
“Don’t sweat the small stuff”:
this could have caused a lot of grumbling and finger-pointing but it was handled with grace.
The mistake was recognized and we got on with responding proactively and positively rather than naming and blaming and getting stuck!

*   *   *   *   *   *   *