Like it says in the book of Ecclesiastes, “There is a time for everything and a season for every activity … A time to plant and time to uproot … a time to tear down and a time to build.” There is also a time to take on new challenges and a time to pass on responsibilities to someone else.
These musings by King Solomon, written several thousand years ago, were especially poignant this weekend in Shawville, as one couple stepped down from leading their congregation and another stepped up to take their place.
Pastor Eldon Craig and his wife Frances have served at New Hope Christian Fellowship for the past nine years. They also led the congregation from 1961 to 1967 and over the years their work has taken them from Egypt to Pembroke and back again.

Eldon hails from North Gower and attended Bible college in Brockville, Ont. A few years out of school, he met Frances and the pair has been going strong ever since.
“He was younger than I was,” Frances said.
“She had to wait for me to grow up, I guess,” Eldon added with a chuckle.
The pair led churches all over the Ottawa Valley for over 50 years. They also spent some time as missionaries in Egypt, but had to leave due to civil unrest in the country.
“Frances has been a tremendous asset to the ministry,” Eldon said proudly, citing her skill as an organist and training as a teacher.
The pair returned to Shawville nine years ago to New Hope Christian Fellowship and grew the congregation steadily. On Saturday, parishoners held a retirement dinner in their honour at the Anglican Church Hall.
Dr. Tim and Rachel Perry will be the new couple stepping up to the plate, er, pulpit, and they will be splitting duties as co-pastors. On Sunday morning, they were installed in a service presided over by Dr. Peter Rigby, the Wesleyan church’s district superintendent.
Rigby’s sermon was on the challenge and opportunity of unity and he started with a sports metaphor.
“New Hope is coming off a strong season,” he said, referring to the work done by the Craigs. “What does a better season look like?”
After the service, Tim explained how he and Rachel came to lead a Wesleyan church in Shawville after serving as an Anglican priest in Sudbury.
“This is the church I grew up in. I moved away when I was 18, so I’ve been gone for 30 years and we’ve been back for a little over a year now,” he said, adding that the circumstances of his return to the Pontiac were less than stellar.
“That’s a long story,” he said. “The immediate catalyst was my dad [Ellard Perry] being diagnosed with stage four cancer. When that happened, our contract was up in Sudbury, so we came to the conclusion that we should be moving home. So we did.”
Rachel, who had served as an assistant chaplain at Thorneloe University, got a job running the youth ministry at New Hope, while Tim worked as a substitute teacher at Pontiac High School and helped out at the United Churches in Quyon and Beachburg. Rachel’s position included a parsonage in town, which they said helped smooth the transition.
“I came on staff in August of 2016,” she explained. “My role will stay largely the same, but we’re now known as co-pastors.”
“Preaching is fairly new to me, but I’ve done more in the last year than I have before,” she continued. “It’s exciting and terrifying. For me, this is my first official position with the church. I’ve done lay ministry and I worked as a chaplain when we were in Sudbury but it’s very exciting for me to be in church ministry.”
Rachel is currently working on her Masters of Divinity (MDiv.) at Wycliffe College in Toronto while Tim has a MDiv. from Tyndale Seminary in Toronto as well as a PhD from Durham University.
Tim said that leading a congregation together will be somewhat of a natural progression from the current arrangement.
“We’re still figuring that out,” he said. “In terms of the actual running of the programs, we have pretty clear areas of responsibility. Rachel focuses on youth and family-related ministry, my focus is more on the preaching. With Eldon to look after the visiting, those areas kind of run themselves and we both have a clear sense of what our responsibilities are.”
“Our biggest challenge so far is communicating bits of information that one of us has received and not the other and that’s challenging,” Rachel added. “You’re always seeing each other but you don’t always think of it at the time.”
Tim added that they will still be able to rely upon the Craigs’ guidance as they take over the leadership.
“I think that we’ve made a good start here,” he said. “Eldon has been a real pillar in the church and in the wider community. He has grown the church and solidified it a lot and left us a good foundation from which to build.”
The Craigs said they would still be active in the church, and Eldon said he would appreciate the break from his pastoral responsibilities.
“We’re excited as can be,” he said. “We’re still going to be connected.”
“We can get up on Sunday morning and sit where we like,” Frances added with a smile.
The Perrys were excited to start this new time in their lives, especially with such knowledgeable mentors as the Craigs.
“We’re really glad to have them here,” Tim said. “We feel very lucky to have them as part of our congregation.”