Hi: My name is Rev. Myles Wilson Vardy. I was born at Port aux Basques, NL on a cold February morning to parents Wilson and Frances Vardy, One of three children. I attended School at Port aux Basques graduating from St. James Regional High School 1974. Following graduation I went to work with the Canadian National Railways Car (train) repair shop at Port aux Basques and later Corner Brook NL. During my employment with the railway I successfully completed a welding (arc-gas) program at the District Vocational School at Port aux Basques.

In May of 1980 I experienced a "call" to ministry. I terminated my employment with the Railway, or Terra Transport it was called at that time, and commenced studies at Memorial University. I finished with a B.A. and an incomplete Education Degree in 1984. After working for a brief period in Quebec, I entered Theological Studies at Queen's Theological College at Kingston Ontario, graduating in the spring of 1989 with a Masters of Divinity degree.

After ordination at Cobourg, Ontario under the Bay of Quinte Conference 1989, I was settled at: first at Glovertown Newfoundland in the summer of 1989; Topsail United Church 1991, East District Institutional Chaplaincy 1997. In the fall of 2001 I was given opportunity to complete the courses to attain the conjoint degree program left unfinished. At spring convocation 2002 I received a Bachelor of Education Degree. In October 2002, I accepted a call to serve as minister at Cochrane Street United Church St. John's NL where I continue to serve.

Of all the work I have undertaken in my life, I have enjoyed the excitement and challenge of ministry most. I believe you too can find excitement and challenge as well. Come to Cochrane Street United Church today, get involved and you can find fulfillment by volunteering your time and talents in the ongoing work of the church.

God Bless.

Myles

If you read the Wednesday December 14, 2005 front page story by Chronicle Staff Writer Peter Fimrite, of the San Francisco Chronicle, you would have read about a female humpback whale. The whale had become entangled in a spider web of crab traps and lines. She was weighted down by hundreds of pounds of traps that caused her to struggle to stay afloat. The whale also had hundreds of yards of line rope wrapped around her body, her tail, her torso, and a line tugging in her mouth.

A fisherman spotted her just east of the Farralone Islands outside the Golden Gate Bridge and radioed an environmental group for help. Within a few hours, the rescue team arrived and determined that she was so badly off, the only way to save her was to dive in and untangle her ... a very dangerous proposition. One slap of the tail could kill a rescuer.

They worked for hours with curved knives and eventually freed her. When she was free, the divers say she swam in what seemed like joyous circles. She then came back to each and every diver, one at a time, and nudged them, pushed them gently around - she thanked them. Some said it was the most incredibly beautiful experience of their lives. The guy who cut the rope out of her mouth says her eye was following him the whole time, and he will never be the same.

As the church, we too can sometimes become tangled up in the tiresome, but necessary, responsibility of looking after temporal affairs. The day to day operations of a church building is a huge weight to bear in this world of rising costs and dwindling resources. As the church membership ages, the financial burdens fall onto a smaller group and can become insurmountable. Churches are not exempt from the death grip of the rising costs of upkeep and repairs to aging buildings.

The temporal focus in most cases lures church workers and parishioners away from the Spiritual journey. We struggle to stay afloat. When the temporal continues to threaten the Spiritual dimension of church life day in and day out the Spirit begins to tire. The result: we loose the will to fight for our lives and we die.

By the time the rescue team arrives the church community can be so badly off, the only way to save her is to dive in and try and untangle her ... a very dangerous proposition. The older established church members are not used to intervention. "We can't change!" "We have never done it that way before" is heard time and time again! "Let's keep on doing what we have been doing!" The core that resolve to remain as they are, accept the fate that to die as the body of Christ would mean, at least, a death with the comforting dignity of being surrounded by the familiar.

The minister and those with new ideas to keep the church afloat always run the risk of a fatal slap of the tail. "Leave us alone!"

But there is hope. Just as the rescuers worked for hours with curved knives and eventually freed the whale, so too, the body of Christ tangled in the life and death struggle of the temporal affairs dragging it down to the depths, can discover Spiritual freedom by letting go and allowing the Spirit to free us once again to continue the journey.

When the whale was free, the divers say she swam in what seemed like joyous circles. She then came back to each and every diver, one at a time, and nudged them, pushed them gently around - she thanked them. Some said it was the most incredibly beautiful experience of their lives. The guy who cut the rope out of her mouth says her eye was following him the whole time, and he will never be the same.

This is how the Spirit is as well. Once freed from entanglement of the weights of pressing temporal affairs…. the Spirit and all those entangled by it will swim freely and dance in the Spirit giving thanks for knowing the joy of giving and receiving.

I see, as you know, freedom of the financial weights this congregation has struggled with, to be found in the redevelopment of the back of this church building into a senior's affordable housing project. I believe cutting loose the heavy weight of this burden will allow the body of Christ at Cochrane Street United Church to focus on the Spiritual. We are called to minister and care for others in our community. The resources will be there as a result of the development. And as we have been blessed, we in turn will bring blessings to others. Thanks be to God.

Thank you to all you who have contributed to the ministry of this church family both financially and in kind, over the past year. In the work you have chosen to do for the church you have been a blessing. You have also shared in the work begun in Jesus Christ: "as you have done it unto the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me." In 2008 Let us continue to minister in Jesus' name.

Statistics for 2007
" Funerals: 15
" Marriages: 12
" Baptisms:19

Visitation Statistics 2007
" Hospital Visits: 85
" Home Visits: 147
" Total Visits: 232

Respectfully Submitted,

Myles W. Vardy B.A., B.Ed., M.Div.