Seeds of Hope in Bloom: MacKay United Church shows Kindness with Jazz
The United Church of Canada Foundation is proud to support initiatives across Canada that open our eyes to the possibility of ministry throughout the United Church. We were excited to have helped with a grant the congregation at MacKay United Church in Ottawa, ON as they created their Kindness of Jazz (KoJ) program.
The Kindness of Jazz recognizes music as a spiritual language, one that can often speak to our souls more clearly than the language of words. Music has long been a staple of congregations and church services across Canada, and so the Kindness of Jazz program is a continuation of a proud musical tradition in the church.
Kindness of Jazz has helped the congregation of MacKay United Church build a community of spiritually engaged folks seeking an experience of meditation and music. During the pandemic, the program evolved to better fill the needs of its participants by including poetry.
More than Church
MacKay United Church – a recipient of a three-year New Ministries Fund grant from 2019 to 2021 – has also built an excellent live-streaming environment in Canada’s capital city that can serve as the base for more spiritually-grounded work. But the Kindness of Jazz program is about more than church ministry: it also has provided opportunities for musicians to connect and collaborate with each other. The Kindness of Jazz network even includes United Church Foundation Board Members The Right Rev. Gary Paterson and General Secretary Rev. Michael Blair!
“Everything is connected,” Rev. Woods – the minister at MacKay United Church – shared, and the many ministries Kindness of Jazz has awakened, fostered and established have “inspired congregational connections” in ways they did not imagine!
Make it Happen!
Programs like the Kindness of Jazz are possible because of gifts made to the Foundation. By making a gift or a donation to the Foundation, you are ensuring that innovative programs like Kindness of Jazz can happen across Canada. Please consider donating to one of our established endowment funds whose mission and ministry speaks to you!
