Forest Hill United Church - Living Faith Story 

Forest Hill United Church is an intercultural community, created from several Christian denominations, and many socio-economic statuses. We come to church from throughout the city. Our diversity is our strength; we accept our differences and share this important aspect of who we are.

Our small welcoming community is created from incredible individuals who care and accept each other with listening ears, compassion and acceptance of our evolving church family. We walk together through all types of experiences, so we never need to walk alone. Our community is responsive to each member’s choice of orientation, gender, neurodiversity status and to those individuals seeking or questioning in their lives. Our care for each other is evident in how we look out for and support each other and support our church as our first and last home in Christ.

Jesus, spoke through parables, metaphors and used vivid imagery to convey difficult truths. Through symbolism, we liken ourselves to a honeybee hive, a small but mighty community, filled with worker bees in unity and cooperation working together for common good, just as followers of Jesus are called to work in unity. We seek pastoral guidance and leadership to continue our faith journey within our community.

P.S. The 🐝 bee emoji carries rich symbolism representing hard work, productivity, sweetness, community, and environmental awareness. These are some of our values.

Our services provide time for us to refocus on our faith journey; we revel in challenging sermons that allow us to rethink the gospel messages, in the personal transformative story of Jesus. We then move forward to apply these principles today. The church meets our spiritual needs by welcoming us, baptizing us and connecting us to each other.

Our services are traditional and our love of the music, (whether, traditional, contemporary, or multilingual) adds to our service message. We freely contribute to and question ideas from our services. We gather before and after the worship to reconnect with each other.

We use our talents and gifts to support our community through events, (luncheons, dinners and special events with feasts of food to nourish both our bodies and souls. Everyone contributes to the set up and clean up and we share the leftovers, so nothing is wasted and all are fed.

We have a variety of events (solemn, like Good Friday and fun events like making apple pies). Our young people (ages four through 19) always want to be a part of the excitement, and their positive energy inspires everyone as we complete our events and fund raisers. Our outdoor service moves the whole experience of church into nature on our front lawn and cumulates in an outdoor barbeque where we connect over lunch. We hold clean up days which encourage us to be good stewards of our space and of nature as we work together to complete work projects around our property.

Our work together is divided through committees and groups which provide leadership and direction to all members as we work together to reach our goals. Our committees include a Worship, Property and Stewardship, and Congregational life committees. Our Church Board works

together to ensure we are meeting the needs of our church, and we have a Tenant relations member who negotiates and supports all users of our building (including a Montessori school, after school groups (karate, dance, and AA groups just to name a few).

We offer programming through the bible study group, for those who want to discover a deeper meaning through the context of the readings and how it relates to us today. Sunday school provides age-appropriate context to the lessons (youth share) while their parents have time to meditate on the service and grow in their faith as well. Our choir loves how the music they sing touches all who share in it through the beauty and the sound of the lyrics. Our Congregational life committee helps us to connect to each other through community events, which include Black History Month, Asian Heritage Month, apple pie making event, Christmas events, summer bus trips. The members of our congregation take great pride in being involved in all aspects of our congregation and its events because we all live in God’s house.