BIRCH HILLS, Sask. – It is a telling statistic of the rural Prairies: United Church minister Nora Brown conducts more funeral services than weddings.
The funerals come about once a month; the weddings three or four times a year.
But four years out of the seminary school at the University of Toronto, Brown is happily settled into rural Saskatchewan.
For a young woman brought up in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont., it might seem a big leap. Brown credits the warm welcome and support from the Indian Head, Sask., congregation where she served as an intern minister in 1999 with bringing her back west.
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“The pace of life is slower and there is more need here for ministers,” said Brown, summing up her move.
She also met her husband in Birch Hills while shopping for a car. Marriage this summer has added prairie ties with a large extended family. Brown and her husband have talked about the demands of a ministry life and he supports her career and its potential for moves.
She is responsible for three churches in Crystal Springs, Kinistino and Birch Hills – 100 kilometres around the triangular charge. She tries to get to each community during the week, not including Sundays. She is also on call to fill in within the presbytery that runs from Shellbrook to Star City, about a third the width of the province.
It can be tough carving out free time and she tries to keep Mondays free for herself. However, the phone calls can come at any time from people who need her help.
Brown, in her 20s, represents the leading edge of modern ministers. In the United Church, 60 percent of the theology students are female. In trying to explain this trend, she said it’s because the job is geared to women’s people skills.
The ability to get along is tested in Birch Hills, which has six churches. Last month the ministers and congregation volunteers teamed up to present a week of vacation Bible school to the town’s youngsters.
That ecumenical spirit also works for Bible study classes that Brown has done with the Catholic priest and Lutheran pastor.
“If you do it on your own, you’ll get five people. If three churches work together, you’ll get 10.”
Birch Hills also had another joint effort with one service on Aug. 15, the town’s threshing day festival.
The differences in religious traditions are played down. Brown accepts that some congregations are bigger or younger than others.
“I think people are really spiritually hungry. A lot of people are seeking, looking for where they fit best.”
She acknowledges that Sunday as a church-attending day has slipped, as people are forced to work different days and find it the only day the family can be together.
But she knows when trouble comes, the church is there. Birch Hills has had a couple of fatal accidents in recent years and people “needed to help each other” at the time, she said.
“If you’re out there on your own, it’s a lot harder.”
When asked what makes a good church service, Brown said it’s the preaching, the music, involvement and energy.
“My goal is that people feel better when they leave. I hope it’s a safe place.”
For the children in her church, that means she doesn’t mind if they wander up to her and talk during the service. For the seniors, she tries to empathize with them, appreciate where they’re at and not push them too hard in their faith, since they are the ones who held the church together.
And for those in the middle, the 15-50 year olds, she tries to help them with theology because they are asking questions about God.
“Jesus loves me – that’s good when you’re five. Jesus loves everyone – that’s a little harder.”
Brown spends some of each week visiting seniors in one of the four nursing homes in the area. Even those who don’t recognize their family any more can still sing or find comfort in old hymns like Amazing Grace or Onward Christian Soldiers.
She also visits people in their homes, farms or on the street. She said if she stayed in the church, people wouldn’t see her. That’s why she’s out where people’s problems are.
The United Church has been in the forefront of controversial changes such as welcoming women and homosexuals as ministers and that has caused painful splits in congregations.
Brown said the church will continue going through changes as it has for its 75 years, and the Anglicans for hundreds of years and the Catholics for thousands.
They are all God’s church, she said.
“When Christianity began, you had 12 people huddled together after the Resurrection.”
