Parish of the Transfiguration

The Anglican Parish of the Transfiguration

The people of the Parish of the Transfiguration are called by God to work together as a servant community. Empowered by the Holy Spirit, we follow Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour and by our words and actions joyfully bear witness in the world to the transforming power of God’s love.

-Parish of the Transfiguration Mission Statement

The Parish of the Transfiguration is a

Hope-filled,

Energetic,

Caring and supportive

Anglican Community of Faith.

In other words,

we are a

“HEC” of a community

-Parish of the Transfiguration Identity Statement

Welcome!

Clergy/Administration

Special Services and Home Page News

(includes “one-liner for the week”)

Our Location

The churches

We are

Church of the Advent, Ridgetown

Church of the Redeemer, Highgate

Christ Church, Dresden

St Stephen’s, Thamesville

St Matthew’s, Florence

St John’s-in-the-Woods, Aughrim

the first four in the Municipality of Chatham-Kent, the final two in the County of Lambton in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. You can use this rather confusing map if you like, or look us up on Google Earth to find the churches among the patchwork of field, forest and town/village streets. Pictured here in order they are, top left to right: Thamesville, Ridgetown, Dresden, bottom left to right: Florence, Highgate, Aughrim. We are members of Kent Deanery and the Diocese of Huron. Click the links to the left (or at the bottom of the page) to find out more about any one of us. Follow the links under Favourite Links, below, to find out more about the Anglican Church.

The halls are, below, left to right: Thamesville (attached to the church), Ridgetown (just down the street), Dresden (attached), Florence (across the street) and Aughrim (down the road). (Highgate maintains an agreement with the local Royal Canadian Legion on that village’s main street for hosted events that require a hall).

The rectories: Thamesville (the former parish offices, currently rented out), Ridgetown (the “real” one – as in “home of the rector”) and Florence (home to some of the refugees we sponsor).

A (very) brief history

We were six churches in three parishes until 2002 when we amalgamated. We are now six churches in one parish, and great things are happening. We’ve pooled our ideas and unique resources to come up with viable solutions, good reasons to have fun together, meaningful worship, exciting outreach projects,

and a joint choir that just keeps growing…

The consultations

Once a year, almost every year, we get together to determine what is working and what is not. Would you like a report on the last consultation series held January 20 and February 3, 2008? Send us an email and we’ll send you a copy.

Favourite Links

Diocese of Huron - There is much of interest here. Follow the Huron Hunger Fund link on the site, for instance, to learn more about the Tsunami and Katrina Relief situations than can be included on our Announcements page.

Anglican Church of Canada - Find anything you ever wanted to know about the church in Canada.

The Lambeth Commission on Communion - Read the Windsor Report and the official responses.

Refugee Sponsorship - Trace an overview of what’s happening in Huron, our responsibilities.

Bridgehead - Anglicans drink coffee and tea – a fair statement. Read how to be “fair” about the purchase of the stuff.

The St Michael Report – This link gives us the opportunity “to download and read the material rather than just comment on it,” says one of our churchwardens. It “could influence us strongly in the upcoming year.”

Contact Information

E-mail addresses

The Ridgetown office: transfiguration @pppoe.ca

The Rector: stephendemitroff @hotmail.com

The Associate: collins.wongkee @sympatico.ca

The Webmaster: adenkers @mnsi.net

(With all of these, close the space before the @ when you write. The explanation for this is below under Home Page News.)

Mailing address

Anglican Parish of the Transfiguration

P.O. Box 613

Ridgetown, Ontario, Canada, N0P 2C0

Office and home phones

The Ridgetown office (open Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 1 pm to 4 pm) and the Rector (same number): (519) 674-0723

The Associate at home for emergencies: (519) 882-1418

The Associate’s cell (messages are cleared at least once per day and there is no charge): (519) 384-4620

Current Projects (see, too, the Announcements link to the left)

Dinners

Theatre, song, dinners, talent auctions, yard sales, dinners and other such fun(d)raisers (did I mention dinners?)

Refugee sponsorship (see Announcements link to the left or below for the news). Ever, Yehesica and Yeison, to the right, are our webpage poster reps

Quarterly newsletters – contact the office if you wish a copy of the latest of these; the Newsletter (the latest) link at the left and below gives only now the email update newsletter. Once the quarterly hardcopy newsletters start up again, I’ll make them available electronically as before.

Our companion diocese, the Anglican Diocese of Mthatha, South Africa, and our companion parish, St Mary’s Eastern Cape, South Africa. The covenant between the Diocese of Huron and the Diocese of Mthatha includes “mutual prayer, sharing of information, encourages exchanges and commits to annual reviews of the companion diocese relationship.” At right are the Rev’d Stephen Demitroff, Mrs Ruth Demitroff, the Rev’d Caroline Nyabaza, the Rev’d Michelle Collins-Wongkee, the Rev’d ZaZa Roloti, and Mrs Linda DeBurger during one such exchange.

Clergy/Administration

The Reverend Stephen Demitroff, Rector

The Reverend Michelle Collins-Wongkee, Associate

Ms Bethe Carnie, Parish Secretary

Mr Ron Bolohan, Rector’s Warden

Ms Janice Unsworth, People’s Warden

Ms Pat Highgate, Parish Treasurer

Mr Tom DeBurger and

Ms Linda DeBurger, Fun(d)raising Co-Chairs

Reach any of the above by phoning the office or using the office email/snailmail addresses given.

Special Services

We hold a few joint services every year. 2008’s were/are/will be:

Sunday, February 10, at 10 am in Florence – First of Lent

Friday, March 21, at 10 am in Thamesville – Good Friday

Sunday, May 4, at 10 am in Aughrim – Rogation Service

Sunday, November 2, at 10 am in Ridgetown

There is a committee in place that decides upon the service dates, times, music, transportation, and other important details of the joint services. This was a recommendation (that a committee do just this) reached by consensus at the 2006 Consultation. See your organist, other rep, or phone the office if you need to know more.

Home Page News

Submissions and comments may be sent to Lawrene at adenkers @mnsi.net. (Close the space between the s and the @. Inserting a space in email addresses on websites, we are told, keeps spammers at bay. We shall pray for them, but certainly not facilitate their wickedness.)

About what you see to your left (or the links at the bottom of the page):

Newsletter (the latest) is the emailed weekly newsletter, until such time as current “normal” newsletters start up again.

Aughrim’s page has a relatively complete history in place now – check it over, Aughrim, to see that it is accurate, and sorry about the “at night” descriptive and cheesy ghost, but, really, have you been there in the dark? Dresden’s page focuses on history. Don Boos had nearly completed Highgate’s complex history at the time of his death. He got the narrative up to 1941 and used point form after that, and invited anyone who knows anything to add to it. That invitation stands. Allen Ure has put together a concise and complete Ridgetown history. There’s a ghost in it, too. The Thamesville page is chockfull of photos and takes a few minutes to load. Patience (but none needed with broadband) will reward you with some nice shots by Nichol’s Photography. Florence’s page is meant to be mostly black and white – webmaster attempt at “art.” And Florence has a ghost now! I’ll need to get the scoop and get it on the page. It involved our summer plasterer/painter seeing the Rev’d Mr. Gunne (long dead) at the foot of his scaffolding! We’re all, all over the parish, pictured much clearer now thanks to Joan Cofell, who, in a whirlwind tour of the parish, shot every chapel, hall and rectory.

A separate In Memoriam page is now in place. Absolutely contact the webmaster if you wish a family member or friend to appear there. She cannot presume to know who will be appalled by Grandpa on the Internet and who will be pleased. Send photo, dates, and a small(ish) write-up.

There are more present and former rectors on the now reasonably organized Our Rectors page, and some collage shots on the Letters/Photos page. There are actual letters on the page now, too – do write in about anything at all. We can have this page really reflect, in living colour, the cooperation, laughter, and solid support this parish offers every day, far beyond “nice site” kudos. Your submissions make that happen.

Ghost chapels: The nature of rural settlement these days has some of us closing. Grace Church in Bothwell is an example. Trinity Howard is nearly one. (Nichol’s Photography sent in the most recent photo.) These silenced but not forgotten chapels have a page of their own (link to the left and below). Do you have a photo or a history of a congregation that is no more but was within our boundaries? I look forward to hearing from you.

And, finally, Announcements, Reports and Did You Know? are meant to bring us all closer.

Thanks for the recent feedback. It is most helpful.

One liner for meetings and other sticky situations:

Statistically, the probability of any one of us being here is so small that you'd think the mere fact of existing would keep us all in a contented dazzlement of surprise.

- Lewis Thomas

Oh, and here’s another:

The reward for a job well done is more work.

- Anon

And finally, a parishioner wishes us to remember the words of a twentieth-century industrialist:

Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.

- Henry Ford

Last updated: June 29, 2008

In Memoriam | Did you know? | Contact us