Town Hall Meeting Summary Notes: January 18, 2026
Here are the summary notes from the Town Hall Meeting on Sunday, January 18, 2026
Call to Order and Welcome
Daren called the meeting to order at 12:06 p.m.
2. Land Acknowledgement-Daren Patterson
3. Opening Prayer – Rev. Joanne Anquist
4. Meeting Protocol and Introductions-Daren Patterson
5. Ministry and Personnel Updates-Peggy Jorgensen, M&P Co-lead
Plans for Rev. Joanne’s Restorative Care leave
Double mastectomy surgery on January 27, 2026
Leave expected to be for 12 weeks
Plans for ministerial coverage during Rev. Joanne’s leave
Rev. Bill Weaver will be taking on the roles of McDougall’s Congregational Lead Minister and Shared Ministry Team lead during Rev. Joanne’s absence.
Rev. Grant Dawson has agreed to take on a 30hr/week appointment during Rev. Joanne’s leave with responsibilities primarily in worship leadership and pastoral care related to the work on the Shared Ministry Team.
Change in Rev. Danah’s role and hours
The reduction in Rev. Danah’s hours (from 30hrs/wk. to 20 hrs/wk. that was recommended by the Joint Advisory Council in September and approved by the McDougall Council (and RDLUC and OUC Boards) in October 2025 came into effect January 1, 2026.
Danah’s new position title is Contemporary Spiritual Minister.
Danah’s roles and responsibilities are currently under review by the Joint M&P Team.
6. Shared Ministry Updates-Joanne Pritchard, MUC Leadership Council Co-chair and
Joint Advisory Co-lead
Update from the Joint Vision and Planning Group/ Joint Advisory Council
In January 2025, in consultation with Chinook Winds Region, a second memorandum of understanding was signed by church leaders from McDougall (MUC), Red Deer Lake (RDLUC), and Ogden (OUC) along with the ministers Rev. Joanne Anquist, Rev. Bill Weaver and Rev. Danah Cox. The updated 2025 MOU allowed us to continue our Shared Ministry Team collaboration, first piloted in the fall of 2023.
At the Town Hall meeting on January 18, Joanne Pritchard provided updates related to the work in 2025 of the Joint Vision and Planning Group (JVPG) tasked with implementing the vision and terms of this agreement.
In the spring of 2025, JVPG Co-chairs, Joanne Pritchard and Doug Den Hoed, participated in a Team Building session with the ministers and staff organized by Joint M&P to support their working effectively within this collaborative agreement.
The Joint Vision and Planning Group had a vision-related discussion with Scott Reynolds, Growth Animator for Chinook Winds Region, that resulted in the April 27 Joint Town Hall meeting at McDougall, where participants from the 3 churches met and shared their experiences of ways that God is alive for them in our communities of faith.
The meeting in May included a discussion related to moving forward with plans for the proposed hiring of a part-time First Third Ministry person to join the Shared Ministry Team.
At our June meeting, the JVPG endeavoured to clarify our understandings of the differences between a Multi-site and Multi-point Pastoral Charge organizational structure. Rev. Bill then developed several differed graphics to help us visualize the primary differences.
At the September meeting, the JVPG identified the following graphic (below) as the one that best depicts our current vision for the organizational structure for the Shared Ministry Team initiative. In this model, the central leadership group is identified as the Joint Advisory Council for a Multi-point Pastoral Charge that includes, McDougall, Red Deer Lake, and Ogden United Churches.
In this model, the mandate of the Joint Advisory Council is to make recommendations related to the vision and direction for the Shared Ministry Team collaboration but the authority to make those decisions remains with the three Boards/Council.
At the September meeting the new Joint Advisory Council made the following recommendations to the three boards/council.
1. That we adopt the Multi-site Pastoral Charge model as our current organizational structure for our Shared Ministry collaboration.
2. That we rename the Joint Vision and Planning Group to the Joint Advisory Council with the mandate to make recommendations to the church boards/council regarding the vision and planning for the Shared Ministry initiative.
3. That we recommend the continuation of the Shared Ministry team collaboration in 2026 and that the cost sharing for the funding of the salaries and benefits for the Shared Ministry team in the 2026 MOU be changed as indicated in the chart below:
4. That the funding agreement for the Executive Assistant admin support for Shared Ministry Team be reviewed once OUC has clarified its ability to continue to contribute in 2026 to the same extent as in the 2025 MOU and Joint M&P has conducted its review of those responsibilities.
5. That the Joint M&P Co-leads create a Joint Hiring Team and proceed with the creation of a job posting for the First Third Connector position and proceed with the search.
6. That Rev. Danah be given three months notice for the (agreed upon) change in his ministry hours (from 0.75 FTE in the 2025 MOU to 0.5FTE on January 1, 2026.
In October, these recommendations were approved by the RDLUC and OUC Boards and the McDougall Leadership Council.
In December 2025, given the fiscal constraints of each of the MOU Partner Boards/Council, the lack of applicants, and Rev Joanne’s restorative care leave, the Joint Advisory Council Co-chairs recommended the suspension of the search for the First Third Minister in 2026.
7. McDougall Leadership Council updates-Daren Patterson, MUC Leadership Council
Co-chair
2026 Stewardship pledges
Thank you to Marilyn Bates, Rev. Bob Mutlow, and Sarah Reuangrith for their work on the 2026 Stewardship Campaign.
This year’s pledges are holding steady, which helps with the creation of the 2026 draft budget.
Norma May, our Treasurer, has been creating our 2026 draft budget to be presented at our 2026 AGM. The council has had a chance to review the preliminary budget and provide feedback on the budget. The draft budget will be reviewed by the council at our next meeting on Tuesday, February 3.
The AGM is scheduled for Sunday, March 1st, 2026, following the worship service. Please watch for additional information coming in February.
At our AGM we will be approving the nominations for the 2026 Leadership Council. We are always looking for new members to join the council and some of the key roles we need to fill are Co-chair, Assistant Treasurer, Ministry & Personnel Co-chair and working group members, Operations lead , Members-at-Large and new members of ministry teams.
8. Other Discussion Items
9. Sending Forth - Rev. Danah Cox
10. Adjournment
Daren closed the meeting at 1:00 p.m.
To learn more about Leadership council, please visit their webpage.