Who are we?We’ve been church in the Osborne Village since 1883. We have history and heritage, AND we are open-minded, open-hearted and open spiritually. We belong to a denomination, The United Church of Canada. However, we are a very diverse congregation: United Church lifers, folks “recovering” from socially stricter denominations, seekers, questioners, agnostics and the “I don’t knows”. We take the Bible seriously but not literally. We are ageing, boomers, young families, singles, multi-cultural, queer and queer-friendly to name a few attributes. We make it a point to be intellectually and spiritually stimulating. As one person says, “I don’t know what I believe, but for an hour a week, this is a pretty good place to think about that.” We care deeply about the world around us, demonstrated by commitment to fair trade, our community compost, our refugee work (sponsorship and sanctuary), our support of our denomination’s outreach ministries (feeding the hungry and asking why the poor have no food), our support to the broader church in its international service, and our environmental concerns in action. www.crescentfortrouge.ca/ |
Why Art?We also care deeply about the arts. Our sanctuary is one of Winnipeg’s acoustical gems, being home to the Winnipeg Boys’ and ECCO Choirs, the Wind Chamber Ensemble and a frequent venue for Camerata Nova. Not only the classics though – emerging bands like the Psychics and Cerulean Skies find a place in our sanctuary. Canadian folk musicians Cara Luft and JD Edwards (Small Glories) compose here. Theatre Projects Manitoba, Zone 41 Theatre and Sharon Bajer and Carson Nattrass have moved in by times and we have become a rehearsal hall. Provocative Fringe plays have been re-staged here with talk-backs and panel discussions. One of our retired ministers has written a book about why churches should have a ministry of hospitality to the arts. (barb janes, Inviting Wonder, available at McNally Robinson Booksellers) CFRUC has a number of artists amongst our congregation. We have great space, and we like to share it!
At CFRUC we are in the business of transformation - spiritual, social, political, cultural, and environmental. We believe artists have a great role to play in awakening us. |