Rev. Dr. Cynthia Chenard, Iona, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia
Cynthia Chenard spent her formative years in Manila, Philippines, where her parents were missionaries. She worked as a radio announcer and a teacher prior to entering pastoral ministry. Ordained in 1991, she served West St. Andrew’s in St. Catharines and First Church in St. David’s, Ontario, before moving to Iona in 1996. Serving also as a police chaplain for the RCMP and the Halifax Regional Police, Chenard was a front line pastoral presence during the Swissair tragedy and its aftermath.
She has served as moderator of several presbyteries, and for the Synod of the Atlantic Provinces, and has sat on committees for Christian education, ministry, management and conflict mediation and sexual abuse and harassment, and is presently a member of the Ecumenical and Inter-faith Relations Committee and the Canadian Council of Churches’ sub-committee on Community Emergency Response. She has been involved in five Youth Trienniums, as well as Canada Youth 2003 and 2006.
Cynthia and Jacques have been married for 23 years.
1. What did you think when you found out you were nominated?
“The words sound cliché; however, I was humbled and honoured from the time my presbytery voted to put my name forward. I find myself nervous but excited about the nomination as well.”
2. What would you bring to the position?
“My early faith formation was nurtured by ministers from the PC(USA) who served our congregation in Manila, Philippines, as well as by the teachers at the missionary school I attended for several years. I came to a deeper understanding of myself and God through various avenues, including being re-introduced to The Presbyterian Church in Canada upon returning home for university. Through the process of finding, or re-discovering, my Presbyterian roots, I came to know our denomination again through new eyes, gaining a broader perspective and understanding of the church. I bring this continuous desire for learning, growth, understanding and service. I offer an enthusiasm for our church as well as an appreciation and keen interest in our church courts.”
3. What would your theme(s) be for your moderatorial year?
“I would focus on education. Our foundation, our formation of our faith and our reformed tradition are keys to growth – as individuals and as a church. I believe we need to explore who we are as a denomination today. We need to explore our identity, where we came from, what we stand for and why. In learning and re-educating ourselves in matters of faith and our calling as a denomination by God, we will be able to evaluate, celebrate, and risk in faith. We need to learn how to tell our story so the story of God’s hope and redemption can be seen, heard and lived inside and outside our churches. New resources, such as the new catechism as one example, can help us better understand how we relate to God and God to us, thus enabling us to better understand and relate to the world in which we live. Through knowing who we are, we will know better who it is God has called us to be in today’s world.
“It would be my hope that a focus on education would give us tools to better articulate to others who we are as we continue to serve God in ecumenical and inter-faith relationships, and who we are as Christians in the multifaceted world in which we live.”
4. What do you think are the church’s current strengths? Challenges?
“We have many strengths as a denomination – our faith that God has called us into being, thereby having a purpose for us to fill; our congregations and those who claim the PCC as “home”; our polity and the tangible ways we offer compassion for those who are hurting and support to those who are seeking justice through our missions, partnerships and agencies. In offering concrete ways in which to live the Gospel, whether it be a Sunday school buying goats for mission partners or emergency response to the tsunami, or praying together for a world without AIDS or a youth group serving at the local soup kitchen, we make faith and the Gospel relevant for young and old alike. We have strength in the many ways we exhibit the daily living of our faith, showing God’s love and experiencing the joy of serving. And all of these, our strengths in mission and education, justice, crisis response and development bring the church and Christ’s Gospel to life.
“We have many challenges as a denomination as well. The pressures imposed by declining numbers, and that cry heard through many generations – “relevancy”, pose challenges for us as a church. We cannot be all things to all people and so we must celebrate and use well those strengths and gifts with which we have been entrusted. When we offer our strengths in partnership with the differing strengths of others, we then see the body of Christ at work. This challenge of working together, sharing ministry together, also translates to the caring for our leadership, whether that be ruling elder, teaching elder, other leaders in our congregations or national church. It is imperative that we seek the best for one another in order that we are continually encouraged and encouraging, renewed and renewing.”
