Rev. Helen Smith has served in many places in many ways. She’s currently minister at Centennial in Calgary, Alta., and has also served in churches in Edmonton, Chatham and Thornhill, Ont. She spent nine years as program director at Evangel Hall, a Presbyterian inner-city mission in downtown Toronto, and has worked as a minister on staff at the Calgary Urban Project Society, an agency for people who are homeless in Calgary, and as director of Camp Kannawin, near Sylvan Lake, Alta.
She’s convener of the Life and Mission Agency committee, has been on the church doctrine and the Justice Ministries committees, has moderated three presbyteries, served on an area council for the World Council of Churches and been a part of the Kairos Calgary group.
This past May she received a Woman of Faith award for her contributions to the church and the world.
The Record asked her to answer a few questions to help you get to know her a little better.
Tell me about yourself. How would you describe your faith journey?
I suspect my faith journey is like that of many – up, down, sideways, but overall, for me it is one of great gratitude for God’s presence through it all. I am a child of the manse. My childhood home was filled with a lot of laughter and joy. My mom and dad provided me with a firm grounding in unconditional love. And it wasn’t always easy for them. My children say that my parents’ theme song was the one by Trooper, “Raise a Little Hell,” commenting not just on my stature and my name, but also my nature. My dad was a lover of New Testament Greek, so in addition to agape (unconditional love), I became very familiar with such concepts as koinonia (fellowship) and hupomone (waiting for God). His sermons still echo in my head.
While I had a good solid grounding in the Christian faith, there were/are certainly times of wandering off. God always gets the hook and brings me back, through the work of family, friend, stranger or just the Holy Spirit and me. I responded to God’s call to ministry – and then, at Knox College, met the man who would be my husband, Robert Smith. That made things a bit tricky when discerning calls, but God has always come through with opportunities for us to serve God. We are blessed with three wonderful children who never cease to amaze me. God is good.
What would you say is your passion?
I have always been passionate about putting faith into action. For me that is where the rubber hits the road, where faith makes a difference in how we live, where we can get in on what God is doing in the world. The mission team in the congregation I serve is studying a book by Dan Steigerwald, Growing Local Missionaries: Equipping Churches to Sow Shalom in Their Own Cultural Backyard. Shalom to me means wholeness, completeness, harmony, wellbeing. It means physical, mental, emotional and spiritual needs are met. Walter Brueggemann in his book, Living Toward a Vision: Biblical Reflections on Shalom defines it as a sense of personal wholeness in a community of justice and caring that addresses itself to the needs of all humanity and all creation. I would describe my passion using Steigerwald’s image as “sowing seeds of shalom.” Imagine if every morning we got up and said to ourselves and to God – “So what seeds of shalom shall we sow today?” Maybe a thank you for your bus driver, a hospice visit, a pie for a new neighbour, a monetary gift to Presbyterian World Service & Development, some volunteer time at the food bank, a ride to church for a teenager, picking up litter in the mall parking lot, a phone call to someone who is homebound… the list is endless.
What concerns you most?
It is not so much the decline of membership in our church that concerns me as it is the “survival attitude” that comes with it. We are afraid to risk. Like the servant who buries his talent, we don’t step out in faith. When we are afraid like this we stand to lose our compassion for one another. I pray that the Holy Spirit will fill us all with a sense of adventure, that we will be given eyes to see what God is doing in our world and step out and be a part of it.
What gives you the most hope?
There are so many things that give me hope: the congregation I serve, made up of incredibly faithful people, over half of whom were not born in Canada, is a wonderful preview of the kingdom of God; the joy and life of Canada Youth; an ecumenical affordable housing group of which I am a part. Last month I was part of the worshipping community at an interfaith worship service focused on the alleviation of poverty. So much gives hope.
Some moderators in the past have chosen a particular theme or idea to focus on during the year. Have you thought about choosing a theme? If so, what might it be?
Sowing seeds of shalom.
