A Homily and Backgrounder for the All Saints Special Vestry Meeting

Preached at All Saints Church, Collingwood,  Anglican Diocese of Toronto, on the Second Sunday of Easter, 27 December, 2025.

Readings:  Acts 5:27-32; Psalm  150; Revelation 1:4-8; John 20:19-31

And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him.” Acts 5.32

A witness is someone who can speak to what they know to be true.

Since 1855, in one form or another, All Saints has been a witness to the community of Collingwod.

We’ve been a witness through our physical presence, through our worship, and through our service to the community.

It hasn’t always been easy, especially as the world became more secular starting in the mid 20th century, but like the disciples who say to the sceptical Thomas that “We have seen the Lord”, so our job has always been to say that we are witness to the Lord Jesus whom we believe to be true because of the love, forgiveness, and community that we’ve found.

Part of Christian witness has been the churchyard or cemetery, a place where the dead are remembered by us as they are remembered by God.  The Christian cemetery is also a place where our witness to the resurrection is displayed.  As we heard this morning in Revelation, Jesus is the “firstborn of the dead”, meaning that those who follow him and believe in him will also be awakened to new life.

All Saints was blessed to receive a lot of land for its cemetery from the Crown, back in the days of Queen Victoria.  Given current rates of usage, our Cemetery Board believes that the current space actually in use as a cemetery will be sufficient for 160 years to come.   The remaining thirteen acres of scrub forest is surplus to requirements and could be sold.

All Saints has imagined selling this surplus land for years, and while various ideas were proposed to the Diocese and rejected, finally we have full Diocesan approval to proceed.   The only requirement placed on us by the Diocese was that we consider how some of our share of the proceeds from this sale would go to ministry.  Putting all of our share of the proceeds into our Foundation and living off the interest is not an option.

If you look at the motion that will be voted on today, you will see that there are some ideas given as to what our ministry or witness might look like.  These ideas include a shared ministry position between All Saints and Prince of Peace, Wasaga Beach, enhancement of programs in our Regional Ministry (children’s ministry, food ministry, etc), as well as much needed work on our historic building and rectory.  After all, buildings are witness in themselves if they are well used and busy, they say “God’s Kingdom is lived out here, come and see!”  All these ideas will be carefully considered by our parish leadership in the years to come.

Here is the text of the motion below.  You will notice that the proceedings of the sale will be divided 50/50% between All Saints and the Diocese.  We had asked for a 60/40 split but Synod Council was within its rights to make this decision as per Diocesan policy.  Assuming that the property sells for what we believe it is worth, a 50/50% still gives us somewhere north of two million dollars, which is a very nice position for any parish to be in.

Resolution of the Vestry of All Saints Collingwood Regarding the Disposition/Sale of Property

Whereas the Corporation of All Saints Collingwood has proposed the Severance and Sale of thirteen acres of surplus cemetery property as legally described below;

Whereas, during the Vestry meeting held on Sunday, April 27, 2025, the proposal was duly presented, reviewed, and discussed.

Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Vestry of All Saints, Collingwood, authorizes the Corporation to:

1. Seek all necessary diocesan approvals in accordance with Canon 6, with respect to the sale of property; and further,
2. Retain the services of a licensed realtor to list, market, and sell the property, legally described as PT W1/2 LT 41 CON 7 NOTTAWASAGA AS IN CG3285 & CG10012 EXCEPT PT 1 PL 51R19115 & PT 1 PL 51R32520; COLLINGWOOD, PIN 582990068, located on the northeast portion of the existing cemetery property along Ron Emo Road at a sale price not less than five million dollars; and further,
3. Request that, in consideration of the diocesan Capital Re-Deployment Policy, the Incorporated Synod of the Diocese of Toronto grant permission for the parish to retain 50% of the sale proceeds; and further,
4. Allocate the parish's portion of the sale proceeds as follows:

1. A.Repayment of money leant by the parish to the cemetery board for construction of the new columbarium, purchase of software for cemetery management, and other improvements to the cemetery as agreed on in advance by both the Cemetery Board and the All Saints Corporation;
2. B.Regional Ministry priorities including a shared clergy position between All Saints Collingwood and Prince of Peace Wasaga Beach, as well as improvement of services and programs at our regional churches, as discussed by the Regional Advisory Group and approved in advance by the All Saints Corporation;
3. C.Repairs to the physical plant of All Saints Collingwood including replacement of antiquated heating plant and radiators, parking lot repairs, accessibility improvements, and renovations to the historic rectory including window frames and casings, as required and over a time frame to be determined in advance by the All Saints Corporation; and
4. D.Investment of remaining proceeds in the All Saints Foundation to provide for the long term sustainability of All Saints and of the Regional Ministry of South Georgian Bay.

So assuming that we approve this motion today, we will have accomplished everything that needs to be done on the church side.  It will also allow us to unlock a $75,000 line of credit from the Diocese which will allow us to do the things we need to do on the Town side.  All of the items below that do not yet have a checkmark need to be achieved before we can put up a FOR SALE sign, and each of these items costs money.  We are grateful to Mr John Kirby for all the work he has done to date in getting us to this point.

Our hope is that we can complete all the steps required of us by the Town of Collingwood and list the property for sale by this summer or early fall.

Thank you for reading and hopefully for supporting today’s vestry motion.  We shall keep the parish well advised as we move forward in this process, and may the result allow us to continue our witness here for many decades to come.