By Celia Hunter
The Reverend Neil Ellis was officially welcomed by the Centreville Presbyterian congregation and Harmony United Church on July 14 at a service of induction into their ecumenical shared ministry.
Most recently, Rev. Neil served for over nine years at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Cobourg. In his words, “the heart of the Christian faith is to serve our neighbours and community”, and to that end, he became involved in local initiatives focused on housing, homelessness and food insecurity. He was a member of the Northumberland Affordable Housing Committee, a board member of the Northumberland County Housing Corporation and served as the chair of the Board of Transition House Coalition of Northumberland.
It is, in large part, that commitment to social justice that brings him to Centreville-Harmony Church, where he recognizes a desire to serve the community in initiatives like the Habitat for Humanity build that is currently underway, regular outreach to One City Shelter through the Sandwich Outreach Project, and to Millbrook Foodshare. Rev. Neil also cites the recent step taken by the local Presbyterian and United congregations:
“It was the congregations’ desire to do something new which drew me to Centreville-Harmony. The willingness to step out in faith with God and work collaboratively was inspiring.”
As a self-described city kid, Rev. Neil says he is looking forward to enjoying a shift in the pace of life in a more rural environment with agricultural roots. His father grew up on a farm in PEI, and he has fond memories of summer visits, but his formative years were spent in Scarborough, where as a young adult he led the Youth Group, ran the sound system for Sunday worship and served on the Board of Managers of Knox Presbyterian Church, Agincourt.
Both Presbyterian and United Church officials were on hand for the induction service, which drew strongly from Presbyterian traditions but included elements from the United Church of Canada to reflect the commitment to worship and work together. For Rev. Neil, working together, collaboration, will, in his words, “determine where we will go together.”