The Minister - Alanna Menu
I was born in Regina, Saskatchewan, in the Grey Nuns Hospital. My father, an Ontario boy, had met my mother, a Prairie girl, when he was stationed in Regina with the RCAF during the war. After the war, we moved to Ontario where my father worked with Ontario Hydro.
After high school I had no idea as to what vocational path I should follow. I tried various careers in the hopes of finding the one that fit. I first completed secretarial training and went to work for the Bank of Commerce. However, women were not given management positions at that time, so I turned to teaching.
After completing a one-year course at Teachers College in Toronto, I was hired by an organisation called Northern Corps, which provided teachers for First Nations schools not on reserves, and for schools in isolated areas. I taught in Latchford (80 miles north of North Bay) and Moose River Crossing (40 miles south of Moosonee), both two-room schools. I love helping people to recognize their own gifts and to develop confidence in learning. However, I did not like being in the same room with the same people for eight hours a day, five days a week. I decided that some one else might be able to do this job as well or better than I and be happy. So I changed careers.
After moving back to southern Ontario, I managed a restaurant and then worked at CN-CP Telecommunications before returning to university to obtain my B.A. I worked for a year at the Bank of Nova Scotia and then moved to Victoria and Grey Trust Company, initially as an Administration Officer. During the eight years with them, I worked in Exeter, Leamington, Chatham, Toronto, and Stratford.
I returned to university to obtain a B.Sc. in Agricultural Economics from the University of Guelph. At Victoria and Grey I met farmers who were losing their land in bankruptcies. I knew that their job – producing food for the country – was more important than what I was doing in the banking industry. I felt I needed more knowledge about the political and economic pressures that were affecting our food industry.
At the same time, I wanted to work on my spiritual life because I felt that God was calling me to make a greater commitment. As a Roman Catholic, I thought this meant I was called to enter the convent. So I prepared myself for this career. Coincidentally, I met Arthur Menu, a priest at the University of Guelph. We became friends and eventually he asked me to marry him. I realized that God was calling me to a different spiritual path than I had first imagined. However, marriage to me meant that Art could no longer function officially as a priest in the Roman Catholic church.
Since we both wanted to work together in ministry, we decided to move to London, Ontario so that I could obtain a Master of Divinity, the degree required by people working in ministry. I attended Huron College, an Anglican seminary – the first Roman Catholic student – and graduated in 1992. Art obtained employment as a Social Worker to help support my education. We both felt that God was calling us on this path. We knew we had to put our faith in God and that God would somehow find some employment in ministry for us, even though there seemed to be no evident possibilities.
After my graduation the United Church minister, Rev. Dr. Bob Guiliano, on staff at Huron College, suggested that we apply for a vacancy as supply ministers at St. John's United Church in Marathon, Ontario, on the north shore of Lake Superior where the minister was on sabbatical for a year. The congregation interviewed us and thought we would be a good fit. There, we developed strong friendships and built bridges between the Roman Catholic and United Churches.
At the end of the year, we once again had to depend on God's providence to provide employment. Coincidentally, Knox United, a congregation in Fort Frances, lost their two ministers suddenly. We were suggested as possibilities as interim ministers while the congregation searched for replacements. We were appointed, and again developed strong friendships and built bridges.
When the appointment at Fort Frances ended, there were no further employment possibilities in Northern Ontario. So Art, a Westerner born in Summerland, suggested that, since we were going to be unemployed, we might as well be unemployed in a nice place. He also felt it was time for him to return to the west since his past employment had been in the east away from his family, so we moved to Sidney, BC. After eight months in the ranks of the unemployed, we were selected to serve at Centennial after it had suddenly lost its minister. We had an initial rocky start, but we developed very strong, close and lasting friendships with the congregation.
After completing our contract with Centennial, we had two years of unemployment. This was a period of grace in which, once again, we had to trust that God would provide. Art became a chaplain with the four Juan de Fuca hospitals while I went to work with adults with developmental disabilities at L'Arche-Victoria for five years and the St. Vincent de Paul Society Ozanam Centre for seven years.
During this period, I was an active adherent at St. Paul's United Church in Sidney, the church Art and I attended when we moved to the Island. I was a member and then Chair of the Outreach Division at the same time as being Secretary of the Council. In addition, I had been asked to relieve the Secretary of Victoria Presbytery while she was on sick leave and, when she resigned, I took on that position permanently. Membership in the United Church is a requirement of this position so I became a member of St. Paul's officially in 2002.
When it became known that I was now a member of the United Church, I was asked to start on the path to ordination. I had never wanted to be ordained (despite clergy from both the Anglican and United Churches urging me in this direction). However, a certain layman pointedly ordered me to investigate this path. As I did, I thought I detected the hand of God guiding me again. So I decided to follow it in faith.
This was not an easy process, particularly the eight-month internship in which Art and I were separated. However, I had a goal before me, a promise in my heart, the love of faithful people surrounding me and the hand of God supporting me.
I am grateful that God has guided me to Centennial United Church and that I can be part of this spiritual family. My hope is that I can continue provide the spiritually nourishing ministry that the people have come to expect from their ministers. I also hope that all of us can grow in love and faith and, as a result, grow closer to God.
There will be challenges ahead of us, just as there are in any marriage, for a relationship between a minister and a congregation is very much like a marriage. As people of faith and good will who have our hearts turned to God, I know that all of us will be able to surmount challenges with trust in God and that we will mature spiritually. This congregation is a people of determination who have shown that they can survive as a congregation in order to do God's will. Together, with God, we will do great things for God. Hallelujah!