Knox Presbyterian Church sits on the corner of Main and Knox Streets in Acton. It is part of the larger Presbytery of Brampton. It is an active church in the community, home to a vibrant Sunday School, a youth group, playgroups, vacation bible school, mid-week bible study, concerts, strawberry socials and a host of other activities. This year marks the 175 anniversary of the congregation. Pastor Todd Nelson is one of just two pastors who were ordained here. He and his young family moved from Montreal to join Knox in 2014, leading his first service on July 1. “Knox Church lives out its life under the guidance of the Kirk Session. ‘Kirk’ is an old Scottish word for church. The Session is made up of ‘elders’ elected by the congregation. At Knox, elders are elected for life. The Session makes the ‘policy’ decisions that affect the church.” (https://pccweb.ca/knoxacton/about/) Pastor Todd is the moderator of the Kirk. Pastor Todd says “the Kirk has been working to re-imagine and re-envision its ministry in the face of declining financial circumstance.” By the end of February, they realized that their budget would be exhausted by the end of the year, the process only hastened with COVID-19. On June 7 The Clerk of Session, George Henderson, announced a congregational meeting to vote on June 14 recommending dissolving the pastoral tie between the Reverend and the congregation of Knox Acton effective July 31, 2020. “The reality is we cannot afford a full-time Minister at this time,” he said in the video announcement. The congregation took a step of faith and voted accordingly on June 14. “An emotional occasion for us, gut-wrenching actually. It’s a very rare occasion and a new life for us and a new life for Todd and we hope that God’s journey will be a positive one for both of us. We have seen Todd grow as a minister as this was his first pastoral charge. He is very good at leading us.” George tells Acton UP. Both Todd and his wife Rebekah are hopeful. Rebekah still has her child care business in Acton, and Todd is looking at opportunities in nearby congregations. He is also applying to Knox College hoping to be accepted into the Masters of Pastoral Studies program where he hopes to study the intersection of grief, death and worship. In the meantime, if you would like to see Pastor Todd at work, he will lead online worship on Facebook live on Sundays at 10:30 a.m. for the month of July.
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