Mission Canada Summit 2011 Montreal

Arrived in Montreal. Again, the streets of Montreal teeming with people, many of whom are students. 




With Kelly Johnson ( U of Calgary) in Old Montreal


Mission Canada hoisted the Summit: a gathering of  the core of PAOC leaders and influencers from across Canada. These are Ministry leaders that reflect the core emphases of Mission Canada. Namely: Aboriginal, New Immigrants, Urban, Emerging Generation and francophone Canada. These emphases were identified as priorities because they are gaps that are not being reached at present by the local church.

MC Core Team: Gary Connors, George Werner, Natalie Rogge, Jaz Ghag







We stayed in a cool former convent, known as The Grey Nuns.

Grey Nuns - my 4th Floor window view....

It is presently owned by Concordia University and it is a student residence during the school year. I love the high ceilings and wide hallways and even the lack of air conditioning.



Concordia again. Buildings in foreground and background



View from the Molson School of Business of the busy city below

Speaking of Concordia, I make no secret of the fact that this school intrigues me. Its urban campus is integrated into the downtown core. Its buildings look just like any other office building, but what a difference! Having been in hundreds of campus buildings in the course of my job, it is my humble opinion that the architect of the building we met in ( The John Molson School of Business ) deserves an award. It just makes sense. As one of my team put it, it makes him want to go back to school. It is functional. It is hip. It’s big. It’s beautiful. It makes great use of natural light and creates multitudes of spaces for students to work and study individually and in groups. Further, it has state of the art classrooms and ampitheatres. All of this in the heart of a bustling downtown core.

School was going on all around us....

In this building, we saw at least four ( probably all five) of our missional priorities represented. Campus ministry, of course. Also, Quebec/Francophone Canada, New Immigrants and Urban. We could not immediately tell how the first nations were represented in the school, but we have no doubt they are. It was simply a powerful visual symbol of our missional priorities. We could not have picked a better spot to make our point.



Concordia Buildings from street level





LaSalle College