Fairlawn's Next Chapter
A Strong foundation:
Community of Faith Profile
A Strong Foundation: Our Community of Faith Profile
Before a ministerial search can begin, our Community of Faith Profile must be updated, including the Living Faith Story and Position Description for a new minister.
Our Living Faith Story articulates our ministry focus – our beliefs, our ministry needs, and our financial realities. It also tells prospective ministers who we are, why we think we exist, and what future options might best serve our vision and purpose as a faith community.
Our Call as a faith community reflects our core purpose for ministry – to support transformation in each other and those around us in practical and spiritual ways. We aim to live out our three core ministries – Explore Spirituality, Experience Belonging and Embrace Action – with curiosity, creativity, and courage in uncertain times.
In 2022, we were on a pathway to a Vision – seeking to discern where God was calling us next by identifying community needs that we had the resources, energy, and passion to serve. We assessed our future options and visualized two strategic proposals for new ministry focus areas: an enhanced Affirm Ministry serving 2SLGBTQIA+ youth and a new Seniors’ Ministry providing a comprehensive set of community offerings for seniors. A third option, a Centre for Creative Dialogue, was seen as a complementary offering that could be offered in the future as resources permit.
These were fresh and untested ideas in October 2022. Between 2023 and 2026, we have made concrete progress on the first two proposals and embedded elements of the third option into both the Affirm and Seniors’ ministries. Together, these offerings have strengthened our Experience Belonging and Embrace Action ministries in these underserved communities.
Enhanced Affirm Ministry Update
Fairlawn Avenue United Church became an Affirming church in 2015. Since the pandemic, we have put renewed focus into what it means to be an Affirming church and found meaningful ways to put our faith into action.
Education sessions were held in partnership with Toronto Pflag and Planned Parenthood Toronto to support our community’s understanding of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, and for four years our church hosted the only non-TDSB GTA event for International Day of Pink. Through these initiatives and others, our community of faith and the broader community gained a deeper understanding of the types of challenges the queer community – and specifically queer youth – face.
Our research showed there were currently no program and service providers dedicated to serving queer youth ages 13-18 in our North Toronto catchment area (between Eglinton and Sheppard Avenues, and Bayview Avenue to Bathurst Street). We learned from other agencies who work with queer youth in Toronto (Rainbow Community Places, Toronto Pflag, Lumenus and Planned Parenthood Toronto) that queer, trans and questioning youth need a supportive, affirming environment to gather, learn, discuss, explore their identity, experience acceptance, and flourish.
In September 2025, we launched a weekly program to help fulfill those needs. COMET (Come Out and Meet Each Tuesday) is a free after-school drop-in program for 2SLGBTQIA+ youth ages 13–18 in North Toronto. COMET provides a safer, welcoming, secular space for queer and questioning youth and allies to gather, enjoy a meal together, participate in programming through partner organizations, or just come by to hang out.
Fairlawn provides community space, staff and volunteers to run the COMET program. Favourite program activities include baking with our kitchen volunteers, karaoke, games, embroidery, and making all kinds of art. Participants have told us: “I love coming here. I’m so happy you guys are here and I joined.” One youth chose to come on their birthday just to celebrate with us. COMET clearly plays an important role in the lives of the youth we reach.
Plans for 2026-2027 include drama and creative writing workshops, mental health and healthy sexuality seminars, and collaborations with other 2SLGBTQIA+ youth service providers.
COMET is grateful for financial support from the United Church of Canada (UCC) Foundation’s “Seeds of Hope” granting program, a UCC Vision Fund Seed Grant, Shining Waters Regional Council’s Congregation Funding, a Community One Foundation Rainbow Grant, and Fairlawn’s Social Justice Fund.
Seniors’ Ministry Update
The number of seniors in Toronto over 85 is expected to triple in the next 25 years. Our North Toronto neighbourhood has one of the highest percentages of seniors over 85 living at home. As our population continues to age, there is an increasing need to provide a comprehensive set of offerings for seniors in North Toronto seeking support to age in place, particularly those affected by isolation and loneliness.
A market scan of our geographic catchment area (between Eglinton and Sheppard Avenues, and Bayview Avenue to Bathurst Street) determined that there were few seniors’ programs and services delivered in this area, despite the disproportionate representation of seniors living in it. We commissioned a report by Nayar Consulting in 2020 that confirmed this.
Fairlawn felt called to create a program to address this challenge, bringing to it our passion and experience with program execution and volunteering, as well as valuable community space that is underutilized. We are eager to see our church sanctuary be used more than the 1.5 -2.5 hours/week associated with Sunday services. The removal of rear pews was seen as a positive step forward in enabling other weekly events to take place in this space, while maintaining the chapel as a reverent space for services and contemplation.
We launched a pilot seniors’ ministry discussion series in spring 2026 to help seniors stay engaged by creating a welcoming space to gather in person for meaningful conversation, laughter, and learning. Each session explores interesting, accessible, and enjoyable topics inspired by shared experiences, curiosity, and community.
Discussion topics to date have included a virtual history of the church’s neighbourhood led by a local history and congregant, a session on artificial intelligence 101, and a book discussion with a local author and member of our faith community.
Other program ideas under consideration include a mobility exercise class, yoga, walking meditations, arts and crafts, writing workshops, presentations by medical practitioners on physical and cognitive health, shared meal preparation, board games, coffee chats and more. In addition, we hope to address topics like thriving in retirement, aging well at home, and navigating life’s many transitions.
A full-time program coordinator was hired in summer 2026 to organize program offerings for 2026-2027 and Fairlawn volunteers have investigated relevant grant offerings to support this work.
We are excited about the potential of our Seniors’ Ministry: Fairlawn Connections, and its capacity to both support our aging community of faith as well as the broader community.