Letter to the Congregation
To the people of St. Mark’s Presbyterian Church
In the spring of 2022, The Rev. Daniel Cho announced he was accepting a call to Rosedale Presbyterian Church in Toronto. To attend to the vacancy quickly, the Presbytery of East Toronto appointed me as the Interim Moderator. At the time, it wasn’t clear whether my appointment was intended to be only short-term or for the whole vacancy.
This year, the Session discerned it was wise to reflect on the congregation’s circumstances rather than move directly to calling a new minister to fill the vacancy. As we emerged from Covid and after the ending of two ministries and an interim ministry in a relatively short time, a period of review and re-imagining has been an important step towards greater insight about St. Mark’s current and future needs.
During the vacancy, St. Mark’s has been blessed by the leadership of The Rev. Maryka Potgieter who has been working on a ministry contract to tend to the congregation’s needs and programs. Maryka’s insightful and caring leadership has been an important feature of ministry at St. Mark’s this year and I am grateful to Maryka for her leadership and collegiality.
At the end of April, I indicated to the Presbytery that I would not serve as Interim Moderator beyond the last day of August. And in May, I announced my resignation to the Session and congregation. Maryka also announced she would complete her work at St. Mark’s at the end of August.
The Presbytery has determined that it would be best for the congregation to have an Interim Minister to work with the congregation to address the direction of the congregation’s future mission and ministry. However, to my knowledge, no Interim Minister has yet been identified for the congregation by the Presbytery.
The Presbytery has also decided that it would be wise if a group of people from the Presbytery was appointed as an Interim Moderator team rather than appointing a single Interim Moderator. While the team is being assembled, the full membership of the Interim Moderator team has not been named to my knowledge. When this information is available in the next few weeks, an announcement will be made to the congregation about the membership of the team.
I have very much enjoyed working with the people of St Mark’s and will follow the ministry of the congregation as it seeks to continue Christ’s ministry in Toronto in new ways.
Ian Ross-McDonald
Interim Moderator, St. Mark’s
