Church barricades driveway near BBBS

Last evening we were contacted by some of our readers and asked to report on the comments made on Big Brothers Big Sisters Miramichi facebook page, complaining about the barricades erected by their neighbour, the Holy Trinity Christian Church.  Initially we were not interested in weighing in on a private dispute between neighbours, but this afternoon the church issued a press release to clarify their position.  

The BBBS facebook page is followed closely by the thousands of people who play their lottery, and many of them would have seen a recent post by BBBS questioning the community spirit of the church.  BBBS posted photos of the barricades, and comments on its facebook page on Wednesday.  The barricades were erected on November 12th, and the comment from BBBs was that they found it a "challenge to see the unity in community when unsightly barricades were put up by the neighbouring church"

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The press release by the church states that BBBS is aware of the purpose of the barricades, that in the past it has been erected for a week each September to maintain their right of ownership.  The church says it has advised BBBS of its decision not to fix the driveway that has been barricaded, and that they feel it is a liability and is best not to be used at all.  They plan to barricade it for the winter, and turn it into a green space in the spring.

Readers of the BBBS facebook thought the move to criticize the church would not be well received.

Lacey Morehouse via Facebook:   You ask for donations and for people to help support your organization but yet publicly bash one of the many church's on the miramichi who help the people in our community who need It more with less money? Seriously give your head a shake, BBBS offer programs but STILL charge a fee for every child that goes. how about not bashing the church and maybe giving a donation to them from all the money BBBS reel in with Goldrush. This community is very giving and also very religious. You're stepping on alot of peoples toes by posting these pictures and more then likely losing a lot of respect as an organization. There is probably a good reason they put up barricades.

Others thought BBBS should remove the post before too many people saw it, or until the church had time to explain.

 

 

PRESS RELEASE from Holy Trinity Church

To the community we so lovingly serve:

We want to thank you for taking the time to read this statement today. Like many of you, we were saddened to read the statements by our neighbours, Big Brothers, Big Sisters Miramichi, on November 20th, 2014 through Email and Social Media.

It is our practice here at Holy Trinity Congregational to strive to live out our mission:

Love God, Love People, and Prove It! We love our city and continually are striving to make it an even greater place with full belief that better days lay ahead for Miramichi. We very much want to be a part of those great things. It is because of this our hearts breaks over this issue we are discussing today.

Since 2008, Holy Trinity Congregational has annually been part of supporting Big Brothers Big Sisters. We seek to maximize every gift we receive to help within our community. As such, when we were presented with an opportunity to help the kids and youth of Miramichi through BBBS, the congregation enthusiastically said "yes". Since this time, we have allowed BBBS free access to our property for all of their events. We charge them no rent. We have also allowed them to place the playground structures on our property free of charge as well. (This agreement in subject to annual reviews by Holy Trinity Congregational and subject to our use of the property).

Each year we block off access to our driveway for a period of usually up to one week to maintain our right of ownership. This year after discussions of issues with liabilities the closure has remained in effect since September. The driveway is falling into disrepair and requires

upgrades and ongoing maintenance for use.

Although we are blessed, we have not been able to justify spending the gifts we receive to resurface a driveway that will not exist in the future as we expand. We feel the need to use the funds we have to meet the needs of the community. Our future expansion plans for our property does not include this driveway and this also weighed heavy on our decisions to not invest large amounts of money for just a small portion of time, just have it removed later on. We have been in communication over the months in regards to the closure with BBBS.

We have become increasingly concerned with the traffic and use of the driveway by children, youth and pedestrians who use our property for various activities. We want our property to remain safe and usable by the community at large. Many use our property to walk dogs, picnic and even sit under the trees to read a book. We have plans to utilize our property for various community events during 2015 that will benefit the entire city.

Due to the increased liabilities and costs associated with keeping a private driveway open that we do not use, we as a congregation, have decided that in the spring of 2015 we will be turning the area back into green space.

BBBS will still continue, for the foreseeable future and until the time arises that we require to expand on our land, have use of the land (under our guidelines and those of our insurance provider) and the placement of the playground equipment.

Due to all this, we began last week with the construction of barricades to block off access to the driveway. The completion of these which, we hope, will be aesthetically appealing to all, will be completed by the end of this week. These are temporary for the winter only and will be removed once the spring arrives and the work to turn the driveway into green space is complete.

We at Holy Trinity Congregational, are far from perfect. We make mistakes all the time and we even sin. We are no different than the next person but we strive to be better each day. We do still fall short from time to time. We are a mix match group of people from all walks of life just working this Faith we have in God out together. Everyone, and we mean everyone, is welcome at Holy Trinity no matter what. We know people make mistakes: we all do. And that's where God's grace comes in to the picture.

So today we choose to forgive. After all, that is what Jesus teaches: forgive at all times, all things. We love the work BBBS does. Our youth and kids are a priority for all of us. We are working on ways to creatively engage this generation to give them hope of a great future ourselves.

We have a city that needs us all to pull together to fight for its future. We want to be part of that fight and believe we can be part of the difference needed to see a future that is bright for the people of Miramichi. Let's all lay aside our issues like these and work together for a greater cause

We also would like to ask the community, as a whole, for forgiveness in this situation. We apologize that this matter became what it has and humbly seek your forgiveness. We hope that this statement is satisfactory to all in regards to this matter and can be now put to rest.

To Big Brothers Big Sisters Miramichi, we forgive and ask for forgiveness as well. Let's put this behind us and move forward. Let's equip our children to succeed. Let's be role models to them and show them how to handle conflict the right way. Let's let today be a new day; after all, today is a great day!

Kind Regards and God's Blessing to each and every one.

Matthew Thompson - Lead Pastor / Congregational Chairman

Russell LeBlanc - Chairman Deacons, Corina Somers - Vice Chairperson

Tamara MacDonald -Treasurer Gerry LeBlanc - Secretary

For the Congregation of Holy Trinity Congre