How Caledonia United Church fostered new life in its small, rural Nova Scotia community with their 100 Tables project
In the heart of Caledonia, Nova Scotia, our small rural community of faith watched as neighbouring churches closed their doors. We wondered if we might one day face the same fate. With no ministry personnel, Caledonia United purchased weekly worship resources on a memory stick, and invigorated leadership in the congregation. With deep faith, a dedicated music director, active United Church Women group, and a small but passionate choir, Caledonia remains determined.
In September 2025, a dozen members gathered for a weekend of visioning and reflection facilitated by our Growth Animator. Through a full-day Saturday workshop followed by Sunday worship, a potluck lunch, and another afternoon session, the congregation discerned what God was calling them to do next. Participants explored their congregation’s core purpose, filling sheets of chart paper with words describing their values, strengths, and hopes for the future. The lists were kept visible to guide future church council decisions.
If we wanted to connect with the wider community, the church needed to become visible and get to know our neighbours. Just two days later, we set up a welcoming table with a water station during a parade and invited attendees to stop, sit, and connect. We moved a portable gratitude table around to various locations; outside a local thrift shop that supports the food bank, community members wrote messages of gratitude on small cards and placed them in a collection box. Homemade treats were offered, and a signup sheet was available for anyone to express interest in joining a community choir.
During Fire Prevention Week, we brought the gratitude table to the local fire department’s open house, and people were invited to write thank-you notes to first responders. On Thanksgiving, fourteen worshippers gathered, including 120 handwritten gratitude cards as part of their offering. The community choir ultimately had 20 new members for the fall and holiday season, and went caroling in the neighborhood and at a long-term care home. Meanwhile the table, now called the “community table,” remained on the move. The gratitude box evolved into a “hope box,” and the hopes in it were incorporated into Christmas worship.
With the six-week choir pilot so successful, additional choir sessions followed in the winter and spring; another is planned for fall 2026. Community members who saw us around began calling one member of the church “the church lady” or “the table lady.” Conversations naturally followed; often people were curious about what question the community table would ask next. Partnerships continued to grow. Working alongside local organizations, the church helped with a community Easter egg hunt and celebration.
As part of the 100 Tables project, a congregant designed and built a beautiful custom picnic table, complete with supportive backrests. The handcrafted table became a visible symbol of hospitality and belonging, anchoring the congregation’s outdoor hospitality and outreach ministry. This summer, the table brought children, youth, parents, and elders together during four themed Saturday events that offered crafts, food, learning, and fellowship.
The first gathering focused on being good neighbours. Children built miniature wooden towns, and learned about values including honesty, humility, and kindness. Later events explored monarch butterflies and turtles, Indigenous teachings about the medicine wheel, dream catchers, and the significance of the eagle in First Nations culture. Participants also created friendship bracelets and other crafts that encouraged relationship building across generations.
The final summer gathering was a grand celebration day. Attendees enjoyed relay races, a bubble pool, and gathered around the new custom table to make homemade ice cream, taking turns cranking an old-fashioned ice cream maker. In a collaborative art project, the children pressed paint-covered hands and feet onto a long roll of newsprint, to loudly declare to the world that they were here. Each summer event at the table concluded with camp songs, grace, and learning classics like “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing” and “Sing, Sing a Song.”
Caledonia United Church continues to bring our beautiful curiosity, creativity, and courage to the community. Plans for the coming months include sponsoring lunches for local students, delivering meals to business staff, exploring a school-age choir, and developing a teen drop-in program.
By embracing an “I think I can” attitude, listening, and trying new things, Caledonia United has cultivated a profound sense of belonging. We remain a resilient, hopeful community of faith, sensitive to the needs of others, with a new song in our hearts and on our lips.
—Linda White is the “table lady” and energizer bunny behind the table and choir initiatives at Caledonia United Church. Rev. Dr. Sharon Ballantyne is a Growth and Stewardship Animator in Atlantic Canada.
Check out our Map of 100 Tables to learn more. Interested in organizing 100 Tables at your community of faith? Contact 100tables@united-church.ca.
The views contained within these blogs are personal and do not necessarily reflect those of The United Church of Canada.