Moose Jaw will be losing two of its community pillars; Minister of St. Andrew’s United Church Jim Tenford and his wife Jennifer are moving to Regina. From bottle-feeding kittens to teaching music, from helping to create an affirming Christian congregation to sheltering refugees, this couple have devoted much of their time to service.
“Well, my wife retired from teaching this year,” said Jim Tenford, who has been the minister at St. Andrew’s United Church for the past 10 years. “She’s been a band teacher at Palliser for 20 years. However, she’s still working at the university and with the symphony in Regina. For the past several years, she’s been commuting to those jobs and in the wintertime, that’s stressful.”
After Jennifer retired from Palliser Heights, the Tenfords took the idea of moving to Regina more seriously. Next thing they knew, Jim was offered a really good job in Regina.
This is a return home for Jennifer as she is from Regina. Highly educated and a multi-instrumentalist, she will continue playing any woodwind instrument the Regina Symphony Orchestra (RSO) needs her to, and teaching at the U of R.
The news was greeted with an outpouring of good wishes on social media — and plenty of sadness. The Tenfords have given everything they can during their time in Moose Jaw, in what they see as an expression of their faith.
An Affirming congregation
St. Andrew’s United will celebrate five years as an affirming congregation in 2022. That means they support radical inclusivity, expressed in the following statement:
We believe all people are God’s children. We welcome all who wish to follow the Way of Christ to fully participate in all aspects of our life and work regardless of age, gender identity, race, sexual orientation, ethnicity, economic circumstances, or differing abilities. We will work to counter injustice, which violates a person’s right to respect, dignity, and fair treatment.
“In the end, it really did come down to the idea that we’re not doing this despite our Christian faith, but because of it,” Jim said. “A church is supposed to be a welcoming place. We shouldn’t have to declare ourselves affirming because that should be the default. It’s like going to the grocery store and they have a sign that says, ‘Our food is now without poison.’ Well yeah, it should be!”
That belief is not commonly held among other Christian churches, which has, Jim admitted, led to some tension.
“It hasn’t been an easy transition for the United Church. There have been struggles. But we have found tremendous blessings through our efforts to be more inclusive. Important voices, that at one point in history would have been silenced, are now celebrated. We can learn from those voices. Whether it’s our Indigenous friends, our LGBT neighbours, or even women.”
St. Andrew’s also holds a historic place among churches as the site of the first ordination of a female minister in Canada, adding another note to its chorus of values.
Founding member of Moose Jaw Pride
Almost immediately after beginning his job as the minister of St. Andrew’s, Jim became a founding board member of Moose Jaw Pride. He claims he made a terrible treasurer, but he wanted to help. For the first three years of the organization, their office was in the church building.
“We’ve had an association ever since. We helped them take on an LGBT sponsorship of their own, we have affirming services every year. … They actually included a representation of our church building in their mural, on the back of the Moose Jaw Pride building.”
Cole Ramsey, current chair of Pride, provided the following statement:
At Moose Jaw Pride we are both personally and professionally sad to see Jim and Jennifer leave Moose Jaw, although we certainly wish them all the best in their new home. I really can't overstate the positive influence Jim had as a founding member of Moose Jaw Pride and a leader at St. Andrew's United Church. He provided both personal support and an incredibly powerful demonstration of allyship as a religious leader, and did amazing work in helping to make St Andrew's a safe and affirming space for members of the 2SLGBTQ community. The legacy he leaves behind in Moose Jaw is one to be very proud of.
“I have a deep admiration for what they’ve done,” Jim said. “They have become a refuge for anybody that needs help. … One of the things I love about the symbol of the rainbow is that it’s the full visible spectrum, scientifically speaking. And they’re living that out there.”
Working with refugees
St. Andrew’s United, with the help of its pastor, has played a large role in welcoming refugees to Moose Jaw. For one thing, the Moose Jaw Multicultural Council (MJMCC) offices are in the church itself.
“Shortly after the Syrian crisis started, we started working with the MJMCC,” Jim explained. “They do government-sponsored refugees, we help privately-sponsored refugees. Since then, we’ve helped out folks from the Middle East, from Africa, from South America.”
St. Andrew’s is well known for its expertise in navigating refugee paperwork and they have a special status with the government that allows them to streamline it somewhat. Jim has worked extensively with the MJMCC to reunite families separated by conflict.
Jim has spent years now acting as a consultant for any organization wanting to sponsor refugees. He has done promotional work to advertise the benefits of sponsoring refugees. And, of course, he and Jennifer renovated their basement into a suite.
“I’m going to give my wife credit on this one,” Jim smiles. “About the same time as the Syrian crisis, we had a flood in our basement and had to gut it. So, she suggested building a basement suite for refugees to live with us.”
The shoes on the steps
“It has been troubled, and it has not always been kind,” Jim said about the relationship between Christianity and Indigenous peoples. “Historically, there was a deep disrespect for any sort of expression of faith that was not European Christianity. And Indigenous spirituality definitely did not fit.”
Jim wanted it to be clear that the shoes, in remembrance of the tragedies of the residential schools, was not his or his congregation’s story -- it belongs to Indigenous peoples. He said he was grateful to help and to be part of healing and reconciliation.
“After the damage that has been done in the name of our faith… Well, I think the persecution of Indigenous peoples is so far from what Christian faith authentically is. It’s completely anathema to what we are taught in the Bible. Yet somehow, so many of those people have past those wrongs and found good in our communities.”
The shoes are now on permanent display in the Heritage Gallery of the Moose Jaw Museum & Art Gallery, across the street from St. Andrew’s. After they had been moved, someone wrote a piece of poetry on the steps. Jim was away, but his congregation protected and honoured the poetry for several weeks before it faded.
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Saving orphan kittens
By Jim’s count, 162 kittens have passed through the Tenford house in the last 10 years.
“What made the Tenfords special is that they were really confident bottle-feeding kittens,” said Dana Haukaas, executive director of the Moose Jaw Humane Society (MJHS). “It’s a daunting task. It requires you to get up every three hours to feed them, for about three weeks.”
The MJHS posted a goodbye to their Facebook page in which they credited the Tenfords for the lives they’ve saved over the years. When we call, they answer, the post said.
“When I saw (the goodbye tribute), I just about cried,” Jim said. “Such a nice thing to do. Really, (we did it for) totally selfish (reasons). We’ve surrounded our lives with these little kittens, it’s like we’re living in a YouTube video.”
Speaking of YouTube videos, the Tenfords have made several in which they explain bottle-feeding techniques — an attempt to help others save orphan kittens.
“They’re very selfless people,” Haukaas said. “They’re leaving a legacy.”
End of an era
“I’m really going to miss this place,” Jim said. “I’m going to miss Moose Jaw, and this church, and these people. It’s a lot of mixed emotions. I’m excited to start a new challenge and adventure, but these people have been so good to us that it’s hard to leave.”
