Re-new Creation, St. Luke’s Leeds Thrift Shop in Elgin, celebrates five years in its new location on June 27, 2024. The Thrift Shop began as a ministry for St. Luke’s Leeds in 2014, when it was just two rooms in the ministry centre (former rectory) in Lyndhurst. When the parish made the bold decision to let go of the church building and rectory in 2019, while remaining a vibrant congregation, the Thrift Shop and Ministry Centre moved to a main street storefront in Elgin, next to the busy grocery store. The impact on St. Luke’s mission and ministries was more than we could ask or imagine!
On the surface, the Thrift Shop is a place where local people can get cheap goods—clothing, household items, toys, books—without travelling to an urban centre and paying higher retail prices
In a rural community where almost one in five children live in poverty, that is a significant incentive for the Thrift Shop to be present in the community.
In its new, more visible and accessible location, the Thrift Shop offers us a front-line opportunity to assess community and individual needs. As the base for many of our ministries, the Thrift Shop is a warm, welcoming space for people of all abilities and socio-economic circumstances. This is especially important in the offering of our weekly Brown Bag Lunches and Meals to Go and our seasonal fresh produce exchange. An unexpected benefit of the Thrift Shop was how we support home-based and other small businesses who use Re-new Creation as a source for online sales or upcycling.
While many community members value the availability of low-cost goods, they also appreciate having a local, ethical place to donate items. St. Luke’s Leeds promotes the re-use and repurposing of items as part of our commitment to the 5th Mark of Mission, “To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth.” An Australian study estimates that the average charity shop receives 339 tonnes of donations in store annually – that is a lot of material diverted from landfills!
The proceeds from Re-new Creation Thrift Shop are shared between the operating fund for St. Luke’s Leeds, which enables our many other ministries, and outreach at the local, national and global levels. Due to the pandemic, the first full year of operation for the Thrift Shop was 2023 during which $60,000 in sales were made. From these sales, over $30,000 was donated to causes that met our values: feeding the hungry, welcoming the stranger, caring for the environment, nurturing children & youth, responding to needs amid disaster.
Re-new Creation Thrift Shop is entirely volunteer-run. As our Thrift Shop Manager, Susan Duncan observes, “we have a great group of dedicated volunteers who truly enjoy their time at the thrift shop. The biggest reason they like volunteering is that they get to see firsthand the good work we are doing in the community, for example assisting people who may need some help just to get by, and also the Meals 2 Go program. We all enjoy our regular customers and look forward to greeting them week after week.” The volunteers are integral in identifying community and individual needs and how we can improve the space to make it more inviting.
The evolution of Re-new Creation St. Luke’s Thrift Shop didn’t happen overnight. It was through intentional discernment, listening for the movement of the Holy Spirit and trusting in God to bring us to new places where we are being called to be the hands of Jesus in service to others.
Stewardship Reflections with the Ven. Wayne Varley