From Robert White, Chair of Flyingbow Board of Directors
A few years ago Flyingbow’s Board felt God calling the ministry to expand its scope, adding to the continued support of Trevor Dick, the partner ministries of Okama, Michael Austin Harris and 1:11 Ministries.
We felt there was more Flyingbow could do to support artists of all stripes. But we discovered that we couldn’t. As a registered non-profit organization, we had to make sure all of Flyingbow’s activities furthered our Objectives, which had been set out in a legal document called a “Letters Patent” approved by the Charities Directorate of the Canada Revenue Agency in 2009.
The Board began exploring how, or if, we could adapt those Objectives to match the direction God was leading the ministry. To paraphrase Jesus’ words, we wanted to honour both God and Caesar in the process. We found out that it was possible to modify the Objectives.
Bob Moore and I crafted draft after draft of modified Objectives until the Board agreed on a set that met both the direction was God taking Flyingbow and the government’s requirements for a religious charity. We took these to the lawyer’s office that worked on Flyingbow’s original Letters Patent to see if what was drafted would be acceptable.
Then we waited…on both the government and God. In mid-April, our prayers were answered when I received the following e-mail from the lawyer’s office: “I now have approval from the Charities office to proceed. Are you able to stop into our office and pick up the original documents for signing?” The documents, a Supplementary Letters Patent, were approved and signed at our Board meeting on April 23.
We still await the government’s official approval, but at the moment this only seems a formality. Once the approved documents are in hand, we’ll reveal the changes. For the moment all we can say is the new Objectives will allow Flyingbow to expand the who, how and where of the ministry.
This is a momentous change for Flyingbow. We’ve been able to see God’s hand in every part of the process. I want to thank the Board, and Bob Moore in particular, for persevering with the process. RW