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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Rev. Peter Short, a minister at Yellowknife's United Church from 1983 to 1990, has decided to retire.

Now serving at Wilmot United Church in Fredericton, N.B., the minister said he loved being part of the church in Yellowknife, where "it was quite a bit different from any church that I had been associated with before."

"It doesn't look like a church. It required a lot of innovation and risk to accomplish. The congregation had a heritage of adventure. I found that in the people there. I enjoyed that thoroughly."

The minister got involved with the city's community outside the church as well - coaching hockey, helping out with the swim club, singing, and acting.

Short was born in Kingston, Ont., in 1948. He said falling in love with a girl who was involved with the church and a practising Christian was the inspiration for him to take on the life of a United Church minister.

"While I grew up in the United Church, going to Sunday school and all those things it wasn't really a compelling part of my life until I fell in love," said Short. "I had been away from the church essentially as many people are in their teens and twenties. That's how it happened."

He became intrigued by some of the questions of meaning from the church and decided to go to theological school. He has been serving the church since 1977. In addition to his stint in Yellowknife, he has ministered on Quebec's Gaspe Coast and in Montreal. He was elected moderator of the United Church of Canada in 2003, serving in that capacity for three years.

"There are two levels of responsibility," said Short. "One is a sort of a spiritual leadership level and the other is a more technical, chair-the-meetings kind of level."

As moderator, Short travelled across Canada and the world to attend events. The question of same-sex marriage was the hot issue during his time in the role.

Staying connected to a spiritual purpose is important, he said.

"While we do what we do in the public sphere, we're doing it for reasons that belong to us and inform us and remind us of our purpose," Short said. "Church and religious rules are made for people; people are not made for the church. Our essential humanity was at the root of what we do."

Even though he is retiring, Short said he will stay involved in the church by finding ways to encourage people to get involved in church leadership, and by working with the Canadian Forces chaplaincy branch, an organization he got involved with while living in Yellowknife.

"I don't have any plans at the moment but I know I'm not retiring to a life of leisure," said Short. "It's not about leisure. It's about re-imagining my work and reducing the amount of administration I'm involved in; reducing the number of meetings and generating an agenda that has more to do with the things that I particularly love doing."