Canada Notes: Anglican News Snippets

Ecumenical church plant

The Rupert’s Land diocesan council has approved funding for a missioner to develop a new worshipping community in Sage Creek, located southeast of Winnipeg.

The diocese is partnering with the Manitoba and Northwestern Ontario Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC) in this church planting endeavour.

The missioner will be present at community meetings and gatherings to get to know the people of Sage Creek and to determine their needs.

The bishop of the diocese of Rupert’s Land, Don Philips, and the bishop of Manitoba and Northwestern Ontario Synod, Elaine Sauer, identified Sage Creek as one of two new neighbourhoods with potential for new worshipping congregations.

source: Rupert’s Land News

Crime agenda all wrong

The federal government’s tough-on-crime agenda that calls for tougher sentences and longer prison terms goes against the principles of restorative agenda that chaplains and other volunteers are promoting, a priest in the Anglican diocese of Montreal has said.

“We are trying to encourage reparation and taking responsibility. They seem to be interested in disposing of people from our society,” said Deacon Peter Huish, who has been working with inmates and former inmates of federal prisons. “When you throw more people in jail for longer and longer periods they are going to be more embittered when they finally do come out, and the chances that they commit repeat offences are going to be greater.”

Huish co-ordinates the Montreal Southwest Community Ministries, which provides group activities and counseling to ex-inmates under a contract between the diocese of Montreal and Correctional Services Canada.

source: Montreal Anglican

From Pennies to Pies

The Anglican diocese of Western Newfoundland has been busy celebrating the 50^th anniversary of The Primate’s World Relief and Development (PWRDF) with “From Pennies to Pies,” activities that range from penny drives to breakfasts and lunches.

The events have not only raised funds for PWRDF, the relief and development agency of the Anglican Church of Canada, but created awareness about the various aspects of its work.
The Anglican Church Women (ACW) groups have been particularly hard at work. In Cow Head, two teams challenged each other to bring in pennies and the losing team had to cook dinner for the winners. They raised $1,000.

At the Parish of Pasadena/Cormack, the congregation used the occasion of its rector’s 40^th birthday to ask parishioners to bring in 40 of something – either cash or something to sell, with proceeds going to PWRDF.

More initiatives are expected before the 50^th anniversary activities wrap up at General Synod in June.

source: Anglican Life