PWRDF works with impacted dioceses to identify needs; this could include emergency accommodations, gift cards to purchase food, water and essentials, counselling and post-trauma supports, or locally identified long-term recovery activities to help rebuild community assets and increase community resilience.

To donate to PWRDF’s In-Canada Emergency fund, go to pwrdf.org/give-today.

Or mail a cheque to PWRDF at 80 Hayden Street, 3rd floor, Toronto, ON, M4Y 3G2. Please indicate In-Canada Emergency in the memo field.

On a local note, we are looking for new people to take on leadership roles in our Montreal chapter of PWRDF.We would love for some new people to join our planning team, to decide on the best ways forward. We would especially welcome young people to become involved, to help us with our social media efforts.

The work being done through PWRDF is an inspiring and tangible manisfestation of our faith. We have found being involved in it to be so rewarding; we would love others to experience it as well. There is so much opportunity and support through the national organization. We just need a few more enthusiastic souls to further the cause here at home. Interested? Contact Ann rhodesbartow@gmail.com or Ros roslyn.macgregor@gmail.com

The post Update from PWRDF appeared first on Montreal Anglican.

In a recent article Kristof writes about a kid from the slums in Kenya; Kennedy Odede ran away from home, taught himself to read, saved 20c and bought a soccer ball, and, with this humble start, he encouraged the inhabitants of his slum to play soccer. He then organised a group, SHOFCO, (Shining Hope for Communities) helping underprivileged communities to work together to improve their future. Kennedy’s philosophy is ‘Any solution is always more successful when there is a feeling of ownership in the community.’

This philosophy of Kennedy’s underlies the PWRDF Indigenous Responsive program grants. PWRDF is establishing a bank of money to which indigenous communities can apply for a grant to fund a project determined by themselves.

The Montreal Unit of PWRDF has chosen this project to support in 2022- 2023 and is actively raising money for this bank to which Indigenous Communities may apply. Our local project is being called Decolonizing Fundraising to emphasise that this approach puts the ownership firmly on the local community. Colonials tend to see programs of aid as their own programs, even if they have local input.

In the days when religious affiliations were more common there used to be a saying ‘The family who prays together stays together’. Today this might be replaced by ‘The community that works together grows together.’ Your Montreal PWRDF team hopes that we in our communities and congregations can work together to raise funds to donate to PWRDF’s Indigenous Responsive Program Grants.

Material for the project has been distributed.

You can support this program by making a designated gift through your church or directly to PWRDF at pwrdf.org/Indigenousgrants, or indicate Indigenous Grant on your cheque and mail it to: PWRDF, 80 Hayden St., 3rd Floor, Toronto, ON, M4Y 3G2.

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Afghanistan Evacuation Air Traffic Control, August 16, 2021: “Okay, how many people do you think are on your jet?… 800 people on your jet? Holy f—, holy cow.” 

Where and what is your heaven on earth? Likely, it would involve a place, a place you call home, a place of family and community, work and leisure, a place made up of the things that define who you are. 

Imagine for a moment that you have become a refugee, defined by loss of place, of home, community and possibly even family. You have been forced to flee and are now faced with the daunting task of moving heaven and earth to find safety, shelter, a new place to call home. 

In its 2020 report, The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) indicated that “Despite COVID-related movement restrictions and pleas from the international community for a [global] ceasefire that would facilitate the COVID-19 response, displacement continued to occur – and to grow. As a result, above one per cent of the world’s population – or 1 in 95 people – is now forcibly displaced. This compares with 1 in 159 in 2010.” 

Despite the growing numbers of those seeking asylum, the UNCHR also reported that “only 34,400 refugees were resettled to third countries in 2020…This compares to 107,800 the year before and marks a dramatic 60 per cent decline – at a time when 1.4 million refugees are estimated to be in need of resettlement.”

In mid-August, 640 Afghans crowded onto a U.S. Air Force CF-18 in a desperate attempt to find safety in another country. It was five times the plane’s passenger capacity. The image flooding news broadcasts and social media feeds was a searing definition of moving heaven and earth.

Here in Canada, there is a small group of Anglicans who, in less dramatic but no less committed ways, go about the work of moving heaven and earth to bring to Canada those who have lost their heaven on earth. 

They are the Refugee Coordinators for the 15 dioceses that hold Private Sponsorship Agreements with the federal government’s Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada ministry. Some of them are lay people, others ordained, some are paid, others are volunteers. 

PWRDF provides modest networking and advocacy support to this group known as the PWRDF Refugee Network. Since COVID-19 hit, the group has gathered regularly on Zoom to check-in, offer mutual support and mentoring and to strategize.

In the Diocese of Montreal, Carolina Manganelli is the Refugee Coordinator. Since 2015, parishes and families have welcomed 487 refugees to the diocese, no one in 2021. 

When representatives of the Refugee Network gathered in July to discuss what key messages they would like to share with Anglicans in Canada, they talked about the enormous global need for refugee sponsorship; a need they are confronted with on a daily basis in the form of appeals for asylum. 

As Jane Townshend of the Diocese of Huron noted,  “During COVID, three or four parishes in my diocese have come forward to say they would like to consider sponsoring a refugee family. I have a waiting list of 300 refugee cases looking for a sponsor.”

The refugee coordinators also spoke about the complexity of the needs of those seeking asylum. No two cases are alike. This is compounded by a labyrinthine and painfully slow sponsorship process. “What is discouraging is the three-year wait that can be soul-destroying for family members and individuals overseas,” said Tony Davis, Diocese of B.C. Refugee Coordinator. 

Yet this moving heaven and earth, of welcoming the stranger, can be transformative for refugees and sponsors alike. “It is an opportunity to encounter ‘the other,’” explained the Rev. Scott McLeod, who coordinates refugee sponsorship in the Diocese of Niagara. The professional, cultural and other gifts that refugees bring to Canada, the group noted, are beyond measure. “Resilience,” said Townshend, “is a key word when it comes to refugees.” 

At the same time, they are keenly aware that some refugees arrive in Canada deeply traumatized and in need of large measures of compassion and practical support. This can make for some very challenging sponsorships, said McLeod. “But that does not negate the legitimacy of the refugee sponsorship program which is legitimate in and of itself.”

Indeed, long before the United Nations defined who is a refugee, Jesus’ Judgement of the Nations spelled out clearly what our response needs to be to those who have moved heaven and earth to begin anew in Canada: 

“Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me… Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.” (Matthew 25: 34b-36, 40) 

To learn more about refugee sponsorship in your diocese, please contact Carolina Manganelli at director@actionr.org.

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This year’s guide supports 17 partners as they plan for a healthier and stronger future. 

Programs include restoring and preserving seeds in Bangladesh, providing families with supplies to raise chickens in Columbia nad Zimbabwe, continued support of “smart” dairy farming initiatives in Kenya and of course, back by popular demand, giving goats to people in Malawi, Zimbabwe and Cuba.

Go to www.pwrdf.org/worldofgifts.

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PWRDF has formed a consultative group for actions that affect the Canadian Indigenous communities. 

PWRDF’s Indigenous Program Advisory Committee (IPAC) includes representatives from the Anglican Council of Indigenous Peoples (ACIP).

A brief bio of the members of IPAC can be found at: pwrdf.org/indigenous-program-advisory-committee

ACIP’s participation in the group is important because of its role in the Indigenous community. It’s our guess that many people have not even heard of ACIP. So let’s do some demystifying.

ACIP was formed during the second half of the 19th century and its current membership is drawn from Indigenous people across Canada. One of the criteria for membership is to be Indigenous. 

Since its formation ACIP’s goal has been to work towards self determination of the community of Indigenous peoples within the Anglican Church of Canada. More about ACIP and also our Indigenous partners can be found on the Anglican church website. www.anglican.ca/about/ccc/acip

There is so much we can learn from and about the Indigenous people. All people have needs, but doing things for others may be seen as implying that those others are inferior. 

People often need tools not others taking over!  PWRDF’s new venture tries to do just that. 

With the Indigenous Responsive Program, PWRDF is fundraising to create a bank of funds which the Indigenous community can access to carry out their own projects, to be developed and managed by themselves. 

We provide the general funds and the choice of the use of those funds is made by the Indigenous people as they apply for monetary support in one of four predetermined areas. These are:

• Community Health – programs aimed to foster awareness, educate, deliver and support to the Indigenous community in areas/sectors such as suicide and addictions prevention, family violence, Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD), HIV and AIDS, mental health promotion, traditional caregivers, midwives and doula/birth work support, etc.

• Youth Engagement – initiatives that promote knowledge, expertise, empowerment, self-sufficiency and practice of traditional cultural values, such as youth self-esteem and identity strengthening, leadership and entrepreneurship training and development, revitalization of their culture and language through connections to the land, knowing their history and values, etc. We affirm partners’ priority on youth’s aspirations for the future.  

• Climate Action – programs that assess and promote alternatives, opportunities and development of training and job creation in areas of Indigenous farming, trapping, fishing activities, including dissemination of community findings as response to climate change).

• Safe Water – programs that support work experience and training on maintenance and operation of drinking water infrastructure, including water treatment plant; as well as skills development in installation of water and wastewater systems as part of local strategic initiatives aimed to ensure safe, clean, drinking water in Indigenous communities).

A brief description of this venture can be found in the World of Gifts, and more on the PWRDF website www.pwrdf.org.

Montreal PWRDF will work hard through 2021-2022 to raise funds for this Program. Posters and other tools will be available to churches and other groups.

Contact Ros Macgregor (roslyn.macgregor@gmail.com), Ann Cumyn (acumyn@sympatico.ca) or your local PWRDF rep for information. 

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