The cards are part of a community project called “They Walked These Streets – We Will Remember Them.” Behind this poignant and simple gesture of recognition is a busy network of volunteers and researchers led by Katy Whitfield, a Toronto high school teacher and historian who grew up in the neighbourhood.

Ms. Whitfield started the project in 2020, inspired by journalist Patrick Cain’s interactive “Poppy File” map. In perusing the map, she discovered that two soldiers who died had lived in her house. On Nov. 9 that year, fellow teacher Ian Da Silva and his kids planted 13 poppies made from pool noodles in their front lawn to recognize the soldiers who had lived nearby. Ms. Whitfield researched 13 names and created 13 info cards, including details of each soldier’s life and death and a QR code linking to their record on the Canadian Virtual War Memorial website. Just in time for Remembrance Day, the cards gave neighbours a place to learn and reflect when pandemic restrictions prevented them from gathering for a remembrance service.

Now in its sixth year, the project has grown a hundredfold to more than 1,350 names in a section of the west end of the city bordered by the Humber River, Dufferin Street, St. Clair Avenue West and Lake Ontario. The project has also moved from homes to public institutions.

“As a teacher, I really wanted to put a collection of names within walking distance to every school,” says Ms. Whitfield. After schools and libraries, she realized that churches have memorials. “And they also do remembrance services.”

A member of Runnymede United Church, Ms. Whitfield started there, adding Presbyterian and other United churches too. Anglican churches in the area came on board two years ago when St. Paul, Runnymede joined the ranks, followed by St. Martin in-the-Field last year, and St. Olave, Swansea this year. In 2025, there were 13 commemorative displays. Each card included the logo of the church or school the soldier had attended, as well as photographs, newspaper articles and more.

Brothers Leonard and Leslie Dutton both died in the Second World War and were parishioners of St. Olave’s. The family who now lives in their home was so moved to learn of this tragic loss in one family that they contacted Ms. Whitfield to ask for a display on their lawn. “They have remained friends with the Duttons’ niece because of their wanting to honour these soldiers, past and present,” she says.

Ms. Whitfield’s passion for military history is palpable. As a former education coordinator for the Vimy Foundation, she led battlefield tours and was a recipient of the Governor General’s Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2015. Part of the prize was a visit to the Remembrance Day commemorations in Vimy, France in 2017 on the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge.

But more than those impressive accomplishments, it’s the stories that drive her. “This project helps people put a face to the names inscribed on the plaques,” she says. “I feel like I am carrying these stories.”

Indeed, in our conversation she enthusiastically brings up names of soldiers whose relatives or descendants have contacted her. Every little detail fills in more of the lives lived. As a former student told her, she is “uncovering the history of the neighbourhood.”

Ms. Whitfield is open to working with others to replicate the project in other parts of the city, but she also guards the quality and integrity of the research. “It is a real passion project for me.”

With the number of living WWII veterans dwindling, we are at a point in our history when their stories may die, too. Thanks to Ms. Whitfield’s efforts, they have a chance to find a place in a new living history.

The post Displays honour local soldiers appeared first on The Toronto Anglican.

A rapt Toronto audience was treated to a unique performance of poetry, songs and storytelling on Oct. 27 at Yorkminster Park Baptist Church as part of the Lester Randall Preaching Fellowship. Mr. Guite, the chaplain of Girton College at Cambridge University, was also a workshop presenter.

The appearance was a bit of a homecoming. Born in 1957 in Nigeria, Mr. Guite moved to Hamilton at age 10 when his father got a post in the Classics department at McMaster University.

“I spent my early teenage years as a Canadian kid, going to grade school and then junior high in Hamilton and Dundas,” he said from his Cambridge study in an interview before his Toronto visit.

“But in ’71 my dad felt I was losing my British identity – which is quite funny because I’d hardly even been in Britain – so he sent me to boarding school in England. So from ’71 to ’77, I had a kind of strange double life as a British schoolboy in term times, and a Canadian teenager in vacations.” In 1977, he won a scholarship to Cambridge University and came back to Canada for vacations until 1980.

About 15 years ago, he met Mr. Bell, which rekindled his Canadian connections. “I ended up playing gigs with him in Hamilton and Dundas. I really like doing that. And I go to Canada every year or two, either to do courses and lectures at the summer institutes (Regent College in Vancouver) or to do stuff with Steve.”

It’s a true and unique collaboration, he says. “He’ll take a poem of mine, and he doesn’t just set it to a tune: he’ll remake it or reshape or take the final couplet from the sonnet and turn it into the bridge or the chorus of the song, that kind of thing. It’s a great partnership. What we love to do when we play gigs is we just set up two stools. We kind of know where we’re going to start, and we have a landing place. But otherwise, we don’t have a set list, we literally riff off each other. We’ve come to know each other’s back catalogue, as it were.”

On stage, both artists enthused about the other’s respective talents. Over an animated hour-long chat, I couldn’t help but be reminded of Father Christmas. Mr. Guite’s white beard and bangs frame his bespectacled face, while he takes occasional draws on his Calabash pipe. He frequently recites fragments of his favourite poems, from Tennyson to Herbert, in a rumbling and melodious voice.

Mr. Guite writes Poet’s Corner, a column in The Church Times, and has published seven poetry collections, many of which explore Christian themes or scripture. His most popular is Sounding the Seasons, comprising 110 sonnets – one for each day of the Christian calendar. Each one unfolds like intricate origami, turning in on itself to reveal something surprising, though at the same time, familiar all along.

Take the sonnet for the Feast of Christ the King:

Our King is calling from the hungry furrows
Whilst we are cruising through the aisles of plenty,
Our hoardings screen us from the man of sorrows,
Our soundtracks drown his murmur: ‘I am thirsty’.
He stands in line to sign in as a stranger
And seek a welcome from the world he made,
We see him only as a threat, a danger,
He asks for clothes, we strip-search him instead.
And if he should fall sick then we take care
That he does not infect our private health,
We lock him in the prisons of our fear
Lest he unlock the prison of our wealth.
But still on Sunday we shall stand and sing
The praises of our hidden Lord and King.

For Mr. Guite, the connection between poetry and faith has always been linked. It was the Psalms that drew him to Christianity, or rather, compelled him to return to it.

“I was a moody, sloppy and slightly precocious teenager,” he said. “Part of my modern scientific mind was that Christians were all a bit dim. But that began to break down in the face of beauty and music.”

While studying literature at Cambridge, all the writers he was reading were Christian. “When you read St. Augustine, you realize you’ve been ushered into a mind that is far more capacious than your own. [The idea that] Christianity is for dummies dies on the first couple of pages of St. Augustine’s Confessions, which really blew my mind.”

Then, while house-sitting in London, he began to read the Psalms aloud to learn how poets’ minds were formed by scripture. On reading Psalm 145, one line had a profound effect on him: “The Lord is nigh to all who fall, he is nigh to all who fall upon him.”

“As I read this line, suddenly everything changed,” he said. “One minute I was alone in the room, and the next minute I wasn’t.”

He recalled being uncomfortable, like he had shifted from being the centre of his universe to God being at the centre. “I was way, way, way out on some infinitely distant edge, hanging out by a thread, while the whole room was filled with this immense holy presence, which I couldn’t really look at because I was a man of unclean lips. And it was almost intolerable. But it was also inexorable. I couldn’t stop it.”

In a state, he went to see the college chaplain for guidance. “He told me, ‘The answer’s clearly in the Psalms.’”

The chaplain said Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer every day in the chapel and invited Mr. Guite to join him, and they would say the Psalms antiphonally. “He told me I could say anything in the Psalms directly to that presence, and don’t be afraid because you’re taking his words.”

That experience, followed by other moments, eventually led Mr. Guite to become a member of the Anglican Church. He was confirmed in 1980 in a university confirmation service. Ten years later, he was ordained.

The post Poet-priest enlightens, entertains appeared first on The Toronto Anglican.

“Everything became difficult,” she says. “There was no way to handle medical materials in the dark.”

That changed in 2022, when Alongside Hope and a local partner installed a Solar Suitcase. The suitcase is mounted on the wall of the clinic and connected to a solar panel on the roof.

Suitcase is a bit of misnomer. The bright yellow, hard plastic box with a handle looks like a suitcase, and it does carry stuff – electricity generated by the sun – but instead of being packed with clothing, pyjamas and toiletries, it is stuffed with LED lights, headlamps, a fetal Doppler to monitor a baby’s heart during labour, chargers for cellphones and laptops, a thermometer and more.

“The Muripotana Health Centre does not have access to the national power grid, so we rely solely on the lighting provided by the Solar Suitcase,” Ms. Abdala says. “When a patient arrives at night, we don’t need phone flashlights or lamps. During rainy times, it charges a little, and that charge helps us too.”

The results have been immediate and meaningful for health workers and patients alike. “Both the patient and the companion feel free and comfortable because they can follow the procedure and see what I’m doing,” says Ms. Abdala. “Without the Solar Suitcase’s lighting, they wouldn’t be able to see and would have doubts about the procedures. This causes them to speak badly about the care because they don’t have clarity about what happened.”

Installation of the suitcases in Mozambique began in 2016, funded in part by a grant from the Diocese of Toronto’s Our Faith-Our Hope campaign. The initial project saw 30 suitcases installed and the beginning of a partnership with We Care Solar, based in California. In 2022, 50 more suitcases were installed.

Thanks to those 80 suitcases, more than 80,000 babies have been delivered safely in the project area, many in the middle of the night. In some districts, the number of nighttime births increased by 17.5 per cent because women knew they would be cared for in properly lit spaces.

Now, in 2025, Alongside Hope is finishing the job. With the addition of 39 more Solar Suitcases, all off-grid Ministry of Health clinics in the province of Nampula will have a suitcase. This new project, called Coming Alongside Hope with Light, also includes the installation of 14 Solar Suitcases in Madagascar, working with a local partner. The total budget is $320,000. Thanks to a generous donor, donations will be matched, up to $150,000. The project is also the focus of this year’s Wild Ride, Alongside Hope’s annual fundraising campaign.

For Ms. Abdala, the Solar Suitcase is a game-changer. She now calls the patient’s companions into the room to explain sutures, using the light to ensure full transparency. “Even when suturing, the patients and their companions can see why we are suturing. At that moment, we call the companions to explain, for example: ‘Mama, your daughter tore. We can’t leave her like this. We need to suture here.’”

The Solar Suitcase helps Ms. Abdala monitor newborns more closely during delivery, including how the baby is presenting. And in critical moments, that visibility can save lives. In one case, a preterm baby was born tired and not crying. “The mother asked, ‘Will this baby cry?’” Ms. Abdala recalls. With the light guiding their actions, she and her team were able to resuscitate the baby and begin skin-to-skin contact with the mother.

Patients have noticed the change. “I gave birth at night, around 10 p.m.,” says one patient. “It was with the light from the Solar Suitcase, and I felt very happy because I could see what the nurse was doing.”

Another said, “I am a first-time mother. I gave birth to my baby here at the centre around 6 p.m. I liked having my baby in a well-lit place. Here, I could see everything the nurse did and talk to her. If I had given birth at home, it would have been in the dark, and something could have gone wrong.”

Over time, the community’s perception of Ms. Abdala has also shifted. “In the beginning, it wasn’t easy, there was a lot of mistrust, and not all community members treated me with respect.” But after helping a woman who had once been unfriendly to her, everything changed. “With the Solar Suitcase, I’ve noticed that people trust my work more. My work spoke for me. Today, I am respected by almost everyone.”

The suitcase provides more than electricity, she says. “Even in centres that have electricity, for me, having only electricity is not enough; sometimes there is no power for long periods. I am grateful for the Solar Suitcase, and I ask that it be provided to other centres that don’t have it. It doesn’t matter if they are connected to the grid or not; the Solar Suitcase is very important.”

For Ms. Abdala, the motivation remains clear. “As a midwife, I take pride in my work because I am a midwife. I enjoy receiving babies and do this work with all my willingness. Even when I have personal problems, I forget everything when I arrive at the maternity ward and see patients waiting for me.”

Help fund a suitcase

A Solar Suitcase costs $6,500, which includes installation and training of local staff in how to use and maintain it. “It’s a perfect opportunity to work together with your parish to host a fundraiser,” says Janice Biehn of Alongside Hope. “Bake sale, concert, lemonade stand – anything works! When you raise funds for one suitcase, they will be matched, effectively lighting up two clinics.”

Anglicans in the diocese can also join Alongside Hope’s Wild Ride, which is supporting the Solar Suitcase project this year. Participants can take part in the annual event either as individuals or on a team. They can ride, walk, run, bake, knit, sing – whatever they want to do to raise funds. To register or sponsor participants, visit alongsidehope.org/wild-ride.

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The issue of changing PWRDF’s name to one that is easier to say and less confusing has been ever-present for many years. In 2022, the board approved a budget and the creation of a task team to identify a new name that would both honour the organization’s history as the Anglican Church of Canada’s agency for international development and humanitarian response and carry it into the future.

PWRDF traces its roots to the 1958 mining disaster in Springhill, N.S., which compelled Anglicans across the country to donate money to support the affected families. One year later, the Primate’s World Relief Fund was established at General Synod as an agency that would respond to emergencies on behalf of Anglicans in Canada. In 1969, the D was added for “development.”

In the last fiscal year, PWRDF worked with more than 70 partners in 32 countries, and it was recently named to the 2024 Charity Intelligence Top 100 Charities List. The voting membership comprises board members, diocesan representatives and PWRDF’s youth council.

The task team was made up of 12 key volunteers from across the country, including members of the board and youth council and PWRDF staff. Cyan Solutions, a marketing and creative agency in Ottawa, led conversations with the team, other volunteers and staff to inspire reflections and gain valuable insights.

In all of the discussions, one clear and hopeful theme emerged: partnership.

• PWRDF partners with local organizations who carry out the work of food security, gender equality, community health, climate action and human rights.
• We partner with membership organizations that allow us to be part of a larger network.
• We partner with our generous donors and funding agencies, including Global Affairs Canada.
• We partner with the Anglican Church of Canada, dioceses, spiritual ministries and ecclesiastical provinces, through their bishops and their PWRDF representatives.
• We partner with parish representatives, clergy and countless volunteers in the pews across the country who connect Canadians with the work of our partners, our neighbours.

This theme of partnership is woven throughout scripture. The task team was drawn to the story of the road to Emmaus. Days after Jesus died, the disciples were walking from Jerusalem to Emmaus, still grieving their loss. As Luke writes, the resurrected Jesus came alongside them, but they did not know it was him. Jesus travelled with them and accepted their hospitality to dine with them. In the breaking of bread, their eyes were opened and they recognized him.

When we walk alongside one another, Jesus accompanies us. We are strengthened and comforted and recognize Jesus when we share in his feast. As we walk alongside each of our partners, supporting, listening and sharing with one another, we embrace and embody the hope of a better world.

Thus was born Alongside Hope. With the guidance of the board and the task team, taglines were developed in English and French to reflect the legacy of PWRDF.

Alongside Hope conveys the concept of partnership in a compelling way, honouring Jesus’ words to love our neighbour, says Will Postma, executive director of PWRDF. “It conveys the listening and learning that takes place when walking side by side, together with partners from around the world, including in Canada, with our supporters and volunteers. Alongside Hope inspires us even further in working with partners towards our vision of a truly just, healthy and peaceful world.”

The name is changing, but the colourful globe icon will continue to identify the organization. This continuity will improve brand recognition as PWRDF transitions to its new name over the coming months and into 2025. More information is available at pwrdf.org/our-new-name.

The post PWRDF membership approves new name appeared first on The Toronto Anglican.

I have sung in the choir at St. Olave, Swansea for about 30 years, with some time off here and there. But it’s a mainstay of my faith and my church participation. Lise rekindled her choral skills with the Guelph Community Choir two years ago. For both of us, singing in a choir taps into some of that youthful nostalgia of our high school days. It can also be wonderfully restorative. “I come home from work and know I have choir rehearsal that night,” says Lise. “Sometimes I might be too tired and don’t feel like going. But I do, and I’m always glad I did.”

My Thursday nights, like most church choristers, are sacrosanct. I look forward to rehearsal all week. What will our director of music have in store for our merry band of 10 singers? Whatever woes and worries are on my heart seem to evaporate in those 90 minutes.

These feelings hovered in the back of our minds as we rode the #40 double decker bus over the Thames and under the Holburn Viaduct into a humming business area not far from the iconic dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral.

We arrived at Holy Sepulchre, the National Musicians’ Church, our rehearsal space for the next two days. First established as a centre of worship in 1137, it was rebuilt after the Great Fire of 1666 by the architect of all British architects, Sir Christopher Wren. It is home to the Musicians’ Chapel, where musicians known and unknown are remembered every year.

Rows of chairs filled the nave. Sun streamed in, and though there was paint peeling on Sir Christopher’s vaulted ceiling, evidence of the church’s outreach and ministry abounded in colourful flyers and bulletin board displays.

We were among the 40-or-so men and women who had registered for the four-day adult choral course. The Rodolfus Foundation is dedicated to preserving and promoting the English cathedral choral tradition. “Ah, the Canadians!” exclaimed the organizer, Simon, as we checked in to receive our tote bag and brimming music folder.

Ah yes, the music. A few weeks prior, we had received a 76-page PDF of the scores, as well as links to audio recordings. The program was ambitious:

• Saturday Choral Evensong at Southwark Cathedral: the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis in C by Charles Villiers Stanford; Preces and Responses written in 1972 by Philip Radcliffe, a former Eton College teacher; and Bairstow’s “Blessed City, Heavenly Salem.” Plus Psalm 66, sung to Anglican chant.
• Sunday morning Eucharist at the Old Royal Naval College Chapel in Greenwich: “Locus Iste” by Anton Bruckner as the introit, “Geistliches Lied” by Johannes Brahms as the anthem, and the Sanctus, Agnus Dei and Gloria from Franz Schubert’s Mass No. 2 in G major, D 167. Plus Psalm 4 and three congregational hymns.

It was Thursday afternoon, just two days before our first service. I was relieved that our choir at St. Olave’s had recently sung the Bruckner and the Brahms. That would give me a slight leg up on having to learn the rest of the repertoire.

We filed into the open area choir chancel and took our seats around a grand piano, altos on the right, sopranos on the left, tenors in the centre and basses behind the altos. Tenors were our smallest group at just four, but the basses were a formidable eight and we altos numbered about a dozen. Sopranos were in abundance, rounding out the group.

We began with warm-ups from Dan Ludford-Thomas. There is seldom time for long and focused breathing exercises at my Thursday evening rehearsals, so I relished the chance to learn more about “filling up the tank.” Soon we were inhaling air into our lungs, chests and throats and then magically exhaling to 8, 12 and 16 counts.

At last, time to sing. Our choir director was Dr. Ralph Allwood, a tall, slim man with a healthy shock of white hair who lives and breathes choral music. Formerly the director of music at Eton College for 26 years, Dr. Allwood was named to the Order of the British Empire (MBE), and in 2017 was awarded the Thomas Cranmer Award for Worship by the Archbishop of Canterbury “for services to choral music in the Church of England and especially for fostering musical education amongst disadvantaged children.” Dr. Allwood does this through the Rodolfus programs for children and youth, an extension of the Rodolfus Choir that was established in 1984. The adult course is only in its second year.

Despite his impressive resume, Dr. Allwood quickly put us at ease. Over the next three hours, we managed to read through all the music at least once. We quickly learned though that if a break is over at 3 p.m., be ready to sing at 3 p.m. lest the rehearsal go on without you.

Day two was a full day and included a master class with none other than John Rutter, the legendary British composer and conductor. Mr. Rutter and Dr. Allwood go way back and enjoyed ribbing each other and agreeing to disagree on occasional conducting choices. Many choristers, including yours truly, gathered around for photos and autographs. Taylor Swift has nothing on John Rutter in this crowd. Later we nattered about his former position as patron of the Toronto Mendelsohn Youth Choir.

Some pieces came easily, some required more attention. Dr. Allwood remained kind and patient throughout, pulling unlimited tricks out of his toolkit to get us to sing the correct notes. In a fortissimo section of the Bairstow, we were in danger of singing too loudly on the second syllable of “sculpture.” Dr. Allwood’s trick? To drop to the floor as we were singing “CHUR”. The first time he did it was dramatic – wait, where’d he go?! – but it drove the point home. Phrasing is important!

For our long day of singing, we were rewarded with a glass (or two) of prosecco and time to chat and mingle. Most people were surprised to learn that Lise and I had come all the way to London just for this course.

Day three began at our new location, Southwark Cathedral, where we would sing Choral Evensong at 4 p.m. The building was founded in 1106 on the southern bank of the Thames. London Bridge is adjacent and Tower Bridge in view. Over its storied history, worship communities grew and merged and parted under several different names, until in 1905 it became Southwark Cathedral. Though it has spectacular soaring ceilings held up by massive fluted pillars, it manages to be an intimate space, perhaps made even cozier by the presence of Hodge, the resident cat. An enchanting walled garden, complete with a friendly fox, separates it from the bustling Borough Market.

Our day began with a session of Feldenkrais led by Anita Morrison. Feldenkrais was new to me as an amateur singer, but professional musicians, actors and dancers may be more familiar with the method. It combines simple, mindful movements to help performers avoid injury. We concentrated on sitting squarely on our “sit” bones and breathing deeply. I find mindfulness exercises to be personally challenging, but by the end of the 40-minute session, a pain in my right shoulder had disappeared. Go figure.

After a pilgrimage to find the world’s best cheese toastie in the Borough Market, we were ready for our dress rehearsal. We had been instructed to wear “all black, smart attire.” I’m not sure how smart I felt! We took our seats in the chancel choir stalls lined with little lamps. Twenty-two saints and martyrs stared down at us from the massive screen behind the high altar, which dates to 1520. The organist sat in a closed room with a window open on the stalls and a video monitor allowing him to see Dr. Allwood at all times.

Lise’s community choir numbers almost 100 people, but I have never sung with so many people or in such a brilliant acoustic space. The experience was overwhelming. I did my best to savour it.

By 3:50 there were only a few empty seats in the cathedral. Hodge was lolling comfortably by a door next to the transept.

The precentor, sounding for all the world like Julie Andrews atop a Swiss alp, began “O Lord open though our lips,” and we were off. Psalm 66 came alive in the space. We sing Anglican chant at St. Olave’s during our Morning Prayer services, but most people had to learn from scratch. Stanford’s Mag and Nunc finish with an exuberant Gloria Patri that rang into the ceiling. The Bairstow showed off the skill of our organist, Ben Markovic, and required our sopranos to reach some skyscraping As. They were up to the task.

By 5 p.m. the service was finished, and we breathed a collective sigh of relief. People even told us the choir sang well. Lise and I beamed!

The next morning, we journeyed to Greenwich. The chapel at the Old Royal Naval College seats a few hundred, much more capacious than the word “chapel” might suggest. Behind the altar soars a massive painting of St. Paul’s shipwreck at Malta, a poignant image for a naval academy. The chapel is built of marble and stone and is full of light. It was open and airy with a barrel-vaulted ceiling, which made for grand acoustics.

Bruckner’s “Locus iste” was an apt piece for an introit, celebrating the incredibly beautiful place in which we were singing.

This place was made by God,
a priceless sacrament;
it is without reproach.

After the service we were warmly welcomed to the coffee hour in the parish hall below, an area called the Undercroft. And before we knew it, we were saying our goodbyes. A total of 22 hours of instruction plus 40 new fellow choristers plus a boatload of new repertoire… I’m ready for next year!

To learn about the Rodolfus Foundation, visit www.therodolfusfoundation.org.uk.

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This is true to our roots. PWRDF was born in 1958 out of a compelling desire from Anglicans to offer assistance to families in the wake of a mine disaster in Springhill, Nova Scotia.

In recent years, Canada has experienced an increase in the frequency and severity of natural disasters such as wildfires, hurricanes and floods, affecting thousands of families and individuals. Some communities have been particularly devastated. Time and time again, Anglicans have generously offered their financial support through PWRDF.

Currently, PWRDF accepts donations when a disaster happens, then works with the dioceses affected by the emergency to disburse the funds. This new fund will allow PWRDF to respond quickly when a diocese asks for support, rather than wait to raise funds for individual disasters.

Parishes have expertise in outreach, information-sharing and volunteer engagement, and they have an awareness of their communities. Churches know where and how to reach the most vulnerable, those overlooked by others. Clergy and parishioners may be some of the first responders in an emergency, and they are often among those who will still be there during mid- to longer-term recovery activities.

While PWRDF cannot respond to every emergency in Canada, it considers the severity and impact of the situation, response of other agencies including the government, availability of insurance coverage, and the extent to which additional support is needed. It looks to fill gaps not covered by others, avoiding duplication of services.

Dioceses can access the new In-Canada Emergency Fund by requesting short-, medium- and longer-term support. This could include funds for 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.

Together, we can make a significant impact in the lives of people in Canada affected by disasters, offering solidarity and hope for those who have lost so much.

Anglicans can donate directly to the In-Canada Emergency fund at any time online at www.pwrdf.org or by cheque to PWRDF at 80 Hayden St., 3rd floor, Toronto, ON, M4Y 3G2. Please indicate In-Canada Emergency in the memo field. Anglicans can also donate during business hours by calling 416-822-9083 (or leave a message toll-free at 1-866-308-7973).

The post Wildfires prompt PWRDF to start fund for Canada appeared first on The Toronto Anglican.

Anglicans in Canada have responded quickly and generously. More than $1 million has been donated to PWRDF (Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund) for Ukraine relief. This is the second largest emergency response in its history, after the Haiti earthquake in 2010. Canada is home to the second largest population of Ukrainians or people of Ukrainian descent outside of Ukraine.

PWRDF is working with two international partners and four local partners to support Ukrainians during the war with the funds that have been donated.

PWRDF is a member of the ACT Alliance, a global faith-based coalition of more than 140 churches and related agencies working in humanitarian assistance, long-term development and advocacy. Hungarian Interchurch Aid (HIA) is also a member. Working through ACT, PWRDF provided $100,000 to HIA’s response in the first two weeks of the war.

HIA is one of the largest charitable organizations in Hungary and it has had a permanent presence in Ukraine for more than 20 years. The organization is working closely with local governments and more than 20 local first-responder groups in Ukraine. It has been shipping food and distributing other relief goods to internally displaced people who have not crossed into Hungary. With connections to the local authorities on both sides of the border, HIA is able to ship food and other essentials and life-saving medical equipment and supplies from Hungary into Ukraine.

HIA has established two 24-hour refugee support points (one in Hungary and one in Ukraine), and is providing safe transportation to railway hubs, food and hygiene kits for new arrivals. In the first two weeks of the war, PWRDF allocated $100,000 to this response. In April, through a grant with the Manitoba Council for International Cooperation, an additional $70,000 was forwarded to ACT.

Irina, 34, is a nurse living with her two children in an HIA shelter near the Hungarian border. Her husband teaches history but joined the territorial defence in the first days of the conflict. At first, she and her children lived with her parents, but they were in the middle of active fighting and bombing. “We tried to tell the children it was thunder. But when the active bombing started and the missiles fell near the house, the children started screaming. They were really very, very scared. That is why I realized there was no time to wait and it was time to evacuate somewhere.” At the shelter, they receive three meals a day. “When we ask for something, people try to give us what we need,” she says. “I understand that it is difficult to feed 100 people, so we try to buy fruit, yoghurt, some dairy products with our own money, our savings.”

HelpAge International supports vulnerable seniors globally and has assisted seniors living in eastern Ukraine since the Russian invasion in 2014. It has provided food, medical assistance and sometimes even wheelbarrows of coal to help them heat their homes. As a result, they were well positioned to provide assistance from the beginning of the war in 2022.

HelpAge International is helping Ukrainians of all ages who have fled to Moldova, where one in four Ukrainians fleeing are seniors. Because men between 18 and 60 are not able to leave the country, many elderly people are accompanying children and other family members. HelpAge International is supporting 5,620 Ukrainian refugees through 80 emergency accommodation centres in Moldova with food, hygiene kits and other essentials.

“I’m not going to leave here,” says Alexander, 81, from his home in the Donetsk region of Ukraine. “I hide in the basement from shelling. Now I sometimes spend the night there, or in the bathroom, which I secured after a shell hit the house. I’m afraid that everything I have can be destroyed in a second. But I hope for a speedy peace. A HelpAge volunteer brings me food and we speak together. After talking with her, I want to live. God give her strength.”

Patricia Maruschak joined PWRDF as the director of partnerships and programs just four days before the war began. Her Ukrainian-Canadian heritage and experience working in Ukraine has helped PWRDF establish strong ties with local organizations as well. “Because Ukraine has had a vibrant volunteer and civil society for years, there are many very capable local organizations that have transitioned to supporting their fellow Ukrainians,” she says. “PWRDF is making a concerted effort to partner with these organizations because we believe Ukrainians are best positioned to understand local needs. They are invested in helping their fellow citizens and rebuilding Ukraine once the war ends.”

So far, PWRDF has partnered with four Ukrainian organizations:

Initiative E+ is based in Kyiv and was established in 2014 to help medics and first responders provide relief to families affected by the 2014 invasion. Over the last two years, it has supported hospitals and medical centres in treating COVID-19 patients. When the invasion began at the end of February, it was able to ramp up its operations and partner with the country’s ministry of health. It is now providing medical equipment such as tourniquets, dressings for serious wounds and external braces and supports for broken bones. These supplies are being delivered to hospitals, medical centres and first responders in the cities that were subjected to the most serious attacks by Russian forces. PWRDF funds have also allowed for the purchase of two much-needed ambulances.

“PWRDF’s help with purchasing ambulances is very needed,” says Valentyna Varava, executive director of Initiative E+. “There is a catastrophic lack of ambulances in the de-occupied territories of the country. We currently have requests for ambulances from over 50 hospitals and medical centres as their vehicles were destroyed or seriously damaged by Russian forces.”

Fight for Right was established and led by Ukrainian women with disabilities. Its core mission is promoting the rights of persons with disabilities in Ukraine. To date, the organization has already evacuated or assisted 645 people with disabilities, with more than 2,000 additional evacuations requested. After evacuation, most people face psychological difficulties and legal issues that need to be addressed in their EU destination. PWRDF is contributing to this work by supporting a 24-hour hotline, accommodations, wheelchairs, and medical, legal, psychological and evacuation support. “Thanks to these funds from PWRDF, and support from other partners, we will be able to operate a hotline for people with disabilities during wartime,” says Anya Zaremba of Fight for Right. “The hotline will be used for various requests, including evacuation, psychological and legal assistance and provision of medication.”

The Dzherelo Children’s Rehabilitation Centre, based in the city of Lviv in western Ukraine, has been providing physical rehabilitation services and social support for patients and their families since 1992. When the war started, Lviv became a major hub for housing internally displaced people and a transit point for Ukrainians leaving the country. The municipal government has been referring displaced families who have children with disabilities to Dzherelo. The centre provides these families with a place to stay, food, medications and rehab services. The centre’s adapted bus is also able to take families to the Polish border.

PWRDF funds will allow Dzherelo to upgrade the heating system in its facilities so it can keep heating costs down and deliver its programs in a safe and comfortable building. On Aug. 10, Dzherelo posted photos on Facebook of the work already in progress: “With the support of the Canadian Foundation and Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund, we purchased an electric boiler, a diesel generator and a voltage stabilizer,” wrote a staff member.

Voices of Children is providing round-the-clock assistance to affected children and families from all over the country. It is providing emergency psychological assistance and assisting in the relocation process and humanitarian response. PWRDF’s support will be used to launch mobile psychological supports for children and their parents in the Kyiv region, accessing the most vulnerable people in small, de-occupied cities and villages. Psychologists will carry out a minimum of two field visits every week. Funds will also be used to communicate the stories of children through videos. “We are convinced that it is very important to speak about children’s rights, their mental health and disseminate best practices on how to work with war trauma,” says Valentyna Kyrychenko, the organization’s grant management coordinator.

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It’s a perennial question among the faithful, usually accompanied with lots of handwringing and action lists. This constant questioning of what the Church needs to do ensure its future forms the backbone of the Rev. Canon Martha Tatarnic’s new book, Why Gather? The Hope and Promise of the Church.

As we emerge from the pandemic, many people in parish leadership may be asking themselves this question daily. Despite our herculean efforts to keep parishes connected with live streams and phone trees and Zoom worship, many churchgoers have been slow to return to the pews. Are we ever going to be back to the way it was? Will people gather together once more?

Canon Tatarnic brilliantly articulates so many things that I have experienced as a warden during the pandemic, trying to serve the church, serve God, pay the bills, keep everyone’s mental health in check (as well as my own), support online worship and keep the community together when we couldn’t gather.

Why Gather is part memoir of Canon Tatarnic’s ministry as rector of St. George’s in St. Catharines. She shares stories about people being touched by faith and God’s grace, connecting them to Jesus’ ministry throughout. It is compelling.

Though she started asking the question “why gather” before the pandemic, the answer was shaped by lockdowns, nasal swabs and mute buttons. Jesus preached that we are to love our neighbours as ourselves and that everyone is our neighbour, but COVID-19 showed us that we are connected on an even more visceral level. We quite literally infect each other with our germs every day, connected by airborne particles, says Canon Tatarnic. “Whether we like it or not, the world is set up for us to be biologically and spiritually and emotionally infected with and connected to one another,” she writes.

Before she was called to the priesthood, Canon Tatarnic wanted to become a lawyer. It’s not surprising, because she essentially builds a case for why we need to gather as a community.

This messy, infectious imperfection, this connection, is what makes the Church the body of Christ, she says. Church is not perfect, nor should it be. We gather, she writes, “to be better tuned in to what God is doing in our lives. Tuning in to this truth matters to us in ways that are urgent and consequential because it is exactly this – to be in relationship with one another and in relationship with God – for which we are created.”

In other words, our faith is built on being connected, being together.

Coming out of two years of lockdowns and online worship, parishes across the country are under pressure to promote attendance and encourage giving. We want life to get back to normal already. But to fixate on the numbers is to misunderstand our mission.

Our mission is to lift up “the stories of grace, of transformation, of blessing, of how God has met us in the mess of our lives, of where we have been surprised by love, given second chances, and shown a way forward that we didn’t know was possible,” writes Canon Tatarnic. We gather to share these stories and in doing so reconnect to God and to each other.

Why Gather? The Hope and Promise of the Church is available in paperback or Kindle eBook at Amazon.

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As the war began on Feb. 24, tens of thousands of Ukrainians fled for safety elsewhere in Ukraine or to neighbouring countries. HIA has been working in Ukraine for more than 25 years in humanitarian and development projects. It had already shipped 28 tons of food to support those fleeing to Hungary, and its staff has been working with refugees at the Ukraine/Hungary border.

Yelena was one of hundreds of Ukrainians in line at a border crossing into Hungary, waiting with her three children while her husband was on the front lines in Ukraine. She told ACT, “We heard that the Polish border is completely jammed, so we decided to cross the mountains and try to make it into Hungary. My sister is still on the way, I have no idea where she or my nieces are.”

On Feb. 27, HIA set up a 24-hour refugee support point on the Hungarian side of the border at Beregsurány, where the line of refugees trying to cross into Hungary is kilometres long, says an ACT communiqué. The support point was set up in a heated pavilion. HIA is providing hot tea, sandwiches, refreshments, blankets and basic hygiene items for Ukrainians, including many elderly and children who are waiting long hours to cross the border into Hungary.

“In addition to the tangible help at the support point, HIA also helps those arriving with information in Hungarian and Ukrainian, including how those in need can get temporary accommodation in Hungary,” says ACT. There is also support from local volunteers, such as a nearby Serbian bakery that is providing fresh bread, made with flour donated from Hungary.

“We’ve been standing here at this border checkpoint for more than five hours,” says Yelena. “It is cold and my children are freezing. It is amazing to see that people are here to help, and even just talking to you gives us hope for a better future.”

To make a donation, go to pwrdf.org/give-today and click on Response in Ukraine. You may also donate by phone at 416-822-9083 or leave a voicemail toll-free at 1-866-308-7973 and a staff person return your call, or mail your cheque to PWRDF, 80 Hayden, 3rd floor, Toronto, Ontario, M4Y 3G2. Mark Ukraine in the memo field.

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Three grants have been allocated to Indigenous-led organizations in Eastern Ontario, downtown Winnipeg and Oka, Quebec. The Responsive Programs grant was created with the involvement of PWRDF’s Indigenous Partners Advisory Committee. The goal is to broaden our reconciliation efforts by partnering with more Indigenous organizations and provide funds in a way that provides more agency and autonomy to Indigenous groups. 

Three grants have been awarded so far, and applications are being accepted on an ongoing basis. A $10,000 grant was awarded to Métis Nation of Ontario (Highland Waters Métis Council) to reconnect Indigenous food and farming practices to Indigenous culture and knowledge. A $10,000 grant was awarded to 1JustCity in Winnipeg to fund an elder-in-residence and a harm reduction worker in three downtown neighbourhoods. And a grant of $15,000 was awarded to the Kanien’keha:ka Onkwawen:na Raotitiohkwa Language and Cultural Center (KORLCC) in Kahnawà:ke, Quebec, to support Mohawk language and cultural preservation, with particular emphasis on teaching children of all ages about health and the environment.

Education initiatives

There is growing energy around truth and reconciliation programming in the diocese. PWRDF’s Mapping the Ground We Stand On exercise is a case in point. In June 2019, Cheryl Marek was trained as a Mapping Exercise facilitator for the Diocese of Toronto. The workshop involves a massive floor map of Turtle Island. Participants are invited to “walk onto the map” to place name cards of Indigenous Peoples and to reflect the history of colonization and immigration. She presented two workshops in early 2020, and then the pandemic hit. With the workshop being so hands-on, facilitators and PWRDF staff were reticent to move to Zoom. 

Then the pandemic stayed, and the need for deeper connections to our Indigenous brothers and sisters grew more urgent with the discovery of unmarked graves at residential schools. In May 2021, PWRDF redeveloped the workshop for Zoom. Since then, Ms. Marek, along with the Rev. Canon Greg Smith (Diocese of Huron), has presented 15 workshops in the Ecclesiastical Province of Ontario, 13 of them online through church groups. 

Ms. Marek attributes the growing demand for the workshop to a groundswell of understanding. “I think it was no longer possible to ignore words like ‘genocide’ and I think perhaps more Anglicans were thinking about truth and reconciliation as their problem. They’re asking how could Canada do this, and they’re looking for ways to deal with their hurt. The Mapping Exercise gives a forum for those feelings to be explored with other like-minded people.”

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