How comfortable is your parish with community outreach? Are you able to easily identify ways that your parish is helping people in the community? Has your parish thought about starting an outreach ministry but doesn’t know how to get started? Or is your parish so focused on survival and keeping the lights on that the thought of outreach seems like an absurd idea?

Regardless of where you may find your parish on this spectrum, community outreach can be an integral and spirit-filled part of faith communities. Henri Nouwen wrote, “Community is, first of all, a quality of the heart. It grows from the spiritual knowledge that we are alive, not for ourselves but for each other.” Effective community outreach is one the signs of the vibrancy and spiritual depth of a parish. It can animate a parish in such a way that the abiding presence of Christ is deeply felt and parishioners’ feeling of belonging deepen and grow.

The starting point for an effective community outreach ministry is rootedness in the community rather than in the parish. Let me give you an example of what I mean. Imagine parishioners decide to run an after-school program to address bullying at a local school. But they quickly get frustrated because only one or two children participate. If the parish had been connected to the community differently, they may have learned that the critical issue facing the community was food security. We serve our community best when we understand our community by being embedded in it.

The Harwood Institute has developed a five-step process for helping organizations turn outward to the community. I have outlined below how this process applies to parishes as they seek to live out their faith beyond the walls of the church.

First, parishes begin by understanding the community in which they are situated. This requires that parishes seek to understand the community on its own terms. Through community conversations with individuals, groups and organizations, parishes will be able to identify the challenges facing the community and understand people’s aspirations and dreams. These conversations require parishes to keep an open mind, be non-judgemental, and listen deeply. This is not a problem-solving stage.

Second, parishes need to be intentional in turning outward to the community. Old habits are hard to break, so parishes need to continually reflect on how well they are listening and responding from an outward orientation rather than from what makes them comfortable. Parishes need to be willing to work with people and organizations with whom they may have never considered working with previously.

Third, parishes and their community partners together need to develop the conditions that are necessary to foster change, rather than waiting for them to develop. This means starting from the community’s current stage of development rather than from where we wish it was. This is the reality-check stage. Ministry outreach will be most successful if strategies are developed based on the resources that are currently available.

Fourth, we can’t do everything. Parishes need to decide where they can make a difference alongside their community partners and develop strategies that align with that sphere of influence.

And finally, parishes and parishioners need to commit. A parish outreach ministry will only be effective if there is a commitment to engage in the ministry together.

Outreach ministry is transformational for both the community and the parish. The community will feel Christ’s love as a healing presence as its needs are addressed and its aspirations are honoured. And parishioners will deepen their relationship with Christ and affirm their vocational calling to act with charity and justice in the world.

Are you ready to turn outward?

Paige Souter is the diocese’s Manager of Annual Giving.

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In FaithWorks we can hear the echo of Jesus’ call to Peter to tend to his sheep. In the Gospel of John, Jesus asks Peter three times: “Do you love me?” In response to Peter’s emphatic affirmation of his love for the Lord, Jesus commands Peter to “Feed my sheep.”

“FaithWorks enables us as Anglicans to live out our faith in a way that both reflects the love we have for Christ and our deep desire to share that love with others,” says Archbishop Colin Johnson. “For 20 years, we have been building intentional communities of hope and compassion throughout the diocese. Through FaithWorks, we become love in action.”

October is the perfect time of year to celebrate and give thanks for FaithWorks. Parishes are encouraged to host anniversary celebrations, big or small, and to incorporate the anniversary into their FaithWorks campaigns. Throughout the month we invite everyone to share on Facebook and Twitter (#FaithWorks20) their favourite FaithWorks stories and memories from the past 20 years. The month- long celebration will culminate in a gala event on Oct. 30, hosted by Archbishop Johnson, in Snell Hall at St. James Cathedral.

FaithWorks is working to improve the lives of people in need because of the faith-filled generosity of our donors, volunteers, parishes, clergy, corporate partners and foundations. This collective commitment ensures that FaithWorks’ 18 ministry partners are able to feed, house, nurse and support, each and every day, people who are hungry, homeless, isolated and ill.

As Shelagh McPherson, chair of the FaithWorks Allocation Committee, states, “Through our ministry partners, we reach out and show great love to women, youth and children who are at risk; to individuals and families who live in deep poverty; to newcomers who are seeking a new start in Canada; to Indigenous peoples seeking a better future; and to people who are impacted by HIV/AIDS.”

The 20th anniversary is a time to celebrate this ministry of encounter and compassion. It is a time to give thanks for everyone who opens their hearts to walk with marginalized and vulnerable people and who makes FaithWorks possible. It is also a time of renewal; a time to renew our commitment to our shared ministry of love.

May God continue to bless FaithWorks as it lives out its mission to be love in action.

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While the social, spiritual, and cultural impact of religious communities is well known, very little is understood about their economic value. The Halo Project addresses that gap by studying the local economic impact of faith communities. It determines congregations’ “halo effect,” a reference to the economic contribution that they generate in the surrounding community.

Phase One of the project studied the direct services provided by the congregations. (Indirect services such as the effect of sermons and religious readings were not included.) The study used 41 economic indicators grouped into seven categories – open space, direct spending, education, magnet effect, individual impact, community development, and social capital and care – to assess the monetary value of parish goods and services.

The initial phase revealed that, regardless of the size of the congregation, faith tradition or the nature of program offerings, every congregation in the study had a positive economic impact in its neighbourhood.

FaithWorks, a founding member of the Halo Project, understands the impact that parishes can have in the community. Through the work of its ministry partners and through parishes’ own outreach ministries, communities of hope and compassion are created and lives transformed.

Through the generous support of a FaithWorks donor, two ministry partners – All Saints Church-Community Centre and Flemingdon Park Ministry – participated in Phase One of the study. The results were astounding.

The study concluded that All Saints, located at the corner of Dundas Street East and Sherbourne streets in downtown Toronto, contributes services valued at more than $13 million a year to its surrounding community. The study revealed that most of its economic benefit is concentrated in the category of individual impact, specifically in suicide prevention, crime prevention and enhancing individual health. For every dollar that All Saints spends, $34 of economic impact is generated in the community.

Similar results were revealed for Flemingdon Park Ministry, which generates $3.5 million a year in services to the community in Don Mills. Its economic impact is concentrated in the categories of individual impact as well as social captial and care. Specifically, its economic value is generated in its support for young people and in the teaching of pro-social values and civic engagement. For every dollar spent by Flemingdon Park Ministry, $9 of economic impact is generated.

The results of Phase One affirms the role of faith communities as members of the economic fabric of local communities. It reminds us that congregations are not old and dusty buildings that are insular and focused on their own members, but rather dynamic communities that are opened outwards to the communities in which they reside and to which their programs are directed.

The study also affirms faith communities as valuable stakeholders in the delivery of community services in the city. This study strengthens the capacity of city officials and politicians to make investment and program decisions concerning the delivery of services in ways that include faith communities as integral partners.

In the second phase, the Halo Project will expand its study to examine the economic impact of 50 faith communities across the GTA. FaithWorks looks forward to continuing its participation in the Halo Project with the inclusion of three ministry partners in this new phase. The results of the Halo Project are an exciting affirmation of the diocese’s commitment to build communities of hope and compassion.

For more information on the Halo Project and to read the full study, visit www.haloproject.ca.

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