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.

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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).

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PWRDF also participated in the Humanitarian Coalition appeal, with donations matched by the Government of Canada up to $10 million. The appeal raised more than $12 million.

The earthquake damage has been catastrophic. As of Feb. 24, the total death toll had reached more than 47,000. There are thousands of collapsed buildings, and 115 schools destroyed in Aleppo, Hama and Lattakia. Inclement winter weather has caused flooding in displacement camps.

PWRDF has allocated $5,000 to the Diocese of Jerusalem to provide food, water, clothing and medical supplies in northern Syria. Syria remains a challenging environment in which to provide support. Rescuers and aid agencies must deal with the long-term effects of the war, destruction of civilian infrastructure, economic collapse, explosive ordnance contamination, COVID-19, and one of the largest number of internally displaced people in the world.

On Feb. 13, the Middle East Council of Churches invited member churches in Aleppo to discuss coordinating a response. The Aleppo Church Leaders Committee agreed to establish an ecumenical Syria earthquake committee, along with a committee to deal with the safety of building structures.

This committee will assess the priorities of those who need help with housing and how to implement repairs. It will also distribute food and other items to existing shelters and look at ways of getting cash assistance to people.

The ACT Alliance has issued an appeal for Syria for earthquake response ($6 million) and ongoing resilience work ($5 million). There is a pledge of $3 million by the funding members so far.

Anglicans are being asked to keep the people affected by the earthquake in their prayers. Donations can be made online at pwrdf.org, by calling 416-822-9083 (or leave a message at 1-866-308-7973) or by cheque to PWRDF, 80 Hayden St., 3rd Floor, Toronto, ON, M4Y 3G2 and indicate Syria/Türkiye Earthquake in the memo field.

Submitted by PWRDF

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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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The success of this project started in 2016. PWRDF was embarking on a historic four-year maternal, newborn and child health program funded by donors and the Government of Canada with a 6:1 match. The project budget was approximately $20 million, and PWRDF was responsible for raising $2.8 million through donations. The Diocese of Toronto’s Our Faith-Our Hope campaign gave a generous donation of $500,000, which was critical to kickstarting that $2.8 million. 

One of the successes in year one of the program was the installation of 30 “solar suitcases” in rural health clinics in Mozambique. The hard plastic boxes open like a suitcase, they are installed on the wall of a clinic and then connected to a solar panel mounted to the roof. Bright, plentiful sunshine flows into the panel and the suitcase, powering a headlamp, a ceiling light, phone charging ports and a fetal Doppler. 

Since the suitcases were installed, PWRDF’s Mozambique partners have seen a dramatic increase in healthy births during the night, and greater acceptance of going to the clinics to have a trained birth attendant present at the birth. The suitcases are still in perfect working condition. Any repairs that were required were easily made by those who had been trained in 2016.

So in 2021, when the opportunity presented itself to install more solar suitcases, the Diocese of Toronto came to the table again, this time with a grant from FaithWorks for $10,000. 

Olinda Magaia, Executive Director at EHALE, joined PWRDF for a Zoom celebration of the program’s success and spoke about the excitement for the new suitcases. “People, after they see what the solar suitcases have done to other communities and their impact, they call me and say, ‘you have to protect us, you have to bring a solar suitcase to us,’” said Ms. Magaia through a translator.

As there was no government match for this program, PWRDF had to be more creative in its approach to fundraising. Many churches took up the cause, including St. John, East Orangeville, a small but mighty parish in Caledon. St. John raised enough for two suitcases. “We have a very small parish, only about 30 worshippers on average each Sunday,” says Mark Hauck, a warden and a PWRDF board member. So how did they raise $11,600? 

Two factors were key, says Mr. Hauck. One, parish leadership. “Our incumbent, Archdeacon Elizabeth Hardy, is extremely organized and was behind the project from the beginning.”  The other factor was having a beginning, middle and end to the campaign.

“We started in late June by deciding at the parish leadership to undertake this. We started providing information on a Bristol board display in the church and answered any questions from the parish.”

Near the middle, they invited PWRDF Executive Director Will Postma to come and speak. “We were able to gather outside, and he answered even more questions.”

Toward the end, the Orangeville newspaper picked up the story. “They published a Q&A with our priest, Archdeacon Hardy, and also invited people outside the church to give.”

In the end, the parish raised the funds through 27 gifts, two of which were anonymous. 

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But COVID-19 didn’t mean an end to the other crises that PWRDF’s partners typically face in a year. Climate-related disasters such as flood, drought, cyclones and hurricanes, and political crises and violence threaten people’s ability to feed their families and make a livelihood.

Managing this complicated and complex portfolio is PWRDF’s humanitarian response coordinator, Naba Gurung. Originally from Nepal, Mr. Gurung came to Canada after completing a Masters degree in international development in Norway, then landed at PWRDF shortly afterwards. 

During his 20 years working in humanitarian response, he has seen many changes. “More and more emergencies are becoming more complex,” he says. “There’s not just one driver that partners have to deal with; there are now multiple drivers and forces that shape an emergency. In Haiti, for example, there was the earthquake, but then there’s a tropical storm and a political economic crisis; in South Sudan, there was a flood for two consecutive years, conflict, continued displacement and devaluation of their currency.”

In many cases, PWRDF directs funds to a larger response from an organization such as the ACT Alliance, which comprises 130 different faith-based groups from around the world. PWRDF is also a member of the Canadian Foodgrains Bank. Funds spent from PWRDF’s account with the Foodgrains Bank are often matched by the Government of Canada by as much as four to one. PWRDF is also a founding member of the Anglican Alliance, a coalition of relief and development organizations in the Anglican Communion.

Here are some of the PWRDF humanitarian relief responses since August 2020: 

Lebanon (ACT Alliance)

On Aug. 4, 2020, a warehouse storing ammonium nitrate exploded, obliterating the port of Beirut. The disaster exacerbated the already challenging economic and health crises in the area. PWRDF responded to an ACT Alliance appeal and participated in a humanitarian coalition matching appeal through its membership in the Canadian Foodgrains Bank. Donations totalled $136,000. Providing food, non-food items, hygiene, blankets and clothing to those in need.

Philippines (ACT Alliance/National Council of Churches in the Philippines)

On Nov. 1, 2020, Super Typhoon Goni (Rolly) slammed into the Philippines with catastrophic winds, torrential rainfall, severe flooding, mud slides and storm surges. It was just one week after Typhoon Molave (Quinta) hit the same region, making it ever harder to cope with the pandemic. PWRDF responded to the ACT Alliance appeal with $20,000. The National Council of Churches in the Philippines supported 8,000 households with food relief.

Ethiopia (ACT Alliance/Lutheran World Federation)

On Nov. 4, 2020, a long-standing political disagreement between the Ethiopian government and the northern state of Tigray’s regional government led to violence and military action, forcing people to flee. By January 2021, the region was facing a severe humanitarian crisis with more than two million people internally displaced. PWRDF responded with $35,000 to the ACT Alliance appeal, supporting the Lutheran World Federation in Ethiopia. LWF trained local staff and 50 community leaders in Tigray to deliver psychosocial first aid in the displaced communities.

Afghanistan (Canadian Foodgrains Bank, Community World Service Asia and Presbyterian World Service & Development)

From November 2020 to April 2021, PWRDF supported Community World Service Asia in providing food assistance to 1,100 households, including 420 female-headed households, in the Bamyan province of Afghanistan. This ensured that communities affected by COVID-19 would not go hungry in the peak food-insecure months, reducing economic migration and increasing the ability of households to host returnees.

Bangladesh (ACT Alliance/Christian Aid)

Support for Rohingyas, displaced from Myanmar and living in Bangladesh, is ongoing. Through the ACT Alliance, PWRDF allocated $35,000 to Christian Aid to provide primary health care services and infectious disease surveillance and referral for Rohingya and surrounding host communities. Two medical doctors, two nurses, midwives, a health assistant, a pharmacist, and support staff were involved to provide services to the patients. Staff were equipped with COVID-19 appropriate personal protective equipment and materials.

Zimbabwe (Canadian Foodgrains Bank, DanChurchAid Zimbabwe)

From January 2021 to April 2021, PWRDF supported a food assistance project with DanChurchAid Zimbabwe and the Canadian Foodgrains Bank. Food baskets containing maize meal, beans and oil were distributed to 3,600 households in northern Zimbabwe. The most vulnerable households were prioritized for food assistance, including those headed by children, the elderly and women, and households with special needs. Families with land and available labour also received seeds for sorghum and cowpea seed to help re-establish crop production and provide food when the assistance ended.

South Sudan (Canadian Foodgrains Bank, Finn Church Aid, South Sudan Country Program)

In April 2021, PWRDF embarked on an 18-month project with the Canadian Foodgrains Bank that was part of a $10-million grant from the Government of Canada. PWRDF is supporting Finn Church Aid to implement a project in South Sudan, where long-term conflict has led to internal displacement and a high need for humanitarian assistance. COVID-19 has made it worse, causing businesses to close and food prices to rise. Finn Church Aid is providing a cash-transfer, vegetable seeds, tools and training to 600 returnee households (South Sudanese returning from Uganda and Democratic Republic of Congo).

St. Vincent and the Grenadines (Diocese of the Windward Islands)

In April 2021, La Soufrière volcano began spewing smoke and ashes over the islands of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. An estimated 20,000 people were forced to evacuate and move into shelters. The National Emergency Management Organization (NEMO) identified urgent need for water, buckets, folding cots, toiletries, blankets, field tents, kitchen utensils and sleeping mats. PWRDF responded with a $5,000 grant, and donors quickly followed that up with another $70,000 that will be used for economic recovery.

Palestinian Territories (Episcopal
Diocese of Jerusalem/Al Ahli Hospital)

In May 2021, violence broke out in Jerusalem, overwhelming the Al Ahli Hospital in Gaza with patients. The hospital is administered by the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, and PWRDF has provided funds to purchase equipment or manage high volume in the past. PWRDF responded to the Bishop of Jerusalem’s appeal with $20,000 to purchase fuel for the generators to keep the hospital running. In the past year, $30,000 was donated to purchase a microdebrider for the Ear, Nose and Throat surgical unit.

Tanzania (Canadian Foodgrains Bank, Church World Service Africa)

In May 2021, PWRDF began a three-year project with Church World Service Africa and the Canadian Foodgrains bank to improve food security of Congolese refugees living in Nyarugusu camp in Tanzania. Currently, refugees there rely mainly on rations from the World Food Programme. However, the rations include only staple items and are not enough. Some refugees have begun to plant seeds on land around the camp; however, many people lack the necessary skills and resources to farm successfully. This project will provide necessary farm inputs to 810 refugee households and train them on how to sustainably grow vegetables. 

Lytton fire, British Columbia (Territory of the People)

In July 2021, a fire destroyed the village of Lytton and Lytton First Nation and prompted an outpouring of donations from Anglicans across Canada. An initial grant of $5,000 was used to support families during the immediate crisis. The diocese is developing a plan to use the rest of the funds (approximately $31,000) following PWRDF’s In-Canada Emergency procedures.

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“ARE WE THERE YET?”

Do you remember that question, yelled from the back of the car when you were a kid – or when your kids were kids – on a family road trip? Usually it was followed by, “HOW MUCH FURTHER?” and “I HAVE TO GO TO THE BATHROOM – NOW!”

My parents’ diversionary tactics in the face of such verbal onslaughts from me and my three siblings included, “It’s just around the next corner,” though which next corner was never detailed, or “Who has the Lifesavers? Someone pass around the Lifesavers” or “How about another game of I Spy with My Little Eye?”

I joined PWRDF (Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund) in 2001 as the Latin America/Caribbean program coordinator. In 2010, changes at PWRDF brought a change in my work as I took up the role of public engagement coordinator. 2010 was also a General Synod year at which PWRDF wrapped up the anniversary celebrations marking its 50-year “road trip” as the official development and relief agency of the Anglican Church of Canada.

And so, as my contribution to the celebrations and to meet some of the Anglicans I would be working with in my new role, I proposed that I take a road trip from General Synod in Halifax, through Springhill, Nova Scotia, site of the 1958 mine disaster that precipitated the creation of PWRDF, to St. Anne-de-Bellevue, a Montreal suburb and site of General Synod 1959, where PWRDF officially came into being. This 1,400 km road trip was dubbed “Le Tour de PWRDF” because it involved me and my trusty road bike, Olive, named for my grandmother.

I rode alone but met and stayed and shared the story of PWRDF and its partners around the world, with folk in Anglican parishes along the way. It was an amazing experience on all sorts of levels. Recently, I pulled out the daily blog entries and photos that were posted on the PWRDF website. So many good memories. My final blog entry contained 20 learnings I had along the way. Here are a few of them:

Always a hill

“There is always a hill at the end of the day! And in the case of the route from Charny to Thetford Mines in Québec, there are six hills! Once I had committed to cycling up a hill, there was generally no other choice but to get to the top without stopping, especially because I was cycling with clip-on shoes/pedals. Unless I could be really sure that there was no traffic coming over the crest of the hill, there was no turning across the road to get enough glide to unclip. So, it was pedal or fall over! Physical limits are what we make of them. And now I have legs of steel.”

Canadians are friendly

“Canadians are friendly and helpful in both official languages. Whenever I asked for directions, I always got helpful (!) responses, and when I explained that I spoke only a little French, the person I was speaking with would usually just smile, nod and carry on in rapid-fire Québécois! Canadian Anglicans are equally friendly and hospitable. I had more good parish and home-cooked meals than I can count, not to mention good, hot showers and comfy beds.”

Time for a shower

“It is never impolite to warmly greet one’s hosts and then immediately request a shower, as in, “Hello, it’s very nice to meet you. Could I have a shower? No really, you want me to have a shower!”

Spaciousness opens up

“The relationship between time and distance is different when you are on a bike. It took me a day to cycle 100 km, the distance it would normally take an hour or so to drive in a car. And so time slowed down, the intensity of the urban life I lead in Toronto diminished, and a certain spaciousness opened up. That was such a gift. That and time to think, but interestingly, it wasn’t the deep thinking I thought I might do about moving forward into a new job at PWRDF, or other changes-in-life themes. It was more thinking about how my body was feeling (‘Man, my butt hurts.’), what I would have to eat on my next break (‘Hmmm, energy bar or muffin?’), how amazing the eagle and the eagle’s nest I just stopped and took a photo of looked, and who I might be meeting down the road.”

A good news story

“The (now former) Primate, Archbishop Fred Hiltz, often describes PWRDF as one of the good news stories of the Anglican Church of Canada. I learned that indeed it is. And it is good news because Anglicans in parishes large and small across this country support PWRDF and the work of our partners in many creative and meaningful ways. An organization doesn’t get to celebrate its 50^th birthday without the steadfast commitment of many, many people, some of whom I had the privilege to meet along the way.”

In the writings of the Apostle Paul, we also encounter a road trip. In his letters to early Christian communities, he too responds to the question, “ARE WE THERE YET?” as he and the early churches faced a time horizon of Christ’s return that went from being “just around the next corner” to an ever more distant future. Paul’s message: Live like Christ in faithful community in the here and now and in the midst of Empire.

The road trip we are on now called COVID-19 has us asking the same question, “ARE WE THERE YET?” Our physical, mental and emotional limits are being tested in ways they never have before. We don’t know how many more corners there will be, how many hills we will still have to climb. But we have one another and, to quote the great theologian Mr. Rogers, “Look for the helpers. You will always find people helping.”

Whether it is Paul to the early church, my parents with their endless patience and stash of Lifesavers on childhood road trips, the communities of faithful Anglicans and PWRDF supporters I met on Le Tour de PWRDF or health care leaders like Dr. Bonnie Henry who encourage us to “Be kind. Be calm. Be safe,” it is people – helpers, in relationship – who will see us to the end of the road trip.

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In the Diocese of Toronto, PWRDF pedallers have been among hundreds of cyclists and walkers who have descended upon Ashbridges Bay Park in Toronto. The event is a key fundraiser for PWRDF, bringing in about $30,000 a year for a designated partner. PWRDF supports vulnerable communities in Canada and around the world on behalf of Anglicans in Canada.

But this year, COVID-19 skidded into the Ride for Refuge. Rather than apply the brakes, Blue Sea is riding on, just in a slightly different direction. A new “freestyle” category has been created that is limited only by your imagination. Participants can still ride or walk for refuge on Oct. 3 (though not at a designated time and place) but they are also welcome to paddle, knit, climb, bake, read, or do anything they can think of for refuge.

Participants can register on the Ride for Refuge website (rideforrefuge. org/pwrdf) in the same way as before. You can join a team, start a team or register as an individual.

One such individual is Archbishop Linda Nicholls, the Primate, who has pledged to sing hymns for refuge. As a choral enthusiast, Archbishop Nicholls thought this would be a fun and engaging way to get involved. When giving to her, donors can make a request to hear a specific hymn. She performed on Facebook Live on July 26 and will do so again on Sept. 20 at 7 p.m.

This year’s participants will be raising funds for St. Jude Family Projects in Masaka, Uganda. St. Jude’s is an agricultural school that strives to improve the quality of life in the surrounding community by ending hunger and empowering women, children and youth. As people learn more about how to grow their own nutritious food, they are able to feed their families, earn an income, send their children to school and become stronger and more selfsufficient. The school also teaches permaculture to people from other parts of Africa and the world. The fundraising goal is $25,000.

St. Jude’s co-founder, Josephine Kizza Aliddeki, and her son Daniel, an agronomist, recently participated in a webinar for PWRDF volunteers interested in joining this year’s event. “We are so grateful to be able to connect with people who are enthusiastic about transforming communities that are less privileged,” she said prior to joining the Zoom call.

If you would like to support PWRDF and participate in the Ride for Refuge, visit rideforrefuge.org/pwrdf for details on how to sign up and for inspiration on how to ride “freestyle.”

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“It started with some friends who were riding bikes,” explains Jana Shaw, the husband of Bishop Riscylla Shaw and a keen rider. “We thought it would be fun to get together and grow something organically.”

The group’s first trip was from Church Camp, located on the shores of Lake Simcoe, to Bradford in the summer of 2017, raising money for the Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund. Last summer, some group members accompanied Bishop Rob Hardwick as he pedalled from Hamilton to Toronto as part of his cross-Canada ride to raise funds for the national church’s Healing Fund. The group also rode around Horseshoe Valley.

The trips aren’t all pedalling. The group makes stops along the way to look at significant sites and enjoys a meal at the end of every ride. Members wear attractive shirts that are designed like the flag of the Anglican Church of Canada.

Mr. Shaw says the shirts often draw attention. “They give us great visibility,” he says with a smile. “We’ve had people say, ‘Yay Anglicans!’”

The group holds about two rides a year – a short one (about 15 km) and a long one (about 100 km). The first ride this year was to the Beaches in Toronto on May 8, followed by a lunch. The group is planning a longer ride this summer.

The group is made up of about 12 clergy and laity, and new members are always welcome, whether they are experienced cyclists or not. “We go at a pace that people are comfortable with and we don’t leave anyone behind,” says Mr. Shaw. “It’s all about having fun and getting together for a ride.”

He says the group is an alternative to traditional cycling clubs, which usually hold their big ride on Sunday mornings. “If you ride a bike and go to church, it can be a little bit isolating because you don’t get to do that group ride on Sunday morning. But with our group, we don’t have that problem. It’s worked out really well and it’s a lot of fun.”

He says cycling can also be a spiritual experience. “There is an element of prayer to it, and when you’re on a bike for a long time with a group of people, the conversation can go anywhere,” he says.

Mr. Shaw, a life-long cyclist who has done touring and racing, says cycling is a form of exploration. “When you’re a kid, you pedal around the corner and suddenly you’re in a different world. It’s a great feeling, and I just like to share that experience with people.”

The Rev. Sandor Borbely, the incumbent of St. Thomas, Shanty Bay and a member of the group, says cycling is a great way to see the Ontario countryside. He and his wife go cycling about once a week in the summer, sometimes to Barrie and back as a shorter ride or to other destinations in Simcoe County, when they can go for a longer ride with a local biking group. “There are a lot of good biking trails up here and the countryside is beautiful,” he says.

He says cycling with the Anglican Cycle of Prayer is a great experience. “It’s been a lot of fun, coming together and biking and fundraising,” he says. “It’s a wonderful initiative and I hope others will join us for our next adventure.”

For more information, visit the Anglican Cycle of Prayer’s Facebook page or email Prayer.bike.ride@gmail.com.

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