The Mississauga Steelheads Hockey Club, which competes in the Ontario Hockey League out of the Paramount Fine Foods Centre, is looking for church choirs to sing the national anthem at games in front of 2,000 or more fans. Afterward, the group can enjoy an evening of hockey. For more details, contact Michele Warner, coordinator of community partnerships, at mwarner@mississaugasteelheads.com.

Art show returns after hiatus

St. Barnabas, Chester hosted the 32nd edition of its very successful art show in August. After being closed for three years due to COVID-19 concerns, the church was once again able to open its doors. Started in 1989 by Jenny and Neville Reid, the show was moved to the church and a new annual date of Aug. 5-6 was set. This summer’s show featured 20 local artists showcasing their original art, distributed among 16 tables. Fifty-two paintings were sold in a mere 10 hours.

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The Rev. Canon Nicola Skinner, incumbent of Grace Church, Markham was reading the Guardian one evening when an article caught her eye. The article was about Fatima, a former Afghan police officer who was targeted and beaten by the Taliban.

Fatima was forced to marry at the age of 12. Her husband was abusive but because he was unable to work, he encouraged her to join the police force. Fatima loved her job, and it allowed her to save up enough money to divorce her husband and support her two sons, now 10 and 13. In 2020, she went public with allegations of sexual assault within the police force and left her position after publicly burning her ID. Fatima was abused online and physically attacked for speaking out, and her family refused to help her.

The Guardian article recounts how the Taliban came to Fatima’s house, demanding that she hand over her weapons. When she told them she didn’t have any, they ransacked her house, beat her and held a knife to her son’s throat. They left, telling her they would be back. Fatima immediately went into hiding and was able to flee to Pakistan with her children. But she  had only a 60-day visa, and her applications for refugee status in Pakistan and asylum in western countries were met with silence.

Going to bed that night, Canon Skinner was certain that God wanted more than thoughts and prayers. Unable to sleep, she emailed Emma Graham-Harrison, the journalist who had written the article, offering to help settle Fatima and her sons in Canada.

“I read the paper every day, and every day you see story after story after story and you feel helpless,” says Canon Skinner. “For some reason, I just thought, surely there’s something we could do. So, I emailed the journalist. Sometimes, if God has put something in your heart, by just stepping into that, God will make things happen.” For Canon Skinner, the story also felt personal as her husband, Tim Skinner, is an inspector with the York Regional Police (YRP).

Ms. Graham-Harrison replied to Canon’s Skinner’s email and asked her to send a letter to the IRCC (Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada). She also put Canon Skinner in touch with Mellissa Fung, the former CBC journalist who was captured by bandits while reporting in Afghanistan. Ms. Fung had helped submit the asylum applications on behalf of Fatima and was also paying for her safe house in Islamabad.

Canon Skinner immediately got to work on a letter on Grace Church letterhead to send to the IRCC. She also decided to help Ms. Fung with paying for Fatima’s safe house. Canon Skinner has been making soap for many years and put a call out on Facebook asking friends and family to consider buying 12 months’ worth of soap. The response was overwhelming and raised $3,000.

Canon Skinner doesn’t know for certain whether sending the letter helped, but not long after, Fatima was approved as a Government Assisted Refugee. Fatima and her sons arrived in Canada in June. They were initially flown to Edmonton, where some vacationing members of Grace Church welcomed them. Then, on July 14 the family flew from Edmonton to Toronto. They spent their first month staying with Canon Skinner and her husband, and they attended a church camp in Innisfil. Canon Skinner says the camp gave Fatima a much-needed opportunity to relax while her boys rode bikes, made friends and learned to swim.

In mid-August, Fatima and her sons moved into their new home in Markham. Affordable accommodation is difficult to find in the area, and Canon Skinner asked Grace Church to pray for the family. Not long after, a parishioner’s neighbour offered to rent out his basement apartment.

“This is not a story about me,” says Canon Skinner. “A lot of things have fallen into place: the parishioner’s neighbour offering to rent his apartment for a good price, a Canadian colonel who paid for the family’s flight from Edmonton to Toronto, the YRP women who are helping Fatima. I have seen God at work all the way through this process.”

Sarah Riddell is an inspector with YRP and active in the YRP’s Women in Leadership Internal Support Network. The network focuses on recognizing the contributions of women in law enforcement. However, Ms. Riddell summarizes their remit as “ensuring every girl and woman knows she has a sister in her corner” and the network also has an international focus. This seemed to dovetail perfectly with Fatima’s situation, and the Women in Leadership have been helping her in a number of ways, including connecting Fatima with a cultural community and finding a volunteer who is working with Fatima and her sons on English as a second language.

Ms. Riddell and the Women in Leadership are also passionate about supporting women who want to work in policing, a profession in which just 22 per cent of Canadian police officers are female. Fatima has expressed an interest in working in policing again one day and through the network she will have access to mentoring.

Zabi, who is from Afghanistan and is a police officer with the YRP, has also been helping to settle Fatima and her sons by providing translation. Zabi runs a non-profit that has helped settle more than 300 Afghans. Unfortunately, he has been unable to get a visa for his own family to come to Canada.

“If churches cooperate with other organizations, then we can leverage our position in the community,” says Canon Skinner. Now, Canon Skinner, along with AURA (Anglican United Refugee Alliance) and the congregation at St. John the Baptist, Oak Ridges, are using that leverage to try to get Zabi’s family to Canada.

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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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A significant part of this upcoming and continuing work includes discussions and action plans that came out of a provincial conference that took place this past June. “Calling and Forming Priests for Tomorrow’s Church: Pathways to Partnership” included two days of discussions and work that looked at the process of vocational discernment. It’s been more than a decade since the last vocations conference of this significance was held in the ecclesiastical province.

The conference brought together individuals who assist others in their process of vocational discernment, formation and education. It included our provincial College of Bishops, Primate Linda Nicholls, theological educators, most executive officers, diocesan members and members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada. It was a meeting of the Church and those in theological education. Archbishop Anne Germond, our metropolitan, clearly stated the need for this conference, saying that “it is imperative that our province takes the time and expends the energy to do the work that will encourage and excite those whom God is calling to ordained ministry in these current times. It is equally critical for us to ensure that all ordained leaders, called by the Church, are prepared, supported, confident and excited about the challenges that are before us as we embrace the mission of God in our respective dioceses and regions.”

While the conference was delayed by two years due to the pandemic, this was a blessing in disguise. The delay allowed participants to discuss and assess the significant changes in the Anglican Church and its ministries that occurred during the pandemic shutdown. Many of these changes will be in place long after the pandemic ends and wouldn’t have been part of the conversation if the gathering had occurred at its original time. Outside-the-box thinking, being adaptive and quick to address change, and meeting the unexpected challenges of a global health threat became part of the conference dialogue.

Participants discussed discipleship and vocational discernment, intensive and extended formation and education programs, life-long learning, and other matters relevant to a vocational call. It was clear that preparing ordained leaders is different now compared to even a few years ago. Focusing on the formation of all the baptized, “incubator” parishes and other contexts that raise potential candidates, along with the importance of healthy mentoring and prayer, were highlighted. The meeting ended with the creation of action plans so there are next steps, not just talk.

Further to the vocations conference, the Ecclesiastical Province of Ontario also continues its work on its eldercare mandate. The eldercare team is building and gathering resources for both senior care and advocacy, so parishes and individuals can find the guidance they need. Resources will be available on the provincial web page soon. There will be other resources to enhance advocacy for seniors once the care and support ones are in place.

The seven dioceses of our province also continue to work together to support each other in the areas of Safe Church and pandemic response. The chancellors, executive officers and bishops have regular meetings to strengthen relationships and support between the dioceses. There is a realization that nurturing provincial relationships and sharing gifts builds a stronger Church that is well equipped to do ministry in a world that can change quickly. Learning to adapt and share resources is necessary, and the dioceses want to continue to enhance this ability.

More planning and work will happen as we move into the winter months. Updates will be posted on the provincial website (www.province-ontario.anglican.ca) if you’re interested in our provincial council notes or want to find updates on the work underway. We’re always open to any questions or suggestions that people may have about our ministry, and we look forward to continuing our provincial work into 2023.

The Ecclesiastical Province of Ontario comprises the dioceses of Algoma, Huron, Moosonee, Niagara, Ottawa, Ontario and Toronto.

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On the surface, the distinction between ecumenism and interfaith ministry seems clear. Take, first, ecumenism. At its first assembly, convened in Amsterdam in 1948, the World Council of Churches adopted a resolution that identified its member churches as those who “acknowledge Jesus Christ as God and saviour” and “find their unity in him.” The resolution went on to declare, “They do not have to create their unity; it is the gift of God. But they know that it is their duty to make common cause in the search for the expression of that unity in life and work.”

Ecumenism is the work that different churches undertake to visibly manifest their unity. This does not mean that churches aspire to eliminate all their differences, ultimately becoming a single global church. Instead, ecumenism involves different churches strengthening relationships between themselves, facilitating cooperation on joint projects, reaching consensus on theological statements, and striving for mutual recognition and acceptance of each other’s ministries, such that clergy from one church are able to officiate sacramentally in another. An example of this is the 2001 Waterloo Declaration that brought the Anglican Church of Canada and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada into full communion.

If that describes ecumenism, then interfaith ministry would seem to be something quite different. From the patristic era until the 20^th century, the doctrinal phrase extra Ecclesiam nulla salus (“outside the Church is no salvation”) determined how most Christians related to those of other faith traditions. The imperative of evangelization and baptism was the chief motivating factor in such relationships. But the upshot has been largely disastrous: harmful roots of Christian self-superiority have set in, the depths of which churches today are only beginning to fathom. Consider the enduring genocidal impact of the Indian Residential Schools, which Canadian churches operated to “civilize and Christianize” Indigenous children, “killing the Indian in the child.”

Since the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), the exclusivist theology behind the phrase extra Ecclesiam nulla salus has fallen under criticism, even as calls for a “new evangelization” have been raised. An important outcome of the council—the effects of which have impacted Anglicanism considerably—has been a call to dialogue with other faith traditions. Without dialogue, the inevitable alternative, as history has demonstrated time and again, is violence. Interfaith ministry is thus best understood as a form of peacemaking. It has to do with Christians reaching out to their neighbours of other faith traditions, to learn from them and understand them better, and to help them understand more clearly who Christians are without any ulterior intentions of proselytism. Even more, it involves cooperating on joint projects, fostering friendships and living side by side in peace.

If all that is helpful in grasping the distinction between ecumenism and interfaith ministry, in recent years the lines have become blurry. Case in point: in 1987 the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Toronto established its ecumenical and interfaith affairs office. Ecumenism and interfaith ministry, while distinct, were pursued separately in the same office. That changed in 2020 when Archbishop Thomas Collins established two departments: an office for interreligious dialogue and an office for promoting Christian unity and religious relations with Judaism. This development marked a deliberate attempt to expand the work of ecumenism to include reconciliation with Jews. It also complicated the relationship between ecumenism and interfaith ministry.

Bringing together ecumenism and Christian reconciliation with Jews surely makes good theological sense, and Anglican dioceses would do well to pursue a similar tack. On one level, as St. Paul argues, “the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” (Romans 11:29). Jews participate in salvation, even when they are loyal to their own faith tradition and do not confess Jesus Christ as God and saviour. But on another level, Judaism remains its own faith tradition, distinguished from Christianity as much as from Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and other faiths. The quest for reconciliation with Jews is rightly an extension of ecumenism, but churches must also pursue relations with Jews that affirm the distinct integrity of Judaism. This is a point where ecumenism and interfaith ministry collide, even overlap.

There are those who argue that this overlap pertains only to Christian-Jewish relations, for Christian existence itself is altogether dependent on Judaism. But Christians and Jews are not the only “People of the Book”: Islam rounds out the Abrahamic tradition. In the document Nostra aetate, an important declaration of the Second Vatican Council, Muslims are esteemed because they “adore the one God.” The declaration then calls on Christians and Muslims “to work sincerely for mutual understanding.” This language opens the door for relations with Muslims that are an extension of ecumenism, in much the same way that reconciliation with Jews is a deepening of the ecumenical task.

Does the overlap of ecumenism and interfaith ministry extend beyond the Abrahamic tradition? Might Christians discover ways to relate ecumenically to Sikhs, Hindus, Buddhists and people of other so-called Dharmic faiths? The answer really depends on how much mutual understanding is first achieved through interfaith ministry. In the course of careful listening, deep learning and friendship building, Christians may find that assumed differences on major issues of belief and practice are mere misunderstandings. In the end, perhaps Christians stand in more theological agreement with, say, Buddhists than is typically acknowledged.

If this is so, then the importance of interfaith ministry cannot be overstated. It is a ministry that beckons all dioceses, parishes and individuals. The call is to each of us. As we reach out to our neighbours of other faiths, learn from them and extend our own hospitality, we might discover that we are verging ever closer to the work of ecumenism. Perhaps Jesus’ prayer “that they may all be one” (John 17:21) can be heard in our time as a prayer for the whole world in all its religious multiplicity.

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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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It wouldn’t surprise me if a great many of the students I meet share these suspicions. Of course, there are those for whom the church of their youth was a happy and supportive experience, who want to be involved in services and develop a continuity of faith practice in their new environment. Others were dragged to church by their families and have no desire to revisit that experience (or anything that reminds them of it). Many grew up in traditions other than Christianity, and a significant number come from a background in which religion played no part at all, except in media representations ranging from the ridiculous to the downright horrifying. Some students are in search of community, trying to disentangle the myriad opportunities that campus life appears to offer. Still others have set their sights on making a difference in the world through research or art or service or advocacy, and don’t really see a connection between their dreams and faith. A chaplain is there to serve them all.

A lot has been written about the mental health challenges that face students who have spent much of the past two years under pandemic restrictions – isolation, disengagement, anxiety – and all of these are significant. Perhaps more importantly, however, almost anyone entering college or university now has grown up with an endemic anxiety about climate change and the possibility that humans will consume themselves out of existence within a foreseeable future; this underlying dread is efficiently amplified by the dystopian scenarios of popular culture. Wars continue around the world, and the threat of nuclear and environmental catastrophe is never far away. The sense of equity and justice that families and schools seek to nurture in young people is challenged every day by the evidence of poverty, racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia and naked corporate greed. To be of service to students, chaplains have to be acutely aware of these dynamics, address the realities that face us and still find a way to talk about hope.

Talking about hope is a complicated business. Simplistic cheerfulness doesn’t cut it, nor does a flat rejection of the world and its brokenness in favour of a blissful eternity for the fortunate few. In the past, I’ve boiled down my response to the “Why are you (still) a Christian?” question to this: Christians believe in a God who is not only an all-powerful Creator, but who knows what it is to suffer for love. From this starting point, we can acknowledge the world’s brokenness and the danger in which humanity has put itself, and still talk about God’s loving solidarity with us and all Creation. We can think about the kingdom of God as “already and not yet,” as a future of justice and peace and sufficiency, but also as a radical force in the present, an underground rhizome system of love that can surround and subvert structures of power and cupidity. If we trust in God’s loving solidarity and seek to live as part of the kingdom of resistance, we can still make a difference.

This hope has to be the bedrock of my “loitering with intent,” and I think it’s crucial, not just for chaplains who work with young people but for the Church as an organism, to engage actively and visibly with the issues that challenge us all, to be known by the justice we stand for, the caring we embody and the transformation we seek.

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I am a cradle Anglican, born and raised in a tiny parish in the south of England, but have lived my entire adult life in Canada and am now a member of St. Peter, Oshawa. I had never heard of the Mission to Seafarers until an article appeared in the local paper about the installation of a new mission station at the Port of Oshawa, calling for volunteers, and it captured my imagination as being quite a contrast to my hospital volunteering. For the first time in my life, I considered what working life at sea might be like for extended periods of time, with homes and families far away. I eventually joined the group shortly after the mission’s official opening in 2015 and have been an enthusiastic ship visitor ever since.

Initially we go on board to welcome each international ship soon after its arrival with our contact information and a bag of chocolates. We explain to an officer what we can do for the crew: provide free WiFi, refreshments and donations of clothing, books and toiletries in our mission, otherwise known as the “seamen’s club,” plus souvenirs for sale and free transportation to shopping and recreation, with information about local amenities.

Before the pandemic, we could expect more than 40 ships a year in Oshawa, but that number has since been reduced to about 30. Almost all the ships are carrying steel, but occasionally they may have large machine parts, and once we had a tanker in port. Crews may number anywhere between 12 on a tanker and 17 to 23 on the steel carriers. Ships docking on the west side of the port in Oshawa are in close proximity to a very attractive park, and it’s a pleasure to see seafarers taking full advantage of it. Such a beautiful green space next to the port is quite a rarity.

The ships come to us from all over the world and the crews can be a mix of nationalities and languages, but communication is always manageable and we enjoy our interaction. It is very rewarding – though sometimes challenging – to be able to gratify their wishes, and several seafarers have continued to stay in touch across the world on WhatsApp with a “how r u?” chat and family photos. I can’t express how heartwarming that is, and I would strongly recommend others to volunteer and find out for themselves.

Sometimes a seafarer will ask me why I do what I do; I tell him that the blessing conveyed to me by him for giving me the opportunity to be useful far outweighs any granted to him by my actions. Simply put, it makes me happy. Once in a while an officer will express his appreciation with an invitation to a meal on board, which is accepted with alacrity whenever possible. That’s always an interesting and a very enjoyable experience, with a pleasant sense of comradeship. Generosity is also frequently shown to us in gifts of well-travelled chocolates, candy or small donations to the mission, which reinforces the value of our contribution to the seamen’s welfare while they are with us. We are aware that our actions can make an appreciable difference; I like to feel that we provide a “soft place” for them to land when they come ashore.

My spiritual journey took several twists and turns, including a long period of estrangement due to horrifying world events, including the Biafra crisis affecting so many babies and children, and it took a particularly low point in my personal life to bring me back to a solid relationship with the Church, but on reflection it was all profoundly educational and did eventually lead me to where I am now, which I feel is where I was meant to be.

I would like to think that five years from now I’d be doing what I’m doing now, spending much of my time volunteering in Lakeridge Health, Oshawa, and as a ship visitor whenever there’s a ship in port, but as I’d be well into my ninth decade that expectation may have to be revised. Apart from other considerations, the ships’ gangways can be 42 steps high!

The 23rd psalm has always had special meaning for me, as it has for so many; it conveys such reassurance, hope and peace.

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