Funds from the Our Faith-Our Hope: Re-Imagine Church campaign will be used to strengthen ministry in our diocese in the coming years. Not only will the funds allow many parishes to invest in serious capital upgrades, retrofits and renovations, they will also allow parishes to dream about programs that they never thought possible – either revitalizing our inheritance or reimagining the church of tomorrow.

As of June, 2014, $7,535,116.21 has been returned to parishes. This portion represents the 40 per cent that is returned to parishes on a quarterly basis as funds are received, and will continue through 2017.

The diocese has initiated an allocations process for evaluating parish proposals for significant grants from the campaign. The Grant Application Guidelines are available on the diocese’s website (www.toronto.anglican.ca) on the Grants & Funding page under the Parish Administration section. Parishes and congregations in the diocese are invited to submit applications to receive grants. Grants are awarded on a semi-annual basis in May and October. A total of 40 grants have been approved, totaling just over $2.5-million. (See related article on this page for a list of the grants given to date.) This last round of funding – completed in May – granted funds to 27 projects.

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Leadership Development

• Wycliffe College. $75,000 for development of a leadership program for new clergy and lay leaders.
• The Rev. Richard Dentinger. $2,698 for a professional development course at St. George College, Jerusalem.
• Spirit of Invitation. $120,400 for the diocese’s Spirit of Invitation working group to develop a course that uses video and instructional content to explore the concept of invitation in a practical, dynamic and engaging manner.
• The Rev. Stephanie Douglas-Bowman. $15,000 to assist with doctoral studies in children’s and family ministry.
• Archbishop’s Youth Ministry Team. $6,200 to offset the cost of the Diocesan Youth Retreat, scheduled for Oct. 3-5.
• The Rev. Kevin Wong. $5,415 to help finance the cost of taking an English language training course.

Pioneering Ministry

• Redeemer, Ajax. $361,200 to support a new church plant in Ajax.
• St. Matthew, Islington. $8,000 to pioneer a new ministry designed to bring focus to the creative arts and artistic expression as tools for ministry.
• Parish of Georgina. $16,500 to provide an outreach chaplaincy over three years at Sibbald Point Provincial Park during the summer months.
• Church of the Resurrection, Toronto. $269,000 ($151,000 in the first year and $118,000 in the second year) to enhance its ability to pioneer ministry in the recently disestablished parish of St. Columba and All Hallows, Toronto.

Communicating in a Wireless World

• St. Paul on-the-Hill, Pickering. $13,000 for new wiring and video camera technology to broadcast services and events on electronic screens and on the website.
• St. Augustine of Canterbury, Toronto. $4,000 for a Friday Night movie program to reach those in the community.
• Parish of Penetanguishene and Waubaushene. $10,000 to help equip all three parish points with technology to enhance worship services and special event overflow.
• Trent-Durham Area Council. $3,500 to launch a pilot project in video web-conferencing and social media for the purposes of Christian learning and sharing.
• Communications Department, Diocese of Toronto. $30,000 to make the diocese’s website and FaithWorks website viewable on mobile devices and comply with new accessibility standards.
• All Saints, Collingwood. $25,000 to enhance communications for those in the congregation who are visually, hearing or physically impaired.
• Church of the Ascension, Don Mills. $15,000 to purchase and install TV screens, create a welcome video for its website and improve its website.
• Christ Church, Kettleby. $3,500 to install a WiFi system in the church.
• St. Mary Magdalene, Schomberg. $9,000 to upgrade the church’s sound system and install a WiFi system.
• Christ Memorial Church, Oshawa. $27,298 to purchase video equipment and computer technology and upgrade its website.
• Church of the Evangelists, New Tecumseth. $9,000 to improve and develop its website.
• Grace Church in Scarborough. $4,000 to purchase flat screen TVs and screens to be utilized through the church, allowing the church to become paperless during worship and presentations.
• Grace Church on-the-Hill. $12,000 to develop a mobile app that provides Christian resources.
• Parish Website Pilot Project. $58,700 for the diocese to create missional websites and social media strategies for 18 strategic parishes over the next year and a half.
• St. Bride, Clarkson. $15,000 to purchase equipment to install a new audio and visual system that is enabled by its website.
• St. Cuthbert, Leaside. $4,000 for an improved sound system and website.
• St. George, Pickering Village, Ajax. $11,447 to purchase audio and visual equipment to strengthen their online communications.
• St. Hilda, Fairbank. $20,000 to install an in-house television channel that will provide ministry to residents of St. Hilda’s Tower and the Lewis Garnsworthy Residence.
• St. Peter, Erindale. $25,000 to create and implement a new communications strategy.
• St. Paul, Newmarket. $30,000 to expand its WiFi, improve its website and introduce video conferencing and webcasting.

Enabling Parishes to Become Multi-Staffed

• St. Mary Magdalene, Toronto. $75,000 to hire a youth minister.
• Church of the Transfiguration, Toronto. $52,500 to hire a children’s minister.
• Christ Church, Stouffville. $25,000 to hire a director of young Christian formation.
• Holy Trinity, Thornhill. $62,000 to assist in the hiring of a youth ministry coordinator.
• Oshawa Area Parishes. $52,000 to provide joint church ministry for youth in the Oshawa area.
• St. Jude, Wexford. $66,500 to hire an addition member for the pastoral staff at the parish, covering three years.
• St. Olave, Swansee. $49,000 to hire a part-time children’s youth worker.

Giving to others

• Council of the North. The Council of the North is made up of nine dioceses, the Anglican Parishes of the Central Interior and the Archdeaconry of Labrador. They are in sparsely populated areas such as the Arctic, Yukon, northern and central interior of British Columbia, Alberta, northern Saskatchewan and Manitoba, northern Ontario, northern Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador. $500,000 for leadership training and support.
• Anglican Military Ordinariate. The ordinariate is composed of all of Anglicans in the Canadian Forces, including chaplains, military personnel and their families. $500,000 to fund the Office of the Bishop Ordinariate in perpetuity.

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The difference was, the children were speaking in a short video that was shown on an electronic screen at the front of the church. With expert lighting, sound and editing, they were able to tell their stories – and the congregation was able to watch and listen to them — in a powerful way.

St. Paul’s was able to create this experience with the help of a $13,000 grant from the diocese’s Our Faith-Our Hope: Re-Imagine Church campaign. The fundraising drive has raised $41 million in pledges to help churches in the diocese share the Gospel in new ways.

St. Paul’s used part of its grant to install new wiring, allowing the church to show its services on five electronic screens throughout the building, including the parish hall. This helps with overflow crowds for things like weddings, funerals, baptisms and other special occasions, says the Rev. Canon Kim Beard, incumbent.

“With the service on large screens, people in the parish hall can participate,” he says. “They can sing along, watch and listen to what is going on in the sanctuary. It makes their worship experience much more intimate than it otherwise would be.”

The church also used some of its grant to upgrade its video camera technology, enabling it to broadcast the service on screens in the sanctuary. This means that worshippers no longer have to flip through prayer and hymn books, as the words and music are projected up on the screens.

“We can go paperless,” says Canon Beard. “This is helpful for several reasons. Number one, people are looking up during worship. The singing is better and people are looking at what’s happening at the front rather than looking down. Secondly, it’s environmentally friendly. Thirdly, in addition to broadcasting the service, we can show things like presentations from the children and liturgical dancing that people at the back of the church might not otherwise see.”

Parishioner Bill Bradbury is the church’s audio-visual coordinator, putting together all of the service material for the screens and doing the camerawork. He’s been training young people from the parish to help out with the camera and to run the sound board. Together, they look after the audio and visuals on a Sunday morning.

The church is using technology to not only enhance its worship experience but to welcome people who visit online. Its website includes a video that shows clips from parish life. There are also recordings of sermons and special presentations, for those who can’t attend in person or are looking for a church. “For people who are checking us out, they can get a good idea of who we are by our website,” says Canon Beard.

The plan to equip the church with screens, video camera upgrades, website features and wiring will cost about $50,000, of which $13,000 came from the Our Faith-Our Hope campaign. “The grant has been a wonderful encouragement and it is much appreciated,” says Canon Beard. “We want to thank the campaign and the diocese. The grant encouraged us, and it helped us speed up the rate at which we can implement projects.”

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