Way back in May you arranged for your colleagues at St. Vincent de Paul in Alberta to purchase some warm winter clothing items to send together with a container that they were preparing for our community in Inuvik, NWT. Well, before the snow returned and the river turned to ice, the container arrived and eventually found its way to the Inuvik Warming Centre. Soon after the centre re-opened for the winter, we dug into the container with the new centre manager. It just so happened that Winston Moses was assisting at the warming centre that evening. Winston is a lay leader at the Anglican Church, so it was a joy to be able to hand the box of warm clothing from ACW to him. He immediately put these to good use with our homeless residents at the centre.

On behalf of the staff and residents at the Warming Centre, and the congregants at Inuvik Anglican Church, and the wider community of Inuvik, I would like to express our thanks for your generosity. May you be blessed for your kind service.

Myron Jespersen

Treasurer, Inuvik Emergency Warming Centre Society

PS: FYI, full disclosure, the NWT Housing Corporation has taken over operation of all of the shelter facilities in Inuvik (the warming or “wet” shelter, the “dry” shelter and the womens’ shelter) from July 2021. Last week, our IEWC society voted to dissolve after handing over remaining assets to NWT-HC. An informal group of us will continue to work alongside of NWT-HC to advocate for the homeless, search for long-term solutions and in the meantime supplement the government service through donations from within and outside the community.

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We are writing with with heavy hearts as the pandemic and lockdown situation continues.

We have given considerable deliberation to the actual continuation of the Bale program, but Leslie and I have realized that the Ottawa Bales to the North project has come to its natural end, considering the COVID crisis, the aging of our congregations and the availability of online shopping, even in the North.  

Writing this in January, with the vaccine roll-out stalled, we expect that even by April or May of this year, our Diocese will still be requiring the rigid RED or AMBER protocol for churches, which would automatically preclude us being able to gather to pack bales in our regular fashion.

We realize that many parish ACW groups have kept the goods that were ready to be packed in 2020 and the question now is, “what are we going to do with them”?  We have a couple of suggestions:

There are many places in your own communities that would be more than happy to receive your contributions of goods or money, including the Ottawa Mission, Centre 454 or a local refugee resettlement group. 

If you decide to pack your own box for the North, we can help. We are prepared to provide the necessary packing equipment and labels, to support a Deanery group gathering the items in one place to pack the boxes and send them off at your expense. Last year, a four cubic ft packing box filled to 39lbs, cost $120 to send to Iqaluit, for example. 

In the past few years, we have mailed to 13 communities yearly, so we would suggest that if you write Leslie, she will give you the proper mailing address for one community.  That way, between the groups, we keep the mailings even.    

Some groups may have more goods than money for this project.  But since the groups have generously donated to Bales for so long, our Diocesan money can continue to be spent, for this, the final year.   

Please give consideration to these suggestions and let us know what your thinking is and how you would like to proceed:  acw@ottawa.anglican.ca

This is not the way we envisioned drawing our wonderful Bales Program to a conclusion, but we both feel that a decision has to be made sooner rather than later. 

Money for Fair Share or the Bishops Discretionary Fund or Bales for the North can be sent to Leslie Worden,  59 Dalecroft Cres., Nepean, ON K2G 5V7.   She will acknowledge your gift, then forward it to the Diocese. 

Blessings on each of you, and for each group. 

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COVID has shut a lot of our churches and social groups down, but you can’t keep a good group of women down. Here is a determined group of strong women who have adapted to the shutdown, so that they can keep on helping others. I asked their contact person Shirley if I could share their story, as encouragement to all the groups struggling out there, with advancing age, shrinking numbers, and now the pandemic.

Stay safe and keep healthy, until “normal” is back.  

Marni Crossley and Leslie Worden
acw@ottawa.anglican.ca

~~~

At St. Mary the Virgin, Blackburn, the ACW has a total of 10 active members. Prior to the restrictions necessitated by COVID, we met approximately eight times a year, either in members’ homes or at restaurants.

Normally, we raise funds though our annual craft and bake sale and through calendar sales. However, it was not possible to do so this year. As a result, our treasurer came up with the idea of asking our members to donate to our tea fee fund as a means to providing additional money for our various projects. We are delighted to report that our members contributed a total of $500, which will be used to support our December gift giving to our seniors and shut-ins and to our annual donations to Diocesan community ministries such as The Well, Centre 454 and Cornerstone.  

We have also made a contribution earlier this year to our overseas outreach project—the Day Spring Orphanage (now known as the Excellent Children) in Morogoro, Tanzania. We have provided annual donations to this project for the last 10 years. 

This year several members collected items for the Bales for the North, and we are holding on to them until we have more information about what will take place in 2021.  

We also enjoy the fellowship with our ACW members. 

Report by contact person,
Shirley Adams

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These long months of dealing with COVID-19 have been a brand-new experience for all of us. Easter, summer holidays, Thanksgiving and now Christmas have come and gone and each time, we were hoping we would be back to normal. The isolation, distancing, wearing of masks and washing of hands, have forced all of us to adapt. These things have become part of the “new normal” we are incorporating into our lives!

The “new normal” for all of us in the parishes we have yet to experience! I know that many groups still have bale materials ready for packing from last April and May. We are praying that perhaps by this coming spring we will be able to pack our bales for our friends in the North. So, with the January sales upon us, feel free to check out the bargains and keep up with the news from Leslie and me!!! (We will surely know by January if we can go ahead.)

At the executive level, our financial arrangements have also changed. As you will remember, the Diocesan Executive was formally disbanded at the annual meeting in 2017. Consequently, Anglican Church Women of the Diocese of Ottawa is no longer considered a registered charity. In order for people in your group to receive tax receipts for donations, they would have to go through your parish treasurer. As a result, our bank account has been closed and the monies transferred to the Consolidated Trust Fund of the Diocese. It is still ACW money, and our designated officers, currently Marni and Leslie, can deposit it and access it through the Synod office, so we can continue to send bales to the North.

Many of you will remember that our long-time bales co-ordinator, Evelyn Presley, sadly died in the spring of 2018. Evelyn loved this work, being in touch with the clergy and the people in the North, preparing the list of needed goods and planning for our bale packing days. In her will, Evelyn had left the Diocesan ACW a wonderful gift of almost $15,000. We have decided to honour Evelyn’s legacy by using it for the people and ministries in the Diocese of the Arctic. In discussions with the three bishops of the Arctic, it was decided that these monies would be sent directly to their Discretionary Fund, to be used as needed. Perhaps as a bursary for the ATTS training school, perhaps as funding northern travel, perhaps as emergency food and lodging for overcrowded families during this pandemic, we know God will honour Evelyn’s gift of love.

As we close this note, Leslie and I want you all to know that we are committed to supporting each group, and we will keep you up to date with any news. Don’t forget to send the contact name and email for your group to acw@ottawa.anglican.ca

Marni Crossley – crossley_72@sympatico.ca ; 613-234-5833
Leslie Worden  – lesworden.on@gmail.com ;   613-747-2197                                     

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