Born in Horsforth, West Yorkshire, England, in 1936, Briggs attended and  graduated from the London College of Divinity. He felt a calling to the ministry in the Canadian Arctic where he and his wife Carole emigrated to live, raise their children and serve amongst the Inuit of Whapmagoostui, Que. (formerly Great Whale River), Churchill, Man., and Puvimituq, Que. (formerly Povungnituk), from 1961 to 1973. From 1974 to 1978, he served as Rector at Holy Trinity in Yellowknife, NWT.

Along the way, Briggs learned to speak Inuktitut and his family writes that “the connection he felt with the Inuit became a vibrant thread of continuity throughout his life.”

In Ottawa, while serving as a rector at All Saints Sandy Hill (Ottawa), he and a team of volunteers established a day hospice which later became the Hospice at Maycourt.

Briggs returned to the North in 1995 to serve as Dean of the Diocese of the Arctic and Rector of St. Jude’s Cathedral Iqaluit before retiring in 2000.

In 2002, he was awarded Queen Elizabeth II’s Golden Jubilee Medal, given to Canadians who made outstanding and exemplary contributions to their communities or to Canada as a whole.

Bishop Peter Coffin said Briggs played a significant role working with himself and the Rt. Rev. Andrew Atagotaaluk, Bishop of the Diocese of the Arctic, to establish the Inuit congregation at St. Margaret’s Vanier. It is the only Inuit Anglican congregation outside of the North. Bishop Coffin said that Briggs was always there for us “when we needed help and encouragement to go along with the project. We couldn’t have really done it without Roger,” whose knowledge and experience of the Arctic, Inuit culture and Inuktitut were vital. He fondly remembered Briggs’ forthright opinions and generosity of spirit.

The Rev. Canon Aigah Attagutsiak said Briggs was the first to ask her if she was interested in the ministry when she was a reader at St. Margaret’s and encouraged her in her journey to becoming an ordained priest.

“When All Saints Sandy Hill merged with St. Margaret’s Vanier in 2014, the new arrivals were happy to find our former Incumbent Roger Briggs a key part of the community, mentoring the Rev. Aigah Attagutsiak and building the Inuit congregation,” said St. Margaret’s Warden Jane Waterston.

“When COVID sent us all to our corners, he set himself the task of writing and sharing a regular, weekly, 1500-word (!) biblical commentary called “Hidden treasure.” He wrote more than 20 of them—challenging and comforting us with their depth and regularity. We came to know Roger’s thoughts and opinions much better. He himself was a hidden treasure.”

Briggs was predeceased by his wife Carole and is lovingly remembered by children, Rosemary (Jane), Mark (Mary) and Sara (Andre); grandsons, Luke, Mark and Matthew; sisters, Sue (Lynn) and Jayne; brother-in-law, Roger; and all their children and grandchildren.

His funeral will be held at St. Stephen’s Anglican Church in Ottawa on Sept. 14. The family welcomes donations to St. Margaret’s Vanier in Roger’s memory by e-transfer to office@stmargaretsvanier.ca

(With files from the Briggs family)

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 Food insecurity in Ottawa continues to be a tough reality for many people. All community food banks have concerns with the increased number of people accessing their service and the dwindling supply of food available. The Centretown Community Food Centre (CCFC), located at 370 Catherine Street, is no exception. CCFC’s purpose is to help their neighbours in need. For the past few months, more than 1500 people, including a large number of children, have been served by the Centre’s friendly staff and volunteers.

Centretown Churches Social Action Committee (CCSAC) is a collective of 22 churches in downtown Ottawa. Since 1978, CCSAC’s main project has been oversight of the CCFC. The new location for the Centre is accessible and a welcoming place for everyone.

CCSAC’s main fundraising event is the annual Walk for the Centre. This year’s Walk will be held on Sunday, Oct. 6. Arrive early (at 1 pm) to enjoy the festivities at the Jean Pigott Place at Ottawa City Hall. There will be terrific music from a Barbershop quartet and guest speakers including Ariel Troster, city councillor for Somerset Ward. Pipers from the Sons of Scotland piper band will lead the walkers out the doors of City Hall as the official opening of Walk begins at 2 pm. The two to four km walk is along the picturesque Rideau Canal Western pathway from Confederation Park to the Pretoria Bridge.

Local businesses sponsor the walk with generous donations and prizes. We will be encouraging participants to submit photos for the photo contest, so keep your cameras and phones ready!

We ask for your support of this worthwhile and necessary fundraiser for the CCFC. Online donations can be made at

www.centretownchurches.org/walkathon Alternatively, donations can be made by cheque (made payable to CCSAC) at the registration desk on Oct. 6 or mailed directly to CCSAC at 507 Bank Street, Ottawa K2P 1Z5. Receipts will be issued for donations over $20.

Looking forward to seeing you!   — Elizabeth Kent

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Or, is it more likely that they focussed on the current need—a house of worship in their own vicinity that could be quickly built, yet be as up to date as the new Saint Paul’s Church being mooted for Hazeldean? For some Anglicans in Carleton County from the very beginning of settlement had built their house of worship more enduringly of stone, fronted by a tower that proclaimed them an established church. A case in point was Saint Mary’s Church, Pinhey’s Point. For Anglicans of Antrim and Hazeldean, however, living as they did in the shadow of one of the largest concentrations of sawmills and planing mills in North America at the Chaudière Falls, they chose to build entirely in frame in a style that came to be known as ‘carpenter gothic.’

The name of Antrim seemingly suggested settlers who had come from the county of that name in northern Ireland. But names can be misleading. Most, if not all, of the Anglican families intent on building Saint John’s Church came from southeastern Ireland and had been resident in the vicinity for two generations before they began putting up the walls of this house of worship.

The choice of name for this church—Saint John’s—was typical of their conservative inclinations, being one of only five or six names that most early Anglicans chose their church name from: All Saints, Christ Church, Saint James, Saint John, Saint Paul, and maybe in doubtful cases, Saint Thomas.

How, then, given this evidence of their conservatism, do we explain the High Victorian Ecclesiastical Gothic Revival design of this house of worship, albeit one tamped down by the limitations of the frame medium. The truthful answer is that we do not know. No document, no smoking gun, can be found that conclusively states how and why this design was chosen.  However, we have two theories to explain what probably happened.

First, Thomas Fuller—head designer of parliament’s Centre Block being built in Ottawa, designed and built a small stone Gothic Revival house of worship (All Saints, Westboro) in 1865 in the neighbourhood of Nepean Township in which he resided.  If the novelty of that design was surprising for local farmers, they noted, approvingly, that it did not feature the expense of building a tower, hence removing one area of additional expense when building at Antrim.

There was the also the matter of a church being proposed for Hazeldean at the same time Antrim was contemplating its new house of worship. If Hazeldean was preparing to build in the new more modern Gothic Revival style, was Antrim willing to be left behind with an older style?  Those who understand neighbourhood rivalries can anticipate the answer to that question. By some miracle, the frame Saint John’s Church has survived for 150 years, whereas Saint Paul’s, Hazeldean burned down in the 1930s.

The Diocesan Archives collects parish registers, vestry reports, service registers, minutes of groups and committees, financial documents, property records (including cemeteries and architectural plans), insurance policies, letters, pew bulletins, photographs, paintings, scrapbooks and parish newsletters.

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The second summer I was there, my uncle and his family went on a one-week holiday down east, the first holiday he had taken in 30 years, and left me to look after the farm. So, the first day that they were away, I got up far too early, went out, opened the gate, called the cows and went into the barn to get ready. Then I opened the cow door and—no cows! Every morning that whole week I had to walk down to the pasture at the end of the farm and herd the cows up to be milked. Every morning! They didn’t know my voice, so they didn’t come when I called. Apparently, it works for cows as well as sheep.  (The sheep follow him for they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow for they do not know the voice of strangers!  John 10: 4-5)

Which, perhaps, explains much of the news these days. There are many who don’t know the voice of the Saviour, or even that there is a saviour or a voice to know. From the bad behaviour in our own country to the madness in Gaza and Ukraine, over and over, we hear the stories of people lost and wandering, people who are confused and afraid and angry. So many in our time have only ever heard the name of Jesus or God as a casual curse. I heard once of a young child who was in church for the very first time. As the preacher spoke of our Lord the child turned to his mother and said, “Mummy, that man just used bad language, he said ‘Jesus!’ in front of everybody!”

How will people learn that they are not alone in this time, that there is one who is called Saviour because he saves? How will they see that there is one who walks beside them, who loves and cares for them every day of their lives?  How will they learn to hear and recognize his voice, to trust and follow him, if not through us? But we, too often, look at ourselves and we see our weakness and think, “What can I do? The Apostles did signs and wonders, they healed people, raised people from the dead, and spoke with power and in different tongues! I can’t do any of that!”  We forget that we are working with God. We forget to look at God’s strength and ability and instead look at ourselves, at our weakness and inability, and we freeze up. We must remember that “We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10), and that we can be ready for those good works.

One of the most powerful examples of this that I have heard is a story American author, pastor and social activist Tony Campolo told of a time he visited Hawaii. Being from Philadelphia, the time difference had gotten to him, which is why he was wandering the streets of Honolulu at 3:30 am, looking for breakfast. Finally, he found a small diner open and ordered coffee and a donut. As he sat there, eight or nine prostitutes came in. They sat on either side of Tony, their talk was loud and crude, and he was just about to leave when he heard the woman beside him say that it was her birthday the next day.  Her friend scoffed, “Your birthday! So, what do you want from me?  You want me to throw you a birthday party?”

“Why do you have to be so mean? I was just telling you, that’s all,” the woman replied. “I’ve never had a birthday party in my life, why would I have one now!”

After they left, Tony asked the man behind the counter if those women came in every night. “The one sitting next to me, does she come in every night?”

“Yeah… That’s Agnes, she comes in every night.  Why do you want to know?”

“Because I heard her say that tomorrow is her birthday. What do you say we throw her a birthday party tomorrow night, right here?” Tony asked.

Harry, the owner, slowly smiled. “Hey, that’s a great idea!” He called his wife out from the back, and they arranged that Tony would get decorations and Harry would make the cake.

At 2:30 the next morning, Tony was back with decorations. Apparently, word had gotten out and the place was crowded. At 3:30 am, Agnes and her friend came in and everybody yelled, “Happy Birthday!”

Agnes was flabbergasted and shaken. She cried as they sang Happy Birthday, and Harry brought out the cake. After she blew out the candles, Harry handed her a knife to cut the cake.

“Is it okay if I don’t cut it just yet?” Agnes asked. “I just live a couple of doors down the street. Is it okay if I just take it home and show it to my mother? I’ll be right back, honest.”

“Sure, it’s your cake.” Harry said.

When the door closed behind her, there was a kind of stunned silence, so Tony suggested they pray. He prayed for Agnes, prayed that God would bless her. When he was done, Harry said, “Hey, what are you, some kind of preacher? What kind of church do you belong to?” Tony said that it was one of those moments when God gives you exactly the right words to say. Without missing a beat, he replied, “I belong to a church that throws birthday parties for prostitutes at 3:30 in the morning!”

“No, you don’t! There’s no church like that!” Harry said. “If there was, I’d join it; I’d join a church like that!”

Wouldn’t we all!  A sign and a wonder. An opportunity to show the love of Jesus to those who might never otherwise have heard or recognized his voice. If we keep our eyes open, we too will see the good works that God has prepared for us to perform and then, who knows what signs and wonders we and God together will do!  More than we can ask or imagine; that, at least, we are promised!  In Jesus name. Amen.

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Ottawa and Gatineau were treated to a glorious display of northern lights on the night and early morning hours of Aug. 11 – 12. Many people who were watching the skies for the Perseid meteor shower may have also seen the brilliant aurora borealis, which was visible across Canada from British Columbia to Newfoundland and across the U.S.

According to an article from The Weather Network: “The auroras were caused by strong geomagnetic energy due to a coronal mass ejection (CME) impacting Earth’s magnetic field. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) revealed that Sunday night’s magnetic storms were measured at G3 (strong), with a K-index of 5 to 7, indicating these were strong and vibrant storms.”

I appreciate the wonder of this natural phenomenon and the science behind it but having just taken in the beauty of the lights last night, it’s hard for me not to see them as something more, as many Indigenous cultures do.

“For the Anishinaabe, the northern lights are messages from our ancestors,” Anishinaabe writer, editor, and activist Niigaan Sinclair wrote in an article about the northern lights for the Winnipeg Free Press. “It is also said the motion and beauty of these lights are our relatives, dancing as they travel in the spiritual realm.”

The northern lights have had a special meaning for me since I saw a particularly brilliant appearance of them in the Alberta sky when I was 21. I was grieving my best friend who had died two years after being diagnosed with bone cancer. Those two years had been so hard, and then she was gone. One night that summer, the northern lights appeared in the sky, and I had never seen the lights like that — bright pink, green and purple, right overhead, so that they were almost flower shapes, not lights dancing on the distant horizon. It was such a comfort to see such beauty at that time —to think that my friend was with the God who creates such wonders, and that God is with us in our darkest times.

I have longed to see the northern lights since I moved to Ontario, but it has been years of waiting and fruitlessly searching night skies. It was such a delight to step outside last night and to realize that what at first just looked like thin white clouds were moving and shimmering. To be able to share that beauty with my daughter, who was seeing the northern lights for the first time, was a gift. Hallelujah, thanks be to God!

There are predictions that that conditions for seeing northern lights may continue until Aug. 13, and the Perseid meteor shower does not end until Sept. 1, if you want to do some stargazing. Wishing our readers beauties and wonders.

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This fall, the first of a series of modules in the form of 30-minute videos will be posted on the diocesan website. Following up on resolutions passed at Synod 2023, the modules are designed to equip congregations with essential knowledge and skills needed to thrive and are core curriculum courses for parish councils, leaders and clergy.

The videos will address five key areas of parish development: parish governance, building healthy communities, visioning and priority-setting, effective stewardship, and engaging with the wider community.

The Rev. Dr. Jon Martin has been appointed the chair of the Parish Development subcommittee and was working on content for some of the modules over the summer. He explained that the first video will be an introduction to parish development and will provide an overview of the series. The next video will focus on building healthy communities.

During the Shape of Parish Ministry Consultations and at Synod, the part of the process everyone has been most excited about is engaging with the wider community—contextual

mission and new worshipping communities, he said. Martin promised that the module on that

part will come, but the other videos and work will prepare parishes for that stage.

“As Bishop Shane and I have talked about, it’s all well and good to reach out into the community ..but [if] you’re inviting guests to the house to come and experience your way of life and your hospitality, you’ve got to make sure your house is in order before the before the guests show up,” Martin said.

The module on building healthy communities will examine different aspects of what a healthy community looks like and how it works. It will ask how parishes can be welcoming and hospitable. Martin explained that most parishes are doing what works for the people who are already a part of that community. “What we’re not always so good at when we enter a time of social and cultural shift … is adapting to what are the new needs, the new cultural norms, [and finding] new ways of being welcoming and hospitable as culture changes.”

The video will include best practices from across a spectrum of different parish ministry settings—rural, urban, suburban, and things that people from those different contexts have said were really helpful for them.

“We’re really hopeful that this will give parishes across the diocese who genuinely want to be healthy, who want to thrive, and who want to be well-situated to step into this new time in our church, the ability to do so,” Martin said.

He noted that to thrive doesn’t necessarily always mean to grow. “Thriving can mean doing the ministry God has called you to do in ways that are life-giving and life-changing to both your congregation members and the community around you.”

Looking ahead to the modules that will follow, Martin mentioned that the one on governance will help the viewers understand how the diocese functions. “What is Synod? Diocesan Council? the Standing Committees? the CBRs [Canons, Bylaws and Regulations]? How do those things work? They’re also going to look at parish structures. What’s corporation? Vestry? … How does the church actually function?”

There will be a video on parish visioning and priority setting. “We no longer live in an age where a parish church can do ‘the all things for all people’ approach. You need to be really intentional about who you are, and what has God called you to do and be in this place,” Martin said. The module will help parishes discuss their priorities, how to address them and how to measure the results.

There will also be a module on parish stewardship. “It’s quite surprising how few of the parishes in our diocese have an annual stewardship cycle, despite the fact that almost all of us are saying that a lack of financial resources is a big stressor,” said Martin. “And there are things that we know work to help fix that.” The video will offer advice on how to run a stewardship campaign, how to address resistance to stewardship and helpful resources.

And then, as promised, there will be a video on engaging with the wider community and contextual mission: “What does it mean? How do you do it? What’s your process?”

Once all of the videos are produced and posted, they will be easy to access on the diocesan website. “They’re going to be geared specifically for parish leadership and parish councils to watch together to hopefully implement,” he added.

At the end of each video, there will also be information about additional resources if a group wants to do a deeper dive into that topic.

Various resources created from training workshops presented in the spring of 2024 are already available on the Learning Commons page of the diocesan website. 

• Paul Lex, director of human resources, presented a  training workshop on employment issues. (video)

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In the morning, more than 150 people gathered at Minto Park where United Church minister the Rev. Theresa Burnett-Cole of Glebe-St James offered a prayer. After a land acknowledgement, those gathered were invited to follow the Indigenous participants, Palestinians and leaders from the Anglican, Lutheran, Mennonite, Antiochian Orthodox, Presbyterian and United churches as they walked up Elgin Street toward Parliament Hill.

The Gaza Ceasefire Pilgrimage is an international initiative that encourages people to walk the length of Gaza, about 41 kilometres, in prayerful solidarity with people there who are trapped in catastrophic conditions of war and famine. KAIROS staff reported that 150 Christian congregations have participated in Gaza Ceasefire Pilgrimages across Canada, collectively walking about 10,000 kilometres. Those walking to the vigil in Ottawa carried banners, kites, peace doves and photos of groups from across Canada who had participated in pilgrimages.

Vigil at Parliament Hill

When they arrived at Parliament Hill, Leah Reesor-Keller, interim executive director of KAIROS Canada, moderated the vigil.

The first speaker was Rula Odeh, chair of the board of Canadian Friends of Sabeel and a Canadian-Palestinian Christian. “Palestinian Christians have been a continuous presence in the Holy Land for over 2000 years, and we as Christians and churches cannot give up on our brothers and sisters from the cradle of Christianity,” she said. “They need us to amplify their voice in our churches and ecumenical initiatives. They need us to be there for them with bolder, stronger and faster actions.” Later in the vigil, some of her family members led the crowd in singing the hymn ’Dona Nobis Pacem,’ which Odeh explained was a favourite song of her 90-year-old Anglican father who was displaced from his home in 1948.

Bishop Andrew Asbil of the Anglican Diocese of Toronto represented the Anglican Church of Canada, reading a statement from Archbishop Linda Nicholls, who was unable to attend. ”My heart breaks with the pain of the unrelenting tragedies unfolding across the land of the Holy One as no end is yet in sight,” she wrote. “The bombardment of Gaza and the destruction of Hamas will not bring peace. The attacks on Israeli settlements will not bring peace.” She echoed what Pope Francis said in a recent meeting with Anglican archbishops. “Wars are always, always, always defeat.”

“The initial horror of the attack on Oct. 7 has been added to by the unceasing attacks on Gaza that have killed so many women and children, given licence to increased violence in the West Bank and utterly destroyed the infrastructure of Gaza. Listening to the news every morning—the rising death tool, the agony of families of hostages, the attacks on hospitals leaving little or no medical aid, the deaths of humanitarian workers, and the inability to find ways to bring humanitarian aid to those most in need leaves us in a permanent state of keening lament at human evil.”

Perhaps looking ahead to the church leaders’ meetings with government officials later that day, she added, “We must demand more from our government to do what it can to add its voice to that of international bodies for justice and peace, and to use its economic and political influence wherever possible. To do nothing is to be complicit.”

Thanking all who gathered that day, she concluded her letter: “The Anglican Church of Canada stands with all who are seeking an end to the violence, a permanent ceasefire, immediate provision of humanitarian aid, an end to all exports of arms to Israel and intermediaries, the release of all hostages, and a return to discussions that will lead to justice, recognizing the continuing need to address the illegal occupation of Palestinian lands and the need for peace that will lead to the thriving all who live in Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank.”

The Rev. Ian Ross-McDonald, general secretary of the Presbyterian Church’s Life and Mission Agency, had just returned with United Church clergy from a week of meetings with Palestinian Christians, church leaders, NGOs, United Nations agencies in the occupied territories of Palestine. “The people we met desperately want peace, and they look for ways that Palestinians and Israelis can live together in the land,” he said.

“Palestinians also told us that they feel abandoned,” he said. “After 76 years of isolation, hardship and betrayal, and the incremental loss of culture, communities, and lives, now we are witnessing the wholesale destruction, not just of the infrastructure, but of the population of Gaza, by trauma, transfer out of the area, and killing. Indiscriminate bombing, no warnings given to civilians before attacks, food and other aid is blocked from entering the area, and people are constantly forced to move…. Repeatedly, we heard that Palestinians described the ways that they are being treated as dehumanized.”

And he relayed their difficult questions. “’Where is the Church? Where is the Church’s courage and integrity?’ they asked, “Why is there little more than silence from so many of the Church’s pulpits and public platforms?”

Ross-McDonald said the people they met repeatedly asked the Church to name honestly and accurately the unvarnished reality of what is happening in Gaza and the West Bank. “Naming things as they are is difficult and uncomfortable work for the Church, but people of faith have the resources, they have the moral responsibility, and the holy vocation to do exactly that. … Palestinian Christians would have the church engage in risky truth-telling, meaningful advocacy, and prophetic action and decisions. Or as the words in the Lutheran Church at Bethlehem put it, they’re asking the churches to proclaim the gospel of liberation and to lift up a culture of life and of hope.”

After the vigil, those in attendance were invited back to St John the Evangelist for refreshments and to watch the livestream of the press conference at Parliament, which included Bishop Andrew Asbil; the Rev. Dr. J Dorcas Gordon, principal emerita of Knox College of the Presbyterian Church; the Rev. Susan Johnson, national bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada; the Rev. Douglas Klassen, executive minister of the Mennonite Church, Canada; the Rt. Rev. Dr. Carmen Lansdowne, moderator of the United Church of Canada; and Leah Reesor-Keller of KAIROS.

View from Jewish Federation of Ottawa

When contacted by Perspective, Jodi Green, spokesperson for the Jewish Federation of Ottawa, said that the Jewish community in Ottawa also wants to see an enduring peace in the Middle East. She cautioned that any calls for action need to be bilateral and anything that “leans towards Israel having to take actions that are not bilateral from the Palestinian side as well threatens the democracy and the safety and the security of Israelis.”

Green noted that any time there is conflict in the Middle East, there is a rise in antisemitism and hate crimes locally, and there has been a dramatic spike in crimes reported since October 2023. There was a bomb threat against a Jewish day school in November. As anecdotal examples of the hate experienced by individuals, Green said someone made a swastika in the snow at her home this winter, and a Grade 7 student in her synagogue’s youth group has been regularly taunted and called a Nazi Zionist at her school. People feel very unsafe and most Jewish institutions have increased security measures this year, Green said.

Advocacy efforts

Andrea Mann, director of global relations for the Anglican Church of Canada, was among the group of church leaders from the Anglican, Evangelical Lutheran, Society of Friends, Mennonite. Presbyterian and United churches who, along with staff from Kairos Canada, met with 10 MPs (Liberal, Conservative, NDP and Green), including three parliamentary secretaries and members of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development. Their goal was to communicate the calls from the Gaza pilgrimage directly to the parliamentarians.

She reported that there was a consensus among all those they met with that steps toward a sustained ceasefire and effective humanitarian aid are urgently needed now. There was also agreement that Canada has a role to play in working “toward just peace as a middle leader among states globally and a historic supporter of the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court and a defender of international law and international human rights.”

The church leaders affirmed the government’s resumption and increase of funding to UNRWA, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees.

There was an acknowledgment that the Palestinian reunification program hasn’t worked well yet and needs to be reworked if it is to be effective in helping members of Palestinian Canadians’ families come to Canada. Mann said that it is also important to note that many people in Gaza would prefer to stay in the region because they want to return to Gaza.

Church leaders also heard that the situation and experience of Palestinian Christians in Gaza, and the West Bank, and Israel are not well-known or reported in secular media, so “more information is needed about the context and needs of this very small faith minority in the midst of this situation.”

The church leaders also heard repeatedly that in the hyper-partisan situation on Parliament Hill, sustained pressure upon the government is needed to keep moving the needle. The leaders were encouraged to keep up their efforts and to remind people in their churches to go to their MPs’ offices as constituents and make their desires known for Canada’s role.

The post Walking, praying and advocating for peace in the Holy Land appeared first on Perspective.

About half of the 60 parishioners have taken training to be able to assess a person’s condition and administer Naloxone if they encounter someone they suspect has overdosed.

Parishioner Moira Alie described working as a team when they were called to help a man at the end of a Sunday service a couple of years ago. “I grabbed the Naloxone kits that the church had, and I also had my own Naloxone kit…,” she recalls. A couple of people had already started trying to resuscitate him with nasal sprays of Naloxone, but it wasn’t working. “I just kept handing them more and more of the Naloxone… and at the same time I called 911 and was giving the information to the dispatcher. It was looking really bad. The man was turning blue and was clearly without oxygen, but the Naloxone kits weren’t working. Every single one wasn’t until the last one that they used. Finally, he came to and actually stood up right away.” It’s helpful that a large number of people at St. Albans who know [what to do] and can act, she said.

Of course, there are challenges, Garner said, but in his two years in the parish, they have worked closely with 454 and trust has grown. In late July, the whole south wall of the church was defaced with graffiti. The centre staff let him know and sent photos. “We decided that it was too much to be reasonably cleaned by parishioners and centre staff, so we hired the graffiti company. They came in and cleaned it up. It was all done within eight hours,” he said. Both Centre 454 and the parish take a calm, proactive approach. “We’re just going to roll with these things,” he said.

The parish tries to champion Belong Ottawa and act as a bridge with the community.

Garner said it is important to realize what remarkable work the 454 staff does. “The Centre continues to rise to the challenge, but it’s crazy that we have social support workers doing frontline [first aid for overdoses.]” He hopes the City will provide funding for a nurse. “The Centre is being asked to do more with the same [resources] and the complexity is getting higher and higher. That’s really problematic.”

He added that he is inspired by the compassion, love and care program manager Dean Dewar and executive director Rachel Robinson approach the people who come to Centre 454 with. “It’s a lesson to me, I think it’s a lesson to the congregation that we continue to learn.”  

Related story: Belong Ottawa at Centre 454: Getting by with help from friends

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Operating from the basement of St. Albans church in downtown Ottawa, program manager Dean Dewar says the small staff of the Anglican Community Ministry is seeing increased rates of overdose and reverses an average of one overdose every day. Centre 454 is not a safe consumption site, and no one is allowed to use drugs on the premises, but they help deal with the effects of the drugs people use elsewhere.

Staff at 454 communicate with other downtown agencies to try to keep up with the everchanging toxic substances the drugs are laced with and to warn people who use drugs what they might encounter.

People who come to Centre 454 often struggle with homelessness, poverty, mental illness and addictions. They can access washrooms, showers and computers. They can wash their clothes and get help navigating the health care and social support systems, find connection and community.

Dewar joined Belong Ottawa in March 2023 in the midst of the opioid crisis. One of his first priorities was to get more training for the staff and refine their protocol for dealing with overdoses. Centre 454 staff now carry Naloxone kits with them at all times, which can reverse the effects of overdose with opioids such as fentanyl. Sometimes the drugs are laced with other substances, such as rat poison.

Centre 454 also increased the minimum number of staff from five to six, so that if an overdose happens, they can have a team of three to help while still having staff to manage the rest of the centre and participants.

The staff monitor people they have revived with Naloxone to make sure they are okay as well as people showing signs that they might be close to overdose. “If they were on the streets, someone would call 911 and they’d be brought to the hospital, just because they’re so unwell and the police officer doesn’t have the time to sit with them and make sure that they’re okay.” On a busy day, staff may monitor as many as 11 people.

The causes of the crisis aren’t all clear, but there has been a confluence of factors. The pandemic increased isolation for those who were already on the margins. The lack of affordable and supportive housing is a big part of the problem. The people who use Centre 454 are mainly accessing emergency shelters. “We also have a good chunk of people who are outside of the shelters, so living rough in tents, on grates at night, or who just walk around at night and sleep here during the day,” Dewar said. A small number are in rooming houses or couch surfing, and an even smaller number are housed. For those who receive money through the Ontario Disability Support Program, most of their payments go to covering rent, leaving very little for anything else.

Belong Ottawa’s executive director Rachel Robinson noted that the move in previous decades to close psychiatric hospitals in favour of housing people with serious mental illnesses in the community resulted in many people living on the streets. “At the time, everyone believed community care was the answer,” she said, acknowledging that there were very serious problems with the hospitals. Unfortunately, it is very expensive to give people the support they need in the community and in many cases, it doesn’t happen, she said.  “Many people … don’t have the capacity to live independently, and there’s a shortage of supportive housing … so we’ve got a crisis downtown of … 200 people every night sleeping outside now.”

Meeting needs

These are complex problems with no easy fixes, so Centre 454, open seven days a week, copes and cares for the people they serve in the best ways they can.

During the pandemic, 454 started providing a regular meal program, which it never had before, and now serves lunch to about 120 people a day. It is currently prepared at Belong Ottawa at The Well and is delivered to 454.

Centre 454 began receiving increased food from the food bank during the pandemic, but when funding to the food bank was cut post-COVID, the amount of food distributed to day programs also had to be reduced.

Dewar is looking forward to the installation of new laundry machines. The old ones had been used all day, every day for about 10 years. The bathrooms and showers are also in high demand and show it. Small fixes like adding hooks for clothes and soap and shampoo dispensers add dignity to the experience, but Dewar hopes in the longer term to upgrade the bathrooms.

Another challenge is that the staff are not trained as health care workers, but their work can involve health care, mostly in the form of first aid. Collaboration and consultation with other agencies, such as the Sandy Hill and Somerset West Community Health Centres and Ottawa Inner City Health has helped 454 shape overdose protocols and deal with other health care challenges.

A nurse from the Sandy Hill Community Health Centre now visits Centre 454 weekly and does wound care, but even more importantly helps reconnect clients to health services, says Dewar.

Community relations

Not surprisingly, residents in the area have concerns. Among the neighbours, “there are fierce advocates for us, who love what we do and are there to support us,” said Dewar, but there are others who say there is an over-concentration of social services in the area and want service providers like Centre 454 to be moved elsewhere. Somewhere in the middle are people who have specific concerns that Centre 454 tries to address. If someone paints graffiti, the Centre cleans it off. A garden box in the courtyard of Centre 454 attracted rats, so they are removing it.

With help from the Sandy Hill Community Liaison Committee and the Sandy Hill Community Health Centre, Centre 454 got a grant for a team of one staff member and participants to clean up litter in the neighbourhood every day between 2 pm and 4 pm. “It’s just been phenomenal for community relations. Sometimes people offer them some muffins and a drink. Sometimes they just say thank you,” said Dewar. It may not change everyone’s view, but it helps to represent Centre 454 and its participants in a more positive light.

Belong Ottawa works closely with the Sandy Hill Community Health Centre and other community groups to liaise with neighbours, agencies and elected officials alike. They try to communicate that closing Centre 454 would not make the opioid crisis downtown go away and without the supports it provides to people, the situation would be more difficult. They hope to build support for the idea working together, it is possible to make a significant impact on the lives of those in need and contribute to the health and vitality of the community.

Making a difference

Dewar spoke about the rewarding moments of seeing the difference they can make in people’s lives. He recounted getting to know a man who confided that during the pandemic, he lost his business and then started gambling. When he knew he was going to be evicted, he took the last money out of his account, bought camping supplies and moved into some bush in the area. “He came to our services for the meals and the laundry and showers.” When asked if he was interested in work, he said, “Yes, but I just can’t find it. It looks bad when you are homeless.” Staff connected him with an employment help centre that helped him get a job at a restaurant. “He would come to the centre during the day and freshen up. We gave him a locker to store his belongings in, and then he would go to his job more presentable. … After his job, he’d go home to his tent, and we’d start the whole thing the next day. That worked so well that he got housing and a new job. He comes and volunteers every Wednesday just to say thank you.”

They have also helped people reconnect with their families and sometimes return home. “We’ve gotten some really great feedback from their families,” Dewar said.

When he asks staff what they think Centre 454’s greatest strength is they always say it is the rapport they build with participants. And when he asks them what keeps them coming to work every day, “Every single person has said the people. They tell different anecdotes of the participants. Sometimes it’s making someone laugh, sometimes it’s just being there with a person who’s not having a good day and being able to be their cheerleader a little bit.”

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