Our Creation Matters Working Group organized a service focused on environmental issues and a celebration of Earth Day at our 10:30 Sunday service on April 26. Everyone was encouraged to use their non-fossil fuel mode of transport to get to church—bicycles, tricycles, scooters, walking shoes, and bus passes.

We have installed new bike racks to keep parishioners’ bicycles and other vehicles safe while at the church.

Others have participated in the Salad Garden Project, the Cycle Fitness morning, or made crab apple jelly from foraged fruit.

There is also ongoing work to make the church building itself greener.

Lights have been changed;

More vegetarian meals are being served at parish events

The parish has provided financial support to Water First, a non-profit group that helps with water issues in First Nations communities.

During the season of Advent, we had a gifting ceremony to honour and better understand our Indigenous neighbours and their cultures. Our gifting ceremony was for books. Debora and Marc Fleming, members of St. Matthew’s, gave several books to the parishioners. The object of the giving was that people would read the books and pass them on to others and discuss the contents.

Our belief is that many small steps will add up to a big effect.

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The catalogue will include paintings by important Canadian artists such as Georges Chavignaud, Langley Donges, Bruce le Dain, Hortense Gordon and Sidney Charles Mooney. International art includes works by English watercolourist George Stanfield Walters, Scottish landscape painter Robert McGowan Coventry, Japanese artist Nisabura Ito as well as British bronze/spelter dogs, and an Australian bark painting by England Bangala.

St. Matthew’s recently received the donation of seven stunning stonecuts from Povungnituk, which is located along the eastern shores of Hudson Bay in Nunavik (Arctic Quebec). Printmaking started there in 1961 as a project of the Povungnituk Cooperative, and annual print collections were shown from 1962 until 1989 when the print shop closed after the death of several prominent graphic artists.

Several of the stonecuts are by Davidialuk (1910-1976), known as one of the best stone-cutting artists from the community. Unlike the print artists of Cape Dorset who used print assistants to transfer the image onto the print block, Povungnituk artists carved the design onto the print block themselves. The distinctive style of these prints comes through the rough texture and uneven harsh edges of the stone blocks.

Once again, we have certificates for vacation properties in the Caribbean and Panama which provide reduced per diem rates (airfare not included). Christmas baked goods and meals will be offered again.

And look for unusual books, Waterford crystal, fine china, fashion items, small pieces of furniture, jewellery and antique silver.

Capital Home Hardware in the Glebe and Amica The Glebe are supporting us again. These sponsorships help defray auction costs such as the website, graphic design and promotion. We have also received extremely important assistance from Antique Silver and Davidson’s Jeweller’s.

This year, the church’s outreach beneficiary will be the Youth Services Bureau in Ottawa. St. Matthew’s will sponsor a shelter room at the centre. Founded in 1960, the Youth Services Bureau of Ottawa is one of the largest and most comprehensive nonprofit agencies serving youth in this community.

To register, please visit: auctria.events/StMattsAuction2025

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Our Earth Day celebration this year will be held on Sunday, April 27. The 10 am family service will have an environmental focus, including our third annual Blessing of the Bicycles and alternate modes of carbon free transportation. We will give thanks for the wonderful earth and its gifts and encourage each person to make lifestyle changes that will have a positive impact on the environment. We will pray for God’s help in all our efforts.

Following the service, we will gather for a Souper Sunday event with a Carbon Footprint Game, which continues the theme of environment, led by Bill Nuttle. Our individual carbon footprint is the best indicator of our climate impact. Knowing our footprint can help us make personal changes in our daily lives to lessen our negative impact on the climate. The game, and group discussion afterwards, will help participants examine ways to accomplish the changes.

Concurrently, a special craft time for the younger environmentalists will be offered focusing on pollinators.

The third annual Salad Garden event will take place on Saturday, May 17. Soil, seeds and planters will be available, so that participants can come to the church and create a salad garden that they can grow and care for and then enjoy its produce during the summer. It’s a great way to enrich your patio or balcony. It’s also a wonderful way to help young people see where food originates and how much care is needed to produce it. Growing food is a perfect way to reduce carbon emissions; you don’t have to drive to the store to purchase it and no transportation is needed to get the product to the store. Plus, it’s wonderful to see plants spring from the earth. The event runs from 10:30 until noon.

Our second annual Cycle Clinic will be on Saturday, May 31. At this event, people drop by the First Avenue parking lot with their bikes, and a team of St. Matthew’s parishioners will guide participants through a quick five-step checklist to assess the health of the bicycle. The team will help the cyclists understand what repairs are needed to make the bike safe and more efficient.  It just takes a few minutes to get one of our enthusiasts to work with the rider and the bike to find ways to make riding more enjoyable and regular maintenance as easy as 1,2,3. The clinic will be from 10 am until noon.

The Creation Matters Working Group at St. Matthew’s would love to see people from all parishes join us in our initiatives to be stewards of God’s Creation. Every effort we make to highlight the environment and to minimize our carbon footprint is an effort to be the best caretakers that we can of God’s gift to us.

The Great Glebe Garage Sale: Repurposing on a Neighbourhood Scale

St Matthew’s parish has also participated in the Great Glebe Garage Sale for over two decades.  The event is important on several levels, which is why the parish continues to be involved despite the huge effort it takes.

First and foremost, this event brings the parishioners together. Everyone is encouraged to invite their neighbours to contribute to the sale too. Prior to the sale all the donations are gathered and sorted. The more valuable ones go to the premium table and are washed, polished, priced and displayed on the First Avenue side of the church. The remainder of the goodies are destined for the White Elephant Table where shoppers are encouraged to “make an offer.”

The third area of the event is book sale.  Volunteers work for hours sorting and organizing the books into several different categories. It is a thing of beauty to see all the books out on tables having been a crazy collection of boxes just a week before the sale.

Because the Great Glebe Garage Sale requires volunteers at many levels it works as a real team builder.  It also highlights our parish in the neighbourhood. Many people who come to the sale use St. Matt’s as their starting point.

The second aspect is the environmental impact.  With the whole neighbourhood involved, it is a perfect opportunity to repurpose items no longer useful to the vendors or donors. There is no restriction on the things that can be sold. At St. Matthew’s we get kitchen goodies, vintage radios, CDs, records, lighting fixtures, linens, garden tools, and the list goes on.  The environment benefits because all these things are given a second life. The amount that does not go to the landfill is enormous.

The third level for St. Matthew’s is the fundraising aspect. In the last five years, the sale has brought in more than $10,000 annually. Last year, the sum was close to $15,000. That is significant help to our outreach programs. The GGGS organizers ask participants to donate 10% of the amount earned to the Ottawa Food Bank. So again, the rewards are multifold. The parish adds to its fundraising total, and the Ottawa Food Bank benefits too. — Margaret Terrett

The Great Glebe Garage Sale is always the Saturday after the Victoria Day weekend.  This year the date is May 24. Come and enjoy the fun!

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