The Health/Parish Nurse ministries are pleased to distribute a "File of Life" packet for use in your homes.
The packet consists of a small red plastic envelope which can be placed on your fridge door to alert anyone of your health history, current medications, and basic health information in case of an emergency. A medical information sheet will be given to you for completion; this sheet may be placed in the envelope on your refridgerator. Update the file every 6 months or so.
Contact Kathleen Snow at (506) 461-8201 or <nurse at christchurchcathedral.com> for information.
The City of FrederictonUnsung Hero Awards are meant to acknowledge those individuals who go above and beyond to help build and shape their community. This includes helping bolster the work of social groups and organizations that offer recreational, cultural, or charitable services to the community.
Penny Ericson, Fredericton South MLA David Coon and Sandy Robb
Sandy Robb, one of our volunteers with the Monday Morning Drop in, recently became an Unsung Hero recipient.
The photo is of Sandy, a formerly homeless woman. The award, given to eight people this year, acknowledges individuals who go above and beyond to shape a more compassionate and welcoming community. Among those who congratulated Sandy following the ceremony were Penny Ericson, chair of the Cathedral's Outreach Committee, and Fredericton South MLA David Coon.
The City web site says: "The Intercultural Award is given to an individual, group, or organization whose actions have contributed to promoting cultural diversity and have helped newcomers integrate into the community at large here in Fredericton."
“The Missions Committee would like to thank Beverly Morell for her leadership in the Belize Ministry. Over the past 10 years she has willingly devoted herself to the many tasks involved in this role, and we are very grateful for her leadership.
The four members of the 2018 mission team who will be assuming Beverly’s duties are Rebecca Butler, Caryn Gunter, Kelley Hall and Carol Ann Melvin. We wish them success in their new roles.”
Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I; send me!” ~ Isaiah 6:8 (NRSV)
The living God of the Bible is a sending God, which is what ‘mission’ means. He sent the prophets to Israel. He sent his son into the world… He also sent the Spirit to the church and sends him into our hearts today. ~ John Stott, Authentic Christianity, (1995), p. 315
~Gregg Finley, on behalf of the Missions Committee
SHINY KITCHEN – Kathy McBride (centre), chair of the cathedral's kitchen committee, chats with Linda Waugh (left) and Mary Allwood (right) from the ACW who were preparing to serve refreshments following a presentation. They appreciated the recent seasonal cleaning of the kitchen at the church hall by the “Holy Joes.”
The kitchen at the Cathedral church hall is spick and span, and the aim is to keep it that way.
A team from the Guild of St. Joseph recently tackled the greasy stove vent; cleaned the refrigerator, microwave, and two stoves including ovens; scrubbed three sinks; wiped down all the cupboard faces; washed the windows; tidied the drawers and cupboards; checked the dishwasher, and disinfected the counter tops. The freezer will be defrosted shortly.
“Our kitchen is a big, beautiful workspace which is used frequently for shared meals and preparation of light refreshments,” Kathy McBride, chair of the cathedral's kitchen committee, said. “Users are good about keeping it tidy from one event to the other, but a thorough cleaning is done three or four times a year.”
The committee, which meets monthly to ensure a clean, safe, efficient kitchen,has come up with a few tips for users to follow. For example:Always rinse your coffee cups and dishes if you don't have time to run them through the dishwasher.
Always date and label any items that you store in the refrigerator or freezer.
Don't leave any items uncovered in the fridge (e.g., dish of margarine, pitcher of milk, etc.)
At the end of each event, fill out the kitchen departure checklist. It's in a sparkly pink binder in a top drawer near the serving window.
The one-page checklist offers a quick run-through of important points, such as is the dishwasher turned off, is the door locked, who is laundering the dirty dishcloths?
“As a committee, we review the entries in the binder regularly,” Kathy said. “Has someone reported that we're running low on vinyl gloves? Do we need to replace a broken teapot? Of course, anything more urgent, such as a plugged sink, should be reported to the sexton or the office at once.”
Kathy said the kitchen is usually kept tidy, but the tips have been posted on the fridge as reminders and for the benefit of occasional or external users of the facility.
“It's about common sense and pride in our kitchen,” she concluded. “We appreciate everyone helping to keep the kitchen clean and safe for all to enjoy.”
On a warm and sunny February afternoon – yes we did have some of those! – approximately 35 women gathered at the Cathedral Hall to hear Kathleen Snow’s presentation entitled Women Making a Difference – Where We are Planted.
Most Christ Church Cathedral congregation members know Kathleen as our Parish Nurse, a member of the 11:45 am Praise Choir, and an active member of Mothers’ Union. Kathleen has been involved with Mothers’ Union for over 30 years. She has served as the local Branch Leader, the Diocesan President, the National President and has gone on to work with the Worldwide Mothers’ Union. As she told the group gathered on February 17th, these roles have provided her with the opportunity to meet some amazing women of faith around the world who truly are making a difference where they are planted!
Before introducing the attendees to these women, Kathleen challenged the group to come up with a list of characteristics of women who make a difference. Most attributes were positive but the odd less- than-positive one did manage to creep in reinforcing the notion that no one is perfect! Here are some of the attributes identified: nurturing, strong, thoughtful, supportive, determined, flexible, organized, committed and bold.
... flexible, organized, committed and bold ...
One of the women that Kathleen went on to speak about was Claudette Kijeme of Burundi. Claudette is a Mothers’ Union Worker who has been leading a Literacy Program focused on women. Since the program started in the year 2000, almost 74,000 people have been trained and are now functionally literate. Literacy Circles have been established in many regions of Burundi and surrounding African countries and the testimonies of women (and men) who have participated were very moving. Life constraints have been removed through literacy. Women can successfully manage their market stalls and not be cheated because they couldn’t count change properly. Literacy became a main tool to empower women. As more and more men became involved, they came to see that women were not worthless as culture had dictated and relationships between husband and wife improved. They now recognize the importance of literacy for their children, a distinct advantage for future generations. Not surprisingly, Claudette’s work led to her being invited to address the United Nations Council on the Status of Women as a member of the worldwide Mothers’ Union contingency several years ago.
Sheran Harper of Guyana developed the Mothers’ Union Parenting Programme which also started in the year 2000. This support program for parents is now run worldwide by Mothers’ Union. Sheran trains facilitators to run the Program aimed at improving family relationships. Kathleen trained under Sheran who visited Fredericton in 2008.
Although Kathleen spoke of other women making a difference in far off places, she reminded everyone that in our midst there are women making a difference. Dawn DeCourcey, a Fredericton resident, quietly runs a program called the Fundy Peace Foundation (FPF). While visiting a school in Kenya as a representative of the Foundation, Dawn realised that even though children may obtain the necessary high rankings to get into high school, they are often too poor to attend. In response, FPF set up a scholarship fund to assist students. It was also noted that few females complete elementary school and become eligible for high school. The Masai Mara Project has raised over $10,000 to help address this need.
So many women making a difference. Blooming where they are planted and continuing to sow the seeds of help wherever they are needed through their faith and their relationships with others. It was noted that as our faith grows, we often look to demonstrate that faith and the love of God to others. These women have all succeeded and continue to succeed in living out their faith each day!
Twenty-one people from the diocese are going to Toronto in late April. They will spend the week with the poor and needy, do chores and help wherever they can, spreading the gospel and doing good works. But don’t call it a mission trip.
We’re rebranding
“We’re rebranding,” said Colin McDonald, director of youth and intergenerational ministries in the Diocese of Fredericton. “It’s not a mission trip. We’re going on a student pilgrimage. What we’re really doing is forming people — our own people. We’re expecting to get far more from the people we encounter than we’ll give.”
A fund-raiser will be held at the Cathedral Hall. Visit the Facebook event page if you're "interested" or "going." Cost is $10 person or $30 for a family. Donations also welcome.
he group of nine leaders and 13 young people have been meeting, praying and studying the bible in preparation for the trip. The most recent meeting was held at Outflow Ministry, the same men’s shelter that now houses the Parish of Millidgeville after it left its north-end building last fall.
The Central Fundraising & Communications (F&C) Committee of Mothers' Union has produced a new prayer book for its members - 'words for every occasion to encourage and inspire, whether in public services, branch devotions or personal prayer time.'
This is the story of the little team that could! God gives us more than we can ask or imagine.
In my role as a member of the Central F&C Committee, I attended our initial meeting in May of 2016 which was held in Derbyshire. The goal of this first meeting was to discuss ideas about what the committee could do to raise funds for the worldwide Mothers' Union while at the same time enhancing communication with its members. The suggestion of producing a new Mothers' Union prayer book as an income-generator as well as a resource to our members was discussed.
The Prayers We Breathe prayer book was and is a wonderful resource; I have used it often over the last 20 years for both personal and corporate prayer. We suggested producing a new book of prayers written by MU members from all over the world. We were excited about the notion, and several members of the committee were quite enthusiastic about the project.
God gives us more than we can ask or imagine.
The F&C Committee meets 3 times annually; we meet in person once a year, and the other meetings are held via Skype. In late May of 2017 we met again in person and the idea of the prayer book was discussed again. Three of the members - Mari Thomas (Wales), Moira Thom (Northern Ireland) and I were keen to put our time and effort into the project. We were given approval by the committee to proceed and off we went! Our little team of three was on its way.
Last June we contacted Mothers' Union members from around the world via email with the assistance of Mary Sumner House. We invited them to submit prayers, and suggested topics to them for the prayers. We were hoping to receive 100 prayers for the book, and gave the members one month to submit them. We received feedback that this wasn't enough time, and doubt was expressed that the prayers would come in, but we received well over 350 prayer submissions. Mothers' Union members love to pray and they love to write prayers!
Mothers' Union members love to pray and they love to write prayers!
Mari, Moira and I met almost every Monday morning via Skype from June to December to receive, acknowledge, compile, edit, and work with our Committee Head Daniel McAllister and MU Trustee Jocelyn Wright to produce the book. A special thank you to Ethel Nelson and Dawn Skene for their eagle eyes in reviewing the prayers, and to Catherine Kyte from Mary Sumner House for her review and edits as well.
This new prayer book contains over 150 prayers and poems written solely by Mothers' Union members. It can be purchased for £3 plus postage by contacting Mothers' union <NewPrayerBook at mothersunion.org> or buy online Dear Lord Prayer Book.
It has taken a lot of time and effort to produce this book in just eight months. Our goal was to launch it at the Worldwide Council meeting in early February and we have met our deadline! The meetings and project have been covered in prayer, and all I can say is that our God is a great God who can make all things happen!
With every blessing, and thank you to all who have submitted prayers. There may be another book to come!
Penny Ericson on 11 March 2018 – Homelessness Initiative
The community of Fredericton is working to drastically change the way we collectively respond to homelessness through the implementation of a multiyear Plan to End Homelessness developed through collective planning by non-profits, different orders of government and community members.
The $10 million Plan, The Road Home, will work to house and support 267 chronic and episodically homeless and stabilize 1,033 households at risk of or experiencing transitional homeless. Moving from merely managing homelessness through emergency service to adopting a community wide strategy will create $3.2 million in savings in the first four years.
The Road Home is grounded in Housing First: an evidence-based model that focuses on quickly moving people experiencing homelessness into independent and permanent housing and then providing additional supports and services as needed. This model rejects 'housing readiness' approaches that have far too often left our most vulnerable trapped in a long-term or inescapable cycle of homelessness.
From the Plan ...
Our Plan sets forth a course of action that will result in significant shifts in our community’s collective approach to a widespread social challenge. We cannot promise that no one will ever experience homelessness again in our community: the root causes involved in housing instability are well beyond our capacity to redress in this Plan. Factors like poverty, the macro-economics of housing markets, public policy decisions, systemic discrimination experienced by groups including Aboriginal people, as well as the challenges of mental health and additions play critical roles in the dynamics of homelessness. These are structural and systemic factors that we must continue to address, though we cannot resolve them in the short-term. However, there is much we can do.
This Plan is a call to action, first and foremost. It sets out a roadmap that will lead to significant improvements for those experiencing homelessness in our community. It calls for the creation of new interventions, using the proven and cost-effective Housing First approach, to rapidly house and support those in need.
The Plan proposes the enhanced coordination of our homeless-serving system, and its intentional integration with other partners, including health, corrections, police, and child protection. It calls for enhanced information sharing, performance management processes and capacity building to support our frontline service providers. The Plan recognizes the key role all partners play in our collective
The Prayer Shawl ministry in Christ Church Cathedral began in 2006 during the early stages of the Parish Nurse and Health Ministry. It was under the leadership of Wendy Brien and she soon invited Marilyn Lewell to join her.
Listen to Marilyn speak on the Prayer Shawl Ministry on 25 February 2018.
Recently, new knitters have joined the group – Carole Hines, Bobbi Milner, and Melissa Dawe. We have expanded on the original idea of Prayer Shawls, and have made and distributed fleece blankets to men, whereas the shawls are given to women.
Since we began, we have made and distributed 220 shawls, and 52 blankets to all ages and genders, to places all around the globe! We include beautiful prayers with the shawls and the shawls are prayed over during the knitting process. They are presented in a gift bag. We have never refused a request for a shawl or blanket, and we do not charge for them.
Many moving and touching thank-you notes have been received. Some families have told us that they have even buried their loved one with the shawl wrapped around them, and/or wrapped the shawl around the urn during the funeral. They have provided much comfort to many.
Anyone interested in joining this ministry is welcome to contact Marilyn Lewell for further information.
