The total money raised for our sponsored Liberian family’s expenses, through the November 26th auction and additional donations, was over $2,800!
This is a real blessing for the cause with the federal money ending shortly and the bills continuing to come in for rent, electricity, telephone, groceries, etc. We are very grateful to everyone who donated items, volunteered at the event, and who bid on the various treasures (some of which are being modeled in the photo). We are especially thankful for Wendy Brien and her team who worked tirelessly to put this auction together and to pull it off. Well done!
With gratitude,
Ann Deveau
on behalf of the Refugee Sponsorship Committee
Our Christmas Angel program has begun! Please help us provide gifts for needy children in the Fredericton area. 🙂
Paper angels from the Fredericton Food Bank are waiting to be chosen from small trees in the Cathedral and in the hall foyer. Each angel indicates a gift or stocking stuffers for a needy boy or girl of a specific age.
Unwrapped gifts, with the paper angels firmly attached, should be brought to the church or the hall by SUNDAY, DECEMBER 4th. Drop-off boxes are set up near the angel trees.
If you cannot bring your gift on time, please take it to the drop-off box in the hall no later than Monday, December 5th. It might seem early, but it is the deadline for the Cathedral Outreach Committee to deliver the gifts to the Food Bank volunteers, who will then distribute the gifts to the children’s parents to be wrapped.
If you prefer to donate money instead of toys or stocking stuffers, please write a cheque payable to Christ Church Cathedral and indicate Christmas Outreach on the memo line. Your cheque or cash should reach the church office by Friday, December 16th. These funds will be divided equally among the Fredericton Homeless Shelters, Transition House and the Fredericton Community Kitchen.
The Outreach Committee thanks you for your generous support in making Christmas special for needy families in our community!
The guests who attend the Monday morning drop-in at Cathedral Memorial Hall are lucky. People who have never even met them collaborate to make the event a success.
They have a warm, welcoming place to hang out and socialize with their friends. Thanks to members of the congregation who generously donate sandwiches, muffins and fruit, they never leave hungry.
Thanks to others who set up the room, they can enjoy a cup of coffee while sitting in comfortable chairs. Their dirty dishes will be made sparkling clean by volunteers in the kitchen.
WHEN THE SAINTS – When the Saints Go Marching In is one of the favourite songs performed by a small group of Christian men who sing and play at the Monday morning drop-in.
Some guests are busy “shopping,” looking through the free stash of used clothing and small housewares donated by cathedral members, their relatives and friends.
Archdeacon Pat Drummond offers a Bible study each week. Parish nurse Kathleen Snow takes blood pressures and chats with people about their health problems, often pointing them toward helpful resources.
A few Christian men from a local Baptist church bring their guitars and banjos to play gospel music, with some country tunes and oldies mixed in. Sometimes there’s a singalong.
A social worker from the downtown health clinic circulates through the crowd to assist people he knows or has just met. Cathedral volunteers chat, making the day a little brighter for guests struggling with loneliness, illness, poverty, and addictions.
BP CHECKS – A blood pressure check is one of the services offered by parish nurse Kathleen Snow at the Monday morning drop-in for people in need.
“We enjoy wonderful partnerships with people from the cathedral and elsewhere in the community who believe in opening their hearts to help people in need,” said a smiling Penny Ericson who is chair of the Outreach Committee. “We couldn’t do it without their kind and faithful support.”
She noted that the Cathedral ACW helps by providing funding as well as food once a month as do the pastors and parishioners of St. Margaret’s Anglican and New Maryland United.
“We have a great time working together in the kitchen and talking with the guests,” she said. “The people who come appreciate what we offer very much. About 40 people attend every Monday, although on the last Monday of the month when we give out a $10 gift card or bus tickets, the turnout climbs. We are grateful to the Bishop and Chapter for the money to fund that part of our activities.”
Penny welcomes questions from anyone who is interested in learning more about the Monday drop-in.
Please be advised the the Cathedral will not be holding a Flu Vaccine Clinic this fall due to the closing of the VON Service. Flu vaccines may be received from your family physician, local pharmacies, and pharmacies within Co-op, Costco, and Walmart. Some pharmacies are requesting that you make an appointment, while others are allowing walk-in service.
The flu vaccine is free of charge to adults and children with chronic diseases such as diabetes, lung and heart disease; cancer; healthy children 6 months to 18 years, and people 65 years of age and older. For further information please visit the Public Health website. Please note, Public Health Offices are only offering flu vaccines to children under six years of age.
Visit dontgoviral.ca for locations and other information.
Lucy’s Sewing Group meets Fridays to carry on an embroidery tradition. From left: Rita Cyr-Bonga, Jean Davies, Diane Radford, Ann Dalzell and Flo Harvey. ~ McKnight photos
By Gisele McKnight
Every Friday morning, between three and seven women gather at Cathedral Memorial Hall to keep alive the art of ecclesiastical embroidery.
They range in age from their early 60s to late 80s and they call themselves Lucy’s Sewing Group, based out of Christ Church Cathedral.
Together they have a few hundred years of sewing experience. Without them, and others like them, our Anglican church services would be hard pressed to function.
Their ministry is the embroidery of altar linens — corporals, credence cloths, fair linen, purificators and so on. Without purificators, for example, how would a priest celebrate Holy Eucharist?
“It’s definitely a ministry,” said Rita Cyr-Bonga. “It’s very important. I can’t put it into words.”
“From my point of view, I can sew, so I regard that as a gift. Therefore I should use it,” said Ann Dalzell, another of the members.
Production
The process of producing an embroidered cloth begins in Ireland at Ulster Weavers. Lucy’s buys it in a 10-metre roll. They tried the locally available linen, but it didn’t measure up, so they stick with the Irish.
Rita Cyr-Bonga rolls up a measuring tape after working with a bolt of Irish linen. Lucy’s Sewing Group doesn’t use the cathedral kitchen for eating, only for laying out and cutting metres and metres of linen.
Once it arrives in Fredericton, Rita takes it home for preparation.
“It has to be laundered, washed and ironed, before we use it,” said Jean Davies, who acts as the organizer of the group. “Imagine washing your tablecloth, but 10 metres of it. It’s not a job I would say ‘let me do it!’”
Laundering is to prevent shrinkage later on. Measurements for their products are precise, so this step is crucial.
Then it’s time for cutting the linen into the pieces for which they have orders. Once that’s done, the pieces are hemmed with mitred corners. Then finally, the embroidery can begin.
Flo Harvey explains the process: Fold the cloth in half to find the centre line. Stitch a blue line along it. Fold it the other way and repeat.
“When you’re finished, you have a cross in the centre,” said Flo, adding that’s where the embroidery will go.
A design is selected — either from their catalogue or one the customer provides — and the linen is placed over the pattern for tracing. Flo uses a light table at home and a washable ink pen to do the tracing. Then it’s ready for embroidery, once those blue stitch lines are removed.
When the embroidery is complete, it’s time for another laundering and ironing, and delivery to the customer.
While the group meets and sews each week, much of the work is done at home.
White-on-white embroidery design
Output
Lucy’s produces altar linens for the diocese, and as time and hands permit, they take on projects from elsewhere, even from as far away as the United States on occasion. They made four altar cloths for the Cathedral’s mission to a church in Belize, for example.
In an average year, the group will produce 40-50 purificators, five corporals, five fair linens, two credence cloths and two stiff palls. Turn around time is two months to several months, depending on the workload.
“We have a waiting list and we just do it as we go,” said Jean.
White-on-white embroidery design
Their price list hasn’t changed in a long time. A purificator is $12.50; a fair linen (altar cloth) is about $250. The latest roll of linen cost $306 Cdn, and fortunately, church linens are duty-free.
Their profits are donated to a variety of charitable causes.
Just a spark
Repair of altar linens is a tricky business. If a stitch is loose on a hem, it can be mended. But if it’s a hole in the cloth, its usefulness has ended.
“Traditionally we don’t mend altar linens,” said Ann. “There can be no broken threads on the altar. The only exception is hems.”
That’s why it’s important to snuff a candle, not blow it out. A spark can make a hole, and the only method of disposal is to burn it.
Lucy McNeill in an undated magazine article
Lucy’s origins
In an earlier era, ecclesiastical embroidery involved silk and gold threads on silk cloth. Some churches in the diocese still have these treasures. Now, however, the work of Lucy’s is white on white — white thread on white linen.
Ann, though, had the privilege of restoring Margaret Medley’s colourful embroidered frontals at Trinity Church in Dorchester about five years ago.
“The whole tradition started with Margaret Medley,” said Ann. “By the time she was in the country 12 months, she had started an altar guild.”
Photos of Margaret Medley’s embroidery
Margaret was the wife of Bishop John Medley.
Lucy’s Sewing Group, though, is not part of an altar guild. The roots of this group lie with Lucy McNeill, a somewhat stern but gifted embroiderer who lived next door to Cathedral Memorial Hall.
“Lucy was a rather formidable person,” said Ann. “People don’t realize she was very keen to get small group sewers going in our parishes. Lucy has had a terrific impact.”
Lucy once wrote a front-page article for Embroidery Canada, after which the magazine asked her to continue contributing.
Her answer: ‘I am not at all interested in domestic embroidery.’
She did, however, author a 32-page book called Sanctuary Linens, Choosing, Making and Embroidering, published by the Anglican Book Centre in Toronto in 1975. Two editions were published, but it’s rare to find one these days.
Some in the current group worked with Lucy.
“We were doing this work under her helpful hand and met at her house once a week,” said Ann. “We just kept on afterwards.”
Lucy died several years ago.
New members welcome
Jean was recruited about 15 years ago by the dean’s wife.
“She said, ‘You sew. Why don’t you join Lucy’s group?’ I didn’t know what Lucy’s group was.”
Diane Radford is one of the group’s younger members. She has a unique perspective as a member of the sanctuary guild.
“I find it interesting to see the other side of it,” she said. “You have no idea of the work that goes into it until you see this.”
While some might think the embroidery is too intricate or difficult, it’s a craft that can be learned, and the women at Lucy’s are eager to share it. They eagerly welcome new members. And because this group is senior in age, they understand the importance of recruitment.
To contact the group, call Cathedral Memorial Hall: 450-8500.
At the end of this year Doug Milander will turn in his apron after 10 years as co-ordinator of the cathedral’s community kitchen ministry.
For well over a decade, the cathedral has supplied teams every Saturday evening year-round to help the cook from 4 until 6 p.m. with food preparation, serving the crowd, and doing the dishes.
“The shift is only two hours a month, the work isn’t difficult, and it’s rewarding to help people in need,” Doug said. “It’s a really busy place, and our help is appreciated.”
However, 10 years straight is a long time to give to a monthly volunteer activity. He’s also busy with the cathedral’s Monday morning drop-in for people in need, the food bank basket collection, and the Christmas Angels program. As well, he’s part of the core group assisting the Liberian refugee family to settle into Canadian life.
“It’s time to pass the torch,” Doug said, noting the co-ordinator’s duties would include recruiting team captains and team members this fall, developing a schedule for the year ahead, and reminding people of their commitments.
It’s time to pass the torch …
Currently, four teams help at the Saturday suppers in rotation. Each team has more than a dozen members, and four-to-six people are expected to cover the two-hour shift. Ideally, a person’s turn would only come up every couple of months.
In recent years, the cathedral congregation has not been able to provide enough volunteers. People from other denominations have joined all four cathedral teams which does add a nice social aspect to the work.
“I would be glad to meet with anyone interested in taking on this important volunteer opportunity,” he added. His number is (506) 455-3299.
CLEANING UP – Doug Milander, longtime co-ordinator of the cathedral’s community kitchen ministry, takes a break from doing dishes to pose with his wife Ann Deveau, one of the team captains, and Fan Liang, a graduate student from China who joined a cathedral team to help people in need.
The Safe Church regulation of the Diocese of Fredericton aims to ensure a working, learning and spiritual environment that is safe for all members of our communities. In our Bishop’s words “It is a matter of us getting our house in order.” The Safe Church training programme intends to reach these goals by systematically educating all church leaders and those who minister about the regulation, policies and standards held officially in the Diocese of Fredericton.
Both the implementation of standardized complaint procedures and the maintenance of Safe Church event standards are intended to allow for easy adoption throughout the diocese.
“Safe Church” means the protection of clergy, lay leaders and ministers, employees, volunteers, congregation members, families and visitors so that all may share ministry in a secure atmosphere.
WHAT TO EXPECT
Comprehensive training of the Safe Church regulation, policies and standards
Helpful forms and templates for ease of implementation
Knowledge of all complaint procedures
A variety of learning aids, including video, diagrams, quizzes and activities
Two delivery methods tailored for groups and individuals
Convenient Safe Church Event Checklist makes planning simple
Diocesan Safe Church Training Certificate after the program is completed
FACT OR FALLACY?
With Safe Church, we can never rent our hall again.
Fallacy! Under the Safe Church program, other community and church groups will still be able to rent the church hall. The community group will be asked to sign the “Agreement to Use a Diocesan Facility,” which maintains several Safe Church standards, and sets the conditions of use.
With Safe Church, we won’t be able to use our old buildings anymore.
Fallacy! Many of the older buildings may not meet complete safety standards, but will be required to update when future renovations take place. If an older facility does not include washrooms or emergency release doors, these standards need not be implemented unless the parish decides to make renovations, at which time the building should be brought up to standard. With Safe Church, we will not be able to maintain our programs for children or youth.
Fallacy! For most parishes, Safe Church should be easily implemented, with only minor changes such as the police record check, two adult standard and the open-room standard to ensure each program or ministry complies with the regulation. Safe Church has been designed to allow for a smooth, uncomplicated transition.
Safe Church is intended to prevent misconduct.
Fact! The Safe Church program is intended to create an environment of understanding and respect for all members of the church, by applying procedural and planning standards. This safe environment protects clergy and lay leaders in their ministry, as well as volunteers, employees, congregants, families and visitors.
TWO WAYS TO TAKE THE COURSE
Online: The online Safe Church programme allows (will allow) individuals to take training both on their own time and at their own pace. The online course involves five modules and quizzes that systematically provide an overview of the Safe Church regulation and, the course is completed on the participant’s schedule. The link to online training will be available here when available!
Group: The group Safe Church programme is for whole parishes/congregations or groups in which multiple people need the training and would prefer to participate together. The group course involves a two-hour presentation on the content of the Safe Church regulation, delivered by a diocesan Safe Church training team member, followed by a brief group activity that applies the information to potential scenarios.
It is suggested that most parishes/congregations offer initial group training on the regulation.
What does it take for you to go somewhere you have never ever been before? For some people they become filled with fear and never want to go, others they just need the money and they are already on the plane, and others still just need to hear the voice of God and they will be there no matter what the barrier.
I had the privilege of going down to French Guiana at the end of July to celebrate the 20th anniversary of having an Inter-Varsity group (GBU) in French Guiana. In 1996 there was a group of university students from Martinique who came to French Guiana to plant a GBU in the second largest city, Kourou, and there were a bunch of bumps along the way but they knew that they were called their so they faithfully followed. Since then GBU in French Guiana has expanded to the other university in Cayenne and onto 3 different High schools. All of this has happened by the initiative of volunteers and students because there are currently no staff workers there.
For me it was also my first time in French Guiana and it was a mixture of exciting and scary to go to a place where I did not really know anyone but I had heard so many good things about. For me, seeing the teaching that was there, the way in which they celebrated and my time interacting with students it was a strong confirmation that I am being told to go somewhere I haven’t really ever been before. I am stepping out in faith and I hoping and praying that my contributions can have the same impact as those first students had when they first got off the plane and started ministering on the University campus. But so far what I have seen is so encouraging.
Funding report
This past little while I have been back in Winnipeg and I have been able to fundraise the first 30% of my budget so in the next month I am aiming to get to 100% of my fundraising. I want to thank all of those people that have already supported me. If you or anyone you know would like to support the ministry of Inter-Varsity I would love to come and meet with you and tell you how that might be possible.
With a violent civil war and years in a refugee camp behind them, Phillip, Esther, Arene and Catherine flew more than 10,000 kilometres from Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, to Brussels to Montreal to Fredericton this week. The long trip is only the start of their challenging journey.
FIRST CANADIAN PICNIC – The Rev’d Rick Robinson and his wife Nancy took the refugee family from Liberia swimming and for a picnic at Woolastook Park on July 31. Pictured with them are Arene, Catherine, Esther and Phillip. The young people also enjoyed dancing to music at the event which was celebrating Black heritage in New Brunswick.
A smiling welcoming committee waved balloons, welcome signs and Canadian flags at the airport. Parishioners came from the cathedral, Christ Church Parish Church, St. Margaret’s, St. Mary (York), All Saints in Marysville and Anglican parishes around Gagetown. Four exhausted people who hadn’t slept for two nights looked bewildered by all the attention.
“They were overwhelmed, probably feeling as if they had landed on another planet, but we made them feel as welcome, safe and comfortable as we could,” said committee member Doug Milander from the cathedral. “When we drove up to the door of the apartment building and I said, “this is your home,” Phillip began to sob.
“I don’t know what he had expected, but he could not believe what was happening. By the time he saw the spacious rooms, homey furnishings, and all the food, he cried harder. He thanked us and shook our hands many times.”
Phillip’s wife Esther deplaned in an airline wheelchair and walks very haltingly with a cane. The teenaged children look healthy and were curious. Everything is new for them: 24/7 electricity, potable running water, modern bathrooms and appliances.
Representatives of the Archdeaconry of Fredericton await Phillip, Esther, Arene and Catherine at Fredericton Airport on Wednesday.
“This is an incredible and emotional experience for everyone,” said Kelly Humber-Kelly from St. Margaret’s who completed much of the paperwork related to the refugee sponsorship. “Everyone on the committee thanks you for the prayers, funds, and donated items you have given to this project in the past several months.
“But it’s no longer a project. These are people with hopes and dreams, a family who needs our help and loving care to regain their independence and transition to a new life in Canada.”
Updates will be provided as events unfold for the family. Ongoing prayers are appreciated.
