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Update Newsletter July 2010

Welcome to Update – The subscription newsletter of The Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund.

PWRDF is the Anglican Church of Canada’s agency for sustainable development, relief, refugees and global justice. With the support of Anglicans from across Canada, PWRDF makes financial and human resources available to support partners’ initiatives to improve the quality of life and address the root causes of poverty and injustice. This list is an outgoing communication service from PWRDF only.

Sermon from our Burundian Partner - Edmond Bayisabe

Edmond Bayisabe, Youth Worker from the Diocese of Bujumbura, Burundi visited Canada to participate in the Diocese of Niagara Justice Camp and to visit the Dioceses of Montreal and Quebec. This visit was a continuation of an ongoing partnership between PWRDF’s justgeneration.ca Program and the Diocese of Bujumbura. On May 16 Edmond preached at the Church of St. Barnabas in North Hatley, Quebec.

To hear Edmond’s sermon, please go to: www.stbarnabasqc.org/sermons/sermons.htm

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Le Tour de PWRDF

1,393 kilometres later… Suzanne Rumsey, PWRDF Public Engagement Program Coordinator pedaled into Ste. Anne de Bellevue (near Montreal) and crossed the red ribbon finish line at St. George’s Anglican Church where PWRDF was created by a motion at General Synod in 1959. The journey began in Halifax with a commissioning by the Primate, Archbishop Fred Hiltz at General Synod 2010, continued to Springhill, Nova Scotia, site of the mine disaster that led to PWRDF’s creation, passed through New Brunswick and the scenic St. John River valley and over the border and mountains to the St. Lawrence. Quebec City and the Eastern Townships were also on the cycling route which ended on June 26 in Ste. Anne, 18 days after it began.

Along the way Suzanne met and stayed with Anglicans in parishes large and small; all of them welcoming and engaged in outreach work both locally and globally. It was a wonderful journey of discovery of PWRDF where it comes alive in communities like Perth-Andover, New Brunswick, and Lennoxville, Quebec. Suzanne kept a blog of her journey that can be found at: http://pwrdfblog.livejournal.com

Each day of the ride, a story about a partner was featured on the PWRDF website: http://www.pwrdf.org/?id=762  

Many parishes that Suzanne visited made donations to PWRDF under the “Le Tour de PWRDF” designation and on line donations are still being accepted at Canada Helps under the same designation: Give at CanadaHelps 

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KAIROS Update Six Months After CIDA Cut

Six months ago KAIROS lost its CIDA funding, ending a 35-year collaboration agreement, through which KAIROS and its predecessors provided support to its partners in the Global South. Canadians from coast-to-coast wrote their MPs, the Prime Minister, and the Minister of International Cooperation, urging them to reinstate the funds, and supporting KAIROS' good work.

Thanks to our donors KAIROS has continued to thrive despite this challenge but faces difficult choices in the fall.

Read the report on KAIROS' journey over the last six months.

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PWRDF Annual Resources 2010/11 - New Order Deadline

The last few months have been busy ones for PWRDF as public engagement staff settled into new positions, arranged pieces and attended General Synod, organized and carried out Le Tour de PWRDF and designed and produced the 2010/11 annual resources.

In recognition of the tight timelines between receiving the order form and the requested return, we are extending the order deadline to Friday July 30.

Please send the order form contained in the annual resources letter to PWRDF by mail in the envelope provided, by fax to 416-924-3483 or by email to Christine Hills chills[at]pwrdf.org before July 30, 2010. Please include your 8-digit parish identifier # and full contact and address information when communicating about your parish resources.

As good stewards of limited resources, we would like to offer you the opportunity to help us “reduce, reuse and recycle”! To view resources available from last year, please go to: www.pwrdf.org/resources/ 

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The Truth and Reconciliation Commission Canada: First National Event in Winnipeg

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) national event, June 16 to 19, 2010 at The Forks in Winnipeg, was the first of seven national events that will take place across Canada to educate the public about the residential school system that existed in Canada for more than 100 years, and give former students, staff and others whose lives have been affected a chance to talk about it publicly. The $60-million commission was formed by the federal government in June 2008 - the same time a formal apology was issued in the House of Commons for the abuses people suffered at residential schools.

Close to 150,000 First Nations, Métis and Inuit children were placed in more than 130 residential schools across Canada from the late 1870s until the last school closed in 1996. The schools were meant to force the assimilation of young aboriginal people into European-Canadian society. Many students were forbidden to speak their native languages or otherwise engage in their culture at the schools.

Archbishop Fred Hiltz, Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada (ACC), Mark MacDonald, Anglican National Indigenous Bishop and Henriette Thompson, Director of Partnerships, ACC, made a presentation of reconciliation to the Commissioners and those gathered. They spoke of their commitment to the work of healing and reconciliation and anti-racism in the church. The Commissioners were also presented with relevant resource materials including a copy of “Mamow Be-Mo-Tay-Tah, Let Us Walk Together”.

The Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund (PWRDF) is an active member of the Canadian Ecumenical Anti-Racism Network (CEARN) and guided the production of the resources, designed to help Canadians engage with the TRC on Indian Residential Schools and better understand the legacies of colonization that Indigenous peoples live with today. PWRDF is proactive in working in partnership with Indigenous peoples towards realizing their goals of building new community patterns of healthy living. The community healing process is the journey that will enable people to move to the life-long task of building and maintaining a healthy and sustainable future.

The next national event will be in Inuvik, North West Territories, in June 2011.

Copies of Mamow Be-Mo-Tay-Tah are available through the Canadian Council of Churches.

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CIDA Funding to CCIC Threatened - Canada’s Foreign Aid Community Risks Losing Strong Voice for World’s Poor

CIDA funding to the Canadian Council for International Co-operation (CCIC), Canada’s pre-eminent coalition to end global poverty, is in doubt. A critical and well-respected voice for the world’s poor risks being silenced if funding to CCIC is cut off.

CCIC’s three-year contract with CIDA ended on March 31, 2010. Two months into a three-month temporary extension of CCIC’s contract and no word yet from CIDA on the contract’s renewal. In July, CCIC will start operating with no CIDA funds.

“Unfortunately, it’s hard not to see de-funding as yet another example of the ‘political chill’ message this government has been sending to the development community,” says Gerry Barr CCIC’s President and CEO. “What we’re experiencing here is punishment politics. Speak out against government policy and risk losing your funding.”

Click here for the full story and what you can do. 

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PWRDF at General Synod 2010

PWRDF had an active presence at General Synod 2010 in Halifax, Nova Scotia. In addition to four plenary presentations, display booths organized jointly with the ACC’s Partnerships department was staffed throughout Synod and a PWRDF partner from the Confederacy of Mainland Mi’kmaq facilitated one of the Synod workshops known as a Port of Call. PWRDF Interim Executive Director, Adele Finney will offer impressions and reflections from General Synod 2010 in the next PWRDF Email Update.

Thank you for supporting The Primate's World Relief and Development Fund (PWRDF)

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