Minute for Mission
Across Canada and around the world, Mission and Service partners are helping create communities where people are welcomed, affirmed, and treated with dignity. Sometimes that work is visible through advocacy, public education, or community programming. Other times, especially in places where speaking openly about 2S and LGBTQIA+ inclusion can put people at risk, it happens more quietly—through safe spaces, trusted relationships, and acts of accompaniment.
At the heart of this work is a simple but powerful truth: every person is created in God’s image and loved fully by God. That love is not conditional. It is not limited by identity, orientation, or circumstance. Through acts of compassion, protection, and welcome, Mission and Service partners reflect that love in tangible ways. This work can take many forms. It may look like creating a community meal where everyone is welcomed without question. It may mean ensuring a young person has supportive adults around them. It may mean offering spaces where people can gather safely, share their stories, or simply exist without fear.
Sometimes it means walking alongside someone who has fled their home country because their safety was threatened due to their sexual orientation or gender identity. In a new community, through the care and support of others, they may begin to experience something many of us take for granted: the freedom to live openly, safely, and fully as themselves. That kind of welcome is life-changing.
Through Mission and Service, our gifts help support the ongoing work in Canada and around the world. Together, we are helping nurture communities where people can experience belonging and the reminder that they are cherished by God exactly as they are. We give thanks for the many communities and partners who continue this work of affirmation, compassion, and inclusion every day of the year. Make a gift to Mission and Service today. Together, let’s help share a message the world deeply needs: there is room for everyone in God’s beloved community.
– Thank you –
Refugee Project
Nov 17, 2022
As we watch with disbelief a war waging in the Ukraine and over 600,000 being displaced in under one week fleeing the bombs, we appreciate the greater need that exists to welcome refugees. Our faith calls us to respond and through this ministry, we try to answer this call. Our Lenten Project for this year was our St. Paul’s Refugee Campaign, to raise funds for our work with refugees. As you know, we are working with St. Mark’s Anglican/Lutheran Church to sponsor a family from Syria who just last week arrived here in Canada. We are also working with a local Afghani family in co–sponsoring six members of their family who have fled Afghanistan and the have now arrived. With the invasion of Ukraine, we know that there are now many more refugees who have fled their homes and we have no idea if they will be able to safely return to their own country or not.
To donate to our Refugee fund, please make your cheque payable to St. Paul’s United Church and clearly mark on the memo line of the cheque that is for the Refugee Fund. If you are making an e–transfer or donation online through our website, then please indicate that it is for this fund. Thank you
Scott Warnock, Executive Director of the Huronia Community Foundation, presents a cheque for $2,000 to Ken Woods, of St. Paul’s Refugee Committee.
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St. Paul’s United Church in Midland is in the process of sponsoring a family from Afganistan, and is also assisting St. Mark’s Anglican – Lutheran church as they are sponsoring a family from Syria.
St. Paul’s has a long history of sponsoring refugees going back to the 70s with the sponsorship of a family fleeing Vietnam after the war.
All funds raised will be used to cover the costs of supporting the refugee families once they arrive in Canada, for the sponsorship period of 12 months.
Refugee Programs
We asked Rev Martin Giebel, from St. Mark’s, for an update on the Ismail and Maghrebi families which is included here.
The Ismail family (from Syria): all the children are in school, enjoying it and making progress both in English and academically. The father is employed. Regarding the son who is still in Germany, his application is now at the Vienna visa office – it’s progressing.
The Maghrebi family (from the Ukraine): everyone doing well. They are now in their own apartment.
The Maghrebi family are in touch with the Ismail family and Rev. Martin visits both regularly. The two mothers, Jihan and Svitlana, are forming a friendship even though both hardly speak any English – they ‘understand’ each other.
Everyone takes ESL lessons. Rev Martin is trying to establish in-person ESL in Midland.
We have a Travel Date for the family from Afghanistan; for now, it is for late October (no names and dates are included for their safety). We are making efforts to bring them to Canada as soon as possible as the situation where they are is very dangerous; we are very concerned.
We are all grateful for the safe arrival of all refugees; please pray for those who are still waiting to travel to Canada, and safety.
This family has arrived and more information will be forth coming.