The Many Shapes of Outreach

Our outreach committee met on Sunday to get their program together for the winter months. Did someone mention "diversity" as an Anglican strength? These are the things that were discussed: the annual fundraiser, now behind us -- a dinner with cabaret and silent auction -- and its proceeds; Soup Nights for the local homeless population; lunches served on Sundays in the inner city (we take part twice a year); potential beneficiaries of the moneys raised by the dinner/cabaret/silent auction -- they came up with nine and reluctantly set aside four more; the focus for each of the four Advent Sunday giving projects -- they came up with four, quite easily, and then added a fifth-- "the chocolate bars." "The chocolate bars" were a huge project for a number of years when one of the chaplains at the jail organized Christmas stockings for the inmates, and we supplied her with chocolate bars as our share of that ministry. Continuing...the collection of stamps for the Canadian Bible Society; the destination for the open collection[s] at Christmas--it's always "No Room in the Inn," a revolving shelter-focussed initiative by the local Council of Churches (this year it's a special housing project for refugees with special needs, e.g. victims of torture etc.); the city-wide winter collection of "Coats for Kids"; the collection of canned-soup labels to benefit an inner-city school; the problem of what has happened to the refugee family from Africa whom we've been awaiting for over a year; and finally the possibility that a "daughter of the parish" about to depart for Rwanda might just find some project in Rwanda that we could also be helpful with. Wonder of wonders and thanks be to God, volunteers are present and willing and able to carry out all these good works...