Relief for Japan continues
The Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund (PWRDF) is continuing to accept donations for disaster relief in Japan. The country is still reeling from the effects of the 9.0 magnitude earthquake and the resulting tsunami that hit its northeastern region Mar. 11. PWRDF, the relief and development arm of the Anglican Church of Canada, has announced that donations will be sent to the Anglican Church in Japan and partner organizations such as Church World Service (CWS).
More than 12.500 bodies have been recovered, but Japanese officials say the final death toll could exceed 20,000. At press time, about 15,000 people were still missing, and more than 300,000 had been displaced, according to a statement issued by Archbishop Nathaniel Makoto Uematsu, primate of the Nippon Sei Ko Kai (the Anglican Communion in Japan).
The situation in the disaster area remains “chaotic and confusing as the extent of the loss and damage is so vast,” said Action by Churches Together (ACT), a Geneva-based alliance of church-based emergency and development groups that includes PWRDF. Act Alliance said Lutheran groups have formed a joint emergency response team, while another member, CWS, is providing emergency relief to about 25,000 people in evacuation centres.
The relief and rescue phase will end soon, but it is anticipated that the restoration will continue for quite some time. “We believe that it is during this second phase that God will use us to do his work,” said Archbishop Uematsu.
Baking to end world hunger
After learning how hunger affects one billion people worldwide, students from a tiny Inuit community on the Arctic Circle baked cinnamon buns, cupcakes and tarts to help end global hunger. In less than an hour, the Grade 9 students from the Tusarvik School in Repulse Bay, Nunavut, raised almost $400.
The money was donated to Canadian Foodgrains Bank (CFB), a Winnipeg-based Christian group that provides food and aid to developing countries. The Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund (PWRDF)is a member. In a CFB press release, Pauline Kridluar, one of 13 students who took part, said, “It’s the Inuit way to share.”
Indigenous pioneer dies at 89
Archdeacon William Winter, an Anglican priest and highly respected elder who pioneered a program for training indigenous people for ministry in Canada, died on March 31. He was 89.
Archdeacon Winter died in Kingfisher Lake, Ont., where he founded The Dr. William Winter School of Ministry.
“His vision, his dreams were so in advance, we’re really still trying to catch up with him,” National Indigenous Anglican Bishop Mark MacDonald told the Anglican Journal.
Into the light
Embracing Light from the Darkness, a national photographic essay project launched in the Anglican diocese of British Columbia, invites Canadians to express in visual images how the legacy of the Indian Residential Schools can be “healed, reconciled and restored.” “Many of life’s deepest sorrows and greatest triumphs evade expression through words,” said Mary Rogers, choir director of the Victoria-based Bishop’s Gospel Choir of British Columbia, which initiated the project.
Canadians also are invited to donate to other Bishop’s Gospel Choir initiatives: the Aboriginal Bursary and the First Nations Computer Technology Fund. The fund provides laptop computers and printers to post-secondary students who are residents of the diocese of British Columbia and in financial need. For more information, visit www.lightfromthedarkness.ca or send an email to [email protected].
Toward abuse-free churches
The legacy of church abuse and how to prevent it will be the focus of the second international conference of the Anglican Communion Safe Church Consultation. “Partnering for Prevention: Addressing Abuse in Our Communion & in Our Communities” will take place at the University of Victoria, June 24 to 26.
“Abuse happens in the church because we perpetuate structures of clericalism that place clergy in unrealistic positions of power and adulation among the faithful,” said the Rev. Mary Louise Meadow, former canon pastor of the diocese of British Columbia and a conference co-ordinator.
Featured conference speakers include the Seattle-based Rev. Dr. Marie Fortune, an expert on sexual exploitation by religious leaders, and Dr. Patricia Vickers, a B.C.-based expert in conflict resolution. More than a dozen workshops will explore topics ranging from pastoral ethics and professional supervision to domestic violence and human trafficking. Workshop leaders will include lawyers, clergy, child protection officers and abuse prevention educators.
For more information, go to www.aco.org/networks or email [email protected]. Ω
