The work of The United Church of Canada across the country and around the world is funded by the Mission and Service (M&S) Fund. By giving to Mission & Service, the people of the United Church join together to accomplish three goals: to transform and save lives, to inspire meaning and purpose, and to build a better world.

   Your gifts help people in need by providing access to food, housing, and employment support. Your generosity helps people develop new skills and access life-changing medical treatment and counselling. Your gifts help people live meaningfully and purposefully by supporting education opportunities, communities of faith, retreat centers, and agencies who work with refugees and the homeless.

   The United Church of Canada has partnerships with national churches, ecumenical organizations, Christian councils, and church agencies around the world. These partners connect with and support a wide range of church and community organizations. Working with reliable trusted partners in Canada and with 79 global Mission and Service partners in 21 countries means that less money is spent coordinating and delivering aid and more support goes where it is needed.

 

   Across Canada, approximately 120 projects receive support from the M & S Fund. These include: Chaplaincy work at hospitals and campuses, breakfast programs, food banks and soup kitchens, support for families of prisoners and youth at risk, self-help and drop-in centres, crisis support groups, housing for seniors, refugee settlement, native ministry, counselling centers specializing in addiction and mental health, and hospice care services.

  

   In Africa and the Middle East, poverty, food and safe water insecurity, disease and conflict factors are addressed by education and medical care services, conservation farming, reforestation, drilling water wells, refugee asistance and community-based peace building and reconciliation.

  

   M & S partners in Asia are faced with human rights issues, poverty, environmental destruction, and population issues which are aided by education, advocacy, humanitarian assistance and support for sustainable development and food security.

  

   In Latin America and the Caribbean, issues relating to resource extraction, free trade, human rights, natural disasters and migration are addressed through support for education, the promotion of sustainable agricultural practices and access to food and safe water supplies, support to displaced people, and participation in advocacy networks.

  

   We at the Neepawa United-Anglican Shared Ministry are one small group called upon to give, and, through the M & S Fund we are able to work toward relationships in the wider community that are just, honest, respectful and life-giving.

The Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund (PWRDF) is the Anglican Church of Canada’s agency for sustainable development and relief. It's main emphasis is work in the fields of international development and humanitarian response to emergencies. With the support of Anglicans across Canada, PWRDF partners with organizations working to increase healthy pregnancies and births, reduce gender inequality, relieve hunger and break the cycle of poverty in the world’s most vulnerable communities. Against a backdrop of climate change, PWRDF strives to address the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals for 2030.

 

   PWRDF supports partners in Canada and throughout the world who are implementing grassroots solutions relevant to the particular needs and situation of their local communities. This approach empowers communities to take a leading role in their own development, which ultimately moves them closer to a place of sustainability and self-sufficiency. PWRDF believes this grassroots, capacity-building approach is crucial is fostering a culture where communities are empowered to build their own success and well being.

 

   PWRDF partners are drawn from Anglican churches, ecumenical organizations and community-based groups. Our programs address:

                      Preventive Health

                      Food Security and Climate Change Mitigation

                      Indigenous Communities

                      Empowering women

                      Disaster Response and Humanitarian Relief

                      Accompanying Refugees

 

   Every year PWRDF responds to emergencies in Canada and around the world. Primarily, we allocate grants to appeals issued by the ACT Alliance, of which we are a member. ACT Alliance is an organization of 140 international Christian organizations working in areas of high need. When disaster happens, ACT is able to contact one of its members already in place and quickly get them funds for immediate necessities of life, such as water, sanitation, food and shelter.

 

   PWRDF also works extensively with the Canadian Foodgrains Bank which is a member of the Humanitarian Coalition, a collection of 10 leading aid organizations providing Canadians with a simple and effective way to help during large-scale humanitarian emergencies. Its goal is to reduce unnecessary fundraising competition, increase the impact of humanitarian responses and reduce administrative costs. Since donations to members of the Humanitarian Coalition are often matched by government, support to the CFB is an excellent way to help with humanitarian relief.

   By mid-July 2021, Cuba had a staggering average of over 400 confirmed COVID-19 cases per million residents daily, double the world average and more than any other country in the Americas for its size. Coupled with the continuing and strengthened US economic blockade, Cuba is now experiencing dire economic conditions, and shortages of food and medical supplies. The dramatic surge in cases related to the Delta variant has been felt most acutely in locations such as Cardenas and Matanzas where Mission & Service partners, The Christian Centre for Reflection and Dialogue (CCRD) and the Evangelical Theological Seminary (SET), are located

 

   When hospitals in Cuba were pushed to capacity, both partners moved quickly to convert their buildings to help. Today, both the Christian Centre for Reflection and Dialogue and the Evangelical Theological Seminary are being used as a field hospitals and isolation centers for children and their families who have been exposed to the virus. At Evangelical Seminary in Matanzas a team of doctors and nurses attend to 120 children and their accompanying parents, as well as other individuals who are suspected of having or are diagnosed with COVID-19. Seminary staff work to support the hospital, including providing food for the hospital on a daily basis.

 

   This generosity in action is also inspiring others to be generous, too. Local business owners and the public have begun to donate food, transportation, masks, and more to the Christian Centre for Reflection and Dialogue. “In recent days, we have welcomed representatives of different businesses in the city to our institution with special contributions: cake, ice cream, jam, and graphic prints with hopeful messages,” says the Centre in a report, calling the groundswell of kindness “gratifying.”

 

   Throughout the pandemic, your support through Mission & Service has helped provide vital personal protective equipment, vaccines, shelter, and food for people in Canada and around the world when they need it most. Thank You for supporting the Mission and Service Fund!

 

   PWRDF’s newest project is bringing light to moms and babies in Mozambique. For most parents-to-be, having light and electricity during their child’s birth is not a second thought, but for many in rural Mozambique giving birth in the dark is a reality. That is where PWRDF comes in.

 

   Working with our partner EHALE in Mozambqiue and California-based We Care Solar, PWRDF is building on our previous work done in 2016 by installing 50 more solar suitcases in rural medical clinics. A solar suitcase is a wall-mounted unit that opens like a suitcase and includes phone charging ports, a portable headlamp and a fetal Doppler to monitor baby’s heartbeat that is connected to a roof mounted solar panel.

   Having light before, during and after the birth can greatly reduce the danger to new moms and their babies and allow medical staff to quickly identify and treat any labour problems. The Doppler also helps to quickly identify the fetal heartbeat, which will keep the babies safe during the birth. The cost of running the solar suitcases is next to nothing because the lithium batteries last for years and are powered from the bright sunlight that Mozambique experiences year round.

 

   As we look forward to the warmth of the summer sun and emerging from various stages of lockdown, we can gather hope from knowing that the same sun is shining in Mozambique, powering health clinics. A single solar suitcase costs $5,800. This includes:

                                            cost of the unit

                               transporting the unit to Mozambique

                                         installing the unit

                                      replacement batteries

 

- Minute for Mission and PWRDF stories are presented at each Sunday service

- invited a speaker to talk about the Palestinian/Israeli situation

- promote Gifts with Vision and World of Gifts as an alternate method of gift giving

- set up an exhibit on the Brandon Indian Residential School

- circulated Lenten Calendars and collected non-food items for the local salvation Army.

- promoted awareness of child poverty in Manitoba

- support the local salvation Army Christmas Hamper program by collecting gifts for White Gift Sunday

- invited a speaker and fund raised for the Canadian Foodgrains Bank

- set up the Mitten Tree at church so congregation members could donate mittens, socks, hats, scarves and neck warmers.

- started a special project to encourage congregation members to support the Global Vaccination effort

The logo for the Mission and Service Fund is made of two parts; the base foundation and the vertical flourishes. The base foundation may be seen as a manger reminding us the Christ Child was and is born among us and all creation. It may be seen as a baptismal font where we are welcomed to the new life in Christ. It may be seen as a communion table where we are nurtured in the new life and where offerings of bread, wine and money are brought and shared. The vertical flourishes emanating from the base may be seen as a rainbow reminding us of God's covenant of hope with us and all creation. They may be seen as splashes of water cleansing and renewing all of life. They may be seen as flames of the Holy Spirit bringing God's light, warmth and direction to the life of the Church. Taken together, the logo is designed to represent all aspects of the Mission and Service Fund. It is symbolic of our faith that has a sure foundation; and at the same time is vibrant, energetic and versatile. It is symbolic of God's offering to us; and at the same time suggests each of us has something to offer to the wider wounded world. Together, the receiving and giving of God's gifts is at the heart of the Mission and Service Fund.

 

   In many of our churches, light streams in through stained glass window, many given by our forebearers in memory of loved ones or to the Glory of God. The new PWRDF logo, designed by Floating-Point in Belleville, Ontario, draws its inspiration from the patterns of light and color that is created by light which shines through such stained glass windows.

    PWRDF’s diverse projects are the vibrant colours and shapes that form the whole picture. The lines encircling the globe are the ties that connect us to the projects and to each other. But the lines are not the black lead of stained glass, rather they are open to let in light.