A parish in eastern Nova Scotia has raised almost twice its original goal for its PWRDF Sunday service, defying expectations and increasing congregational awareness of the work of the Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund, in particular its work on COVID-19 relief in the developing world.
The Parish of Three Harbours – a small rural parish comprising the town of Antigonish, Bayfield, and Country Harbour – had recently held its PWRDF Sunday on November 22nd, hoping to raise at least $850 in donations. However, in the end, a cheque was sent out for $1360.10 and $300 in cheques had already been made out to PWRDF prior to that.
For this PWRDF Sunday, the work centred on the work PWRDF is doing on COVID-19 relief. With the constant presence of masks and social distancing measures, the parish felt that many could take for granted access to personal protective equipment (PPE) as well as health information to prevent COVID transmission.
For this past PWRDF Sunday service, the format was different as the service included PWRDF partner story readings in place of regular lectionary readings. One story focused on the Village Health Works project in Burundi and the other focused on PWRDF’s efforts against the coronavirus in parts of Iraq.
The PWRDF Sunday also included something different – a “Mask-her-aid” event where members of the congregation created original masks that were then sold at the church. All the proceeds were donated to PWRDF. For the service, pictures of average women from Africa were placed on sticks to raise visibility of these people affected. In these countries, COVID-19 has been hitting women and children particularly hard.
The parish council for the Parish of Three Harbours dedicated its fundraising efforts to the PWRDF’s All Mothers and Count Program. The planning team for the PWRDF Sunday was Nanch MacDonald, Pauline Liengme, PWRDF Representative Joseph Quesnel, and Rev. Sue Channen.
This past March, this program wrapped up a successful four-year initiative with partners in Rwanda, Mozambique, Tanzania and Burundi. The $20- million program was the largest grant given to PWRDF to date and was supported with a 6:1 match from the Government of Canada.
The PWRDF announced a few months ago that the government has awarded them an almost $2-million-dollar grant to extend the work of these AMCC partners from now until March 2021. The funds will continue to support these vulnerable communities through the COVID-19 crisis and the government will continue to match donations at 6:1. This is the program that the parish is supporting.
The funds will support EHALE in Mozambique, Partners In Health Rwanda, Village Health Works in Burundi and the Diocese of Masasi in Tanzania as they work to ensure physical distancing, access to clean water, soap and disinfectant, acquisition of PPE and dissemination of reliable health information.
“At a time when we are all concerned about the way COVID has affected our community, it was a wonderful way to make us remember that there are so many who are far worse off than us. We saw the faces of real need and were able to give from our hearts,” said Pauline Liengme, parish warden, when asked about the service.
“We celebrate The Reign of Christ Sunday by dedicating it to PWRDF. At St. Paul’s –the largest congregation in the parish – we have music and decorations to enhance the PWRDF partner stories. It’s always fun and joyful. All the churches hear stories from PWRDF’s partners, which vividly reveal the blessings of “kingdom living”. Our parishioners are amazingly generous too. The World of Gifts catalogue inspires us to raise enough to make a real difference in lives of people whom God has asked us to love,” said Rev. Sue Channen, the parish rector, referring to past efforts by the parish to support PWRDF.
