Social Justice Concerns

• The 175 trees by our 175th anniversary challenge
• Indigenous People
• Hunger
• Human Trafficking

The treed environment around us - a new project for 2023 and beyond. **As of the end of November, 2024, we have planted or funded the planting of 74 trees!**

As part of our 170th anniversary year, St. Anne's has joined the Archbishop of Canterbury's Anglican Communion tree planting project.

We hope that over the next five years we will be able to point to 175 trees planted to commemorate our church community, its people and our 175th anniverary in 2028. Why not plant a tree on your property or fund a tree to be planted elsewhere? Just let the church office know of your efforts so that we can tally up the numbers and the impact we are having on our environment. Listed below are a few organizations that plant trees in our area and feel free to tell us of others:

1) ReForest London www.reforestlondon.ca - $25 per tree to plant a tree in a London park. A tax receipt is provided.

2) Lower Thames Valley Conservation Foundation  www.lowerthames-conservation.on.ca - $40 per tree to plant in a conservation area memorial forest. The tree can be donated in memory of a person and a certificate will be provided. There are no areas within the city but in the region, the closest being at the Conservation Area outside Delaware. A tax receipt is provided.

3) St. Clair Region Conservation Foundation  www.scrca.on.ca/foundation/memorial-forests - $50 per tree to plant in a conservation area memorial forest – The tree can be donated in memory of a person and a certificate will be provided. There are no areas within the city but in the region, the closest being at the Conservation Area in Strathroy. A tax receipt is provided.

4) Upper Thames River Conservation Authority www.thamesriver.on.ca - $50 per tree for the memorial forest program in London and a tree planted in memory of a person. There is also a Tree Power Program whereby the authority provides free trees to people to plant trees on their property in partnership with London Hydro. While there does not appear to be a minimum donation only donations of at least $20 gets a tax receipt.

Trees, trees and more trees….an update

Thanks to your generosity, St. Anne’s goal of planting 175 trees before our 175th anniversary in 2028 is well on its way.  As of the end of July, 38 trees have either been planted on private property or funded through your donations.  A total of $1,685 has been forwarded to local conservation organizations to fund the planting of 27 trees:

• $100 to Upper Thames
• $160 to Lower Thames
• $1,425 to Reforest London

For those who donated to the Upper Thames River Conservation Authority, the UTRCA is involved in four memorial forests (https://www.thamesriverdonations.ca/memorial-forests) with the London location being around Fanshawe Lake.  The UTRCA works with Logan and Evans Funeral Homes in London.  A dedication service is held each fall at each of the four forests.

For those who donated to the Lower Thames River Conservation Authority, six Foundation memorial forests throughout the lower Thames River watershed received donated trees. (https://lowerthamesfoundation.ca/you-can-help/memorial-trees/) The closest forest is the Sharon Creek Memorial Forest near Delaware.  An annual dedication service is held in September at the C.M. Wilson Conservation Area near Blenheim.

ReForest London will hold its annual Tree Planting Ceremony on September 7, 2024 outdoors at the Celebration Forest behind Parkwood Hospital.  The six-hectare site is situated near ReForest London’s headquarters in the Westminster Ponds Environmentally Significant Area. (https://www.reforestlondon.ca/dedication-registry/)

Each of these organizations recognizes its donors in a slightly different way and been asked to forward any memorial cards or certificates to St. Anne’s for distribution to donors.  Please remember that to retain the natural beauty of the various forests, individual trees are not marked in any way.

Thank you again for your generosity and contributing to the 5^th Mark of Mission to safeguard and renew the earth.

Keith B.

Indigenous People

Territorial Land Acknowledgement
We want to acknowledge that the land we are gathered on today is First Nations’ territory, the traditional territory of the Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee, Attawandaron, and Wendat peoples. This territory is covered by the Upper Canada Treaties. We also want to offer respect to our neighbouring Indigenous nations, including the Metis, Cree and Inuit amongst many others. Our necessities of life are here and our work today is possible because of the stewardship of the 7 generations who came before us.

Our Creator
Our Creator who dwells in the sky world
Your name is sacred.
Bring us your kingdom and let your will be done on mother earth and in the sky world.
Give us today the harvest of your land.
Forgive us for what we have done wrong.
Forgive those who have done wrong to us.
Don’t let us be led into wrong doing.
But let us walk the good path with a good mind.
You are our everything and you are everywhere.
You are powerful and you dwell in glory.
Before, now and forever.

Photo: Orange Shirt Sunday - September 29, 2024

National Indigenous Day of Prayer -  June 21 is National Indigenous Peoples’ Day.

Indigenous Ministries supports the Indigenous Peoples of Canada (First Nations, Inuit, and Métis) spiritually, socially, economically and politically. We recognize that the purity of the land base provides for all our needs. As active participants in the life of the church, we strive for reconciliation with the Anglican Communion and work towards Indigenous self-determination.

More information on the Anglican Council of Indigenous Peoples, their work and many other resources may be found at: https://www.anglican.ca/im/ and https://www.anglican.ca/tr/reconciliation-toolkit/

Navajo Beauty Way Prayer “Walk in Beauty” from the women of the Episcopal Church in Navajoland. Blessing led by the Rev. Canon Cornelia Eaton at Sheep Camp, Navajoland.

Prayers, an adaptation of the Great Thanksgiving. Led by Ms. Judith Moses and Mr. John Haugen, members of the Anglican Council of Indigenous Peoples.

Homily by the Rt. Rev. Chris Harper, Bishop of Saskatoon

The Strawberry Story, written by the late Canon Ginny Doctor, read by Donna Bomberry.

One particularly inportant resources is Doctrine of Discovery: Stolen lands, Strong Hearts. The purpose of this one hour long film is to respond to the calls to action by helping to provide education and insight into the racist foundations of many of our property and other laws still in existence to this day.
https://www.anglican.ca/primate/tfc/drj/doctrineofdiscovery/

The Lenni Lenape Algonkian Iroquoian Council consists of representatives of the six First Nation parishes in the Anglican Diocese of Huron. The LAIC logo consists of traditional First Nation and Christian symbolism: an Eagle Feather (representing Truth, Power, Freedom, and Balance); a white Christian cross on a blue background; and at the four cardinal points, spots of the traditional colours representing the Four Directions. To learn more of their ongoing Vision and Mission, particularly in the light of the Calls to Action and recommendation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, please visit: https://diohuron.org/ministries/laic-first-nations-parishes

Other resources:

• Indigenous Peoples Atlas of Canada
• First Nations University of Canada
• Truth and Reconciliation Commission Reports
• National Inquiry into Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls
• Canadian Encyclopedia

In 2019, St. Anne's hosted a Blanket Exercise and were pleased to have 29 people join us for this event.

Hunger

In 2021 St. Anne's began growing some fresh food for the local Byron Cares Food Bank. A greenhouse was supplied to the church by Business Cares London and the London Food Bank.  Thanks to Green Horizon Sod Farms/Big Yellow Bags and Home Hardware Komoka for their donations to help us continue the greenhouse operation. We truly appreciate the people behind these organizations for caring enough about their neighbours to support this effort!

If you are needing some soil or mulch this year, why not consider one of our sponsors BigYellowBag. When you or any of your friends and neighbours purchase one of these products, and use our code ANNES24, St. Anne's will receive $10 for every bag purchased. Once your bag is empty, return it to the BigYellowBag unit stationed by our greenhouse and the church will receive an additional $5. You can find out more about BigYellowBag at https://www.bigyellowbag.com/ or by calling 1-855-424-4224. The best part is that you can get what you need, and help St. Anne's to carry on its ministries.

Our community and parish volunteers spend time caring for our garden beds several times a week from May until the weather turns too cold for production to continue, weeding and watering as needed so the plants have good ventilation and moisture. You can also sign up for harvesting when the crops are ready to deliver to Byron Cares. New volunteers are most welcome to join us as we all do our small part to help feed our neighbours.

As we come to the beginning of our 2024 growing season, we will be expanding our use of the greenhouse and growing additional crops. A bit of an experiment this year, yet it is our hope it helps us increase our yield of fresh produce for our neighbours who use Byron Cares. Feel free to contact us if you wish to participate as we are always looking for fresh ideas and help!

This year we will be holding a Blessing of the Gardens and Open House on Sunday May 26th, from 10:30 am to 11:30 am to celebrate the beginning of another growing season. This Blessing will take place at the end of our regular 9:15 worship service. Refreshments and treats will be served as we hear a bit about our 2024 plans. All are welcome to attend our worship service or Open House and visitors will also enjoy special music by the ‘Uke ‘N Do It’ ukelele band.

We are expanding our operations to increase our yield and the variety of crops grown. Key to our work will be a more intentional focus on how we can incorporate green practices into growing our food. Composting, worm castings and providing shelter for beneficial insects will be part of our efforts. Although we have a small area to grow food, large pots recycled from a local nursery, potato cages and a new trellis will hopefully increase our offerings to Byron Cares. A Three Sisters planting of corn, beans and squash will also pay tribute to our Indigenous neighbours and those who farmed this land in past generations.

Do you have a garden space that could contribute to growing food for the Food Bank? Anyone with their own backyard or community garden can help – will you?

 St. Paul's Daily Bread Program, a registered charity, is an ecumenical social service provider supported by over 50 London and area churches of various denominations, a number of service and fraternal organizations and hundreds of caring individuals on a regular ongoing basis. The Daily Bread Program is available to anyone need in the community who is in need and is one of the few agencies in London that offers emergency financial assistance in crisis situations pertaining to shelter and/or utilities cut off as funds permit.

Human Trafficking

The Trap, created by the Ontario Government, simulates the realities of being targeted, recruited, and exploited by a sex trafficker. It is designed to be used as part of a discussion facilitated by an adult, helping you teach your kids about human trafficking in an interactive, impactful way.

Courage for Freedom is one organization working to increase awareness of this practice of human sex trafficking and its presence along the 400 series highways and have a Project Maple Leaf intitiave to spread the word - https://courageforfreedom.org/solution/projectmapleleaf/  Can you spread the word?

In 2019, 14 members of the congregation attended a public rally in July to learn more about what can be done to decrease human trafficking. It was both informational and inspiring.

Internationally, human trafficking, bonded labour and slavery are still very prevalent in some parts of the world. The International Justice Mission (IJM) - https://www.ijm.org/ - partners with local authorities in 24 program offices in 14 countries to combat slavery, violence against women and children, and police abuse of power against people who are poor. IJM is a global organization partnering with local justice systems to end violence against people living in poverty.

An article in Christianity Today about an IJM opearation to end slavery on Lake Volta.

Outreach at St. Anne's

St. Anne’s Volunteer T-Shirts
Would you like to have a St Anne’s T-shirt for when you volunteer at one of our outreach events or a fundraising events? Here is your opportunity. We have designed a T-shirt with our logo and tag line and each shirt ordered is $15. Please email Cathy B-S at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and we will place a group order. Please specify the quantity and size you are requesting.

Outreach Projects Group
An Outreach Projects Fund was established at our 2021 Vestry meeting to provide up to $7,000/year for outreach submissions.

2023 allocations
Greenhouse – Special Projects: $500
Snacks to Northview School: $600
Buddy Bench for Northview: $750
Halls Mills House: $1,000
Snacks for Parents at El Sistema Drumming Evenings: $500
Camp Huron: $500
Maggie’s Run: $1,000
Connecting to Indwell Residence: $500

2022 allocations
1. Healthy Snacks to Northview - $400
2. Sending Children to Huron Church Camp - $500
3. Engaging in social activities with three gentlemen and their staff who live on Halls Mill Road, a home which houses three medically fragile adult individuals operated by Participation House.- $500
4. Ongoing support of the greenhouse and providing food for the Byron Cares Foodbank. Also, adding two 4'x3' elevated garden beds to the area behind the hall to both expand production capacity and encourage participation from people who may have mobility challenges. - $1000.

The Huron Hispanic & Migrant Farmworkers Outreach Ministry - February 2022 letter

The Huron Hispanic & Migrant Farmworkers Outreach Ministry is a new initiative in the diocese of Huron commencing in spring 2022. The first phase of this outreach ministry will begin in Norfolk County. We are seeking donations of men’s clothing such as pants, sweaters, T-Shirts, warm jackets, socks, gloves and toques. Items should be in the small to large size category, clean and in good condition. The collection place in London is the Parish of St. Michael & all Angels Church, 397 Springbank Drive, London,

All donations would be appreciated by March 28th.

Past efforts

2020 and 2021 were challenging years for outreach givenhow COVID-19 closed churches. In 2021 we were able to provide backpacks and other supplies to the Byron Northview Public School along with Advent gifts of warm socks, mitts, hats scarves, etc.Nutritional snacks have also been provided for children arriving at school without a meal.

We continue to develop our conection to a Syrian family new to Canada in 2020 and as they welcomed a daughter in 2021.

St. Anne's supports the Byron Cares food bank and a $500 donation was made thanks to the Christmas Star initiative in December. We also tried our hand at growing food for Byron Cares in a small greenhouse provided to us through the London Food Bank and Business Cares London.

In 2019 we continued to gather gifts of backpacks and supplies in September and warm hats, socks, mitts etc during Advent for Christmas distribution at the local school. We also participated again in the creation of a number of Shoeboxes for women living in shelters here in London with several teams of parishioners also serving meals at Inn Out of the Cold in St Thomas. At the encouragement of the ACW financial gifts were made to Merrymount ($1000) and El Sistema South London ($1000). The Hostess group raised funds so that we could contribute to the work of Life Spin ($500) and Inn Out of the Cold ($300), as well as collecting egg cartons for the Daily Bread at St Paul’s. A further gift was made to Inn Out of the Cold ($200) to further their work.

Combined with funds raised by the children of the parish at the Spring Sale and the Bazaar, we were able to make a $350 gift to the PWRDF purchasing, one cow, a goat, seeds for farmers, and 40 chickens for distribution to those living in Africa in very difficult circumstances. These gifts will change their lives. In addition to this, after a number of years, we were able to send $4,050 to the PWRDF towards a Cuban Water project.

In addition to this, items not sold from the Spring sale were donated to Mission Services for families in need. As well books were donated to CPRI for their fundraisers. The Library raised funds to send cards to those at Parkwood and support their programs (see Library report for more details about this) with a certain percentage of the funds raised by the sidespeople’s Pancake Dinner also going to Outreach.

Our heavenly pie ladies (and some gentlemen, numbering 20 or so) not only made pies to support the church, but also hosted the two Seniors’ Luncheons that took place each year, as well as making pies available from time to time for pastoral support, and inviting some of our young friends from Northview over to learn the fine art of pie-making.

The ladies of the prayer shawl ministry kept knitting, creating shawls that would surround the recipients with love and prayers; and Laurie H. continued to organize and send the Bales north to Indigenous communities twice a year. Collections were made for St Monica’s house and blankets were crafted for the London Children’s Hospital Trauma Unit.

We made space for the VON to hold their twice-weekly exercises for seniors as well as providing a room for an ALANON group’s weekly meetings. We also hosted two separate Tuesday evening groups for Ability Through Drumming classes. The badminton group also continued to meet regularly in our Parish Hall.

In 2019, we hosted a Blanket Exercise and were pleased to have 29 people join us for this event. Our Social Justice page has more information on our parish's acknowledgement of Indigenous matters.

Also, 14 members of the congregation attended a public rally in July to learn more about what can be done to decrease human trafficking. It was both informational and inspiring.

We were pleased in 2019 to have raised $4,050 in support of Water Filtration systems in Cuba, as initiated by our deacon Ken B. As well through supporting a visit to our pollination garden, we did provide students at our local public school with opportunities to learn more about the pollination garden and how it helps to safeguard the integrity of creation.

We were able to connect to our local school and to provide for them a gift in the amount of $500 towards the purchase of equipment to support children’s learning about sustaining the earth.

We were able to invite students to our pollination garden to share with them how these kind of gardens support butterflies and bees in their pollinating efforts. There are additional funds left for the beautification of the gardens.

PWRDF is an important outreach arm of the Diocese of Huron www.pwrdf.org

St. Paul's Daily Bread Program, a registered charity, is an ecumenical social service provider supported by over 50 London and area churches of various denominations, a number of service and fraternal organizations and hundreds of caring individuals on a regular ongoing basis. The Daily Bread Program is available to anyone need in the community who is in need and is one of the few agencies in London that offers emergency financial assistance in crisis situations pertaining to shelter and/or utilities cut off as funds permit.

Anglican Church Women (ACW) - The Bale
St. Anne's gathers donations of suitable, gently used washable clothing, sheets and towels and toiletries and sends them to the northern Diocese of Keewatin for the many individuals, families, communities and programs (safe shelters, rehab, and hospital) who rely on several agencies for support. The Diocese of Keewatin includes 45 parishes in the central region of Canada straddling the border of the provinces of Manitoba and Ontario and comprising over 900,000 sq kilometres.

Our Ministry includes: Sunday School and occasional youth activities.

We hold Sunday school every other Sunday during the school year. We continue to average approximately 4-10 children each Sunday, with as high as 12 on some Sundays. We ensure we meet Safe Church guidelines. We try to have a few outings a year. Reverend Val has a Children’s Focus at the 9:15 a.m. Sunday Service.

Supporting the Youth Ministry
Supporting this ministry can be done in a variety of ways and does not necessarily mean you need to “teach” Sunday School. Curriculum supports are provided that follow the lectern schedules so that what the children are discussing is the same things the adults are considering.
Opportunities to service in this ministry are always needed. If you are interested please speak to Rev’d Val.

Youth Server’s Guild at St. Anne’s
We would love to welcome you!
Youth are invited and encouraged to join the Servers' Guild here at St. Anne's. Our servers are wonderful – they help us worship well assisting the clergy in the leadership of the service at our 8:00 (first Sunday of each month) and 9:15 a.m. services every Sunday, and on special occasions during the church year. Servers sit near the altar, presenting the holy bread, water and wine, they prepare and clear altars, carry the cross, light the candles, lead the procession, receive the offertory – we love our servers and thank them for their ministry!
Requirement:  
Youth at least 11 years old who have their First Holy Communion and been trained and apprentice for one to two months with the rector. Please contact Rev'd Val for more information or to volunteer.

What are others saying? Here is a small sample for today's culture:

• Consider your faith and commitment to God with My Hope videos. Personal stories about the impact of faith from well-known and everyday people.
• Biblekids.ca has lots of great resources for younger children, from art to stories
• Bible Gateway is a great resource for anyone who wants to know anything about the Bible. It includes many english translations and many texts from other languages as well.
• Passageway.org links to online resources to answer faith question for today's culture. Ask a question or chat online if you need to talk.
• Busted Halo is a site created by the Paulist Youth Ministries in New York that contains lots of current affairs commentary. Consider the Trivia Inferno game.
• Huron Church Camp has lots of activities for youth of all ages. Visit their site to see camp details and how you can contribute by volunteering or providing supplies or assistance.
• Trailblazing - a course of study for youth ministers and those working part-time with youth groups. Created through the National Youth Initiatives Team and Huron University College's faculty of theology.

Sunday School Videos

Lenten Resources from the Diocese of Huron

Easter Resources for Families and Children

St. Anne's Resources - links to books recorded on YouTube as well as songs to sing and even a little bit of Ukulele sing-along for those who are missing their Sunday Ukulele lessons.