Two unique opportunities to be generous

By Ana Watts
When the September issue of The New Brunswick Anglican arrives in your mailbox it will have with it two unique opportunitiesto be generous tucked inside it — requests for donations from our own Foundation for Life Fund, and from the Anglican Journal Appeal.

A donation to Foundation for Life may well result in a grant to your parish. A donation to the Journal Appeal ensures you continue to receive quality national AND diocesan church newspapers because the Journal Appeal funds are shared 50-50 with the diocesan newspapers. Funds donated from this diocese are returned to this diocese in support of The New Brunswick Anglican. As an added bonus, the Foundation for Life ministry opportunities enabled by grants in support of “innovative, risk-taking projects that will lead to spiritual, numerical and financial growth for the making of disciples” get reported in the New Brunswick Anglican.

Please spend some time with the inserts from both appeals and give as generously as you can. Both renewed ministry and clear communication are vital at all times, but especially as we work through the Nicodemus Program supporting transformational change in our diocese. As Nicodemus’ encounter with Jesus led him to seek transformation, we prayerfully seek new ways to engage the Gospel and become “a mission-shaped church, to grow and develop as a collective people of God, helping each other understand what living by examples as Christ really means.”

The first Foundation for Life fund last fall collected more than $20,000 and enabled many parishes to do more ministry. A digital projector purchased by Stone Church in Saint John was a boon to youth ministry and worship, the Sunday Morning Kid’s Service and the parish Ladies Group. In the Parish of Cambridge and Waterborough the grant enabled a Family Ministry Outreach project. When the Parish of Richmond was without a rector a Foundation for Life Grant made it possible to bring in clergy (and occasionally a musician) from other parishes in order offer parishioners necessary worship options in the summer. The Parish of Stanley used a grant to buy puppets and accessories for a new ministry for the young people in the parish and community.

Sound systems, musical instruments, youth workers, Christian education materials, school lunch outreach programs… just about anything is possible with a grant from Foundation for Life. The deeper the pool of funds, the wider the opportunity for ministry.

The Foundation for Life program is based on a similar fund created by Bishop Edward Salmon of South Carolina. It asks for a one-time annual donation of $25 from every adult Anglican and $5 from every Anglican child $5, and this is over and above their regular Sunday offerings. Send your donation to Foundation for Life, c/o Synod Office, 115 Church St., Fredericton, E3B 4C8. . You’ll also find a letter from the bishop, a donor card and an application for funding on-line http://anglican.nb.ca/programs/foundation_life.

The Journal Appeal is an equally deserving fund and your donations are more important than ever this year. Drastic budget cuts at the National Church saw the Anglican Journal budget for this year cut by $150,000.

Not only do the Anglican Journal and the diocesan newspapers share the Journal Appeal funds, they share myriad costs too, including postage. The Anglican Journal is entitled to a Heritage Canada publications grant to support distribution. Without it neither the national nor the diocesan papers could survive in newsprint. And although clearly the future of publishing is in the digital world, the vast majority of Anglicans in this country are not ready for that yet. Your support for this vital communication is essential.

Of course the New Brunswick Anglican share of the Journal Appeal eases the strain on our own diocesan budget and ensures we can continue to provide colour photographs and a sufficient number of pages to contain news of diocesan interest and importance.

 

Ana Watts is Diocesan Communications Officer; as such she edits the New Brunswick Anglican and E News.

 

06 September 2011
Diocesan Communications