 Media Release Diocese of Fredericton 09 May 2006 Bishop walks for AIDS For the past 60 years, generations of young people have nourished a faith to last a lifetime at camps Medley and Brookwood, owned by the Anglican Diocese of Fredericton. In sincere thanksgiving for these youth camps, on May first Bishop Claude Miller began a symbolic 500-kilometre walk across his diocese determined to raise at least $50,000 to fight the AIDS pandemic, especially in Africa. "We're in the midst of a five-year capital campaign to refurbish our diocesan camps, but that is all about us and our children in our affluent society with its universal health care," says Bishop Miller. "As we work to meet our own needs we must also work to meet the needs of people, families and communities devastated by AIDS. "I have invited New Brunswick Anglicans and everyone else who feels the burden of this dreadful disease to support my walk with pledges, and to organize individual or parish walks of their own in support of the cause. AIDS is all around us and we need to do what we can to help, but nowhere is it more devastating than in Africa. Our efforts will support the Primate's World Relief and Development Fund's program to fight aids there." The Diocese of Fredericton encompasses the geographical province of New Brunswick. The diagonal distance from one corner to the other, measured from Edmundston to Sackville, or Campbellton to St. Stephen, is about 500 kilometres. The bishop needs to raise at least $100 per kilometre to meet his $50,000 pledge to PWRDF, an Anglican institution created in response to the 1958 Springhill mine disaster in Nova Scotia. PWRDF now participates in relief and development activities throughout the country and around the world. "I would have loved to actually walk the diocese, joined by representatives of parishes along the way, but it was logistically impossible to carve the time from my schedule," says Bishop Miller. "Instead I have pledged my seven-kilometre morning prayer walk to this cause and hope to have logged the 500 kilometres by mid-October." Messages of support and encouragement have poured in to the bishop since he began his walk. Sunday school children in Perth-Andover sent a cash donation and pledged their prayers; clergy, their spouses and other church leaders have pledged support for the bishop and each other as they mounted their own walks for AIDS. "The response has been tremendous, and I pray the walks and other sponsored activities will also be a source of fellowship within the diocese over the summer. In the fall I will visit throughout the diocese and collect the proceeds from everyone's efforts." Those who would like to sponsor the bishop or mount sponsored activities of their own are encouraged to contact Betty McNamara, diocesan coordinator for PWRDF, at 506/327-6524 or bm@nbnet.nb.ca. Donations may be sent in care of The Bishop's Walk to the Diocese of Fredericton Synod Office, 115 Church Street, Fredericton E3B 4C8. Contact Ana Watts Communications Officer Diocese of Fredericton 506/459-5358 ana.watts@anglican.nb.ca |