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It's happening at St.
Paul's-----
St. Paul’s reaches out to others outside its Buildings and Borders in a variety of ways. One of these is the popular
Tots and Us program. Our annual Vacation Bible
Camp has also proven to be an effective way to reach out to the community.
St. Paul’s building facilities are put to good use by mid-week youth groups such as Scouts and Guides. As well, the use of our gymnasium is donated to the
Special Olympics Ontario - Oakville SkyWalkers Basketball Club for indoor training purposes.
Its Head Coach and Manager, Stu Thomas, donates his time as our Webmaster.
-----and beyond.
Many of our members are active as enthusiastic volunteers on an individual or group basis for a number of national, regional and local charitable organizations which include the following:
canvassing for the Canadian Cancer
Society, the Heart and Stroke
Foundation, the Salvation
Army Red Shield and Jingle Bell campaigns and other community
services
delivering Meals on Wheels to shut-ins
and handicapped persons and acting as drivers for medical and other
appointments
providing a healthy breakfast to start the day for students at
W.H.
Morden School
sharing monthly food donations with the Salvation
Army and Oakville Fareshare Food
Bank
collecting gifts at Christmas for The Samaritan’s Purse and the Salvation Army’s Toy
Shop
We are proud of the leadership role played by our Laura Harper in Sleeping Children Around the World and members are encouraged to make individual donations.
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United Church Women
This group of dedicated and committed persons is very active throughout the year, but especially in the weeks and months leading up to the Annual Bazaar and Poinsettia Tea
in November and the Hopedale Charity Bazaar in May. Through these and other fundraising efforts, the UCW is able to make donations amounting to about $30,000 each year to a wide variety of deserving causes such as Halton Region’s facilities for needy women and children and the
Ian Anderson Hospice. They also support
Kerr Street Ministries in Oakville and
Wesley Urban Ministries in Hamilton. Going further afield, the UCW has raised funds through their Annual Dinners, for the
Beads of Hope Campaign for AIDs victims in Africa, helping to pay for Teachers in Afghanistan and supporting the
Broken Wings Orphanage for boys in Haiti.
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Men’s AOTS (As One That
Serves)
The men of St. Paul’s are active in supporting Church functions and reaching out through programs such as
Operation Eyesight.
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Mission and Service Fund
The UCW contributes an amount of $5,000 annually to the Mission and Service Fund of the
United Church. In addition to this contribution, the Congregation as a whole has made a commitment to the M&S Fund for an annual tithe amounting to 10% of regular envelope and loose offerings plus the Lenten Service offering. In 2004 this amounted to $29,497, an increase of 5.3% over the previous year.
The M&S Fund is a convenient means of co-ordinating and leveraging The United Church’s actions on wider social and humanitarian issues through its numerous international partnerships such as
ACT – Action by Churches Together. This provides an alternative to the non-sectarian agencies, for St. Paul’s members to direct their response to Asia’s devastating Tsunamis, for example.
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Recent Outreach Projects
A very successful outreach project for St. Paul’s in 2003 was the reading of Dickens’ Christmas Carol with
Michael Enright of the
CBC as one of the readers and with St.
Paul’s Choir providing excellent musical interludes. It was attended by a sellout audience of 400. The proceeds of $5,000 were given to the Salvation Army’s
Halton Lighthouse Shelter and a further $2,000 donated in 2004.
Construction of the Lighthouse Shelter
was essentially completed in March, 2005. It will provide short-term emergency accommodation for 25 people in a housing crisis.
In future there will be other opportunities for St. Paul’s to contribute more to the capital and operating needs of this important community asset.
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Another way in which we support the outreach efforts of the Salvation Army is through the provision of volunteer helpers and the use of our Church facilities for an annual Christmas Dinner which they give to about 200 of their clients. For the past 3 years, this traditional turkey dinner with all the trimmings has been generously given by Adrian Vogt of
Trident Catering.
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In another housing initiative, St. Paul’s has supported fund raising for
Habitat for Humanity Halton and provided supplies and meals by the UCW for a recent “build” in Milton.
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The foregoing section of this website describes the many ways in which St. Paul’s United Church reaches out to the local, regional and global communities in response to Christ’s bidding to help others less fortunate than ourselves. Visitors to this site are invited to send comments, questions or suggestions to
The Outreach Committee at spunited@bellnet.ca.
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