Ottawa churches help refugees.

Three churches in the diocese of Ottawa -- Ascension, Trinity and All Saints (Sandy Hill) -- are raising funds and using volunteers to help settle a young refugee family from the Sudan. Chol Paul, 22, his wife Everline, 20, and his brothers Madit, 20, and Bol, 18, arrived in November and are now living in a two-bedroom apartment and adjusting to life and work in Canada. Chol Paul fled the civil war in Sudan at the age of nine and he and his family spent years in refugee camps. His story appears in a book called One Day We Had to Run (Evans Brothers Ltd., London, 1994) and has been adapted in England as a play for children called Chol's Story.

Crosstalk

Brick sales aid project

Two large groups of Anglicans from the diocese of Calgary traveled to Chile last fall on a two-week work project called Blessings to Chile. They helped demolish an old church and build a new one at the parish of La Ascension in Santiago. Team members raised funds for the project by "selling" bricks that would be used to build the new church. As the bricks were laid in Santiago, slips of paper with prayers from the donors were laid with them in the walls of the church. The team raised a total of $45,000 for the project.

The Sower

Just call them Doctor

Bishop James Njegovan of Brandon and retired Dean Jack Greenhalgh were awarded honorary doctor of divinity degrees in November by St. John's College at the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg. Dean Greenhalgh retired last year from the Cathedral of St. Michael and All Angels in Kelowna, diocese of Kootenay.

The High Way

Photo exhibit extended

An exhibit of photographs from Indian residential schools at the National Archives of Canada has been extended to Sept. 1, 2003. The show, entitled Where Are The Children? Healing the Legacy of the Residential Schools was originally scheduled to close on Feb. 3, 2003. Drawn from private collections and from the four churches that operated various schools, the exhibit puts human faces to an issue that has rocked the Anglican, Presbyterian, United and Roman Catholic churches in Canada. The exhibit is sponsored by the Aboriginal Healing Foundation, among others, and will travel nationwide. For further information, contact the National Archives, 395 Wellington Street, Ottawa at [phone] or the Aboriginal Healing Foundation at [phone].

Staff

Ugandans pay visit

The diocese of Rupert's Land recently hosted a delegation of 11 people from the diocese of Central Buganda in Uganda, including Bishop Jackson Matovu. The group included healthcare workers, teachers, an agriculture officer and musician. During their month-long visit, the Ugandans visited hospitals, schools, parishes and natural history sites. They worshipped and socialized with Anglicans and attended the diocesan synod.

Rupert's Land News

Wet west churches

The diocesan council in New Westminster has authorized spending up to $12,000 to investigate problems with moisture in the walls and ceilings of six churches. The problem is the same as that found in condominiums built during the past two decades in southern British Columbia. Construction methods then in practice have turned out to be inadequate to keep water out of roofs and walls in the rainy West Coast climate.

Topic

Iraq attack not `just war'

Archbishop Michael Peers, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, last November told a panel discussion in Toronto that an unprovoked attack on Iraq would fail St. Augustine's test of a "just war." The discussion, entitled Terrorism, War and Resurrection Faith, was held at Church of the Redeemer and also included Janet Somerville, former general secretary of the Canadian Council of Churches, and Walter Pitman, a former president of Ryerson University. Archbishop Peers noted that U.S. President George Bush is proposing a pre-emptive strike and not responding to a wrong suffered. In addition, he said, St. Augustine would counsel war as a last resort.

The Anglican