Saskatchewan anglican
The newspaper of the Dioceses of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon and Qu’Appelle • A Section of the Anglican Journal • May 2015 www.facebook.com/thesaskatchewananglican —
www.issuu.com/thesaskatchewananglican
TRC closing ceremony set for Ottawa By Mary Ann Assailly SASKATOON – The Multipurpose Room at Station 20 West in Saskatoon was filled to capacity on April 1 to listen to the words of Dr. Marie Wilson. Dr. Wilson has served for seven years as one of the three commissioners appointed to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. In her speech, Dr. Wilson reminded us Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission is unique in the world. The Class Action Court Case against the Government of Canada and Canadian churches created the platform for the TRC. During the seven TRC years, commissioners Murray Sinclair,
Wilton Littlechild and Dr. Wilson travelled the country to preside at seven national and a myriad of regional events to listen to survivors and families of the residential school system and record their stories. Documents will be saved, so the stories of what we did as a country and in God’s name to these little children will never be forgotten and cannot be denied. Over 7,000 stories have been recorded and saved. Dr. Wilson spoke of two phrases used at the Saskatchewan National Event in Saskatoon in 2012. One survivor said, “The love bond was cut,” while a priest said, “What in God’s name were we doing?” See “TRC” on page 5
Marking Maundy Thursday During the March clergy retreat at St. Michael’s Retreat Centre in Lumsden, The Primate, the Most Reverend Fred Hiltz, chose to mark Maundy Thursday by conducting a service of foot washing for all who were present at the retreat. Here, Hiltz washes the feet of the Right Reverend David Irving, bishop of the Diocese of Saskatoon. For full story, see page 10. Photo — Peter R. Coolen
D I O C E S E O F Q U ’A P P E L L E
DIOCESE OF SASKATCHEWAN
Diocese of Qu’Appelle to sponsor second Iraqi refugee family
Diocese of Saskatchewan ends 2014 with small surplus
By Jason Antonio REGINA – A second Iraqi refugee family will soon call Regina home, after the Diocese of Qu’Appelle decided to sponsor the five-member family, who are currently residing in Turkey. The Abbo family – relatives of the Moussa family, who were sponsored by the diocese as part of PWRDF50 in 2011 – are Orthodox Assyrian Christians who fled from the Mosul area in Iraq, after the Sunni Muslim terrorist group ISIS overran the area in the past year. According to the refugee sponsorship proposal, presented to Diocesan Council members on March 21 and approved unanimously, the area of Iraq in which the Abbos had been living had been a safe place for Christians, both under Sadaam Hussein and the post-Sadaam Shia majority government. This safety vanished when the recent offensive by ISIS, a radi-
cal Sunni group, began. With the family at risk, the Abbos fled to Turkey roughly five months ago from this May, where they had friends. They subsequently registered with a United Nations refugee agency and with Turkish authorities. The family is living in an area called Cappadocia, about 300 kilometres southeast of the capital of Ankara. The Abbo family is made up of father Saeed Abbo Paulos, 71, son Amjad Abbo, 24, daughterin-law Rawan Saeed, 22, and Amjad and Rawan’s two children, Sarita, 3 ½, and Simon, 2. Saeed is retired and formerly worked for the Iraqi State telephone company. The diocese was “quite successful” in sponsoring the first Iraqi family with the PWRDF50 initiative in 2011, stated Ralph Paragg, the diocese’s refugee coordinator and a member at All Saints, Regina. The first family – husband
Safaa Abed Mousa, wife Marleen Saeed Abbo, three-yearold daughter Magdleena Saafa Abed and baby Sarah – have integrated well at St. James the Apostle Anglican Church in northwest Regina. Safaa is working full-time at night with a cleaning company to support the family. Marleen is taking English classes and speaks better English than her husband. She, too, is working for the same cleaning company parttime. Daughter Magdleena is in school while a second daughter, Sarah, was born last summer and baptised at St. James the Apostle. To sponsor the Abbo family, it is expected to cost roughly $40,000 for one year, including a $6,000 reserve for contingencies. “We need to fundraise another $20,000, aside from the money we already have,” Paragg said. The extra $20,000 “is not a big sum. If 200 people give $100, we would have the money.” See “FAMILY” on page 5
By Mary Brown PRINCE ALBERT – Despite a budget and predictions that forecast a significant deficit at the end of 2014, the Diocese of Saskatchewan closed the year with a small surplus in the operating fund. Three items that contributed the most to this turn around were the continued generous support of the General Synod through the Council of the North grant; Parishes were able to pay up for some of their outstanding apportionment and ministry costs; and a significant reduction in budgeted administrative costs. The diocese had budgeted for a $10,000 reduction in its Council of the North Grant from General Synod, but in the fall of 2013 the Council of General Synod resolved to maintain that funding, a generous decision repeated again in the fall of 2014. Parishes paid more than $20,000 in outstanding ministry and apportionment from previous years and all but one parish was able to meet their ministry and
apportionment obligations for 2014. Administrative costs were $16,000 less than anticipated in the budget and these three items, along with several smaller ones, turned a deficit into a surplus. Said Bishop Michael Hawkins, “Generosity, at the national and parish level, as well as careful spending at the diocesan level, has brought us this very encouraging result.” At the end of 2014 the Executive Committee of the diocese resolved to increase its proportional gift to General Synod by $1,000 (to $74,000), take out a Sustaining Membership for the Diocese ($500 annually) in the Anglican Foundation and change the employer/employee share of Health Benefits costs from 50 per cent/50 per cent to 100 per cent/0 per cent. In March, Bishop Michael pointed out to the executive that we are seeing the fruits of a growing generosity in the Church and diocese and congratulated the committee for its generous decisions.