This Week at St. Paul's

Offering Update

Offering Update - If we are able to match our actual offerings from 2025 this year, we can significantly reduce our projected deficit for 2026.

Offerings to March 31, 2026 = $42,490

Offerings to March 31, 2025 = $60,750

YTD shortfall compared to 2025 - $18,260

Basic Income Guarantee 

(No postage required!)

A special committee on poverty in PEI made a series of recommendations for Basic Income Guarantee which would aid in the eradication of poverty in this province. Please contact the Prime Minister, the PEI MPs and Senators and encourage them to proceed with this proposal.

Primate writes to leaders about Universal Basic Income

The following message was sent to The Right Honourable Mark Carney, Prime Minister of Canada, and The Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Finance and National Revenue.

December 3, 2025

The Right Honourable Mark Carney, P.C., M.P.

Prime Minister of Canada

Office of the Prime Minister

80 Wellington Street

Ottawa, ON K1A 0A2

The Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, P.C., M.P.

Minister of Finance and National Revenue

90 Elgin Street

Ottawa, ON K1A 0G5

Dear Prime Minister Carney and Minister Champagne,

I write on behalf of the Anglican Church of Canada to urge your government to implement a

Universal Basic Income (UBI) in alignment with the living wage for all Canadians.

As you know, considerable research and advocacy have already been done on a UBI in Canada and

in other countries, and you are aware of its potential economic and social value. In recent years,

Ontario’s brief pilot project showed positive initial outcomes for participants, including

improvements to physical and mental health alongside the many financial benefits.

Like other major faith and secular traditions, we respect the dignity of every human being and

seek justice for all people. Across Canada, members of the Anglican Church live out this calling by

offering support and services to people struggling with a growing affordability crisis, including

escalating housing insecurity and unprecedented increases in food bank usage.

We believe a UBI would be a valuable initiative that would increase financial security and promote

greater equity for all residents of Canada. It represents a positive nation-building policy for today

and tomorrow and is consistent with the transformational agenda of your government. It has

found support across party lines and in communities across this country. I pray you will make the

implementation of a UBI a high priority.

I would welcome the opportunity to meet with you at your convenience to discuss this important

issue.

Yours faithfully,

The Most Rev. Shane Parker

Archbishop and Primate

Your Parish - Looking Forward

Finance: The Treasurer heads this committee, and the committee obviously deals with financial issues as they arise, not to mention budgeting and investments. A sustainability report was written last year and it will be given some fuller consideration this year.

Parish Life: This committee looks after everything else (Belonging, Children/Youth/Families, and Worship). We want to find out what families are looking for and expecting from the Parish. We will put an effort into developing programing for people in search of a spiritual dimension for their lives. We will look at succession planning: making sure we have people in place to do everything, from live streaming to presiding (CAPP).

Outreach & Social Justice: The focus has been addressing the core issues that lead to poverty.  A motion was carried at April’s meeting of Parish Council: “the Parish Council supports the efforts of the Outreach and Social Justice Committee and by extension the Parish to encourage government leaders and others to implement the Basic Income Guarantee policy.”

Property: Our facility (church, hall, rectory) is very old, so unplanned things naturally cropped up. It would be good for this committee to meet and evaluate the situation and make a multiyear plan for maintenance, repair and improvements. This kind of planning makes it much easier to budget.

If you are interested, you are welcome to join a committee. Please contact the Parish Office.

Money is a Spiritual Matter

There are challenges that we all face with the rising cost of living. Your generosity helps the Parish meet the costs of our Vision and Mission as a parish and it’s appreciated and makes a difference in people’s lives. We continue to provide many ways for people to make offerings to the Parish and will explore other ways.

“We appreciate the dedication that members of the parish have made with their financial contributions, as well as offering time and talent in various ways to enhance the life of the parish and our commitment to showing God’s call to love and justice.” (From an earlier message from the Parish Wardens.)

Perhaps it seems odd or even wrong to say that money is a spiritual matter, but the Bible spends a great deal of time addressing matters of wealth and money and the effect these things have on our general well-being.

            St. Paul’s Parish has benefited from wise investment and frugal budgeting. However, we can all see that the numbers of people making financial offerings to the church has diminished over the years. This is a situation facing religious groups all over the world. It is not unique to St. Paul’s. What is unique is that we have an opportunity to do something about it. The Executive Committee and the Parish Council have worked hard to develop a realistic budget for 2026. We are working with the Bishop and others in the diocese to develop a plan. We hope to soon begin wider conversations in the Parish to see how best to utilize our property assets so that we can continue to carry out our Vision to show the transforming love and justice of God.

            In the face of so much misinformation about God and misuse of the Gospel our Vision and Mission is all the more important. A voice speaking out for all people, for love, forgiveness, mercy and justice needs to be heard in this world.

            Please continue to participate in the discussions as we make a plan for the future of St. Paul’s and the fulfilling of our Vision.

The Bible mentions money or related topics 

(wealth, debt, giving, etc.) 

in around 2,300 verses.