Newsletter: Paying Special Attention to Outreach
Dear friends,
As we move through Advent and towards Christmas, our minds turn to the giving (and receiving!) of gifts.
Generosity is a time honoured spiritual practice that is common to most religious traditions. Being a generous person and offering gifts to others, especially to strangers or people we will never meet, can offer the following benefits:
Generosity helps us to be more mindful of our interconnectedness with the world at large, and to play an active part in making the world a better and friendlier place.
Generosity helps us to express our own gratitude to God by giving someone else an opportunity to experience and express their gratitude.
Generosity helps us to use our resources in more thoughtful, positive and altruistic ways.
Generosity feels good.
Times are hard right now. Groceries cost more than they have in a long time. Increasing numbers of people are accessing government and charitable supports in order to make ends meet. This week I am inviting you to consider how you might offer gifts to those in our neighbourhood and around the world who don’t share in the good things that we have.
As many of you know, our Advent outreach project this year is to collect food, money, and other items for the Sources Langley Food Bank. Click on the following button for more information or to donate directly to the food bank.
We are also hoping to continue to have many of you supporting the PWRDF World of Gifts Campaign. Click on the following button to be connect with the PWRDF World of Gifts Website.
A third smaller outreach project is for our parish to send $200.00 to Langley Youth Unlimited so that they can purchase a Christmas hamper for a young person in need. St Dunstan’s will also be donating $200.00 towards this worthy cause. Click here for more information on Langley Youth Unlimited.
In the words of John Bunyan. 17th-Century preacher and author of The Pilgrim’s Progress: “You have not lived today until you have done something for someone who can never repay you.”
Please do be in touch, as you are able, to let us know if there is anything we can do for you!
Love from,
Andrew
the Rev Andrew Halladay, Vicar
