Our yearly Legacy of Heroes event seeks to highlight and give thanks to individuals and groups who use their God-given gifts to make a difference in our community. Our 2021 event gave thanks for local educators! For 2022 we are honouring the Essex Free Press - the local, free paper that keeps our community informed and engaged! Come, celebrate with us.
We are actively reaching out the 2SLGBTQ+ community through programming and efforts towards building relationships with local advocacy and support groups.
St. Paul’s has developed a wonderful relationship with Community Living Essex opening the doors to programming and creating space where groups feel welcomed to church events like our pasta dinners.
Creative programming is offered regularly to encourage exploration and deepening of faith. Independent studies and information about other discipleship programs offered within and beyond the congregation can be found here.
Baptism - viewed as an initial celebration of welcome into the Christian community - is one of seven sacraments celebrated in the Anglican Tradition. Information about programming for these sacraments can be found here.
Our clothing cupboard provides clothing free of charge to those in need thanks to the generous donations of many in the community.
St. Paul's also generously donates a host of resources, celebrates our gratitude through the Thank You Bank which includes to donations to different organisations each week, and supports local food banks.
In an effort to raise awareness about a variety of issues, St. Paul’s has Fun with Flags! Paying attention to the calendar, St. Paul’s honours moments like the Season of Creation, Orange Shirt Day, Remembrance Day, Transgender awareness week, World Food Day and more by flying appropriate flags and offering information about these moments through signage and Facebook posts.
St. Paul’s also offers support for local entrepreneurs through regular market days and occasional “cash mobs” where we gather together and shop, dine and/or otherwise enjoy a local business.
There is ongoing exploration to find ways to reduce waste, single use plastics and paper.
For example, we are using email for communications, including weekly bulletins. Readers, intercessors, and Rev'd Chris use tablets or phones in worship. The text of worship is projected onto a television screen at the front of the church. All of this significantly reduces our use of paper to a few announcement bulletins for those who don't have access to technology.
We continue to explore better containers for take out meals and have encouraged people to bring their own to reduce single use plastic and our use of styrofoam. We have an industrial dishwasher to enable us to use regular dishes when we have meals together and with the community.
In 2019, the Confirmation Class planted an oak tree in the centre of the front yard as a reminder of our call to care for creation. The community continues to honour the Season of Creation through worship, programming and our annual blessing of the pets.