Church `brings light into darkness' with $10K in donations

Reading and hearing about the growing need for help during these troubled times, a local church, after suddenly coming into a large and unexpected windfall, knew that it had to be shared with the community.

“Our ministry is to take care of people,” said Rev. Kimberly Myer of the Parish of St. Stephen's and Church of the Redeemer Anglican Churches.

“We like to say, `Let's bring light into the darkness.' ”

The parish was recently gifted a memorial of $10,000, and the decision was made to invite four local organizations that do good to make presentations, each given a $100 honorarium for the effort.

“We listened to what the needs

Our ministry is to take care of people. We like to say, `Let's bring light into the darkness.'

were of the community,” Myer continued.

On Wednesday, Myer and other church members visited Windsor Goodfellows and the Windsor-essex Children's Aid Society and dropped off $5,000 cheques for each.

The delegation was “very, very warmly received ... I think they were in a bit of shock,” said Myer. Based on the earlier honoraria, she said the recipients probably thought the donations would be much smaller.

The Goodfellows will use their donation to help fill Christmas hampers for needy families. Because the usual seasonal on-street newspaper hawking couldn't be done due to COVID-19 restrictions, Myer said she learned Wednesday that only 40 per cent of usual proceeds were collected.

The Children's Aid donation will help provide Christmas food and gifts for 14 local families, she said.

As with most churches these days, “times are difficult,” said Myer, and there are always internal needs, but that didn't stop her congregation from casting an eye out for where the need was greater. “We received this large gift and we knew it had to go back into the community.”

Meanwhile, due to the elevated level of COVID-19 infections in the community, as well as the fact that “a lot of our members are elderly,” the Parish of St. Stephen's churches are currently closed. Helping “bring light into the darkness” is now done via Zoom.