Pair of church events will help feed people in developing world

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 10/04/2019 (2706 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeggers who like classic rock and jazz, and want to help people in the developing world who don’t have enough to eat, have a couple of opportunities to do both this month.

On April 13, St. Mary Magdalene Anglican Church, 3 St. Vital Rd., is hosting a Bishop’s Pub Night, an evening of classic and folk rock featuring the Narwhals. On April 28, St. Peter’s Anglican Church, 755 Elm St., will offer Jazz Vespers with the Bob Watts Trio and vocalist Helen White.

Cost for the Bishop’s Pub Night, which runs from 7:30-11:30 p.m., is $10 (cash bar). Admission to Jazz Vespers, which starts at 7:30 p.m., is a suggested donation of $20. Everyone is welcome to both events.

Proceeds from the two evenings will be used to support the Anglican Diocese of Rupert’s Land Anglican Grow Hope project in Manitoba.

Through the project, which brings together rural and urban Anglicans in Manitoba, Anglicans in Winnipeg provide financial support of $300 per acre for 15 acres on the farm of Chris Lea, an Anglican priest and farmer in the Pembina Hills.

Lea uses the funds to buy seed, fertilizer and other inputs so he can grow and sell a crop to raise funds for the Primate’s World Relief & Development Fund’s food projects in the developing world.

Last year, Lea tripled the donations raised by urban Anglicans through the sale of the crop, sending $14,588 to the fund. After a 4:1 match by the federal government through the organization’s membership in Canadian Foodgrains Bank, more than $72,000 was made available for food projects in the developing world.

At St. Mary Magdalene’s, the Bishop’s Pub Night will feature a real Bishop — in this case Bishop Geoffrey Woodcroft of the Anglican Diocese of Rupert’s Land, who plays guitar and provides vocals in the band.

Other members of the band are Dave Houle, Graham Young, Cody Buhler and Bob Brocklehurst.

“We play a mix of things like the Beatles, the Animals, Led Zeppelin and our own songs,” says Woodcroft of the band, which does over a dozen gigs a year to raise money for charity.

For Val From, priest at St. Mary Magdalene, supporting Grow Hope through the Bishop’s Pub Night is part of the church’s mission “to make the world a better place” by addressing global hunger and injustice.

Margaret Clarke, chair of outreach ministry at St. Peter’s, says the Jazz Vespers worship service “is a wonderful way to support sustainable agriculture projects” in the developing world.

Adds Woodcroft: “The project symbolizes the necessity of the church to be one, rural and urban people working together to help others.”

faith@freepress.mb.ca

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