St. Matthew's-Maryland Community Ministry and 1JustCity - Then and Now

Perhaps you have been wondering about the history of St. Peter’s with St. Matthew’s-Maryland Community Ministry(StMMCM) and why we seldom hear that name anymore. Instead, each week we pray for the West End site of IJustCity. Over the next 3 weeks, your Outreach Ministry Team will offer some background and an update on where we are today.
Origins
Loving our West End Neighbours.... For a long time, this phrase was used to capture the work happening at St Matthew’s- Maryland Community Ministry. Following what is asked of us as Christians, Anglicans in Rupert’s Land heard a call to love and support our neighbours in the West End of Winnipeg. In 1972 St Matthew’s- Maryland Community Ministry (StMMCM) was formed as a joint project of St Matthew’s Anglican Church and Maryland United Church. Out of a generous heart, the Parish of St Matthew chose to offer a gift-in-kind, providing the heat, water, light and the space for the newly formed ministry. This gift-in-kind held a value of $22,000, per annum. This arrangement held until the transformation of the building of St Matthew’s parish in 2012-13. The very building itself was transformed into the West End Commons, an entity that would then own the building. Fully renovated, the new West End Commons holds 26 apartments, offering affordable housing and a sense of community for the residential tenants. St Matthew’s Anglican parish became simply one of the community-based tenants, required to pay rent for its own space in the West End Commons. By the same token, St Matthew’s-Maryland Community Ministry became a tenant, required to pay rent without the possibility of the gift-in-kind from St Matthew’s Parish church. 

 Anglican Consortium 

Last week we learned that in 2013, St. Matthew’s-Maryland Community Ministry was faced with a new challenge – how to pay the rent for their space.
To begin to meet this challenge, the incumbent of St Matthew’s Parish, Cathy Campbell, invited representatives of five Anglican parishes, who had already been supporting StMMCM with goods and volunteer services, to meet and consider ways of further supporting the work of the Community Ministry. St Peter’s, St Matthew’s, St Mary’s Charleswood, St Paul’s Fort Garry, and St Mary Magdalene solidified their support through the formation of the Anglican Consortium in 2014. The Consortium agreed to pay 50% of the rent of StMMCM, with the other half being paid by Grain of Wheat Church (another tenant in the lower level of the building). At that time, each of the 5 parishes paid $450 per year. Gradual rent increases were met with matching increases in financial support from Consortium members. However, during the pandemic, StMMCM expanded both its use of space and its hours of operation to meet the growing needs of the community. During early 2021/22 the Drop-In went to 7 days/week and began to use the large multipurpose room. This resulted in a huge bump in rent and a corresponding increase in rent support to $1200 from each member of the Anglican Consortium for the fiscal year 2022/23, - an unmanageable amount! Instead, the Consortium agreed to pay 25% of the rent, which would mean $600/year for each member parish, a small increase over the previous year. Other sources of funding were found to cover the difference. You will see this amount in St. Peter’s budget as Misc M & M under Ministry and Mission. Stay tuned for the final instalment of our story of connection with StMMCM.

Evolution

So far, we’ve learned about the history of our connection with St. Matthew’s-Maryland Community Ministry and how we came to be a financial partner.
For a number of years, there had been conversations among four existing community ministries about ways to improve efficiency and effectiveness. The ministries included North End Stella Mission, StMMCM, West Broadway Community Ministry, and Oak Table. These conversations were driven by the United Church as founder, and major funder, of the four ministries with Anglican partnerships in two of the sites. It was recognized that precious resources were being spent duplicating governance, fundraising, and financial management. The result of these deliberations: By January 2015, 1JustCity had been formed, finding its own strength and sense of direction as an organization. Its main thrusts were fundraising and governance, with a goal of efficiency and financial stability. The first two community ministries to move to inclusion under the banner of 1JustCity were North End Stella Mission and St Matthew’s- Maryland Community Ministry. This meant that the governing board of StMMCM became an advisory and support committee for the Community Minister, Josh Ward. Overall governance, fundraising, and financial management were taken on by 1JustCity. The evolution of StMMCM continued with a name change to better reflect its role within the larger organization. St Matthew’s- Maryland Committee Ministry became the West End site of 1JustCity. The same great work is being done, just under a new moniker. At the present time, Colin Dorian of St Peter’s sits on the Board of 1JustCity. Aubrey Hemminger, Joan Crabtree, and Margaret Clarke regularly volunteer at the West End site.
Initially under the leadership of Tessa Blaikie Whitecloud and now Glynis Quinn as Executive Director, 1JustCity offers stability in funding, in leadership and in Indigenous cultural programming staff. 1JustCity operates three sites: Oak Table, West Broadway, and West End. The Anglican Consortium continues to offer support, via rent payments, volunteers, vast donations of groceries and other gifts such as sandwiches, socks and mitts, and toys for the Christmas Store. Along with the Consortium supporting the West End site, other Anglican parishes including St George’s, All Saints, St Paul’s Middlechurch, St Chad’s and St Andrew’s Woodhaven offer both monetary and in-kind support to one or more of the sites. Many United Church congregations also support 1JustCity sites.
St. Peter’s has been a strong supporter of StMMCM for many years and that support continues to the West End site of 1JustCity. The work of “Loving our West End Neighbours” carries on. Carefully and thoughtfully, the parish will seek to live out Vision Statement #5: “responding to human need through loving service and pursuing peace and reconciliation”. God calls and the parish will discern how to follow in response.

St. Peter's Spring Plant Fundraiser

Hello Everyone,


This year’s spring fundraising campaign will be a sale of excellent quality and competitively priced bedding plants, perennials, hanging baskets, vegetables, herbs, succulents, and container gardens. Fall Garden Mums can be easily ordered now in the spring for delivery shortly after Labor Day in the early Fall. Gift Cards are also available.

Online orders are accepted until 11:59 p.m. on Saturday, April 15, but we encourage you to get your order in early as some products sell out quickly, and we don’t want you to be disappointed!

If you prefer to complete a printed form, they will be available through the parish office around the end of February. Printed forms will need to be submitted by Sunday, April 2 to give us a chance to consolidate them with the rest of the order.

For step-by-step instructions on how to place your online order through the Glenlea Greenhouses website, please read the attached document Glenlea Greenhouses Online Order Instructions.pdf.

Please support this fundraiser by forwarding this email or sharing printed forms with your friends and family!

The plants will be delivered to St. Peter’s Anglican Parish (755 Elm St) on May 16. We will communicate to the parish again prior to this date to remind you about the pickup.

All the proceeds from this fundraiser will go towards supporting St. Peter’s important ministries. Gleanlea Greenhouses is a local, family-run business.

Looking forward to warmer weather and spending time in the garden!

Sincerely,

Caroline Le Nabat and Janet Bouskill