Outreach

Through our Outreach ministry at St. Matthew’s, we support a number of local and global organizations working to help others in many different ways. Some of the groups we offer support to are: FaithWorks, Information Fairview, Lansing Food Bank, Mission to Seafarers,  North York Women’s Shelter, Oriole Food Space, Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund, and Turtle House.

 

Forest Manor Reading Program
Each week a group of parish volunteers assist in an after school reading program at one of our local schools, Forest Manor. Volunteers read one on one with the students, encouraging a love of reading and help the children improve their reading and language skills.

Refugee Sponsorship
St. Matthew’s own Refugee Sponsorship group is called ACTS4Refugees (Anglicans Coming Together in Sponsorship For Refugees). St. Matthew’s refugee sponsorship came out of a motion at Vestry in February 2016 to sponsor a refugee family. At that time, a group of committed volunteers met about every four weeks to work on the refugee sponsorship process.

As a Refugee sponsorship group, our responsibilities included finding accommodation, furnishings, clothing, language help, education, medical and dental care, employment opportunities and offering emotional support. Our team’s responsibility was to raise the required $40,000 to support the family for the first year. Together with St. Christopher’s Anglican Church, St. John’s Anglican Church, Willowdale, our own parishioners, family, friends and community members, we were able to raise the necessary funds to sponsor a family from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

In addition to responding to the many needs of those around us, St. Matthew’s continues to find ways to discern what God is at work doing in the lives of our neighbours and community and to join with God in that work. Through our Missional Action Team (MAT), St. Matthew’s has been involved in a number of projects in our neighbourhood that have enabled us to work alongside various community partners for the betterment of our local area. And we have been challenged to find new ways of being and doing church in our rapidly changing context.

Ashes to Go
For two years, we extended the imposition of ashes for commuters at the Don Mills Subway station on Ash Wednesday.