December Food Drive

Our next monthly food collection for Dawson BGC (formerly Manna) will be this Sunday, December 5th. As always, we will try to provide a variety of nourishing foods. They would also welcome toiletries like toothpaste and soap. Gift cards for grocery store or pharmacy are also much appreciated. If you wish to make an online tax-deductible donation to Dawson, you may do so by following this link:

Mini Bake Sale and Christmas Market Dec. 12

SouthWest is getting into the spirit of the season with a sale next Sunday after worship. If you are able, please contribute your signature cookie or cake to the bake table. There will also be a table of small “re-giftables”. You can contribute to this by looking around your home for things you no longer want that someone else might like. All contributions can be brought on December 12th before church.

Shirley Stark would want me to remind you that she has several raffle items available including a basket containing 2 bottles of wine, wine glasses, chocolates and more. Individual tickets are $1 . Remember to stock up on loonies — remember them?

We will not be advertising this sale beyond our church community, but December 12 might be a good Sunday to invite a friend to church!

Beryl's Blog - Peace, Perfect Peace

Advent 2, 2021

This week we celebrate Peace on our Advent journey to Bethlehem.

We will light the Candle of Peace and remember the coming of the one who has been called “The Prince of Peace”.

What a good time to share a wonderful prayer for peace, written by African American poet, Maya Angelou, and found in Celebrations, Rituals of Peace and Prayer, which is a collection of poetry, published by Random House in 2006. The volume contains 12 poems, five of which were previously published.

 

Prayer

 Father, Mother God,
Thank you for your presence
during the hard and mean days.
For then we have you to lean upon.

 Thank you for your presence
during the bright and sunny days,
for then we can share that which we have
with those who have less.

 And thank you for your presence
during the Holy Days, for then we are able
to celebrate you and our families
and our friends.

 For those who have no voice,
we ask you to speak.

For those who feel unworthy,
we ask you to pour your love out
in waterfalls of tenderness.

 For those who live in pain,
we ask you to bathe them
in the river of your healing.

 For those who are lonely, we ask
you to keep them company.

 For those who are depressed,
we ask you to shower upon them
the light of hope.

Dear Creator, You, the borderless
sea of substance, we ask you to give all the
world that which we need most -- Peace.

-- Maya Angelou

 

As we walk through Advent this year, a year like most of us have never seen, may you find comfort in the words of Paul, as quoted in Philippians 4:6

“And the peace that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”

 Shalom

Pastor Beryl DLM 

Beryl's Blog: One Person Is Too Many

It has happened again! Another homeless Indigenous person has died seeking shelter on a cold Montreal night.  And, or course, other non-Indigenous homeless men and women have met the same fate.  And this does not address the countless other homeless people who have died across this bountiful country called Canada.

As an active member of the United Church’s Nakonha:ka Regional Council Living Into Right Relations Committee for almost six years this, for me, is just another example of promises which are made and continually broken.

It appears that very little action has been taken by the Federal, Provincial and Municipal governments since the publication of findings of The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) which was officially launched in 2008 as part of the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement (IRSSA).  

I feel compelled to share with you the following letter, if for no better reason than to relieve my own frustration regarding the continuing plight and indifference faced by the vulnerable in our own backyard.

If you read it and feel touched or inspired to take some type of action then I, a member of LIRR, have not been negligent in my commitment to speak out for those who do not have the power to speak out for themselves.

Should anyone want to help financially, I will provide information on how to do so with the Office.

In peace

Pastor Beryl

 

A CRY FOR HELP TO THE CITIZENS OF MONTREAL

November 14th, Elisapie Pootoogook, a member of Montreal’s Indigenous homeless community, was found dead. This Inuk Elder was seeking shelter in a condo development site, and that’s where her body was found.

What did Montrealers learn from Raphael Napa André, the unhoused Innu man who froze to death attempting to shelter in a chemical toilet last winter? It appears we learned nothing. The numbers of homeless people are skyrocketing throughout Montreal, yet far too little is done to address the breadth of the crisis, and the colder it gets, the more likely that inaction will result in further avoidable deaths.

On February 3, we opened the Raphael Andre Memorial Tent in Cabot Square, to offer as many as 16 people at once a place to take shelter during the winter. Since the opening, we have served over 45,000 people. Not just for food, rest, and warmth: the Raphael Andre Tent has helped homeless Montrealer’s seek treatment for substance abuse and to enter housing. The city has agreed to delay the Raphael Andre Memorial Tent’s dismantling until March 31st, 2022, but the tent itself was already too little, and as
Raphael Andre himself reminded us, too late.

The band-aid solution of tents is unsustainable: we need a permanent building, and we need it in the precise areas of the city in which homeless people already live—not in some distant borough. We know well that when the Open-Door shelter moved from Cabot Square to Milton Parc, much of the Cabot Square homeless community remained in place: we know better than anyone that we need to serve our communities where they live, not order them elsewhere in the city.

Meanwhile, mayor Valérie Plante promised $3 million for a permanent 24-7 shelter—but the City can’t find a location, and despite a desperate appeal to building owners in the vicinity of Cabot Square, it seems nobody wants to rent to an organization catering to the homeless Indigenous population. The search for a building continues, but as the nights get colder and colder, we can’t help but feel the increasing pressure of providing that safe space so that nobody else has to suffer the same horrible fate than Elisapie and Napa.

During the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, the homeless population of Montreal has suffered more acutely than any other group of Montrealer’s, and within their ranks, Indigenous homeless people have suffered the hardest. As society has gone cash-free, hundreds of homeless people who used to rely on
panhandling have lost access to their one means of income. Montrealers without homes have spent the pandemic with no place to go—and their numbers are increasing dramatically.

Homelessness in Montreal is at a point of crisis, and that crisis can very easily continue widening if Montrealer’s don’t take action. We are thus calling on Montrealers to support our efforts by donating to the Raphael Andre Tent and the Native Women’s Shelter of Montreal. We are also calling on Montrealers
to demand their representatives act with decency toward our homeless communities, and to anyone who is able to offer a safe, permanent space around Cabot Square that could be rented, to please manifest themselves.

Decency isn’t expensive. In fact, the things homeless Montrealer’s need largely don’t cost very much, which is why Montrealer’s themselves made such a difference with private donations when we opened the Raphael Andre Memorial Tent. We are asking that Montrealers remember this, and continue to give as they can, knowing every single dollar we receive makes an enormous difference in the life of a Montrealer without a home.

The homeless Indigenous population of Montreal needs help, and human decency. Montreal needs help to be a more humane city. Montrealers can make it so. We can demand that no more unhoused Montrealer’s lives are lost.

Nakuset
Executive Director of the Native Women Shelter of Montreal

Mary Martin-Goodleaf
Kahnawakero:non,
Funder and staff contributor to the Raphaël André Memorial Tent

 photo source: The Gazette

In Memoriam: Shirley McGowan

July 13, 1945 - November 19, 2021

Mother. Grandmother. Friend. Knitter. Avon Lady. Busy Bee.

We lost one of the good ones last week.

Whether you were a “Church” person or “Mission” person, everybody at SouthWest knew Shirley McGowan. Whatever we had going on, Shirley was there, never drawing attention to herself but always helping get things done. She was an old-school church volunteer, ready to roll up her sleeves and wash some dishes, knit a pair of mittens, sort through donations, sell some tickets and even, when called upon, dress up as an elf.

Like a few others we still have around, the McGowans were a Verdun United family from way back. They brought that pitching-in-and-helping spirit with them when they came to SouthWest. Shirley and her mother Isabella were active in the UCW, and then in the core group of ladies that took on meals and event preparation at the Mission. They were dubbed the Busy Bees, or just BB’s.

Shirley cared about the kids, not just her own grandkids but all the kids. That’s why she worked so tirelessly at the Mission: she wanted all the kids to have enough to eat, she wanted all the kids to have a present at Christmas. And she didn’t just sit around wanting it, she got busy and helped make it happen.

I know it was hard for Shirley these last couple of years not being able to join with her church community, to sing hymns, to share coffee and cookies. Such simple pleasures that maybe before the pandemic we took for granted, but no more. I mailed her the Friday newsletter every week hoping that by that small gesture she would know we still considered her part of our family. A couple of times I delivered it by hand and we would stand on her porch and have a chat. I know she liked seeing pictures of SouthWest people, most recently when we posed in our orange shirts at the end of September.

Shirley was a truly generous soul. We will miss her very much.

We will celebrate Shirley’s life this Saturday, November 27th. Visitation begins at 1pm, service at 3p.m. at SouthWest United Church.

This picture was taken (by Rev. David, I believe) at the final UCW Montreal Presbyterial held at SouthWest in 2016. Look at the impish expressions on these three (Phyllis Luther, Shirley, and Lil Jones). Wouldn’t you love to know what they’re talking about?

Shirley (center) proudly wearing her BB’s T-shirt. She loved singing hymns.

Shirley McGowan, far right, with a bunch of other good sports at one of our Children’s Christmas parties at the Mission.

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