Since 2022, Appeal funds have supported Parish Community Building Grants.  These grants are available to parishes that want to undertake projects that support community and relationship building.

Click here for the Parish Community Building Grant Application Form

Grants so far have included:

• $2500 for Sacred Heart Parish to host a meal for the Feast of The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. They served hot dogs, chips, spring rolls, cupcakes, ice-cream, cakes, and ice-tea, and even had a cash bar! It was a joyful celebration with over 160 attendees.
  
  

• $3000 for St. Peter’s Parish to hold a Parish Reorganization Retreat. This featured a hosted lunch, and a speaker that helped parishioners discern their individual charisms, and discover how they may best serve their parish community.
  
  
• $10,000 for Our Lady of the Rosary Parish to assist in the emergency repair and relocation of the parish office, meeting rooms and chapel.

One of the goals of every Bishop's Appeal is to support our local mission parishes. With Appeal funds, Our Lady of Victory Mission on Gabriola Island was able to purchase a heat pump. Click here for their story of how the Appeal helped their community:  Warm Thanks from Our Lady of Victory Mission

 

Due to the conflict in Ukraine, thousands of Ukrainian families were forced to leave their homes seeking safety and security. In the Comox Valley, over sixty-five Ukrainian families have recently arrived. Many have arrived with limited financial means in a land where the language and culture are new to them. About half of the Ukrainian families in the Comox Valley need food, accommodation, transportation, employment, advocacy, and English lessons.   

Father David Hogman, and Roger Collin, Pastoral Assistant at Christ the King in Courtenay, devised a weekly food hamper plan to help local Ukrainian families in need. With the support of a $5,000.00 donation from Diocesan 2022 Bishop’s Appeal, Parish Community and Outreach Grant this plan was put in place.   

Together with the local Ukrainian Cultural Society, Christ the King Parish identified local Ukrainian families in need and invited them to come to the church hall on Tuesday afternoons to receive food hampers, and talk to volunteers about accommodation issues, employment opportunities and receive friendly smiles and support.    

Christ the King supported 110 local Ukrainian families on four successive Tuesdays. With more money coming in through fundraising and donations, they hope to continue to run the food hamper program for more than ten weeks. 

Some of Christ the King's volunteers and staff.  From left to right:  Matt Sebolleros - CTK Young Adults Group; Kenton Doust - CTK Young Adults Group; Laura Collin - CTK Parishioner; Roger Collin - CTK Pastoral Assistant; Joanne Mawhinney - CTK Parishioner; Oksana Moisieieva - Coordinator, Comox Valley Ukrainian Cultural Society. 

With the help of Parish Community Building Grant, funded by the Bishop's Appeal, Holy Cross Parish was able to hold a "Called and Gifted" workshop for their community.  One of the participants shared this reflection:

The Holy Spirit is a master of what he does. 

Let me explain. 

On Thursday Jan 11th I had wondered if my date of birth shared the feast day of any popular saint. I fired up my laptop and did a Google search that would change my life forever. 

Saint Catherine of Siena - this was the saint my date of birth shared a feast day with. 

A few hours later, in a passing conversation someone mentioned Saint Catherine of Siena. The conversation went by very quickly as I was dumbfounded at Saint Catherine being presented to me twice in one day.  

A Coincidence? No - the work of the Holy Spirit.  I was supposed to pay attention to this conversation. 

The conversation was regarding the Called and Gifted workshop being offered by the Catherine of Siena Institute. What I gathered from the conversation was that this workshop would help someone determine their charisms, and how they can best serve God using their charism.  

This conversation was extremely important.  

Over the past year I had been really struggling to figure out what God wanted me to do with my gifts, talents, and time. Every time I thought I was close to figuring things out, more questions appeared, and I felt more distant from my mission. 

Everything changed with the Called and Gifted workshop. 

My experience at the Called and Gifted workshop was one of tears, love, and revelation. 

In preparation for the workshop, I completed a "Spiritual Gifts Inventory" which was a series of questions that help determine what your charisms are, and how you can best serve God's Kingdom. 

The survey was wrong. All wrong. 

I scored very low in all the categories in which I thought my strengths were and scored very high in places where I felt I needed a lot of improvement. 

Despite my feeling of the survey being wrong, I did not retake it. I had to trust the process. 

On the day of the workshop, I sat at the back. I knew a few people, but I wanted to make sure I was not distracted at all.  The Holy Spirit sent me here for a reason, so I had to focus. 

The workshop presentation was split between Sherry Weddell and Katherine Coolidge, who were the main members of the Catherine of Sienna leadership team. They spent the first portion of the workshop explaining the difference between a charism and a natural talent. In short, a charism is meant for others, while a natural talent for you.  

I was starting to understand why I felt my gift inventory seemed flawed. 

The next portion of the workshop was going through and learning about each charism in great detail.  

For each charism the group was presented with: 

• a working definition of the charism 
• a personal story or anecdote about the charism 
• a saint that had this charism 
• occupations in the secular world where these charisms may be present 
• positions within the Church or family life where these charisms are best served 

Each time one of my top 5 charisms was presented, I felt tears welling up in my eyes. I felt that tingly, comforting feeling of the presence of the Holy Spirit. I felt at peace. 

Over the course of the workshop, it was revealed to me that I didn't need to be searching for how to use my gifts to better serve God. He had already put me in places where I was using the charisms that I previously knew nothing about.  

I realized that when I was previously searching for how I could serve God, I was trying to figure out how I could serve God using my rules, my wants and my will. 

It turned out that while I was swimming against the current of His Will, he had already passively, and secretly put me exactly where he wanted me. 

I no longer disagreed with the outcome of the "Spiritual Gifts Inventory." 

At the lunch break I took a moment to share this revelation with the facilitators. I'm not sure how successful I was. In my memory of the moment, I feel like all I did was say "Thank you" and then stood there and cried tears of joy. 

My life was changed that day. 

I believe that these types of world class events are critical for transforming and strengthening our Catholic Church.  Not only do they strengthen our community, but they help us keep walking forward in a world that is moving backwards and pushing us back with it. 

One hundred percent of the net Appeal proceeds in 2021 went towards healing and reconciliation projects. These included:

• $511,000 for Indigenous directed health and wellness projects
• $75,000 for Cowichan Valley and West Coast Ministry Religious Sisters Outreach
• $30,000 for the Tsawout First Nation “Raise the Big House” Project
  
  

An interior view of the Tsawout Big House

 

Bishop Gary visits the Ahousaht Nation to deliver funds raised in the 2021 Appeal for wellness and healing projects