Community Outreach
The Anglican Parish of Kokanee reaches out regularly to partner with
and help support the people in our local community and throughout the world.
Sunday Lunch
A Free Sunday Lunch for the hungry is offered every Sunday at St. Saviour’s from 2-4 pm for anyone who can use a meal.
St. Saviour's Legacy Fund
Grants for Local Community Projects
St. Saviour's Legacy Fund is accepting grant applications for projects beyond St. Saviour’s congregation, within the Kokanee Parish area, that improve health, well-being, and the environment in the wider community of Nelson including Nelson, Kaslo and Balfour. This might include, but is not limited to projects which support affordable housing initiatives, alleviate poverty, support programs for youth, feed the hungry, support access to a broad range of health services that are not funded by MSP, and steward the local environment. The maximum single donation available from the Legacy Fund will be $750.00 per calendar year.
Fill out the application below and email the completed form to kokaneeanglicans@gmail.com for consideration.
Fill out the application below and email the completed form to kokaneeanglicans@gmail.com for consideration.
| st.saviour_grant_application_2023-09.pdf |
St. Saviour's Food Pantry
Nelson's Friday Food Bank
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For over 23 years, the St. Saviour’s Food Pantry has assisted hungry people in the Nelson community. This 100% volunteer service opened February 18, 2000. Eight people were served on that day. Last year, over 3,900 people were served!
We treat everyone who comes through our door with dignity and respect,” says Nora Nitz, volunteer manager of the Food Pantry from the beginning. “We care for our client’s body, mind and soul, but people feel comfortable coming here regardless of affiliation. Many are low income working people or pensioners. We average 60 people coming in every week. That’s more than one person every two minutes! No one is ever turned away, and we are fortunate to have volunteers from our parish and community”. 
We accept donations! Donations are gratefully accepted and tax receipts are available if you request them (receipts are issued every February). Please include a note you want it to go to the "Food Pantry" either by e-Transfer to: kokaneetreasurer@gmail.com or by cheque payable to: St. Saviour's Pro-Cathedral. AND if you have extra produce from your garden, you can drop it off any Friday morning at 8:30 am and it will be gratefully received. We are so grateful for every and all contribution. It takes a village! |
The Food Pantry is open every Friday, including holidays, from 9:00am to 11:00am, in the basement of the St. Saviour’s Anglican Church 701 Ward Street at Silica. Come and see us! All are welcome. For further information, email the church office at kokaneeanglicans@gmail.com. We have a few garden boxes and grow some produce. We also partner with local farmers who donate fresh produce like: * Linden Lanes who is a very generous provider, Krestova * Earthy Organics, Fruitvale * Crooked Horne, Winlaw * Ravine Creek, Winlaw We are so very grateful for their produce contributions during the growing season! These generous companies also make a big contribution with weekly donations! * Save On Foods Bakery donates bread and bakery items * The Kootenay Co-op donates fresh produce and special treats on statutory holidays that fall on a Friday * Silverking Tofu donates tofu * OSO Negro donates coffee Many individuals donate everything from produce from their gardens, preserves, re-useable containers and needed cash donations. These generous organizations donate to the Food Pantry: *Columbia Basin Trust has been a significant donor *The Kootenay Co-op Organization of the Month program *Nelson Rotary, *Telus Ambassadors and *Nelson Streetcar Assoc. |
St. Saviour's Community Flea Market |
St. Saviour's hosts two summer community flea markets.
They are well attended with lots of goodwill. |
Interfaith Climate Action
St. Saviour’s Pro-Cathedral, the imposing heritage building at the corner of Ward and Silica Streets, may seem an unlikely place to work on transitioning to renewable energy. The original building was built in 1899 and is heated by a hot-water boiler fueled by natural gas. The building emits about 30 tonnes of greenhouse gases annually, depending on the severity of the winter. In spite of this daunting number, St. Saviour’s congregation has joined with Nelson United Church, Shambhala Meditation Centre, and Yasodhara Ashram to work towards making our operation 100% renewable energy by 2035.
We have been working on climate action with these and other faith communities in the Nelson Interfaith Climate Action Collaborative, since the summer of 2015. We have all been blessed to find that we have much in common despite coming from diverse faith traditions. Praying, meditating, and discussing climate solutions have proven to be a very enriching.
From a Christian perspective, concern about climate change arises from the Bible story that God created the Earth and all its life forms “and God saw that it was good”. The story continues that God appointed humans to care for the Earth and its creatures.
As the impacts of climate change such as floods, fires, drought, and famine become more prevalent, our Christian teaching to love our neighbour comes into play. It is a fact that the developed world uses far more of the world’s resources and produces far more greenhouse gas emissions than our poorer neighbours. While we can help them by donating to international relief agencies, we must also reduce our greenhouse gas emissions in order to slow the pace of climate change.
The imperative to act on climate change has been recognized by our Anglican Church of Canada with the addition in 2013 of a new baptismal vow that asks, “Will you strive to safeguard the integrity of God’s creation, and respect, sustain and renew the life of the Earth?” The response is “I will with God’s help”. Our national church is acting on this vow by developing a plan to divest its investments from fossil fuels.
And so, the congregation of St. Saviour’s has embarked on the seemingly impossible task of converting our heritage building to 100% renewable energy by 2035. The elimination of fossil fuel use remains the goal of St. Saviour's but it is certainly delayed beyond 2035. FYI, we found it unaffordable to move to all electrical heating using electrical heat pumps, so as an intermediate step we recently went to high efficiency gas boilers, added unit ventilators, HRV ventilation to the office and digital zone controls.
We have been working on climate action with these and other faith communities in the Nelson Interfaith Climate Action Collaborative, since the summer of 2015. We have all been blessed to find that we have much in common despite coming from diverse faith traditions. Praying, meditating, and discussing climate solutions have proven to be a very enriching.
From a Christian perspective, concern about climate change arises from the Bible story that God created the Earth and all its life forms “and God saw that it was good”. The story continues that God appointed humans to care for the Earth and its creatures.
As the impacts of climate change such as floods, fires, drought, and famine become more prevalent, our Christian teaching to love our neighbour comes into play. It is a fact that the developed world uses far more of the world’s resources and produces far more greenhouse gas emissions than our poorer neighbours. While we can help them by donating to international relief agencies, we must also reduce our greenhouse gas emissions in order to slow the pace of climate change.
The imperative to act on climate change has been recognized by our Anglican Church of Canada with the addition in 2013 of a new baptismal vow that asks, “Will you strive to safeguard the integrity of God’s creation, and respect, sustain and renew the life of the Earth?” The response is “I will with God’s help”. Our national church is acting on this vow by developing a plan to divest its investments from fossil fuels.
And so, the congregation of St. Saviour’s has embarked on the seemingly impossible task of converting our heritage building to 100% renewable energy by 2035. The elimination of fossil fuel use remains the goal of St. Saviour's but it is certainly delayed beyond 2035. FYI, we found it unaffordable to move to all electrical heating using electrical heat pumps, so as an intermediate step we recently went to high efficiency gas boilers, added unit ventilators, HRV ventilation to the office and digital zone controls.
Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund
The Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund (PWRDF) Le fonds du Primat pour le secours et le développement mondial is the Anglican Church of Canada’s agency for sustainable development, relief, refugees, and global justice. With the support of Anglican parishes across Canada, PWRDF makes financial and human resources available to support partners’ initiatives and to promote knowledgeable actions of solidarity at home and around the world. Through PWRDF, members of Kokanee Parish are able to make emergency relief responses for natural disasters in Canada and around the world. We are also involved in food security, health and addiction issues. Please contact our parish for more information: kokaneeanglicans@gmail.com
KAIROS
KAIROS is Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives uniting eleven churches and religious organizations in action for ecological justice and human rights www.kairoscanada.org
From Kootenay churches and communities to Parliament hill and the United Nations, KAIROS members:
From Kootenay churches and communities to Parliament hill and the United Nations, KAIROS members:
- Defend dignity and human rights for all
- Promote sustainable energy policies
- Build right relationships with Indigenous peoples
- Inspire Canadians to seek climate justice
- Urge companies to respect human rights and ecological integrity
Working in the Community
The Winter Emergency Bed program ~ During the winter months of 2024/25, ANKORS with funding from BC Housing, is able to offer a warm safe shelter for individuals who have no other alternative at St. Saviour's on extreme cold weather nights. Vulnerable people in our community will have access to food and shelter from 8 pm - 8 am, we sincerely thank our neighbours. We live in a community that is accepting and understanding of the many reasons why people are homeless; the zero percent vacancies, the lack of affordable and supportive housing, people’s challenges with mental health and substance use issues, the opioid crisis to name only a few. Our community is only as strong as our most vulnerable.
Nelson Friends of Refugees
In January, 2016, the Anglican Parish of Kokanee, through St. Saviour's Pro-Cathedral in Nelson, partnered with the Nelson Friends of Refugees, a diverse group of community members who gathered in response to the Syrian refugee crisis, to identify the local community's capacity and resources to help a refugee family resettle in Nelson. The group provided housing, employment, furniture, household goods, and health care, as well as social support and friendship. We were able to do this as a parish of the Diocese of Kootenay, with the Anglican Church of Canada's status as a government recognized Sponsorship Agreement Holder (SAH). This was a valuable partnership with members of our local community who worked together to bring hope to those who came to Nelson.
LGBTQ+ Community
The Anglican Church in Nelson welcomes and supports the LGBTQ+ community by welcoming all members of our community in our church, regardless of gender identity or sexual orientation. The Anglican Parish of Kokanee celebrates the many diverse gifts of all our members. We also proudly march annually in the Kootenay Pride Parade held on the first Sunday of September in Nelson.
Malambo School, Zambia
One of St. Saviour’s family's has members who have lived in Zambia and created the village of Malambo in Africa. Each lent we have a Lenten Appeal. One of the projects was helping build a library at the school in Malambo. The library was opened with books, shelving, curtaining, furniture etc. from the most generous Lenten offerings. The library has about 750 books, for approximately 250 children. (Preschool to Grade 7). Everyone at St. Saviour’s has enjoyed hearing stories of Malambo and seeing the books that have been purchased for the library.
Anglican-Lutheran Partnership
The Anglican Church of Canada and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada share the joy of full communion between our churches. In Nelson, that communion is shared between the Anglican Parish of Kokanee and Ascension Lutheran Church. We celebrate services together, meet together for Christian education opportunities, and work together in community outreach and service. In May, 2017, St. Saviour's Anglican Pro-Cathedral gifted Ascension Lutheran with a flowering dogwood to commemorate the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther's landmark reformation work that transformed the European Christian Church.
Full communion between Lutherans and Anglicans in Canada marks but one step towards the eventual visible unity of the whole worldwide Christian Church. We have entered a new stage on our journey together; there may yet be stages that we can only imagine dimly at this point. Nevertheless, we give glory to God whose power, working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine. Glory to God from generation to generation, in the Church and in Christ Jesus, for ever and ever. Amen. [Ephesians 3.20-21]
Full communion between Lutherans and Anglicans in Canada marks but one step towards the eventual visible unity of the whole worldwide Christian Church. We have entered a new stage on our journey together; there may yet be stages that we can only imagine dimly at this point. Nevertheless, we give glory to God whose power, working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine. Glory to God from generation to generation, in the Church and in Christ Jesus, for ever and ever. Amen. [Ephesians 3.20-21]
What are the Five Marks of Mission of the Anglican Church?
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