SSVP CANADA - January 25, 2023 | Dear Vincentians: On January 22, Mr. Joseph-Claude Bédard resigned as president of the National Council of Canada, effective immediately. I thank brother Joseph-Claude for his dedication and commitment to the National Council over the past years. He served as president during the pandemic, a great turmoil for all Canadians, but then again, the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul, under Mr. Bédard's leadership, was there to continue serving. Dear brother, receive the most sincere thanks from all Vincentians in the country, from the members of the National Council Board of Directors and from its employees. Finally, we wish you the peace of the Lord and the joy of the Gospel as well as his Holy Spirit. Furthermore, we wish the best for you in realizing your upcoming activities and projects. To ensure continuity, the Board of Directors will meet virtually on Saturday, January 28 and, in accordance with the Rule of the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul, they will designate a person to become interim president. Pierre Morissette, Vice President
National Council, Society of Saint Vincent de Paul of Canada | INTRODUCING CHEZ VINCENT Whenever I mention my association with the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul, people will say “Oh yes, I have been to your thrift stores”. | | The identity of the Society, in large part, is the thrift stores. We know there is much more that we offer but the thrift stores play an important role for several reasons. The role of the thrift stores in providing revenue to support the good works of the Society is more vital than ever. The traditional funding sources are slowly falling into the background as parishes struggle to remain open in some areas. It is a time when effort is being made to identify new ways of raising funds. READ MORE | COUNCIL GENERAL INTERNATIONAL | 2023 - COUNCIL GENERAL INTERNATIONAL IS UPDATING ITS DATA ON THE SOCIETY OF SAINT VINCENT DE PAUL PRESENCE AROUND THE WORLD How many countries are there in the world? It’s not easy to answer this question. First of all, what does the concept of “country” indicate? Considering this subject in more detail, the Council General noted that there were big differences in the officially-agreed figures. READ MORE | | SIMPLE REFLECTIONS BY JOSE I. TORRES We will be presenting a series of five reflections over the next newsletters. These reflections offer insights on how our human journey converges with our hope-giving faith journey. They invite us to contemplate on how day-to-day conflicts, grievances and other burdens are mended by our faith in our eternal God’s mercy and in caring for others’ dignity. Central to these reflections is the theme of sisterly and brotherly love, and service to others, including “listening with our hearts”, fostering deep relationships with those in need, sharing our gifts with them and growing our spirituality. Conference and Councils may consider using them in their future regular meetings | REFLECTION 5 - SHARING YOUR GIFTS “To one is given the expression of wisdom; to another knowledge; to another faith by the same Spirit; to another, gift of healing; to another, mighty deeds.” (1 Corinthians 12:8-10) The Holy Father in his address for the opening of the Synod on October 9, 2021 reminds us the Holy Spirit guides us where God wants us to be, not where our own ideas and personal tastes would lead us. READ MORE | | GUARANTEED BASIC INCOME The National Advocacy Circle is comprised of Vincentians from across Canada that are interested in Social Justice. Our intention is to identify advocacy issues for our fellow Vincentians and suggest actions we can take for the benefit of our neighbours in need. We are presenting a series of articles promoting the consideration of a Guaranteed Basic Income to address the needs of Canadians living in poverty. Please share this information with your conferences, councils and parishioners. | | Guaranteed Basic Income (GBI) The purpose of this article is to further explore and examine the concept of a Guaranteed Basic Income (GBI). The goal is to provide greater context for discussions and to garner support from the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul members. READ MORE | HOUSING SOLUTIONS WEBINAR! | The National Housing Committee invites you
to join Vincentians across Canada for a Housing Solutions Webinar Saturday February 11, 2023 at 1:00 EST REGISTRATION | | Two of our guests, Louise Coutu, Executive Director of the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul Greater Toronto Central Council, and Larry McKenzie, an affordable housing developer in London Ontario, will share their insights and perspective on how they have created affordable housing solutions and supports. If you are wondering what your Conference’s first steps might be, Bob Buckham, Archdiocese of Vancouver’s Coordinator of Service and Justice, will provide a road map to help you connect with the agencies in your community. READ MORE | FUND DEVELOPMENT VIDEOS The Fund Development Committee continues to work on creating resources to help you raise funds for your SSVP community. In addition to Peter Albano, we welcome Mike Marasco from Vancouver Island Particular Council and Tricia Cisakowski from Edmonton Central Council to our Committee. | | We recently created several one-minute videos that can be utilized to help raise awareness of the Society and to help raise funds. There are videos of donors who have donated to the Society where they talk about why they donate to SSVP, why they continue to donate to SSVP and how they find this to be rewarding. There are also videos of someone who has been helped by the Society where she talks about how she found out about the Society, how the Society has helped her and how SSVP has made a difference in her life. The videos can be found at this link under “Fund Development Videos”. FUNDS DEVELOPMENT VIDEOS Should you have any questions or if you are looking for specific resources to help raise funds, please contact me at Linda Dollard. In addition, should you have successful initiatives to raise funds in addition to the resources already included in the above link under “Fund Development Resources”, we would love to hear from you. It is important to look at various ways to raise funds to carry out our Mission of helping people in need in all possible ways. Linda Dollard, Chair, Fund Development Committee
SSVP National Council of Canada | MEAL PACKAGING In 2019 and 2022, Our Lady of Perpetual Help SSVP Conference in Sherwood Park, Alberta, collaborated with the Emmanuel Foundation, OLPH Knights of Columbus, Sherwood Park Rotary and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints to prepare packaged meals for distribution to those in need around the world. READ MORE | REVERSE ADVENT PROJECT We at Good Shepherd Conference, Orleans, Ontario, had another very successful Reverse Advent project. Each day during Advent we asked our parishioners to fill a box with food by placing one article of food each day into the box. READ MORE | | QUESTION Can a conference provide a variety of services without doing home visits? | ANSWER 3.17 Visiting in pairs Home visitation is a fundamental activity of the Society, and has been carried out in pairs since the beginning of the Society in the 1830’s. This traditional activity shall continue to be carried out by two members, preferably a man and a woman. The Society has a moral and a legal responsibility to exercise due care and diligence for the protection of the visitors and of those being served. Visiting in pairs constitutes a reasonable and necessary obligation. That kind of visit gives the two Vincentians the opportunity to see different aspects of a problem and other possibilities for solving it. It also helps foster friendship between members, which is so important to the Society and follows the example of Our Lord who sent out his disciples in pairs for mutual support and inspiration. | | 2.17 SPECIAL WORKS OF THE SOCIETY 2.17.1 Definition Special works of the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul may be defined as those areas of work responding to specific community needs. The works shall be consistent with the objectives of the Society and be under the control of councils or conferences. When a special work requires administration covering a wide area, for example, in the case of a community store or a summer camp, it should be organized by a conference or council. Councils or conferences shall seek incorporation when the special work involves a commercial operation or hiring staff. In the event that a special work is separately incorporated by a conference/council, care should be taken at the outset to ensure that its articles of incorporation, by-laws, and other governance and management documents recognize the relationship to the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul, including, but not limited to, name use, logo use, asset acquisition or disposal. The president of the council to which any of the Society’s special works belongs, is entitled, after due consultation with the president of the national council and evaluation of the legal consequences, to replace the members of the board of management of that special work and any of its employees, regardless of their function. Special Works may include: • the operation of stores
• summer camps
• visiting homes for the aged
• visiting shut-ins
• prison ministry
• drop-in centres for women
• shelters and soup kitchens
• low-cost housing
• other Society special projects | Conferences financial annual contribution assistance was increased to $300.00 annually in a motion passed by the members at the September, 2022 AGA. CONTRIBUTIONS | They were our brothers and sisters serving people in need. Let us keep them in our prayers. IN MEMORIAM LIST Please send your death notices to: editor@ssvp.ca | | We are always looking for Vincentian testimonials and conference/council activity stories. Send your stories to share with Vincentians across Canada to editor@ssvp.ca. If you received this from a friend, you can subscribe to receive our newsletter directly. SUBSCRIBE HERE | Society of Saint Vincent de Paul - National Council of Canada 2463 Innes Road Ottawa, ON K1B 3K3 | | | | |
