McDougall Outreach & Social Justice Ministry Update
Outreach & Social Justice Ministry is alive and busy at McDougall! At our summer wrap-up meeting on June 1, 2026 – we received updates on our ongoing work and challenges:
McDougall United/Christ Moravian Refugee Support Group – check out their update.
Acadia Network Action Group - Acadia Pantry - McDougall - third Tuesday of the month.
Affirming Connections – PIE Day and Pride Parade September programming
Right Relations programs – Check out our exciting “Orange Shirt Day” on September 30th.
Chinook Winds Regional Annual Meeting on the theme of “Provoking Leadership.”
Mission & Service – “Locally, we help people by supporting homeless shelters, food banks, community kitchens, and refugee programs. We help young people on campuses and through camping outreach. We help people who are sick or at the end of life by supporting addiction, mental health, and counselling services and hospice care.
Globally, we support people to access clean water, food, and medical care. We support skills training and economic development. We help with peace-making and sustainable agriculture efforts. We provide disaster relief and advocate for the rights of those who all too often don’t get a say, like children and migrant workers.
McDougall Mission & Service gifts make a difference – you can give through McDougall or go online to the United Church of Canada and donate with credit attributed to McDougall.
SoCal (South Calgary United Churches) – Alberta Referendum – October 19th
Chinook Winds Region Justice Lead Chris Mah Poy will lead a conversation on Wednesday, September 23rd, 2:00 pm. Go online to Chinook Winds Newsletter for the zoom link and to hear his concise and clear presentation of the challenge facing people of faith.
The Season of Creation is world-wide Ecumenical church season beginning on the Orthodox Festival of “Holy Creation” on September 1st wrapping up on October 4th, the Feast Day of St. Francis of Assisi. Check out the Season of Creation 2026 and discover how you get involved in prayer and action around this year’s theme of Living Water. “By embracing both faith and action, communities around the world are called to become sources of hope and renewal—allowing care for creation to flow into everyday life, shaping a more just, sustainable, and life-giving future for all.”
National Day for Truth & Reconciliation (Orange Shirt Day)
Wednesday, September 30th, noon to 3:00 at McDougall
Meet Indigenous Artist Crystal Lee Clark
Award-Winning Indigenous Artist Crystal Lee Clark, will present a new large-scale artwork for display in Calgary churches and will be offering an all-ages “meaningful art -making activity on Orange Shirt Day.
Check out Crystal Lee Clark’s artwork at www.cyrstaleclarkkartist.ca to see her original and beautiful images. Crystal is a schoolteacher in Rocky Mountain House who will be with us from noon to three o’clock so she can get back for teaching the next day.
Bannock & Tac Lunch – Invite your family and neighbors to come and do lunch at McDougall – “Bannock & Tacos” at noon hour. Help us get the word out and invite family and friends to observe the National Day for Truth & Reconciliation.
McDougall United/Christ Moravian Refugee Support Group Report
Prepared by Marjorie MacRae
Our group of 12 is now supporting 5 newcomer families to varying degrees, helping them make the lengthy and challenging transition from their homelands to starting over in Canada. Your financial and social support is critical. Five of our volunteers have been actively supporting Semhar, a single parent with two children originally from Eritrea. Semhar works full-time at Superstore. Legislation passed by the UCP in last spring denied public health care and access to public school for newcomers like Semhar’s 4 and 9 year old daughters, who lacked refugee status. We had to pay for a lawyer who successfully applied for them to obtain refugee status.
Please vote no to this and other immigration questions on the Oct. 19 referendum to ensure other newcomers lacking refugee status have access to health care and education.
Four volunteers and our Sponsorship Agreement Holder (SAH) the Anglican Diocese of Canada, have been actively partnering with Mojib to sponsor his mother and three sisters to come to Canada. Mojib has permanent resident status and is originally from Afghanistan. You regularly see him after church most Sundays. Sadly there has been limited progress, despite the persistent efforts of the SAH and MP Stephanie Kusie’s office, in getting the IRCC to prioritize their application. Mojib is working 16 hours a day for a cell tower company to send money to support them in Pakistan where they live in peril. Most recently your donations helped pay for Mojib’s family to move to Islamabad where his mother can get urgently needed medical treatment.
Recently…
We celebrated the 10-year anniversary of the arrival of the Sawaiah family whom we co-sponsored to escape from Syria with a picnic at Lake Bonavista. The family, now Canadian citizens, is doing well.
Mustafa Tokhi, the oldest son in the Tokhi family from Afghanistan, is working part-time at Superstore and is enrolled in the IT program at Bow Valley College starting this fall.
We had a picnic at Glenmore to celebrate the remission of Mahmoud Al Astal’s cancer. Later we had a shower for the baby girl born into the Palestinian family. We pray for their family members who live at risk in Gaza where the Israeli government is committing genocide.
Children of Taybeh Fear the Violence in the West Bank of Gaza
The United Church of Canada – Rev. Bob Mutlow
Father Bashar Fawadleh, Latin Parish priest, sounds the alarm for Taybeh, the last remaining Christian village in the West Bank. He wants the world to know that the children in the village, are terrified by the actions of the Settlers taking over their homes and lands.
“Children who attend schools in Ramallah have to travel on unsafe roads where they encounter the settlers…. including for children who come to our schools from outside the village,” says Fawadleh. “There are no guarantees for children’s safety on the roads.”
What You Can Do
Please go to The United Church of Canada Take Action webpage to call on churches and on Canada to support just peace in Palestine and Israel.
This Prayer for the Peoples of the Middle East invites our community to pray and act for an end to war, so that God’s peace and justice may flourish for all of God’s Creation.
Join a global campaign entitled From Condemnation to Consequences(opens in a new tab) calling on states, including Canada, to hold Israel meaningfully accountable for its ongoing illegal occupation of Palestine.
To read additional updates, please visit the Leadership Council webpage.
