2003 marks the 75th Anniversary of the Mission and Service Fund. This means that the M&S Fund is one of Canada’s longest-existing charitable funds.
It began in 1928 and was called the Missionary and Maintenance Fund. Kimbourne Park, then called Greenwood United, contributed just short of $1,000 in that year.
Today, as the Mission and Service Fund or M&S, it funds an enormous amount of varied work, supported totally by voluntary gifts from the people of the United Church.
Gifts to the Mission and Service Fund since 1928 have exceeded $973,900,000. This money is spent in hundreds of different ways, such as:
At the office, they redevelop policies around housing, gambling, energy concerns and refugees, joining worldwide coalitions to demand human rights and justice and joining the fight to clean up the environment.
All of it is paid for with gifts to the Mission and Service Fund. The M&S fund is all about the world of the church.
Kimbourne Park continues our outreach to the world by contributing over $15,000 last year to the Mission and Service Fund.
Any donation or portion of a donation to Kimbourne Park United Church, which you specify is for the M&S Fund, will be sent to the fund. Your tax receipt will be for the combination of regular church giving and the Mission and Service Fund.
Fellowship of the Least Coin links prayer and “least coins” in a very significant way, as the least coin becomes the symbol of prayer for peace and reconciliation. It was begun in 1956 by Shanti Solomon of India, who considered that women anywhere could have a sense of being part of a worldwide family of faith as they prayed for peace and reconciliation and set aside the least coin of their country as a symbol of that prayer. As coins are gathered from around the world, they become a sign of our oneness in the common quest for peace, justice and reconciliation.
Grants are made by an international committee for special projects of evangelism, service, ecumenical solidarity, awareness-building among women and relief throughout the world. Presbyterian women are encouraged to participate in the Fellowship of the Least Coin.
Kimbourne Park began participating and contributing to the Fellowship of the Least Coin as a project of the women’s group, which now has now spread to the whole congregation. Several times during the year, least coins are gathered up to continue the work of peace.
