Are You Lonesome Tonight?

I stumbled upon this quote the other day while I was doing some research on loneliness. “It is strange to be known so universally and yet to be so lonely.” ~Albert Einstein While at first this may seem utterly impossible, and perhaps even absurd, I wondered how many people would agree with this statement. This quote…

Read More

Why Praying With Others Works

In September, we spent some time learning about prayer and devotions as part of your “regular” Agenda at a Deacons’ Meeting. In our post “A Diaconate that Prays Together, Stays Together,” we laid out why prayer is a vital part of the ministry deacons do and how praying together can actually make a diaconate more…

Read More

International Day for the Eradication of Poverty – October 17, 2018

|Photo Credit: CPJ Facebook page, Sept. 2014, ChewOnThis! event photo   One day before the annual International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, Citizens for Public Justice released its Poverty Trends 2018, an annual report on poverty in Canada. In this report, we read that an astounding 5.8 million people in Canada (or 16.8%) live in poverty(!!)…

Read More

Youth Justice Initiative Coming in 2019

|By Erin Knight, Communications Coordinator for Diaconal Ministries Canada I recently watched the movie Black Panther with my two sons, aged 11 and 13. While I wasn’t exactly filled with enthusiasm to be watching yet another Avenger movie with my kids on a Friday night, some of the buzz I had heard surrounding this movie…

Read More

Prayer/Good Meetings: Praying with Expectation

Psalm 5:3: “In the morning, O LORD, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation.”  In September, we spent some time learning about prayer and devotions as part of your “regular” Agenda at a Deacons’ Meeting. In our post “A Diaconate that Prays Together, Stays Together,”…

Read More

Meet our New Board Member for BC Northwest!

Diaconal Ministries Canada is pleased to introduce you to our newest board member for Classis British Columbia NorthWest, Mrs. Cindy Verbeek! Cindy was born and raised in Calgary and lived in Alberta until moving to Houston, BC, her husband’s “hometown” over 15 years ago. Together they are raising 3 beautiful souls, with the first heading…

Read More

A Diaconate that PRAYS Together, Stays Together

When you read the title above, it likely rang a bell with most of you. You may have heard the above phrase before, but perhaps instead of “diaconate”, it read “family”, “couple”, or even “church”. It’s safe to assume that most of us have heard about the ‘reasons to pray’ since we first became a…

Read More

STOP! Collaborate and Listen…

Waaaaay back in June, we talked about Deacons at Classis & Synod. Then in July, we continued that conversation and included Community Engagement. At first glance, you may have wondered (or still wonder!) what these 2 things have in common. Well – both require Teamwork, a.k.a. COLLABORATION. In our post dated June 11, “What’s Gonna…

Read More

Finding Joy in Diaconal Work; A Deacon’s Story

[Pictured above: In June, Clearview CRC joined other Oakville churches for the 10th Annual Oakville Community Food Drive to help restock the shelves at the Oakville Food banks and The Compass. Clearview’s members reached over 1,600 houses in their neighbourhood to help advertise the food drive, thanks to more than 120 volunteers!] Back in June, Diaconal…

Read More

Finding Hope in 2018

*This post first appeared on the DoJustice blog. It’s written by Cindy Verbeek, a new member of DMC’s Board of Directors! As we sat in the fireside room at A Rocha’s property, Sir Ghillean Prance, a small group of volunteers and I (a stay-at-home mom) we felt a sense of awe that this man, who…

Read More