In November 2010, All Saints church members started collecting soon-to-be-defunct pennies, and in the spring of 2012 donations were enough to offer a $1000 bursary to an eligible graduating student from a Whitby-Ajax high school. Since then All Saints Church has relied on its members for “their toonies, loonies and larger contributions” to award one or two bursaries a year.

The All Saints Bursary Application Package 2018 is now available.

This financial award is offered to children of All Saint’s Whitby Vestry members or DDSB students from one of the following Whitby-Ajax area schools: Ajax High School; Henry Street High School; Anderson Collegiate; Pickering High School; Donald A. Wilson Secondary; Sinclair Secondary; and J. Clarke Richardson Collegiate.  Applicants must be graduating this spring and have been accepted at an accredited Canadian college or university.

The 2018 deadline for submitting applications to the church office is Thursday, May 11, 12:oopm.

On May 14, we welcome our new Assistant Curate, the Reverend Molly Finlay, to our ministry team!

What’s a curate, you ask? And who exactly does she assist? Here’s what our resident “Notes & Queries’ correspondent, Bertie Weatherbottom, told us in the March issue of the parish newsletter:

At our recent Vestry, our parish voted to take on a new member of the clergy—a curate. Those of us who are long of the Anglican tooth may be comfortable with the term, but you may ask, what does “curate” mean? In its most traditional sense, the term refers to a person who is invested with the care or cure (cura) of souls of a parish. In medieval times, a curate could be considered broadly to be what we now know as a parish priest. Fr. Stephen might have been called our parish curate, for example. Many curates in larger parishes also had assistant curates.

As new titles evolved for curates, such as Rector or Vicar and ultimately Incumbent, the term “curate” meaning parish priest disappeared, but the term “assistant curate” did not. Today, in the Anglican communion, “curate” is commonly used to describe clergy who are assistants to the parish priest and who, in their first posting after ordination, are completing their training (not unlike an apprenticeship). As a bit of historical fun, these newly ordained priests continue to be called “assistant curates” even though there is no longer a main “curate” for them to assist! By taking on a curacy, we will be assisting a newly ordained priest as he or she participates in this last step towards a solo parish. Though licensed by the Bishop, this person will be supervised by our own Fr. Stephen.

In our Diocese, assistant curates participate in Momentum, a 2-year program that provides professional development in the context of a supportive peer environment. Sessions are facilitated by experienced clergy. Coincidentally one of the current program facilitators is a former and well-loved All Saints’ assistant curate, the Rev. Canon Paul J. Walker.

~Bertie Weatherbottom