24 | September 20, 2024 Stratford Times TO | Stratford’s St. James Church to host National GALEN SIMMONS Regional Editor The presidents of Anglican Church Women (ACW) groups from across the country will soon descend on Stratford as St. James Anglican Church hosts the Na- tional ACW Presidents’ Conference Sept. 25-29, According to Stratford and area ACW president Karen Haslam, ACW groups have been the backbones of Anglican church communities across Canada essen- tially for as long as there have been An- glican churches, but this is the first time Stratford has played host to this semi-an- nual conference. “They meet semi-annually. (Every other meeting), they meet on Zoom, but they do like to hold this presidents’ conference in person,” Haslam said. “There are 32 di- oceses across Canada and we are asking two representatives from each of those di- Oceses to come. We might not get all of them because there are areas in the north that don’t have money for flights ... so we're expecting maybe 30-40 women to come to our conference. “They will spend all day Friday (Sept. 27) meeting, talking about what they do on a national level, similar to what we do ona church level. ... This is really an hon- our that we get to host the presidents from across Canada, so we’re really pleased and B As = Pa za \ NATIONAL ANGLICAN CHURCH WOMEN’S CONFERENCE Anglican Church Women’s conference yi Stratford and area Anglican Church Women president Karen Haslam leads the group’s September meeting at St. James Anglican Church. The local ACW will host the National ACW Presidents’ conference Sept. 25-29. We are so excited to be able to do a really good job.” As anyone familiar with how an Angli- can or any other church operates, it largely depends on the volunteer and fundraising efforts of parishioners, and church women are a huge part of that. The ACW group that meets at St. James is actually made up of women parishio- ners from Anglican churches in Stratford, a wy R Ww EMERALD ww EMERALD STONETOWN TRAVEL ST. MARYS 2:00 p.m. (Pyramid Recreation Centre, End Zone) RSVP: stew@stonetowntravel.com INFORMATION SESSION Monday, September 23, 2024 EMERALD? CRUISES NEW HAMBURG 7:00 p.m. (Wilmot Recreation Centre, Meeting Room A) RSVP: newhamburg@stonetowntravel.com 184 Branch Offic www.stonetowntravel.com St. Marys and the surrounding the area. Meeting almost every month, the church women support myriad causes includ- ing the St. James community food bank, Camp Huron — a camp for underprivi- leged children in the region operated by the Anglican Diocese of Huron — and the resettlement of two local Syrian refugee families, just to name a few. By organizing, hosting and providing all the volunteer labour for annual fund- raisers like the St. James Variety Sale in the spring and Mistletoe Market around Christmas, the local ACW raises money for just about any project or initiative the church community sets its sights on. “As long as you have women ‘in the church, you have an ACW,” Haslam said. “Every woman in the church is automati- cally in ACW. You can be as involved as you want or not, depending on your life- style or what you want. That’s why you’ll find a lot of us whose (kids have grown up) ... or we’re no longer working and we have more time now. ... These wom- en have worked their whole lives in the church, not just with ACW — we're busy — but on committees like the building com- mittee, as warden, in the chancel guild, in the flower guild, in the Sunday schools. “We tend to be a very active group of women within the parish. One of our for- mer minister’s wives said, “When you find a church without an ACW, the church doesn’t last very long, mainly because we tend to outlive the husbands and we are the workers in the church.” Part of the reason for the ACW pres- idents’ conference is so delegates from each diocese can share the issues their ACW groups and their wider communi- ties are facing, and brainstorm possible solutions to those issues. Some problems PUT YOUR MONEY WHERE YOUR HOUSE IS like dwindling congregations and efforts to engage younger generations with the church falling short are common across the country, so Haslam says the opportu- nity to share success stories is important. But the conference isn’t just about busi- ness. Church women know how to have fun, too. “We're also doing fun things like the Fun Fashion Show on Friday at 7 p.m. in the church,” Haslam said. “We're inviting all the other churches in the area to come, all the churches in the diocese. ... We're hoping we get lots of people out. ... You can expect to laugh and laugh and laugh. “If you go online and look at fashion shows that have been held by Dior or by Versace, you look at some of them and go, ‘I would never wear that ridiculous outfit? So, we put our heads together and we came up with fashions that would fit our ACW, except we express them in unique ways. For instance, a person coming in a crop top will actually have crops on her top. A person coming in a pair of boxed shorts will have boxes on her shorts. I’m not even going to tell you about the double-breasted jacket, because that would ruin the show.” While the conference is an opportuni- ty for ACW presidents to meet with one another and strengthen that bond between Anglican church women across the coun- try, Haslam said it is also an opportunity to showcase what Stratford has to offer to people from coast to coast who may never have visited the Festival City before. she is encouraging Stratford and area residents who see that ACW confer- ence nametag between Sept. 25 and 29 to welcome the national delegates with open arms and help them navigate the city so they can have the best experience here possible, Support businesses that keep your community and its newspaper thriving