About the Northern Clergy Families Fund

The Northern Clergy Families Fund began as the Northern Clergy Wives Holiday Fund in 1974. It was conceived and coordinated by the Canadian Mothers’ Union on behalf of the National Church. Its original purpose was to help the wives of clergy serving in the north, many of whom had moved there from the south. This donation allowed them to travel to the south from time to time.

In 1986 the name of the fund was changed to the Northern Clergy Wives Discretionary Fund in order to broaden the fund’s support opportunities and to allow the money to be used without any strings attached.

In 1992 the name was changed again, this time to The Northern Clergy Families Fund, which allows the fund to also be given to husbands of female clergy and to respond to the wider needs of families.

Donations to the fund come from a variety of Anglican sources including Mothers' Union and Anglican Church Women branches, church guilds, parishes and individuals. Cheques for the fund in amounts from one dollar to hundreds of dollars express thank offerings and memorials, or reflect specific fund raising initiatives.

Mothers' Union absorbs the fund's minimal administration costs in order that every penny donated goes to support the clergy families in need who are nominated by Bishops of the Council of the North. The bishops are contacted in rotation and asked to submit the names of two clergy families who could benefit from a gift from the fund.

A no-strings-attached cheque for $1000 is sent to each family. This unsolicited and often unexpected gift has been used to fund everything from a shopping trip to medical treatments. The thank-you letters received by the fund coordinator are often very poignant indeed.

The Dioceses of the Council of the North are -Yukon, The Arctic, Caledonia and The Territory of the Peoples (British Columbia), Athabasca (Alberta), Saskatchewan, Brandon (Manitoba), The Indigenous Spiritual Ministry of Mishamikoweesh (Manitoba/Ontario), Moosonee (Ontario/Québec).

Lynda Viau
Northern Clergy Families Fund
info@canadianmothersunion.ca