St. Paul’s Church serves a number of outreach programmes:
FISH Coffee House
The FISH Coffeehouse was established in 2002 and serves the downtown community of Halifax with patrons of all ages coming from throughout Halifax and Dartmouth. It provides a quiet place to enjoy coffee, snacks, games and conversation. It is located in St. Paul’s Parish House (1706 Argyle St.). All ages are welcomed. We are so excited to finally re-open after a long COVID hiatus as FISH 2.0!!
St. Paul’s Home
Via its Board of Management. Currently, St. Paul’s Home owns seven homes (including the original Tower Road building) in residential areas, within which specialized programs for troubled youth take place. Most of these homes serve as small group home residences for youth who would otherwise have nowhere to live. Phoenix Centre for Youth is an exception, and consists of a walk in center for street youth who require services and are trying to exit the street.
The Rector’s Lunch
During the unusual COVID days, our Lunch Team prepared take-away lunches (sandwiches, home-made desserts, drinks). People lined up outside and waited for their invitation to enter (wearing a mask before coming in to the building). We are back to serving in-house and so happy for it!
The Rector’s Lunch has been a part of parish life and one of the parish missions of St. Paul’s Church since the summer of 2007. The only advertisement it has ever posted remains at the church porch, announcing the weekly time—and an invitation with the words, “There is such a thing as a Free Lunch! No cost. No sermons. No strings attached.” But the word has gotten around. In fact, the rector of St. Paul’s is hardly the centre of the Rector’s Lunch, though he treasures the seat he is typically guaranteed as its host, every Wednesday at noon in the church’s Memorial Room, just after the ‘firing of the noon gun’ on Citadel Hill above St. Paul’s.
Holly House
The Holly House is a combination of Elizabeth Fry’s offices and single occupancy rooms for women. Holly House offers a shared kitchen, common room, shared bathrooms, plus in-house laundry facilities. The house provides safe, affordable housing for women for up to one year. Holly House is not a half-way house. All women in the community are eligible to submit an application. Elizabeth Fry’s professional staff will help develop a Personal Transition plan, education and employment exploration, housing search support, community resources referrals, and personal development programming. St. Paul’s began supporting Holly House in 2020, and accepts monetary donations of any amount on their behalf. For Christmas 2020, the volunteers are accepting donations of gift cards to place in their CHRISTMAS BINS which will be gifted to the women who are under the Holly House care. Here is their video explaining the details:
The Mi’kmaw Native Friendship Centre
The Mi’kmaw Native Friendship Society is a non-profit, board governed organization that currently operates nine core programs. It is one of one hundred and nineteen Friendship Centre’s across Canada, and opened its doors on September 17th,1973. The society was incorporated on June 2nd, 1975. The mission of the Mi’kmaw Native Friendship Centre is to provide structured, social-based programming for Urban Aboriginal People while serving as a focal point for the urban aboriginal community to gather for a variety of community functions and events.
St. Mark’s Food Bank, Halifax
www.feednovascotia.ca/location/st-marks-food-bank
The St. Mark’s Food bank currently operates on Tuesdays : 09:30 AM – 11:00 AM. It’s address is
The Primates World Relief and Development Fund
The Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund (PWRDF) is the Anglican Church of Canada’s agency for sustainable development and relief. With the support of Anglicans across Canada, PWRDF partners with organizations working to increase healthy pregnancies and births, reduce gender inequality, relieve hunger and break the cycle of poverty in the world’s most vulnerable communities. Against a backdrop of climate change, PWRDF strives to address the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals for 2030. Working towards a truly just, healthy and peaceful world.
Newcomers Sponsorship Committee
St. Paul’s Parish Council formed a Refugee Sponsorship Committee to proceed with plans to bring a refugee family to Halifax. The motion was coupled with commitment and support for the task. We have all become aware of the plight of refugees in several nations, and at the time of forming this committee, Syria’s brutal civil war was at the forefront of the parish’s mind. The UN reported that there were 4 million refugees outside the country with little hope of returning to Syria safely. Half of these uprooted are children who have been traumatized by war, robbed of an education, forced from their homes and living in exile. The mission to assist a Syrian family in establishing a safe and healthy home here in Halifax was a success thanks to God, and our parish remains in contact regularly with the family and continues to support them in various ways as needed. Consequently, our committee can currently support no additional Newcomers as we do our best to maintain what is needed for our Syrian Family.
For details about any of our Outreach programmes or other occasional outreach events,
please contact the parish office at
stpaulshalifax1749@gmail.com