DOWNLOADCanada Newsroom of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints shares top stories highlighting the events that made the news in 2023.
“The Church of Jesus Christ Will Build Temple in Lethbridge, Alberta”
On April 2, 2023, Church President Russell M. Nelson announced a temple would be built in Lethbridge, Alberta. The Lethbridge Alberta Temple will be Canada’s 10th temple.
DOWNLOAD“Edmonton Faith Leaders Discuss Unifying Power of Religions”
The Edmonton Alberta Riverbend Stake of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints hosted hundreds of people from different faiths on April 16, 2023, at Religious Freedom 2023: A Community Conversation. The event highlighted the unifying power of religions and provided an opportunity to understand challenges to religious freedom.
DOWNLOAD“What Family Stories Will You Find in the 1931 Canadian Census?”
FamilySearch partnered with Library and Archives Canada as they released the 1931 Census of Canada. The census provides a snapshot into the lives of more than 10 million people living in Canada in 1931 and is now accessible through FamilySearch.
DOWNLOAD“Donation Modernizes Emergency Shelter Services in Montreal”
The Old Brewery Mission (OBM), one of Canada’s oldest and largest homeless shelters, began a renovation project to revolutionize how services are provided thanks to a $1 million donation from the Church. The donation will allow the OBM to modernize its emergency services, providing safer, healthier surroundings with increased privacy and dignity for residents by transforming the nine open-plan dormitories into semiprivate rooms, or chambrettes in French.
DOWNLOAD“Cardston Temple Centennial: Monument of Faith”
The Cardston Alberta Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints marked its centennial on August 26, 2023. This monument, designated a national historic site of Canada in 1992, is a centrepiece of the Latter-day Saint faith in Canada. This article tells the remarkable story of how this magnificent temple came to be built in the small pioneer community of Cardston, Alberta.
DOWNLOAD“Gathering of Tribes Held in Cardston, Alberta”
The Cardston Gathering of Tribes held September 15 and 16, 2023, brought together over 300 people who took part in traditional dances, listened to drumming, ate delicious food, attended workshops and participated in temple worship. Floyd Big Head attended the event on behalf of the Kainai Nation and Council, Blackfoot Confederacy.
DOWNLOAD“Oxford Professor Mark Wrathall Presents the Annual Latter-day Saint Lecture at McGill University”
The ninth annual McGill Latter-day Saint Lecture series co-hosted by McGill’s School of Religious Studies and the Montreal Quebec Mount Royal Stake was held on October 5, 2023, at the Birks Heritage Chapel. University of Oxford philosophy professor Mark Wrathall gave the lecture entitled “Religion, Faith and Practical Non-Cognitivism.”
DOWNLOAD“Church Donation Helps Toronto’s Daily Bread Food Bank Address Increasing Food Insecurity”
The Daily Bread Food Bank, Canada’s largest network of food banks, received a $500,000 donation from the Church to help manage the roughly fourfold increase in visits to local food banks since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. The donation is the Church’s largest food bank donation in Canada and will help purchase food products to serve the 274,000 clients who visit the Toronto-area food banks every month.
DOWNLOAD“Church Donation Provides 525,000 Meals in Nova Scotia”
Feed Nova Scotia calculated that a recent Church donation will provide 525,000 meals to food-insecure households in Nova Scotia. The Church’s $350,000 will provide support to 140 food banks, shelters, meal programs and drop-in centres across the province.
DOWNLOAD“Share Your Light at Giving Machines in Canada”
In 2023, Canada hosted Light the World Giving Machines in Calgary and Toronto. Canada’s first Giving Machine launched in Calgary in 2022 and helped more than 23,000 individuals. This year, Toronto joined the 61 cities worldwide that offered this simple, meaningful, new way to give.
DOWNLOAD“Church Donation Helps Support Creative Solutions at Community Kitchen”
The Shelbourne Community Kitchen, a food centre in the Greater Victoria area received a $130,000 donation from the Church to develop a commercial kitchen project that will improve efforts to prepare and preserve food donated to or grown by the kitchen. The kitchen works to reduce barriers to healthy food for over 1,500 adults and 500 children who are living on low incomes in the Greater Victoria area.
DOWNLOAD“How JustServe Community Volunteering Led to a Donation of Refrigeration Units”
After responding to a volunteer opportunity advertised in JustServe, Colin and Karen Nemeth discovered many other ways to help the Interfaith Food Bank Society of Lethbridge. Partnering projects have included running the Church’s Find a Better Job program and applying for a humanitarian grant of $140,000 to install new refrigeration units at the food bank.