In 2015 the congregation of St. Paul's Cobden was blessed to receive a generous bequest in the amount of $1.5 million from the estates of Mr. and Mrs. Basil and Greta Yates. In response to this wonderful act of Christian stewardship, in 2016 the Vestry of St. Paul's Cobden established a bequest committee. The committee meets on an annual basis each November and is mandated by the St. Paul's Vestry to prayerfully disburse dividends generated by St. Paul's holdings in the Consolidated Trust Fund of the Anglican Diocese of Ottawa that are in excess of the annual financial needs of the congregation.
For 2024 the St. Paul's bequest committee has been pleased to disburse $16,500 in financial support to various charities and social service agencies across Renfew County. These groups include:
The Royal Canadian Legion Branch #550 (Cobden)
Renfrew County District School Board Student Support Fund
The Bishop's Discretionary Fund - Anglican Diocese of Ottawa
Teen Challenge - Eastern Ontario
The Dementia Society of Ottawa and Renfrew County
In addition, the bequest committee is very pleased to contribute $8,500 to Holy Trinity Pembroke to help support the cost of shared administrative assistance for the Parish of the Valley in 2024. Similar gifts have generously been made by St. Paul's to Holy Trinity in 2020, 2022 and 2023, and the bequest committee remains committed to maintaining funding at this level on an annual basis (dividends permitting) in the years to come. This contribution represents roughly one third of the annual cost of the office administrator employed by Holy Trinity Pembroke. Since the creation of the Parish of the Valley in 2018 roughly one third of the Pembroke administrator's position has been devoted to parish wide initiatives in support of our clergy team, including producing the weekly Valley Bulletins, funeral bulletins, parish mailings and maintaining the parish list, to name only a few of these important tasks.
The Parish of the Valley is incredibly proud of St. Paul's Cobden's continuing generosity towards the needs of our area parish and towards the needs of our Renfrew County community as a whole.