St Mary’s Anglican Church East Kelowna held a tea on May 31, 2025 to honour the retirement of The Rev. Heather Karabelas, Deacon who has served at St. Mary’s since 2015. Marj Gill, a long-time member of the Parish, wrote a lovely tribute that was read by Jeff Samin before presenting Heather with flowers and a pewter plaque. Jean Fraser created a lovely photo collage from past events and added some previous Highway submissions written by Heather.
May 1 was the 21st Anniversary of Heather’s ordination. She was awarded in 2016 “The Stephen Award” in recognition of her outstanding Diaconal Ministry at a gathering of North American Deacons from Canada, U.S. and Mexico. Since 2015, Heather has served as our Deacon and besides fulfilling her regular duties assisting public worship, ministering God’s word and sacrament plus other duties, she has been instrumental in building relationships and helping the parish support groups such as: Alongside Hope (PWRDF); Cathedral Cupboard; Inn From the Cold; The Coldest Night of the Year; LARC (Lutheran Anglican Refugee Committee); Owaissi Anglican Camp; RAMA (Radical Action with Migrants in Agriculture) in Kelowna; St. Andrew’s Farm Garden, and so many more outreach projects than we can mention.
We especially thank Heather for her formation of ‘Pray and Serve’ involving ladies from the Church. This included time for reflection, an activity and a social in the Church Hall or more recently at an independent retirement residence where a number of our parishioners reside. A few years ago, Heather launched “Apples Abound” with the gift of apples from Jo and Brian Meyers, farmers in East Kelowna, to raise funds for Alongside Hope. Our Deacon also coordinates the use of our Church Hall during the summer on Sunday evenings for the local Mexican migrant workers group (RAMA). Our congregational members were able to meet with the Mexican migrant workers and their facilitators by sharing a meal together.
We have been blessed at St. Mary’s, and we are fortunate that Heather will continue being an honorary assistant deacon during worship besides other activities that she will continue to be involved in. We wish her well as she spends more time with Michael and her family in her retirement.
