Domestic Poverty
Advocacy: Tennessee ministry has gone from soup kitchen to offering a full array of services for the homeless
The Chattanooga Community Kitchen logo states ”Help from the Heart of the City” and means it. Founded in 1982 by seven downtown Chattanooga churches (Christ Episcopal, First Baptist, First Centenary United Methodist, First Christian, St. Paul’s Episcopal, St. Peter and Paul Catholic, and Second Presbyterian), the Kitchen has grown from a “soup” kitchen to […]
How-to Files: Bright Zone program models bonding through reading to pre-schoolers
St. Philip’s Episcopal Church in Frisco, TX, began “Bright Reader Summer Fun Group” in 2009 as an extension of its school-year mentoring program at Bright Elementary school. The program was designated as a Jubilee Ministry in 2011. This last summer, the five-week-long camp served more than 150 children (an average of 30 per day). Encouraging […]
Rooted in worship: Priest ordained among congregation of homeless worshippers
It was a clear, bright, and cold full moon on the evening of December 9, 2011, when Patricia Sexton was ordained to the priesthood at a park, outside in Longmont, CO, but to understand the significance of this we must turn the clock back six months to Saturday, June 4, 2011. It was on this […]
Raising awareness: Magdalene Hospitality House eases the burden for those visiting prisoners
In 2001, members at Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Cumberland, MD, received information about some of the visitors to the federal prison at Cumberland. Several of our parishioners are police officers, and they reported to us about women and children sleeping in their cars because they could not afford meals and a hotel room on the […]
Sack lunches help Houston's homeless avoid having to decide between food and shelter
Too often, the homeless people served through Community of the Streets Outreach at Lord of the Streets Episcopal Church in Houston had to make a painful choice: As the afternoon grew late, would they seek food or would they seek shelter for the night? Sometimes, the options were mutually exclusive. If they are going to […]
Community gardens thriving as parishes commit to turning vacant land into ministry of produce
Both food and faith are growing at Episcopal parishes around the country who have launched community garden projects. Here’s a look at what some of the winners of Health and Nutrition grants are doing in the garden this year: Brigit’s Bounty, a ministry of St. Brigit Episcopal Church, Frederick, CO. St. Brigit’s began Brigit’s Bounty […]
Pennsylvania after school program nurtures youngsters with homemade, family-style meals
The 25 children who come to the Eagle’s Nest After School program at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Lancaster, PA, don’t often get to sit down to a hot, healthy, homemade meal, served family style. So when they come to the church after school, one day a week, volunteers make a point of stressing that. […]
Julian Pantry feeding the hungry in San Francisco’s Mission District
Over the past three and one-half years, thousands of low-income shoppers in San Francisco’s Mission District have been nourished by the work of the Julian Pantry. The food bank is primarily a ministry of St. John the Evangelist Episcopal Church, located at 15th Street and Julian Avenue, and Holy Innocents Episcopal Church, six blocks away. […]
Transfiguring Jubilee as we return to our local roots, empower our local leadership
The future Church is today! While the invitation to embrace the Spirit of Jubilee has been extended since at least the days of the writing of the Book of Leviticus (see chapter 25), each generation must decide for itself if they will accept that spirit. Jesus accepted it when he claimed the words of the […]
Agape Café: Breakfast – and all you want of it – served with a heaping helping of dignity
One morning a week, the homeless and the hungry in Iowa City, IA, can at least count on having a good breakfast – just about anything they want, and all they want of it – ordered off a menu, and delivered to them by a waiter. “Here, no one stands in line to get […]
