Here is our weekly look at just some of the good stuff going on in The Episcopal Church:
The Baltimore Sun:
At first the connection seems vague between the bustling Saturday morning 32nd Street Farmers Market and an Episcopal church basement filled with energetic preschoolers from around the world. But it is there, one of the social threads that bind communities together.
Click through if only for the photograph. The story concerns a ministry of the Cathedral of the Incarnation in Baltimore.
This year’s House of Hope building project in Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico, almost didn’t happen.
The diocese for Trinity on the Hill Episcopal Church, which operates House of Hope, prohibited plans to go down to the city and build a house. The upswing in violence in Juárez pushed the decision.
Members of House of Hope, an all-women team of volunteers, didn’t take no for an answer. In an act of faith and perseverance, they meet with the diocese to state their case and eventually earned permission to go.
The Seamen’s Church Institute has been a fixture on the Philadelphia waterfront for 166 years, providing friendly help to 40,000 seafarers a year whose ships dock in ports along the Delaware River.
The Rev. James D. Von Dreele, an Episcopal priest, is head chaplain and executive director of the interdenominational ministry.
Father Jim and his staff, including five part-time chaplains and eight to 10 volunteers, visit more than 1,700 ships a year. They offer counsel to foreign sailors, help with immigration issues, and intervene in ship problems such as pay disputes. They also escort the sailors off ships for a few hours of R&R. Seafarers’ favorite pastime? Shopping.
From Lancaster, Pa:
Through a partnership with St. James Episcopal Church, Jones is always supplied with an emergency stock of shoes and clothing so that “if we have a kid that shows up without shoes, we have shoes.” The philosophy at Carter and MacRae is to “teach the child that’s in front of us today,” Jones said, never presuming that a student will be there tomorrow. Teachers regularly augment their lessons with instruction on basic life skills—like preparing a can of soup.
A chance conversation between principal Betty Palmer and a mother whose son is a soldier serving in Afghanistan launched a school supply drive at South Baker School this fall…. Members of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, where the Tomlinsons are members, are sending care packages to soldiers along with school supplies for the children. And other contributions have included discounts and gifts from Baker City merchants to support the troops and the children of Afghanistan, Tomlinson said.