Here is our weekly collection plate, offering some of the good things that Episcopalians and their congregations have done that made the news this past week. And other news fit to print.
So far, the nonprofit organization, which serves women who are recovering from addiction to alcohol and drugs, has raised $11,000. Almost half of that came from The Episcopal Diocese of Western North Carolina. … Earlier this year, organizers with Surrender House worried it would shut its doors… Surrender House has served 70 women since it opened in August of 2007. It houses eight recovering addicts at a time and the program helps teach life skills. “It needs to stay open,” Shaffer said. “When people are initially treated for addiction, the physical addiction is only part of the problem.”
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Tulsa Church honored for its service
Tulsa Metropolitan Ministry will honor three Tulsa men and two churches Thursday night at its annual assembly and awards banquet. … Trinity Episcopal Church, Tulsa, OK, will receive the Interfaith Service Recognition, presented to a congregation that is “directly involved in meeting basic needs of the poor, elderly, working poor, or children, that is recognized for activities through denominational, inter-religious, or other private agencies that are local and ecumenical in service base.” Trinity founded the Iron Gate soup kitchen.
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A local church deacon spent almost 10 days in Rwanda earlier this spring, ministering to prisoners, mostly women and children, jailed for their roles in the genocide in the central African nation back in 1994.
The Rev. Velinda Hardy is a deacon at Calvary Episcopal and St. Luke’s Episcopal churches in Tarboro, who made her third mission trip to the African nation from March 27 to April 6.
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She was able to help buy blankets and clothes for prisoners in the rural town called Gitarama, she said. She also took an offering from St. Luke’s Episcopal and successfully applied for a $3,000 grant from the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina, to help construct a building for 10 children and an older woman to live in within Gitarama.