ECW Annual Spring Meeting will be May 18

The ECW Annual Spring Meeting will be held May 18 at Christ Church, Danville. For further information and registration, please to go ECW News & Events page on the diocesan website.

News from Mission of the Holy Spirit

By Keith Josey, Chaplain

 

Thank you for your continued support of the Mission of the Holy Spirit; it is through caring individuals like yourselves that lives are being changed. I would like to take a moment to share with you some of the amazing accomplishments that have occurred over the past several months. 

 

Our most recent achievements have been the development of a Monday evening GED program and a teenage health and wellness class. We have had several adult students take and pass the GED test. Our teens look forward to coming out and learning about health and nutrition as well as participating in exercise class and enjoying a healthy meal.    

 

Since September, we have enjoyed helping our young people with their academic studies through our enrichment and tutoring program. Thank you to all the volunteers who assist in supporting the educational needs as well as providing meals for our Tuesday and Thursday evening programs. The average attendance is around 25 children and adolescents for each program, and we have seen a steady increase in their overall progress in school.    

 

We have increased our community outreach and evidence of its effectiveness has been shown in the steady rise of our attendance on Sunday. As our worship service has grown, our adult members are requesting additional services such as Bible study. To meet that need, we have begun a community conference call Bible study on Wednesday evenings. This is turning into a huge success as each week more adults are calling in and listening to a lesson that is reshaping their lives. None of this would be possible without the support of individuals like you and the support of our local churches. As we move forward, it is vital that you continue to support the Mission of the Holy Spirit.

We have partnered with the Yes! Dare2Dream! program, a faith-based initiative program that allows many of our members to become trained group facilitators in areas like career development, abstinence, and self-esteem. As we begin to market these programs to the community and draw more young people to the Mission, we will need additional support from you and our partner churches. Our goal is to find positive ways to impact the lives of the families we serve and move them forward.   

Your gifts go directly towards the improvement of our programs and the changing of people's lives. We are counting on you to assist our efforts to relieve the stressors that our families go through by connecting them to a strong faith community, and continuing to offer hope through our quality programs. Thank you!

Learn more about Mission of the Holy Spirit and how you can support their ministry here. 

here.

Diocesan news from Episcopal Relief & Development

By The Very Rev. Keith Emerson (St. Paul's, Suffolk) Diocesan Coordinator for Episcopal Relief & Development

During the first quarter of 2013, congregations throughout the Diocese of Southern Virginia contributed $13,548.80 to Episcopal Relief & Development. $4,789 was designated for Hurricane Sandy relief with the remaining amount donated to the general fund. I am grateful to the following congregations and groups for their gifts:

• Church of the Advent, Norfolk
• Eastern Shore Chapel, Virginia Beach
• Emmanuel Church, Hampton
• Emmanuel Church, Virginia Beach
• Emmanuel Church, Cape Charles
• Grace Church Women, Yorktown
• Old Donation Church, Virginia Beach
• Church of the Redeemer, Midlothian
• The Diocese of Southern Virginia
• St. James' Church, Warfield
• St. John's Church, Hampton
• St. Martin's Church, Williamsburg

Episcopal Relief & Development has launched a new website. You can find it at www.episcopalrelief.org. It provides great information about various projects and efforts as well as helpful resources you can use in the parish. Donating is easier than ever. Please check it out and share the site with friends.

Leadership Program for Musicians announces 2013-2014 classes

The new Leadership Program for Musicians (LPM) program year begins September 13-14. LPM is a national program for church musicians, "trained" musicians AND enthusiastic amateurs - choir members, clergy, Music & Worship Committees, and anyone who loves church music. This year's courses are: Liturgy and Music: Foundations for Christian Worship;  Principles of Choral Leadership; Teaching New Music to the Congregation; and Philosophy of Church Music.  Take all four courses or one at a time. Register before September 1 and save $50. Click here for details and registration information.

Volunteer Program for churches seeking to participate in Hurricane Sandy recovery

Volunteers are the key to recovery and renewal for communities along the East Coast devastated by Hurricane Sandy. Episcopal Relief and Development and the Dioceses of NY, New Jersey, Long Island & Easton, MD have set up a Volunteer Program to help your church participate in that recovery. The Volunteer Program is structured to provide a deep, meaningful experience that take volunteers beyond just having a hammer in their hand to a place of better understanding how service, learning and reflection can truly transform all involved. Through this opportunity of community service volunteers have a chance to effect change in their own lives while serving the vulnerable along the Eastern Seaboard.     

We have added a Hurricane Sandy Recovery page to our website to help the churches of Southern Virginia learn more about the Volunteer Program and to connect with each other in planning trips to assist with recovery. If your church is planning to participate in the program and would like to invite individuals to join you, we will post your upcoming trip on our website. After you return, we invite you to share your story and pictures to encourage others to join in this effort. 

Convocation II Day of Service: Community Day at Good Samaritan, Virginia Beach

Convocation II churches are joining with Good Samaritan, Virginia Beach, in presenting a Community Day on May 4 from 1:00 to 5:00pm for the neighborhood surrounding Good Samaritan. The Western Bayside section of Virginia Beach is a community in which many residents are struggling day to day and that has one of the higher crime rates. Neighborhood churches - Good Samaritan, Enoch Baptist and Heritage Methodist Church - have come together as the Western Bayside Churches United in order to better reach out to their neighbors in need. Together they hold a Community Day in May and again at the end of August. City agencies - police, health, and family services - and agencies providing financial assistance are all on hand. The churches provide free food and entertainment for the children. The event requires many volunteers; the fall Community Day drew 3,000 people from the neighborhood. For more information about the Community Day, contact the Rev. Wendy Wilkinson, wendywilk54@verizon.net, or Carol Buckalew, cbuckalew@cox.net.

Convocation III work day at ODU Canterbury Center

Convocation III churches are planning a work day at the Old Dominion University  Canterbury Center, Norfolk, on Saturday, April 20, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Click here for the event flyer. We hope to see lots of parishes represented! Jobs range from very simple to slightly more complex, but nothing requiring exceptionally high levels of skill. Some require getting up on ladders, others don't. There's lots of landscaping to be done, too, for those who want to dig in the dirt. And we'll need at least one team to help with snacks/lunch for the workers.

This will be such a huge help to Canterbury Center--making the property look much sharper and saving it a lot of money in its maintenance budget. The Canterbury Center has spent well over $30,000 on big-ticket deferred maintenance items since August, so every bit of donated skill and labor and materials to fix the little things is invaluable.

If your parish is planning on sending a group, please have someone call the Rev. Gillian Barr, ODU Canterbury Chaplain, so she can make sure there are enough supplies and supervisors, 757-351-4513. Workers should wear sturdy shoes, and bring work gloves if they have them. Additional gear will depend on which project(s) your team would like to focus on.

Thank you so much for your support of the Canterbury Center!