St. Paul's, Newport News, makes the decision to close

The members of St. Paul's, Newport News, have made the difficult decision to close their 139-year old church. The last service will be on Sunday, July 14, and Bishop Magness will deconsecrate St. Paul's on Saturday, July 20 at 11 a.m.

St. Paul's was established out of the work of the Reverend Charles J.S. Mayo, associate rector at St. John's in Hampton in 1880, who was assigned the renewal of the Episcopal Church in what is now Newport News. In 1881, Mayo began holding interdenominational worship services in a railroad workers' dormitory. On Easter Monday in 1883, Episcopal members of that church formally organized St. Paul's and elected its first vestry.

St. Paul's parish house served as a center for armed forces personnel during World War I. During World War II, it was again used as a canteen for troops leaving from and returning to Newport News. A wing, including a new kitchen and library, was added for the operation of a community Hospitality House program. About 16,000 military personnel made use of the Hospitality House each month.

St. Paul's helped establish other Episcopal Churches in Newport News, including St. Augustine's in 1897, and St. Andrew's in 1919.

St. Paul's has remained in downtown Newport News, despite the significant changes to that area over the past few decades. The area is now dominated by Huntington Ingalls Industries - Newport News Shipbuilding, which employs one of the largest work forces in Virginia. Downtown residents moved out, and other churches closed their doors or relocated. St. Paul's chose to remain to serve the poor, the homeless, and the few neighbors who remained.

St. Paul's partnered with other churches, civic organizations, and individuals to address hunger and poverty in Newport News through the formation of the Community Action Network. It combined traditional ministries, such as feeding programs, clothing and laundry, with counseling, job training, transportation, financial counseling, and employment services, seeking to empower those in need to lift themselves out of poverty. Dwindling resources caused St. Paul's to consider scaling back some of these services, but they decided to continue due to the high level of need. Much of the church's budget went to the Community Action Network.

While St. Paul's is closing, the needs of the people in downtown Newport News are not going away. Those who volunteer and those who are served at St. Paul's are hopeful that the other churches and organizations that helped make up the Community Action Network will seek out new avenues and will continue to minister to their neighbors downtown. 

Camp Chanco 2019 off to a great start

Thank you to all who have entrusted their campers to us this week for First Session. Monday's key words were "pause", "listen", "turn", and "choose" and Monday's challenge was "to try something new". Many campers tried new activities with archery, paddle boarding, the ropes course and zip lines, to name just a few! In chaplain program, campers made prayer flags. And from the looks of their flags, the future of the world is bright!  Our chaplain program this year is based on the Most Rev. Michael Curry's The Way of Love. If you think your camper would enjoy fun, challenging new activities and benefit from a message of love, there is still time to register for Sessions 2-4, Ropes Camp, Family Camp, and Senior Week! Visit www.chanco.org for more information or to register today! Questions? Contact us at hospitality@chanco.org or 888-724-2626.

Camp Chanco FUNdraiser benefiting scholarships

Every year, Chanco has more scholarship requests than funding. Click here to purchase an awesome baseball camp designed by a Camp Chanco alumni offered in multiple colors with a feather that represents friendship, spirit and love - everything we strive for our young people to experience here at Chanco. All proceeds benefit Chanco scholarships. You may also support our scholarships by making a gift today. Click here to make an easy on line donation and indicate "scholarship" in the notes section or you may mail a check to Chanco (394 Floods Drive, Spring Grove, VA 23881) with "scholarship" in the memo line. Thank you for your support!

 

Coming soon: Episcopal Church digital invitation kits for Back-2-School and Back to Ministry

Continuing the invitation to connect The Way of Love more deeply to the seasons of the year, The Episcopal Church is developing additional free and downloadable resources for congregations. Coming this summer are Back-2-School Digital Invitation Kit and the Back to Ministry Digital Invitation Kit.

Each of these kits include: a customizable poster and postcard; a social media-ready graphic; and a Facebook cover image. Each kit also includes a video prayer message from Presiding Bishop Michael Curry which can be embedded on a church's website. These resources are themed both with and without Way of Love graphics. All resources will be available here.

In addition to the back-2-school, ministry fair, and previously-released Easter Digital Invitation Kits, similar resources are planned for the seasons of Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany.  They will be offered in Spanish and English.  

Safe Church Training for VBS volunteers

If you have Vacation Bible School (VBS) volunteers who need to complete Safe Church Training, we are offering a VBS-focused training option that VBS Directors can facilitate with their VBS volunteers. The training format consists of an online training module and a PowerPoint presentation highlighting key safe church issues, as well as best practice guidelines. Given that the training focuses exclusively on the VBS setting, the Safe Church certification will expire immediately after the VBS program concludes. If you are interested in this training option please contact Susan Allen at sallen@diosova.org to gain access to the VBS training materials. 

 

Summer camp season has begun with All God's Children camp

All God's Children camp at Chanco serves young people with one or both parents incarcerated and offers them fun, fellowship and faith in God's creation. So far the campers have enjoyed games, soccer and swimming and a favorite meal has been tachos (tater tots topped with taco meat and all the fixings)! At night they enjoy fellowship in their cabins and have an opportunity to journal about their day and reflect upon where they found God that day. Please keep all the All God's Children campers and staff in your prayers this week as they challenge themselves with new activities, enjoy living together in Christian community, and find God's spirit in each other and in the great outdoors.

Clergy transitions

The Rev. John Kerr, Vicar, left St. Luke's, Blackstone, May 31, 2019.

The Rev. Bruce Cheney, Rector, left St. Paul's, Newport News, and began as Priest in Charge, at St. George's, Newport News, June 1, 2019.

The Rev. Wendy Wilkinson, Rector, will be leaving Good Samaritan, Virginia Beach, June 16, 2019. She also will leave as Chaplain to Old Dominion University Canterbury Center.