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Our NEW Outreach Missions monthly newsletter debuted
recently. Each month, one of our "hands-on" mission opportunities
will be featured. Click on the
link here to download the current issue.
In addition, the back page will
feature information about stewardship and how we fund our ministries
together. Click on the link here to download the current issue.
Outreach Missions: Vol. 1. No. 1, February 2010
African Children's Mission
Outreach Missions: Vol. 1. No.
2, March 2010
The Blankenburg School
Outreach Missions: Vol. 1. No.
3, April 2010
Interfaith Hospitality Network
Outreach Missions: Vol. 1. No.
4, May 2010
Episcopal Community Services
Outreach Missions: Vol. 1. No.
5, June 2010
Food for Friends
The Outreach Committee
The Outreach Committee of Church of the Redeemer supports the efforts of
the congregation to develop deeper awareness, understanding and
commitment to opportunities for outreach that exist within the Delaware
Valley and our greater world community. The committee annually reviews
agencies it supports through grants and promotes hands-on outreach
efforts in the Parish and the Community.
The Outreach Program
Through its outreach
program, the congregation of the Church of the Redeemer is spiritually
committed to improving the lives of individuals and communities in need
by sharing our financial resources, our time and our energy in ways that
ensure that we make a difference where it is needed most.
Outreach Grants
Our support in the past has
generally been to smaller organizations rather than to ones with large,
substantial budgets. A list of the organizations the Committee supported
in 2008 can be found in the
October issue of the Voice of The Redeemer
(still available on www.TheRedeemer.org) and is in the
Annual Report.
The mission of Outreach Grants is to provide meaningful support to
programs and institutions whose work directly impacts, and seeks to
improve, the lives of the elderly, disabled, women and children both
locally and throughout the world. Funds for distribution through the
Outreach Grants program are largely raised through the efforts of the
annual
Christmas Bazaar and the ongoing efforts of
The Shop.
Hands-On Outreach
Projects
African Children's Mission
The
African Children’s Mission at Redeemer funds community-based
projects organized by local leaders to benefit infants and children
orphaned by AIDS in Malawi. We partner with the Global AIDS
Interfaith Alliance (GAIA) which not only works with us to identify
worthy projects but also provides oversight of the funding to ensure
that funds are indeed applied effectively and efficiently.
 Blankenburg
School
Three years ago members of Redeemer reopened the Library at Blankenburg
School in partnership with WEPAC, West Philadelphia Alliance for
Children. The Library now offers an art program in addition to loaning
books and reading aloud to the little ones. The Library collection has
been significantly improved by the gift of hundreds of new and recycled
books given by members of Redeemer through the Bazaar. We also have a
member of the parish assisting the Middle School science program and
have provided programs for assemblies and the gift of new books to
Kindergarteners and 1st graders through the
Reading is Fundamental
Program. Plans are also underway for the creation of a playground which
we are undertaking with partners in the West Philadelphia neighborhood.
Blankenburg is located at 4600 W. Girard Ave. and serves children in
Head Start through 8th Grade. Reading tutors are always needed as are
new members of the Library team and supporters of the playground effort.
Parish contact: Carol Chew 610-526-9059 or Margaret Sipple 610-527-9410
Christmas Baskets
Provides Christmas
dinner for local and Philadelphia inner-city families in need,
as identified by
Eldernet. Parishioners fill approximately 200 baskets with
non-perishable goods and the Redeemer supplies turkey or ham, and fresh
fruit and vegetables.
Volunteer needs:
(before Christmas) deliveries by parishioners.
Parish contact: Tom
Ramsey, 610-687-3267
Episcopal Community Services
The official outreach
arm of the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania,
ECS operates or oversees more than 30 outreach projects and programs
in the Philadelphia area.
Volunteer needs: tutors in our after-school or evening literacy
programs in Philadelphia; sharing a special skill: family meal planning
and cooking; teaching simple budgeting; hosting a kitchen shower among
your friends and supplying needed household items to a former homeless
client now getting permanent housing.
Parish contact: Rodger
McKinney, 610-645-5816
 Food
for Friends
Food for Friends gathers monthly to prepare 60-65 frozen meals. These
meals are delivered to Aid for Friends, a non-profit, interfaith agency
which arranges for their distribution to persons who are isolated,
handicapped or frail.
Interfaith Hospitality Network
of the Main Line
The mission of
IHN is to help momentarily homeless families achieve lasting
independence, stability, and self-esteem. In the interim, the local
network provides safe, temporary housing; a hot evening meal; and
support services. Hosting responsibilities rotate weekly among the 10
currently participating interfaith congregations.
Volunteer needs: Individuals or families to prepare a simple dinner, to
spend time with the parents and children after dinner, and to provide
comfort and security by spending the night at the church.
Parish contact: Susan
Ayres, 610-964-8286
Click on these links for more IHN
information:
How Can I Help?
Hospitality Code
History at Redeemer
Frequently Asked Questions
Volunteer Sensitivity Workshops
2010 Hosting Dates for Redeemer
OUTREACH COMMITTEE
Susan Ayres, Carolyn
Bennett, Stephen Billings,
Charlie Blackman,
Andrew Butler, Lisa Davis,
Lou Ann deLisser, Jane
Hastings, Kathy Hutchinson, Ed Lewis, Carolyn Morris, Sam Morris,
Rodger McKinney, Jim
Pugh,
Tom Ramsey, Marda
Schropp
* * *
Sam Morris, Chair
Andrew G. Butler, III,
Clergy Liaison
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