OUTREACH COMMITTEE

OUR MISSION:  Deepening faith and community by embodying and extending God's welcome, healing, justice and love and by following the command of Jesus to evangelize by acting while on this earth. 

OUR GROUNDING:  Our mission finds its grounding in the words of Isaiah:

“Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?

Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house: when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin?”   Isaiah 58:6-7

OUR DIRECTION:  We move outward to the local, national and international community and inward to the heart of the Church's calling.  We endeavor to respond to human need from the heart of Christian compassion by being the hands and feet of Christ in a sometimes broken world.  We recognize our calling both as individuals and as the Church to live in the world by ministering to its needs and contributing to the welfare of its citizens in ways that reflect God’s just and loving purposes for the world.   

OUR INVITATION:  We invite you to join us in making grace happen through dynamic partnership and action.  The Outreach Committee is open to all.  We want to hear from each parishioner on the course we should follow at St. Alban’s to implement our mission. 

 Local Outreach Opportunities:

•             Annandale Christian Community for Action (ACCA):  a non-profit alliance of 26 Annandale area churches (of which St. Alban’s was a founding member), which has been helping the needy in our immediate community since 1967.         

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•         Lockwood House and Elmwood House:  low-income retirement homes, established through Fr. Frizzell’s efforts in the 1980s. St. Alban’s volunteers have purchased, cooked, delivered, and served Thanksgiving dinner to residents every year since its founding.  Many St. Alban’s parishioners are familiar with the name “Lockwood House,” and some people have even been there in connection with the Thanksgiving Day dinners our parish has been providing and serving to the residents for a score or more years.  But have you ever wondered how Lockwood House, and its neighbor Elmwood House, began and who is eligible to live there? 

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•          Bethany House: provides temporary shelter for battered and abused spouses and their children.  Before the start of school each year, St. Albans members contribute school supplies and equipment for the school-age children of Bethany House.  In the winter we help make Christmas gift giving a reality for the adults and children by providing warm clothing items, toys and other Christmas gifts, as well as money and gift cards to enable Bethany House parents to purchase gifts for their children.   We also make available food and supplies on an emergency basis. 

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•          Bailey’s Crossroads Community Shelter:  a 50-bed shelter for the homeless, to which we provide financial support and donations of food and clothing.  Bailey’s has consistently provided support to residents in their attempt to move into permanent housing.

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•          The INOVA/St. Alban’s Blood Drive:  We all expect blood to be there for us, but barely a fraction of those who can give do. Yet sooner or later, virtually all of us will face a time of great vulnerability in which we will need blood. And that time is all too often unexpected. St. Alban’s, in conjunction with INOVA Hospital, hosts blood drives to save a life.  Those who donate blood selflessly become the heroes of complete strangers. 

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•    Hypothermia Response Program:   Last year, St. Alban’s, along with other faith communities, partnered with Fairfax Area Christian Emergency & Transitional Services, commonly known as FACETS, and Fairfax County, to try to prevent hypothermia in our community.

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•     Samaritan Ministry:  Twenty years ago, St. Alban's joined 11 other Episcopal parishes to share Christ's love through Samaritan Ministry in a needy area of Northwest Washington.  From the vision of those founders, Samaritan has grown to 46 parishes and three locations, one in Arlington.  From its beginning, Samaritan has promoted awareness of community needs, fostered partnership at all levels (including church-to-church and person-to-person), helped to reduce barriers imposed by poverty, and developed participants' ability to help themselves.

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Senior Ministries:

•       Shepherd’s Center:  The Shepherd’s Center of Annandale-Springfield (SCAS) is a non-profit interfaith organization sponsored by area congregations and community groups to serve older persons in the Annandale and Springfield areas of Northern Virginia.  Its primary purpose is to provide services to assist older adults to continue to live independently in their own homes and to offer programs which supply opportunities for enrichment, learning and socialization.  Volunteer opportunities allow individuals to feel needed by reaching out to other older adults.  Put simply, it was formed to serve seniors and help them help other seniors. 

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 National Outreach:

•           Hurricane Katrina And Mission on the Bay:  St. Alban’s has been involved in Katrina relief since the week after the hurricane hit the Gulf Coast.  St. Alban’s has loaded supplies for relief to the devastated area, raised money, sponsored a family who evacuated to Northern Virginia, and helped purchase a pick-up truck for reconstruction.  Most recently in 2007, St. Alban’s sent a team of youth and adult volunteers on a mission trip to Camp Coast Care and its Mission On The Bay Youth Program to help with the rebuilding efforts. 

The following is an excerpt from the trip: 

The trip from New Orleans to Bay St. Louis was quite interesting.  The image of damaged and deserted homes and businesses was surreal. One homeowner had written “HELP” on his roof, and we could only imagine what that family’s experience must

have been like. Another stark reminder of the devastation was the search and rescue markings on the homes — large red X’s with notations for the date the house was searched and the number of people found inside the house, both alive and dead.

Bay St. Louis provided more bleak pictures of devastation. We saw empty lots where homes once stood. There are some damaged houses in the area, but mostly we saw empty lots. The roads in the area are atrocious — the infrastructure is still recovering. Near our first job site we passed a house with a high-water mark painted on it, well above the first floor. This was more than a mile in from the coast. 

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International Outreach:   

•           Our Little Roses, Honduras: 

 In Honduras where the plight of abused and abandoned girls was once ignored, the ministry of Our Little Roses home has become an oasis of hope and opportunity for the girl child at risk. God has truly blessed this ministry shown in the transformed lives of once destitute girls. It began with a vision given to Doctor Diana Frade of hope with life-changing dimensions for physically and emotionally abused girls as well as orphans. 

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•           CrossLink International:  CrossLink International supplies medical mission teams, humanitarian aid organizations, free clinics and hospitals with medicines and supplies to reduce suffering among the world’s most needy. 

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•           Mission Work in Sudan: St. Alban's has supported the mission work in Sudan of the Rev. Lauren Stanley, the former associate rector at St. Alban's. 

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ST. ALBAN’S FINANCIAL CONTRIBUTIONS

 At its December 2006 meeting, the Vestry approved a budget of $25,200 for St. Alban’s outreach to our community, Virginia, and the world. The activities that the outreach committee’s 2007 budget supports are:

In addition to the $25,200 of the church’s general revenue budgeted for outreach, St. Albanites generously contribute countless volunteer hours, talents, and their treasure as our Christ-centered parish reaches out to the world around us.  For example, the St. Alban’s birthday fund supports the children of the Diocese of Renk in the Sudan. 

 Outreach Appeals

As the parish committee charged with the identification and organization of   opportunities for St. Alban’s to extend its ministry into the world, the Outreach Committee receives appeals and notices of opportunities from many sources. As in our own homes, organizations and individuals seeking help approach the church office and clergy with mailings, emails, and phone calls.

St. Alban’s supports many of these appeals in multiple ways through the parish budget ($25,200 this year), volunteers, and opportunities for contributions of donations and/or time. The opportunities are communicated through announcements during services, posters, the weekly bulletin and The Word.

After much prayer and discussion, the committee has has decided on the following policy for making appeals to parishioners through official parish channels. We will automatically communicate two types of appeals: 1) special projects requested by the Episcopal Church (e.g., Episcopal Relief and Development, United Thank Offering) and the Diocese of Virginia; and 2) special projects by organizations receiving Outreach funds in the current year; these organizations are already vetted by the Outreach Committee.

In addition, we encourage members of the parish family to present other opportunities to the Outreach Committee for possible communication to the congregation. These appeals will go through the same vetting process, using the same criteria that the committee uses in determining the distribution of budgeted funds. 

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