Last sunday offering |
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At St. Andrew's the loose plate offerings on the last Sunday of each month are given to an organization chosen by our Outreach Committee. Donations for the Last Sunday Offering can also be sent directly to the office.
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For January 2021 our offering will go to The Friendly Kitchen in Concord.
The only soup kitchen in Concord, The Friendly Kitchen has provided meals for the hungry in a warm, caring environment since 1980. Anyone is welcome. Volunteers plan menus, prepare and cook the meals, serve the food and wash the dishes. Much of the food is donated by volunteers, businesses, and community food programs. St. Andrew’s volunteers usually serve on the last Friday of every other month. Meals are provided seven days a week: three times a day Monday through Friday; twice a day on the weekends. With the COVID pandemic, the meals could no longer be served inside so the Kitchen switched to take-out meals. Approximately 600-700 meals a week are served. As always, your donation to the Last Sunday Offering will be matched by our anonymous donors. |
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Our February Last Sunday Outreach Offering is The Episcopal Church in Navajoland. The pandemic situation on the Reservation continues to be dire. Whether experiencing an extension of the first wave of COVID-19 or the arrival of a second, the Diné are once again in almost continual lockdown. It is our indigenous clergy who are regularly braving the virus to deliver food, water and hygiene products far across the 27,000 square mile tri-state area. In a peculiar twist of fate, COVID-19 has turned their dedicated ministry into a form of evangelism, as grateful recipients ask about The Episcopal Church and why it is caring for so many "non-members." Bishop Dave Bailey jokes that the clergy will need re-training to conduct in-person worship when the pandemic is over!
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The hard reality is no laughing matter, however. As we shelter in our homes here in New Hampshire, most of us have heat, light and clean water. We can turn up the thermostat on bitter cold days and wash our hands frequently. Those are options not open to many Navajo. The President of the Navajo Nation had hoped to use half of the money allotted under the CARES Act to help fund water infrastructure, but Congress decreed that all funds had to be spent by December 31, 2020. Infrastructure isn't built that fast. And, furthermore, the Navajo had to go to court to get their portion of the funds released.
The in-person visits which St. Andrew's had hoped - and planned - to make to Navajoland have yet to happen. But, the in-person communication continues, by email, telephone and Zoom calls. We learn, first hand, of their challenges, and we are in each others' daily prayers. A very tangible prayer is financial support of the February 28th, 2021 Last Sunday Outreach Offering, again anonymously matched, to assist our Navajo brothers and sisters. Please respond prayerfully and generously.
The in-person visits which St. Andrew's had hoped - and planned - to make to Navajoland have yet to happen. But, the in-person communication continues, by email, telephone and Zoom calls. We learn, first hand, of their challenges, and we are in each others' daily prayers. A very tangible prayer is financial support of the February 28th, 2021 Last Sunday Outreach Offering, again anonymously matched, to assist our Navajo brothers and sisters. Please respond prayerfully and generously.
The Last Sunday Outreach Offering program was started to increases our awareness of the needs of our neighbors at home and abroad. Previous recipients have included:
- Kearsarge Regional Ecumenical Ministries (KREM)
- Habitat for Humanity of the Kearsarge /Sunapee Area
- Friendly Kitchen (Concord)
- El Hogar in Honduras
- Holy Land Institute for the Deaf in Jordan
- Diocese of the Rio Grande for work with refugees
- Haiti Medical Missions - Clinique Saint Esprit,
- Sowers of the Kingdom in the Dominican Republic
- Episcopal Church in Navajoland, New Mexico