Christmas and Giving

Each year since 1997 Episcopal Charities of Long Island has awarded grants to parishes, archdeaconries, and parish-based programs to further their mission in outreach to their communities.

This year we are very pleased to have awarded eight grants totaling $49,368 to a diverse group of outreach programs and services. These programs are in ministry to children and youth, seniors, to homeless families and will support children and youth education and formation, arts and worship, feeding and fellowship, and shelter.

Your gifts have supported a vacation bible school at St. Mary’s Church which was coordinated with other local faith communities, so that the youngest within the wider Hampton Bays community were cared for and educated and formed in a loving environment. Your gifts also are supporting a new Pan-a- Praise steel band program at St. Augustine’s and the Biko Performing Arts Program at St. Elizabeth’s Friary, both in Brooklyn, teaching music, team work, and responsibility. These young men and women will have a new way to participate in praise and worship, while being taught in a stable and supportive environment by their elders.

The Senior Lunch Programs at Church of the Resurrection and All Saints’ Church, both in Richmond Hill, are serving seniors in their community with more than lunch once a month. These programs offer an opportunity to gather in fellowship and enjoy one another’s company, being served in love by their community. The Wellness Program at St. Stephen and St. Martin’s Church in Brooklyn offers food, fellowship, and various activities for seniors promoting good health of body, mind, and spirit once a week.

We are also pleased to be supporting Family Promise of Nassau County, a new church-based family shelter network within the Archdeaconry of Nassau. We have learned that over 50% of those who are homeless are children, who are suffering along with their parents. This new shelter initiative will help offer stability to these families in crisis and the support network necessary to help them as they seek permanent housing.

Why is this article about Christmas and Giving?

Because it is at Christmas that we celebrate the Incarnation. This is the time that we celebrate God’s Gift of Jesus, God coming to us in the form of a human. This is the time that we remember that with this Gift, God knows what it means to be human. God knows our joys and sorrows, our bliss and our suffering. God knows what it means to be a child, what it means to be hungry and without shelter. And Jesus reminds us that through the Incarnation that whenever we serve others, we are serving Him.

Yours gifts in 2008 gave gifts of food and fellowship for seniors; of formation, support and love for our children and youth; of hope for those who are hungry, homeless and jobless; of peace and joy for all.

A child was able to participate in a day of urban day camp or vacation Bible school for a gift of $35 ($175 per week), and a day and night at Camp DeWolfe for $75 ($525 per week). $100 provided a one-time crisis intervention for a child or youth through ECS. Approximately $150 supported one Saturday Senior Lunch. Support for job development counseling sessions for someone who was out of work was only $500—a tiny investment to bring someone back to the dignity of full employment. $1000 allowed Camp DeWolfe to take campers on a day trip by bus and Episcopal Community Services to offer an eight-week support group. $2000 supported the tuition for one student chaplain at Episcopal Health Services. These are just some of the many ways your gifts have served Christ throughout this past year.

We hope these gifts also brought peace and joy and hope and love to you as you gave them. And we hope that you will again this year give gifts of Peace, Joy, Hope, and Love to those who need it most through your Christmas gifts to Episcopal Charities of Long Island.

Please give generously to Episcopal Charities of Long Island 36 Cathedral Avenue, P.O. Box 510, Garden City, NY 11530.

To use a credit card, please click here or call 516 248-4800, ext. 19 and speak with Mrs. Nancy Kennelly, Administrative Assistant.

When you make a donation in memory of or in honor of someone, their name will be recorded in the Book of Remembrance and an acknowledgement sent to them.