You can make a difference in the world. Help homeless or formerly incarcerated persons overcome the many challenges they face in finding, getting and keeping employment.
The Blessing Way, a non-denominational, faith-based, social service organization in Providence, needs your help with "Operation Get Started" -- our jobs assistance program. Help unemployed homeless or formerly incarcerated persons who seek work to make a positive change in their lives.  Volunteer to work with one person for 4 months as a mentor and coach OR serve as a tutor for adults in our job readiness classes. Training and supervision are included in both volunteer positions. Our current volunteers come from various churches. This is also a great opportunity for college internships or field education.
For more information or application, please write or call:
Rev.  Dr. Joyce Penfield, Executive Director
Email:  blessingwayinfo@yahoo.com
Phone:  861-0441
Website:  www.theblessingway.org

 

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Choir Camp

for young singers grades 4-12

at the Barbara C. Harris Camp and Conference Center, Greenfield, N.H.

August 3-9, 2008

Our 16th summer!

In one short week of Choir Camp, strangers become friends and start to sing a shared song. Music and friendship bring young singers back year after year-over half of Choir Campers come back the next year.

We travel the world in a single week!

Choir Camp brings young singers in contact with music from around the globe and across the centuries, featuring Anglican chant, canticles and anthems from many traditions. Each day begins with Morning Prayer, while the week wraps up with a Festival Lessons and Carols service on Saturday morning. Young singers from parishes with large or small music programs are welcome. Scholarship funds are available.

Choir Camp is led by a volunteer staff of trained music professionals. While at camp, singers are also under the guidance of a well-trained camp staff focused on the needs of campers.

Choir Camp is a specialty camp program held at the Barbara C. Harris Camp and Conference Center, set among towering pines on beautiful Otter Lake in the scenic Monadnock region of southwest New Hampshire. Accredited by the American Camp Association, the facility is owned and operated by the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts and offers an active, fun and challenging program in a healthy and safe camp environment.

Every day:

Make church music come alive and learn about church music traditions.

Sing with friends.

Learn chant, canticles and anthems, ancient and new.

Have summer camp fun: swimming, arts and crafts, campfires, and more.

"It's like cramming a lifetime into a week," says a Choir Camper.

Join us!

TO REGISTER: Go to www.bchcenter.org.

Our volunteers are hard at work contacting people in their parish to encourage them to give to and support this wonderful work.  We ask that everyone in all our parishes will answer the call to help those in need. We have two goals - first, to raise $500,000; second, to have 100% participation in EACH of our 60  parishes. 

Campaign Update
As of May 26, 2008 - $323,707 of our $500,000 goal!
Parish Participation is now at 48%
We are so grateful to our donors and volunteers who are truly committed to and live by the Episcopal Charities Mission Statement.

MISSION STATEMENT
"In acknowledgement of the Gospel Imperative to feed, clothe, heal and visit, the Episcopal Charities Fund of Rhode Island assists ministries of the Diocese and charities of the wider Rhode Island community by raising and helping to provide funds, and in so doing, bringing hope, comfort and healing to Rhode Islanders in need."
Our mission began with a desire and sense of responsibility to help those in need. This tradition continues today. The Episcopal Charities Fund is committed to helping change the lives of Rhode Islanders who are in crisis and need. It provides funding for social service programs within the Rhode Island Community. Since its founding in 1952, Episcopal Charities has been a link between healers and those in need of healing.

In 2008, social service grants will be distributed to 105 agencies and programs throughout Rhode Island. Funds from Episcopal Charities assist battered women and abused children seeking a safe haven, with the education and counseling that will help them achieve a better life. Thousands will have food, heat, shelter, healthcare and other basic needs. With Episcopal Charities funds the elderly and terminally ill receive comfort and a sense of dignity through their last days. Those who suffer from drug addiction receive help toward recovery. Immigrants will be able to read and speak English. Children find fellowship and learn team-building skills at summer camps.

Join with others across our diocese to help Christ in healing the gaps, hurts, and brokenness in thousands of lives. YOU can be a BRIDGE between their aspirations and accomplishments!
Here's how you can help:
·    PRAY DAILY.
Pray daily for our sisters and brothers in their situations of adversity, misfortune, poverty, despair, or loss. Ask Jesus to lead your heart to a faithful, joyful, responsive and generous response.
·    GIVE GENEROUSLY.
Send your gift or pledge today through your parish representative or online at http://www.episcopalri.org/charities/  (web-site soon to be updated.)  You can give to honor someone who is special to you, someone who has done something nice for you, as a memorial remembrance, and anniversary or birthday.
·    ENCOURAGE FELLOW PARISHIONERS TO PARTICIPATE. 
If you have not supported Episcopal Charities before, consider being a NEW PLEDGER by joining with over 6,000 households across Rhode Island. 
·    BE JOYFUL AND THANKFUL!
Praise God for the healing work and ministries of Charities, for His blessings, miracles, and love that shine through our hands, our gifts, and our work together.

Any questions?  Contact the Episcopal Charities Office at 275 North Main Street, Providence, RI  02903, 274-4500, ext. 234 for Peggy and 233 for Jack.

YOUR EPISCOPAL CHARITIES DOLLARS AT WORK

IN-SIGHT is the only nonprofit in Rhode Island providing as array of comprehensive programs and services in productive living for people who are blind or visually impaired.  IN-SIGHT integrates a holistic philosophy that addresses the psychological as well as the physical challenges facing people with vision loss.  Specifically, they offer vision rehabilitation services for adults and children, computer training, a low vision clinic and a closed-circuit radio reading service.  Blindness does not distinguish among sex, age, ethnicity or religious preference and neither does IN-SIGHT.

These programs allow the blind and visually impaired to remain independent.  The classes teach people how to continue normal activities such as cooking, pouring a glass of water without spilling, writing and diabetes management; support services that provide group and individual counseling; volunteer services that furnish sighted guides and drivers as well as readers for tape recording services or in-home visits; a low vision clinic that supplies optical aids to enhance individuals' residual sight so they may be able to continue working, reading or watching TV; a unique closed-circuit radio information service that broadcasts readings from local newspapers, popular magazines and books; and a technology center that instructs people how to use a computer with assistive technology.

For more information, please contact:  Abby Colby Cooper, 43 Jefferson Blvd., Warwick, RI, 02888.

TOGETHER, we can help Rhode Islanders cross the bridge to a better life.

The film, "Traces of the Trade", will be shown at the Cathedral on Wednesday, June 11, at 7:30 pm.  In this film, producer/director Katrina Browne tells the story of her forefathers, the largest slave-trading family in US history.  Given the myth that the South is solely responsible for slavery, viewers will be surprised to learn that Browne's ancestors were Northerners.  This film follows Browne and nine fellow family members on a remarkable journey, made in 2001, that brought them face-to-face with the history and legacy of this hidden enterprise.  

Of interest to Rhode Islanders is the fact that from 1769 to 1820, DeWolf fathers, sons, and grandsons trafficked in human beings.  They sailed their ships from Bristol, Rhode Island, to West Africa with rum to trade for African men, women, and children.  Captives were taken to plantations that the DeWolf's owned in Cuba or were sold at such ports as Havana or Charleston.  Sugar and molasses were then brought from Cuba to the family-owned rum distilleries in Bristol,.  Over the generations, the family owned 47 ships that transported thousands of Africans across the Middle Passage into slavery.  They amassed an enomous fortune. By his death in 1827, James DeWolf had been a US senator and was reportedly the second richest man in America.  Another family member, James DeWolf Perry III, served as the Presaiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church from 1930-1937.  And

There will be much to learn and discuss with the showing of this film.  This special presentation will be hosted by Dain Perry, one of the family members who made the trip back through history to confront the family slave-trading legacy.  It is being sponsored by The Cathedral and the Social Justice Committee of the Diocese

Look for further announcementa.  If you have specific questions, please contact Dean Harry Krauss at the Cathedral or Deacon Ricky Brightman, Chair of the Social Justice Committee (deacon.ricky@stlukeseg.org).