The Sewanee Mission Team returned to Georgia yesterday afternoon, after a fun-filled and meaningful week working in the mountains of Tennessee. The group did yard work, painted shelves, built a chicken coop, walked the labyrinth, toured the prayer garden of the Sisters of St. Mary, went rappelling off a cliff and hiked along a river to a swimming hole! There was worship, reflection, and music each day, and our Saturday evening Eucharist took place at sunset on the edge of the bluff looking out into the valley. 

On Sunday morning the group attended worship at Otey Parish, where Deacon Betty Carpenter serves as the director of the Community Action Committee, the group which coordinated our travelers' work. The group also toured the Sewanee: University of the South, which is partly owned by the Diocese of Georgia.

The group included eight youth from seven different congregations in the Diocese, and three adults from three different congregations! The leaders thank everyone who supported the travelers on their mission and pilgrimage journey.

  

   

St. Patrick's, Albany, announces the addition of another partner in the work of building a new church building for Iglesia Espiritu Santo (the Church of the Holy Spirit) in Las Carreras. Grace Church, Charleston, SC, is one of the parishes in the Low Country that has remained with The Episcopal Church in South Carolina, and wanted to continue in its tradition of work with the Diocese of the Dominican Republic.  The Rev. Jay Weldon of St. Patrick's saw an opportunity for Grace to work together with its team in the Dominican Republic and helped them identify a role in the project.

A video on this project

 

If you are on Facebook or Instagram, you probably saw some Episcopal freinds sharing photos from church this week. The unsual photos which included such new creation as the "sermon selfie" was a part of the first ever Social Media Sunday. Carolyn Clement and Laura Catalano are two church social media administrators, who came up with the idea of announcing a Social Media Sunday for The Episcopal Church. (At left is pictured an acolyte from All Saints, Tybee Island in a photo shared as a part of social media Sunday.)

"It's just to get people and families comfortable with social media and to talk about the ways you can use it," Catalano told the Episcopal New Service (ENS) during a telephone interview from her suburban St. Louis home. Through the ENS article shared online, social media users were encouraged to use the hashtag #Episcopal so those sharing the joy of their church home can be found online alongside others.

"And we just wanted to invite the whole Episcopal Church to have a Social Media Sunday to connect with each other, to share something about church, about faith, and so we said, why not?" They began tweeting about it and inviting followers, created a Facebook event and "found every Episcopal national organization we could and posted on their Facebook walls and invited them."   

Besides being a fun day, Social Media Sunday "hopefully, will give us some kind of information about how many Episcopalians are out there, actively using social media to share their faith. It'll be interesting to see," Clement said. (The black and white photo is a "selfie" at St. Andrew's, Douglas.)

To see the church-wide results, visit https://www.rebelmouse.com/EpiscopalShare/ Some of the Diocese of Georgia photos are shared here and at the Diocesan Facebook Page.

Thanks to the Rev. Pat McCaughan, the ENS Correspondent whose article we quoted from above. 

The Rev. Tom Purdy is shown preaching at Christ Church Frederica and the Rev. Lee Lowery, Rector of St. Paul's Albany, is shown at the Monteagle Sunday School Assembly.

 The Rev. Jason Haddox' selfie with servers is from St. Augustine's, Augusta.

The photos above were taken during the Eucharists at St. Mark's Brunswick and St. Paul the Apostle Savannah.

 

On Trinity Sunday 2014, the Daughters of the King of the  Diocese instituted  the Mother Teresa Chapter at the Church of the Atonement, in Augusta.  Diocesan President Mary Dawson was joined by former Diocesan President Cindy Coward in presenting the Charter to the Vicar, the Rev. Dr. Kurt Miller.  They were joined by Rosie-Allen Noble, from Holy Comforter, Augusta;  who was  instrumental in forming and training the new Chapter. The chapter plans on participating in the Triennial Torch prayers in July and the Fall Convocation Assembly in November. 

The Order of the Daughters of the King (DOK) is a spiritual sisterhood of women dedicated to a life of Prayer, Service and Evangelism. Members of the DOK, both lay and ordained, are women who have made a commitment to Jesus as our Savior, and to follow Him as Lord of their lives. In the midst of their daily lives, Daughters find community and spiritual support in local chapters of three or more women. Chapters are formed in churches and are under the oversight of their congregation's clergy. 

More than 140 families got a helping hand on Saturday from volunteers at St. Paul's Albany and Second Harvest Food Bank of South Georgia. Even before 9 a.m., the official starting time of the food giveaway, cars were lined into the alley leading to the church from Jefferson Street. As the vehicles moved in a controlled, efficient fashion underneath the drive-through, stopping at a pre-determined point, church members loaded cardboard boxes filled with canned goods, bread, juices, pastries and simple treats.

"Jesus said, 'Feed my lambs,' and 'Whatever you do for the least among us, you do for me,' and that's what we're trying to do today," said Mollie Roberts, associate rector at St. Paul's.Roberts said Second Harvest, which has a food warehouse operation on Clark Avenue, recently received a grant of around $500 to distribute food to families in need and asked St. Paul's to help out.   

"We used to do a soup kitchen years ago," Roberts said, "But for a variety of reasons, that ended. We wanted to continue to feed people, so this is something we're trying out to see if it's something we'll continue."

According to Roberts, the food boxes would be distributed until 1 p.m. or "until the food is gone." Before receiving any food, the head of each household was asked to complete a simple form, Roberts said, providing information including the family's net income.

"But we're not screening," Roberts said. "We're just taking the form as it is."
Roberts said St. Paul's did no real advertising for the event, other than a little "word of mouth" and some signs on the church itself.

"Second Harvest said we wouldn't need to do any more than that," Roberts said, "and they were right." 

-Thanks to the Albany Herald for this article and the top two photos.

The congregation of King of Peace reports that their rector, the Rev. Al Crumpton, went on vacation and left the parish' kids "home alone". The cry went up "Party at King of Peace" when the youth took charge of the church.  They had a blast at their youth lock-in...homemade pizza, movies, finger-painting, dancing, games and other "kids gone wild" fun.  The youth leadership team made sure all evidence has been destroyed and the rector can come home now.  The angels are singing hymns again and looking like nothing happened.

  

Short term mission trips can be limited by what may be accomplished in a single week. Our Companion Diocese of the Dominican Republic works creatively to work around this common problem with unique partnerships. A recent example is the work on a playground structure at the Episcopal K-8 school in El Pedregal, Dominican Republic, completed by teams from Georgia and Nebraska working within the same month. The top photo (at right) shows the playground as the team from Christ Church Valdosta left it after a week of work during a June 7-14 mission trip, and the bottom shows the completed playground structure after a week of work by the youth mission team from Nebraska from June 23-30. By collaborating on the funding and construction on this project, both teams could participate from start to finish on a project that neither could have funded or constructed on its own. This collaboration was assisted by the mission team support office of the Diocese of the Dominican Republic and by the Dominican Development Group. 

The pilot program permitting a parent of a child who has completed Kindergarten through Second Grade proved successful for the parents taking part in the first session of our 3rd-5th grade summer Camp. A second opportunity to take part is coming up July 13-15. 

Moms or Dads who would enjoy coming to Summer Camp for a few days with one or two younger child are invited to take part in the program. Up to ten parents with one (or two) child(ren) each who has completed kindergarten through second grade, may register for the parent and child program. This new program gives young children an introduction to our summer camp at Honey Creek with the safety net of having a parent on hand.

The parent and child (or children) will stay in a lodge room with a private bath. Meals will be with the 3rd-5th grade campers in the dining hall. Some times will be available for the parent and child to take part together and moms or dads will also have a little downtime with their child busy in the summer camp program without them.

The dates for the second offering of this program are July 13-15. Cost from Sunday through Tuesday is $325 for the pair including 2 camp t-shirts, crafts and other program activities including all room and board. Interested parents should call our Camp Director, Elizabeth Burns at (912) 656-9905 or email her at eburns@gaepiscopal.org 

Pictured above are a Mom and daughter taking part in the first session of the pilot program and below are two happy campers at the St. Joseph and Mary Camp Session.

We want to share your Vacation Bible School or other camps with the Diocese in photo album collecting pictures of our kid-friendly catechesis taking place around the Diocese this summer. Send your congregation's photo to newsandevents@gaepiscopal.org.

The photos will be added to a VBS album and used at the diocesan website. You can visit this summer's VBS album online. Some of the photos will be shared here in From the Field. If you create a Facebook or other online album, you may also just send a link to that album to the address above we will copy a selection of photos to the diocesan album. (At right is the Creative Arts Camp at Christ Church Frederica.)    

The photos above are of the Creative Arts Camp at Christ Church Frederica and below are of their Vacation Bible School.