““For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.”
Matthew 7:35-36”

Mission Fund

We at St. James’s seek to share the Good News of Jesus and to serve others within our parish, in our local community, and, through our missions program, the larger community and “all nations.”  The Missions Fund was established to support dedicated people and organizations who, in the name of Christ, work in such areas as theological education, community development, housing, medical care, hunger issues, etc.  The Fund is allocated a fixed percentage (5.5%) of total parish pledge income each year.  The Missions Committee has tried to choose ministries that reflect the concerns of all parishioners.

How are Missions chosen?

Each fall, the Missions Committee asks for suggestions from the parish as to ministries to fund the following year.  We especially encourage recommendations of missions which:

  • have an existing connection with our  parishioners

  • are smaller ministries where our contribution can make an appreciable difference

  • allow us to maintain a balance between ministries with different emphases

  • are explicitly Christian (or sometimes inter- faith) in motivation

Missions funded in 2023

  • Abraco Negro (“Black Embrace”) is a program of the Episcopal-Anglican Church in Brazil designed to promote Afro-Centric theological dialogue.

  • Good Shepherd Mission, Ft. Defiance, AZ is one of nine Episcopal churches in the Navajoland Area Mission.

  • Lay Ministers Education in Lesotho supports training of Lay Education Ministers in mountain regions of the country.

  • Borderland Ministries of the Episcopal Diocese of the Rio Grande is located along 800 miles of the Texas and New Mexico borders, where hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers from Central America cross each year in order to escape the tragic and inhumane situation in their country of origin.

  • Community Health and Education for Rural Africa (CHERA):  Supporting the Kasese Community Health and Education Foundation in Uganda and working  to reduce the number of women who die in childbirth and to ensure that all children see their 5th birthday

  • Nuevo Amanecer, East Boston, MA is an initiative of the Lutheran Church that seeks to create a network of base communities among the largely Latino, immigrant community of East Boston.

  • Ruth and Jim Padilla DeBorst are St. James’s parishioners in Costa Rica, providing leadership in four areas: Casa Adobe intentional community, The Cohort of Missioners, The Center for Interdisciplinary Theological Studies, and The International Fellowship for Mission and Transformation.

  • The Outdoor Church—Cambridge is a ministry to homeless men and women in the Harvard and Porter Square areas. Learn More

  • Partakers—is a prison education program committed to advancing restorative justice, rehabilitation, and the transformation of both prisoners and society.

  • To read a more in-depth description of funded missions in 2023 click here.