Missions Committee

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 Mission 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 of total parish pledge income each year. The Mission Committee has tried to choose ministries that reflect the concerns of all parishioners.

Contact Missions Committee chair

How Missions are Chosen

Each Fall the Mission 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

The Vestry gives final approval to missions selections.

Missions Funded in 2010

Kenya Self-Help Project—Girls Empowerment:  This comprehensive girls empowerment and AIDS prevention program is a model for strengthening self esteem and elevating the social role of women.  The program trains teachers and organizes school-based Girls Clubs.  During weekly meetings, girls learn decision-making skills and receive accurate reproductive health and AIDS education.  To reduce absences, girls receive Dignity Kits containing underwear and locally-made reusable sanitary napkins.  The program also supports a training program in sustainable agriculture and builds gender-sensitive latrines for girls at partner schools.  The purpose of this program is to raise girls' self esteem by keeping them in school and giving them the tools for self empowerment.

Ministries of Aides International, Inc. Haiti:  MAII currently assists 5,000 impoverished Haitian children and seeks to expand to help many more in need.  They have constructed and operate orphanages, run a vocational school for the teens and adults in the city of Port-Margot, and operate kindergarten, primary and secondary schools.  Additionally they provide a wide range of material aid including food, shelter, medicine, clothing, school supplies, uniforms, toys, etc.  MAII runs annual health fairs and is in the process of building a modest medical center in Port-Margot and a small pharmacy to help alleviate the burden of health care concerns in these communities.  MAII has operated since 1981 and is a501 (c) (3) non-profit affiliated with Grace Tabernacle Church of God.

Jodi Mikalachki –Jodi is a St. James’s parishioner serving in Burundi as a volunteer with the Mennonite Central Committee, on a three-year agreement that ends in April 2011. She is working with a small NGO called the Christian Union for the Education and Development of the Underprivileged (UCEDD), which serves Batwa (or pygmies), a small minority group that suffers a great deal from discrimination and lack of access to education, health care, land, and employment. One of UCEDD's major projects is a school in a rural area. Jodi is teaching in the 7th Grade of the new secondary school, which began this fall to serve the first graduates of the Hope Primary School founded by UCEDD in 2001. She is also working on capacity-building with UCEDD, and on advocacy for Batwa in the region. Eventually Jodi will begin working on local community development projects for Batwa and other vulnerable families. Read More.

Ruth and Jim Padilla DeBorst –The DeBorsts are St. James’s parishioners in Costa Rica. They work primarily with the Institute for the Promotion of Christian Higher Education (IAPCHE) and with Seeds of New Creation in El Salvador.  IAPCHE is a learning community of students, professors, and institutions in Latin America that are contextualizing a Kingdom worldview in the area of higher education and in their professions and are intentionally connected to their local churches for the transformation of their societies. Seeds of New Creation seeks to nurture a ministry home, Casa Semillas, as a community of hospitality and mutual learning in service of the Christian community and its mission in El Salvador, establish and strengthen bonds, ministry networks and opportunities of collaboration, and design, promote and carry out the training of transformational leaders whose service responds to a biblical perspective of life and the world. Read more

Reverend Lucia Sirtoli–Rev. Sirtoli is a Brazilian Episcopal priest working in the city of Erechim, Santa Caterina, in the Southwestern Diocese in Brazil. Rev. Lucia and her husband Rev. Luis are both priests who serve three different parishes.  In addition, Rev. Lucia is working with adolescents in the very poor town of Progresso, meeting with them to reflect on themes related to the realities of their lives and also illuminated by the Bible.  The aim is for these adolescents to make commitments in their lives and to resolve to transform their realities beginning with small changes in their homes and in themselves.  Our contribution would allow them to attend Diocesan functions, help provide for meeting space and supplies, and allow the ministry to expand to young children between 5 and 9 years old.

Outdoor Church–The Outdoor Church/Cambridge is a ministry to homeless men and women in the Harvard and Porter Square areas. The core of the mission is the outdoor prayer service held at 9:00 AM in Porter Square and 1:00 PM on the Cambridge Common every Sunday, regardless of season or weather. Outdoor church volunteers join people who are homeless and housed in ecumenical worship and pastoral care. Following the service, lay and ordained ministers carry sandwiches, pastry, coffee, juice and socks around the squares, where a meal and communion are offered.

Chris and Trish Morck—The Morcks, St. James’s parishioners, are serving as Episcopal  missionaries in the Diocese of Central Ecuador.  They are serving alongside the Bishop, helping to foster reconciliation and communication in a struggling diocese.  They also foster ecumenism and collaboration by working with the Latin American Council of Churches.  They write, “What we seek through mission is life together that promotes relationships built on companionship, dialogue, and partnership. . .  Through mission we can better understand and love each other and more fully embrace the life and needs of the world in Jesus.” Read More

St. James’s Prison Ministry-- At  St. James’s, the prison ministry group meets monthly, writes to our “adopted” prisoner at MCI Norfolk   consistently, visits in pairs once a month, attends trainings, and hopes in the future to broaden it’s scope to include film series around the prison issue.  At their recent meeting with the Deputy Commissioner for Classification, Programs and Reentry, it was announced that the College Behind Bars program will be expanded from a small group of facilities to all facilities and that the course offerings will increase dramatically because exam proctors will now be allowed into the prisons.  In the past students in prison were unable to take courses requiring proctored exams.  In addition, 2010 looks like a good year for the passage of CORI and minimum mandatory sentencing reform so advocacy will be timely.  Read More

Refugee Immigration Ministries—RIM  is an interfaith, community based ministry originally founded to minister to people detained by the INS and aid asylees and asylum seekers. It has 8 clusters (including 1 in Cambridge) which provide support for vulnerable immigrant populations including at-risk youth.  They train volunteer and lay chaplains to visit INS detention centers, have a special program for African women, offer computer training, trauma support, case management, and reduced fee legal support.

The Holy Trinity School-- was founded to educate the many needy children who live near the Episcopal Cathedral in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.  It is run by the Society of St. Margaret, Boston, under the guidance of the Bishop of Haiti and had three parts:  the Elementary School, Trade School, and Music School.  Unfortunately it was completely destroyed in the Haiti earthquake.  We are currently waiting to hear how our funds might best be used.

2009 Missions Committee Annual Report

2009 saw continued intense mission activity by St. James’s parishioners. Jodi Mikalachki continues to serve in Burundi with the Mennonite Central Committee, working at the Hope School of Nyangungu.  The Morcks continue with their work in Ecuador, where Chris was recently ordained to the diaconate.  We were blessed to have a visit from the Morcks this year.  Maureen Capillo returned to Cambridge from her mission work in Ecuador and is contemplating continued work there.  Mary Caulfield plans to do further work around Christian education in Brazil in the Spring.  The wonderful Padilla DeBorst family moved to Costa Rica to work with the Institute for the Promotion of Christian Higher Education  and with Seeds of New Creation in El Salvador.  Ruth was a major speaker at the recent Urbana Missions Conference.
 
The Prison ministry, supported by the missions fund, held a successful and well-attended film series.

One of the founding Missions Committee members, the Rev. Ian Douglas, Professor of Missiology, was called to be Bishop of Connecticut.  We will miss him in so many ways and pray for him and his family.

In addition to providing educational opportunities and supporting our missionaries in a variety of ways, the Missions Committee administers the Missions Fund. For the past twenty-seven years our parish has supported dedicated people and organizations who, in the name of Christ, work in such areas as theological education, community development, housing, medical care, and church planting.   We believe that support for and involvement in missions is our response to God's grace and love for us.  God calls us to care for the spiritual, physical, and social needs of others and to join in the restoration of all people to God's self.

The Mission Fund is allocated a percentage  (5.5%) of the parish’s total overall pledge income.  
 In 2009 we funded the following ministries:

  • Jodi Mikalachki: St. James’s Missionary in Burundi
  • Ruth and Jim Padilla DeBorst, St. James’s Missionaries in Costa Rica
  • Reverend Lucia Sirtoli, Episcopal Priest in Brazil
  • Refugee Immigration Ministries
  • Holy Trinity School in Haiti
  • The Outdoor Church
  • Home Based Card for People Living with HIV/AIDS (Diocese of Tanga)
  • Gulf Coast Partnership
  • Partakers Prison Ministry
  • Chris and Trish Morck:  St. James’s missionaries in Ecuador

You can read much more about the missions we support on the bulletin board in the parish hall or on the missions page of the parish web page:  http://www.stjames-cambridge.org/missions. Several of our longer-term missionaries also have their own blogs available from the St. James’s website. As always, we encourage parishioners who want to undertake missions activities to speak with us about support.  We also welcome members who would like to serve on the Committee.

Members:
Nancy McArdle (chair)
Anne Shumway
John Gay
Jennifer Schley
Mary Caulfield
Yvette Verdieu
Bonnie and Torey Rubrecht