Local
Refugee Immigration Ministries 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) that 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.
Partakers Prison Ministry is a faith-based, non-profit organization, Partakers is committed to advancing restorative justice, rehabilitation, and the healing transformation of both prisoners and society. Partakers works to reduce prisoner recidivism through education and civic engagement. At St. James's, the prison ministry group consists of five parishioners, meets monthly, writes to our "adopted" prisoner at MCI Norfolk consistently, visits in pairs once a month, attends three trainings a year, writes a column for the Bell and hopes in the future to broaden it's scope to include adult and child education programs around the prison issue. They also hope to provide spiritual support to Saint James parishioner's more directly affected by US prison policy. The fees associated with the prisoner "adoption" cover the cost of his college books and class texts as well as a minimal fee associated with the training and support that Partakers provides to the small group.
Gulf Coast Partnership is a mission of the Diocese of MA and focused on the Church of Our Redeemer in Biloxi, MS, which was largely (physically) destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. The Partnership is currently funding Jane Bearden, a Priest in Residence, sent by our Diocese, to be a "person on the ground," to both serve on the staff of the church and "as our presence in the Gulf Coast region and to guide and support our mission-focused activities."
AfterWorks is an outreach ministry of St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Central Sq. It meets the urgent need of immigrant and low-income families for an affordable after-school program, providing homework tutoring, special activities and field trips. They also provide full time care during school vacations. 91% of the students are minorities and ¼ are immigrants from Haiti.
The Outdoor Church is an outdoor ministry to homeless men and women in Cambridge. It offers prayer services and pastoral assistance in all seasons and all weather in order to be accessible to men and women who, because of shame or embarrassment, hostility or illness, cannot or will not enter conventional churches. It takes the church to those who cannot or will not reach it on their own. The Outdoor Church also provides sandwiches, socks, and social service connections to the homeless. It is non-denominational and ecumenical. Clergy, staff and interns are Methodist, Congregational, Roman Catholic, Baptist and Episcopalian, among other denominations.
International
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Chris and Trish Morck in Ecuador: The Morcks, St. James's parishioners, are serving as Episcopal missionaries for three years in the Diocese of Central Ecuador. They serve 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."
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 has three parts: the Elementary School, Trade School, and Music School.
The Jubilee AIDS Ministry provides support to programs in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda that support people who are suffering from the effects of the AIDS epidemic. The funds from St. James's have been directed to the Maramba Deanery Program in the Diocese of Tanga, Tanzania. Through this program, based in Anglican parishes, the Jubilee Fund has helped to establish a network of community health workers to reach out to people in a vast rural area who have had almost no access to medical care. In 2008, the fund will help develop a mobile medical clinic, which will facilitate better access to HIV testing and treatment, and provide home based care for people with AIDS and other illnesses.
Peter Johnson, Missionary in Honduras has ministered for 7 years in Las Mangas, Honduras, doing a wide variety of work. Peter has taught extensively at a local Christian high school and at village primary schools, specifically in English and Music, and has worked in a mentoring capacity with the youth. He facilitates extracurricular activities such as a library program, individual tutoring, health education, and a teen Bible study. Peter has also contributed his insight and service to the small community cooperative bank that funds family home and business projects. He expects to use the funds to help provide health care, food, books and bibles, and construction expenses for the use of the people in his area.
Bishop Sargent School for the Mentally Retarded, Church of South India
The Sargent School's aim is to bring the mentally retarded hope and a "near normal" life by providing them special education and training them to move into the societal mainstream, having equal rights, proper human identity dignity and identity as equal children of God. It provides basic self-care, academic, social and vocational skills, and extends rehab services to place them in society. It provides residential care for 100 and day care for 30, most of whom are the poorest of the poor.