Missions & Social Concerns
Takes the Gospel out into the world and into the immediate community.
• Missionary Support • Soup Kitchen • CROP Walk • Outreach Budget Recommendations • Environmental Concerns • Peace & Justice Issues • Caribbean Companion
Shoreline Soup Kitchen
Soup Kitchens Garden
Volunteers from Grace Church and the community maintain a nearly 1/2 acre garden behind Grace Church, preparing the soil, planting, weeding, and harvesting throughout the early spring, summer and fall. Freshly harvested produce is delivered to five local food pantries (Old Saybrook, Westbrook, Clinton, Niantic and Old Lyme). In addition, teams of drivers pick up surplus produce from seven local farmers markets three times a week, June through October. In 2009 harvested and donated fresh produce totaled over 17,000 pounds. In 2010 harvested and donated fresh produce totaled over 37,700 pounds. To read more about the garden, click here. Photo by Bob Lorenz
Collection of Canned Goods and Staple Items
Grace Church collects canned goods and pantry items in the basket placed in the foyer of the parish hall. These items are taken to the collection site at the Congregational Church for distribution through the Shoreline Soup Kitchens.
Heat-n-Eat Program
Every week at Grace Episcopal Church and at First Church of Christ in Old Saybrook volunteers prepare meals that are frozen and then distributed at our pantries.
These heat-n-eat meals are freshly prepared, individually apportioned, and frozen in reheatable, bio-degradabel containers.
Many local restaurants donate food on a regular basis to supplement food purchased at the food bank and at various wholesalers. The volunteers plan delicious, nutritious, healthy meals from this food, and meet weekly to cook, seal, label and organize the take-out containers.
The heat-n-eat program began in 2002 to respond to the needs of those living in motels who had no kitchens. It has grown to serve others in need. Photo by Bob Lorenz
Community Meals Site for Thanksgiving and Christmas Dinners
Grace Church parishioners and volunteers from the Shoreline Soup Kitchens prepare and serve festive holiday meals. Both volunteers and guests eat together in this community meal once all of the guests have been served.
Financial Gifts and Office Space
Grace Church gives financially to the Shoreline Soup Kitchens (SSK) in a variety of ways, donating from the proceeds of concerts, fairs, Christmas and Easter offerings and other types of giving. Grace Church also supports the SSK by providing office space for SSK administrative use in the basement area of the church.
For information about volunteering at the Shoreline Soup Kitchens, click here.
Mission Scholarships
One of the ways that members of Grace Church have been reaching out is to provide scholarship assistance for young people in three different areas in Africa.
Orphan Scholarship Assistance in Uganda
African Team Ministries and Bishop Ernest Shalita have been working together through the Anglican Church to provide scholarship assistance for children who have been orphaned due to the AIDS epidemic in Uganda. Children who have lost one or both parents are taken in by relatives and friends of the family. Scholarships that provide tuition, clothing, books and food assist the families in caring for these young people.
Over the last three years, approximately fifteen parishioners at Grace Church have taken the names of these young people and are sending scholarship funds, approximately $120 per year, to assist these young people in the Anglican Church in Uganda. Bishop Shalita has been with us on two occasions in which he preached and shared with us information about this important ministry. These children are primarily elementary school and junior high school ages.
Scholarship Assistance for Students in Anglican Dioceses in Tanzania
Over the past three years, Grace Church parishioners have had the opportunity to assist deserving students recognized by the Bishops in two Anglican Dioceses in Tanzania. Working with the Bishops of the Diocese of Western Tanganyika and the Diocese of Tabora, several students have gone on to receive higher education in Tanzania because of the generosity of members of Grace Church.
One of these students, Greyson Samuel Nzize, was give a scholarship so that he could complete his college education and become certified as a teacher. He passed all of his examinations and is currently teaching in Tanzania at a private Anglican school. His course of study was two years.
A second student, Deborah Daniel, is currently studying at St. Philips Theological College in Tanzania. She is in the third of a four-year program to educate young people for ministry. Theological College in Tanzania is similar to entering seminary in our country. Deborah's Bishop is considering her for the ordained ministry once Tanzania allows women to become ordained to the priesthood. Deborah is a very deserving young woman in her mid-twenties who lost one of her parents several years ago. In seminary Deborah met a young man and became engaged. They were married in December of 2009. He is an ordained Priest serving in the Diocese of Tabora. With the full support of her Bishop and husband, Deborah continued on with her studies. She has approximately a year and a half until she completes the Diploma program into which she was accepted last year.
The third student, the Rev. Daudi Ndahana, studied in this country at one of our orthodox Episcopal seminaries, Nashotah House in Wisconsin. Daudi has graduated and returned to the Diocese of Western Tanganyika where he is a teacher of Pastoral Theology in the Bible College in Kasulu, Tanzania. This Bible College trains men and women for ministry, both lay and ordained, in the Diocese of Western Tanganyika. Daudi was ordained a priest several years ago, but needed additional education so that he could return to Tanzania and further his teaching ministry. Daudi received his Master of Theological Studies degree. His wife, Olivia, and their son, Frank, joined Daudi for the second and final year of his program at Nashotah House. In addition to being a teacher of Pastoral Theology at the Bible College, Daudi is in charge of Youth Ministry for the Diocese. He has a very full schedule in his ministry. Daudi continues to stay in touch and to express his appreciation for this scholarship. We will continue to watch what the Lord does in Daudi's and Olivia's life and ministry.
By far, this was the most ambitious -- and exciting -- scholarship assistance program we have undertaken. It took a lot of hard work for the particular scholarship to be completed, but God's hand of blessing was on every aspect of it. Through the efforts of several members of Grace Church and St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Brookfield, CT, scholarship funds were raised for Daudi by private donations at both of these parishes, a grant proposal to a small foundation, a scholarship at Nashotah House, and a gift from the Harvest Fair at Grace Church. The Ndahanas joined us at Grace Church in May of 2009, after Daudi's graduation. We had a wonderful celebration before the Ndahana family returned to Tanganyika to begin their new ministry assignments.
In each of these examples, Grace Church members have had the opportunity to assist these deserving young people to further their education and training. They will serve in Tanzania, through the Anglican Church, and work to make their country and young people stronger. It has been a joy to participate in these scholarship opportunities.
If you are interested in being involved in any of these scholarship assistance programs, please feel free to speak with the Rev. Ellendale Hoffman about your interest.
African Team Ministries (ATM)
Funds that are raised at the annual Harvest Fair in November are used to help the people of East Africa. Proceeds from the sale of jewelry, crafts, scarves and bags are used to provide relief, missions, evangelism education and medical assistance for adults and children in the Anglican Church.
Boy Scouts
Grace Church sponsors a local Boy Scout Troop, Troop 51, which is one of the largest scouting troops on the shoreline. Over the past years, a number of the scouts from Troop 51 have risen to the level of Eagle Scout, several from our own parish. Grace Church provides the space fro them to meet and are proud of this troop and their accomplishments. The scouts assist Grace Church with the annual cleanups, the watering of the Memorial Garden, and serving at coffee hours from time to time.
Youth and Family Services
Every year Grace Church hosts a Giving Tree in Merrill Hall. Tags are placed on the Christmas tree for parishioners to purchase gifts for local families in our community and congregation. In 2009 the Giving Tree reached out to 95 households and provided toys and gifts for 200 Old Saybrook children. Additionally the program supported 7 families and 15 children from our Grace Church families.
Recovery Community
Recovery groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous depend on the generous support of local churches as host sites for the various meetings for those in recovery from alcohol and substance abuse along with their families. For many years, Grace Church has allowed a Tuesday evening co-ed A.A. group and a Thursday evening women's A.A. group to meet in the undercroft of the church.
In 2008 Grace Church welcomed two additional groups, a Sunday afternoon A.A. group and, on Thursday evenings, another group called Families Anonymous, for family members or friends of those with mental health or substance abuse problems. Grace Church supports the men, women, and young people in recovery from addictions and are happy that our facilities can be used for such worthwhile programs. Though Grace Church does not charge rental fees for nonprofit groups, each of these groups gives the church a donation for utilities, along with their deep appreciation that the church has opened its doors to them.
Healthy Community/Healthy Youth
For the last ten years the Rev. Ellendale Hoffman has served on a town board committed to making Old Saybrook a healthy and safe place for its young people. Old Saybrook has received numerous national awards for this group's work. The group is a coalition of various members of the community: mental health organizations, schools, law enforcement, the estuary council, and churches.
All Souls Prayer Chapel
For approximately fifteen years this local Pentecostal congregation has used space at Grace Church for its ministry. On Wednesday evening a small group gathers for a time of intercessory prayer in one of the church school classrooms. On Sunday evening a small group gathers for worship in the church.
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