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“We the church must seek to preserve and defend the sanctity and dignity of every human being in whom is reflected the image of Christ Himself. We cannot let them suffer alone.” These are words written in a Diocesan letter from Bishops Ogilby and Bartlett.

In living out our mission to focusing on hunger and housing, Saint Paul’s Outreach continues to work towards these very principles. In the past years, the economy has plummeted, leaving more in need than ever before. Job loss, inflating food prices, and unaffordable health insurance costs are just a few of the hardships our community brothers and sisters are facing. As a result, many organizations have noted that they are seeing more and more entire families turning to them for food, shelter and hope! This is heartbreaking.

Over the past year Saint Paul’s Outreach Committee has worked hard to contribute to improve the situation. We once again had the Advent Sale whereby some of our grant recipients sold or displayed items in the parish hall. Two wonderful outreach offshoots came directly from this day. Our own Leslie Hanlon is part of an organization called “No Name Artists”. They displayed some magnificent artwork and donated their proceeds to one of our selected organizations in Kensington. The second was a connection made by The Rotary Club of Chestnut Hill. As they displayed a table for the support of an orphanage in Guyana, they met a wonderful young woman at the next table who ended up going on a mission trip to the orphanage two months later! So you see, you just never know where Christ might be!

In December, we successfully offered a Christmas “Giving Tree” where more than 75 Saint Paul’s friends honored requests for items needed at the Face to Face shelter in Germantown. We were able to send many children’s toys for Christmas morning AND over 150 much needed personal toiletry bags for the adults who use the shower at the facility.

Moving on to January, outreach funded Martin Luther King Day of Service in two ways. Many of the younger members packed schoolbags for underprivileged while a more “experienced” team went directly to Face to Face to build needed cabinets. February found outreach hosting the IHN (Interfaith Hospitality Network) families in the crypt for an entire month. This involved many volunteers who made the guests feel as comfortable as possible in time of transition. March left us reviewing our grant applications. Once again, through the enormous success of the rummage sale, outreach granted $31,500 to 18 organizations living out our mission. In addition, as an ongoing commitment, we continue to promote the food collection and take it to the shelter on a regular basis.

Outreach has been fortunate to have full support from the vestry and has now been given an annual budget. We have used and will use this to fund our projects such as materials for MLK Day.

As final comment, I would like to make it clear that although these accomplishments cited are under “outreach”, they can only be attributed to the generosity and willingness to help from ALL of Saint Paul’s members. We, the Outreach Committee, are merely bridges between the needy and the need to help! Thank you all!