Outreach Ministries at St Luke’s

Please call the church office at (919) 286-2273, or email us if you need more information or the names and numbers of contact persons for each of these activities.

Contact persons please note:  Most of this is taken from the Directory of Parish Ministries and Activities of several years ago, but edited to remove your names and phone numbers, which should probably not be on the net. - Jan.   PS - a lot of it has been updated in March, 2006.

• Outreach Committee: St. Luke’s Parish is committed to ministering to those outside of our immediate family. Most of our efforts are classified under the heading of Outreach, with many volunteers working on or through sub-committees of the Outreach Committee.

  Initially the main purposes of the Outreach Committee was to decide how St. Luke’s would disburse the funds raised at our annual Fall Festival as well as the part of the St. Luke’s budget earmarked for Outreach. The Outreach Committee has recently broadened its scope in order to more directly support those organizations and efforts in which St. Luke’s, and its parishioners, are involved. The Outreach Committee is to be comprised of representatives of each of the following missions. To learn more about or to become active any of the following please contact the representative.
  
  St Luke's is involved directly in the following organizations:

• Durham Congregations in Action (DCIA): Our representative attends monthly luncheon meetings of this organization, which consists of fifty-seven Christian and non-Christian congregations. DCIA collectively addresses issues in our community such as gun violence, housing, and education. St. Luke’s also provides financial support to DCIA.
• Interfaith Hospitality Network (IHN): IHN is an interdenominational ministry of 11 area churches that provides temporary room, board, and social and vocational services to families who are working to find permanent housing and suitable employment. Generally, a family signs up for three months, and host churches host them for one-week increments.  The host church may have a support church to assist them in their ministry.  Currently, St. Luke’s is a support congregation to Westminster Presbyterian Church.  We assist by caring for the families two or three days during the stay at Westminster. The St. Luke’s coordinator prepares a schedule in which parishioners may sign up to host evening meals, stay overnight at the church with the families, prepare an evening meal, provide breakfast and lunch foods, or drive the families to the IHN day facility, jobs, or school. Not only does this program allow the family participants to save money for rental and utility deposits, it also gives them an opportunity to network and make job contacts. The program also allows St. Lukers to come face-to-face with some of the people we seek to serve. The IHN Committee is always looking at ways to involve more volunteers, to refresh and reinvigorate current volunteers, and to ensure the safety and security of all involved.
• Urban Ministries of Durham: Urban Ministries is a non-profit corporation that operates a number of ministries, including the Shelter for Hope, Durham’s main Community emergency shelter, and the Community Kitchen. St Luke's members volunteer in the Community Kitchen, provide monthly casseroles, and photographic support when requested.  St. Luke’s financially supports Urban Ministries of Durham.
• Sister Churches: The Sister Churches program was established in 1999 between St. Luke’s and St. Titus of Durham and Christ Church, Arusha, Tanzania in the Diocese of Mt. Kilimanjaro. The three churches agreed to: serve God’s People; share with each other congregational and individual experiences, lives and dreams and to maintain a continuity of exchange and visits in order to carry over the agreement to future generations. As a result, several St. Luke’s members have visited Arusha.
• Habitat for Humanity of Durham: St. Luke’s is actively involved with the Durham County Habitat for Humanity. The five Durham Episcopal Churches have sponsored five Habitat houses, providing funding and volunteers for their construction.  We are hoping to begin house #6 sometime in 2006.  Various members of St. Luke’s serve on Habitat Committees as well as being a part of the “Geezers”, a group of retired folks who meet to work each Thursday and Friday morning on construction of Habitat homes.  St. Luke’s also provides lunch for the workers when they have “Blitz” projects.
• Bone Marrow Dinner: On the first Thursday of each month, St. Luker’s provide a “homemade” dinner for families at Duke Pediatric Bone Marrow Unit. Parishioners contribute entrees, side dishes, desserts, and drinks, and serve as hosts by delivering and setting up the food and visiting with the guests while they enjoy their meal.
• Belize Mission Trip: St. Luke’s has sponsored an annual Adult Mission Trip to Belize since 2002. The Belize teams have worked on constructing homes, school library/computer rooms and building churches for the Diocese of Belize.  The February 2006 trip went to Mango Creek to help complete St. Michael’s Church.  Funding for the “Bricks and Mortar” portion of the 2006 trip was provided by a poinsettia sale in November, generous donations from the parish and outreach committee and a two grants, one from the Diocese Global Mission Committee and one from St. Luke’s Foundation in Salisbury NC.  Each year the Team takes down school supplies and library books for the schools in the Diocese.  Click here for the group's blog from the 2006 trip, with pictures.
• CROP Walk: St. Lukers have been active in the CROP Walk since it started in Durham twenty years ago. Participants ask friends and co-workers to sponsor them and the money raised goes to fight hunger in Durham and around the world. Twenty-five percent of the funds earned stay in the Durham area. The 2006 CROP Walk will be Sunday, March 19th.
• HEIFER Ark Program: St. Luke’s committed to the HEIFER Ark Program after a very successful Vacation Bible School program in 2002 using the HEIFER International curriculum. A donation of $5000 pays for the Ark, which includes a multitude of animals and training for recipients. We successfully completed our Ark commitment in December 2005.  The excess funds have started our second Ark commitment.  Gift cards for birthdays, anniversaries and holidays are available year round from the church office.

In addition to the work of the Outreach Committee,  St. Luke's reaches out to the community in several other ways:

• Theological Education Support:  Each year we donate 1% of our budget to one of the eleven Episcopal Seminaries in the U.S. that train and form new deacons and priests for the Church. This year, the Vestry voted to make this contribution to Virginia Theological Seminary, the alma mater of some of our clergy.
• Thompson Children’s Home: The Episcopal Church Women are active supporters of this Episcopal facility in Charlotte. Thompson provides shelter, treatment and education to emotionally disturbed children.
• Duke Episcopal Center: The Episcopal Center at Duke University is a campus ministry of the Diocese of North Carolina. The Advisory Board of the Episcopal Center is composed of parish representatives from the Durham/Hillsborough and Chapel Hill area.  One of our members is a Lay Minister to the Episcopal Student Fellowship. Each parish board representative, in addition to offering advice and direction to the Chaplain, also recruits volunteers from each parish to assist with campus hospitality events. If you are interested in volunteering with the Episcopal Center, please contact the church.
• St. Luke’s School Director Discretionary Fund: The director of St. Luke’s Episcopal School uses this fund at her discretion as she becomes aware of emergency tuition needs.

St. Luke's raises money for our outreach ministries in a number of different ways:

• St. Luke’s Spring Fling:  Our major Spring Fund Raiser, is held each year to raise funds for outreach and to encourage community interaction with those in the surrounding neighborhoods.  Many parishioners contribute their time, talent and goods to make this family friendly event an outreach success.
• St. Luke’s Silent Auction: (formerly part of the Fall Festival, many of whose other activities have now been moved to the Spring Fling) is another opportunity to raise funds for outreach.  Held each year in the Fall, it is an opportunity for participants to bid on donated items such as artwork, vacation homes, sporting events, crafts, jewelry, house gifts, gift certificates from local restaurants, and other businesses.  Refreshments and childcare are part of this event.
• Alternative Gift Fair: St. Luke’s 14th Annual Alternative Gift Fair is held each December; in 2006 it will be December 3rd and 10th. The Alternative Gift Fair allows parishioners and the Durham community to provide hope and possibilities to folks who have little hope, few resources, but abundant faith that God will provide. The Fair provides opportunities to purchase gift cards from various organizations and fair-trade items from One World Market. In 2005 we were able to send $6800 to organizations that provide hope and opportunity here and abroad. Volunteers are needed for planning and staffing.
• Undesignated Offerings: The undesignated offerings from each year’s Christmas and Easter services are dedicated to outreach.
• Special Appeals: When special needs arise from events such as the Asian tsunami or the Gulf Coast hurricanes, a special appeal for contributions is made to the congregation.  Funds raised through these appeals are directed to those affected by the crises.