SOCIAL ACTION

When Stewardship and CPAC/Beth-El Center come together you hear the echo of Christ’s words from Matthew’s gospel.  “When I was hungry you gave me to eat, when I was thirsty you gave me to drink.”  A social outreach ministry, Beth-El not only provides soup kitchen services and shelter to the needy in our community, but it also offers us the chance to reach out in love to others, the true meaning of Stewardship.

32 men, women and children call Beth-El Center home.  The soup kitchen offers lunch-time meals and some weekend support to anyone in need.  Construction will begin soon on 5 supportive housing units across the street from the Center.

How can you share your love and your gifts through this vital ministry?

If you are over 18, volunteer!  The Center needs help in the soup kitchen (food prep, cooking, serving and clean-up) and at the shelter (clerical support, data entry, answering the phone and the door).

Whatever your age, we encourage you to support fundraising efforts like the recent Walk for the Homeless and the holiday concert that’s coming up December 1.

Be a driver!  Help deliver the non-perishable food items, cleaning supplies and paper goods that the parish donates so generously.

Pray for the homeless Beth-El serves and for the stewards who serve God through Beth-El.  Ask for more workers for this small but important “vineyard.”

Adopt-A-Mom

Stewards in this very special ministry share their love, and their time and talent, by “adopting” a young mother-to-be who, despite the pressures of family or society, has decided to keep her baby.  By providing practical assistance -- baby clothes, equipment and supplies -- we support the young woman’s decision and applaud her courage.

Adopt-A-Mom has been adopting moms and babies for over ten years.  We work through Saint Agnes Parish’s “Helping Hands for Hurting Hearts” program and from parishioner referrals.  Adopt-A-Mom stewards meet during the year to plan the “showers” for our moms-to-be, writing and cutting out gift tags and posting them in the church for parishioner donations.  Once we’ve collected the gifts, brightly wrapped packages of pink and blue and yellow and green, we host a baby shower in the Parish Center.  Over the years we’ve gotten to meet some of the babies, early arrivals who didn’t want to miss the excitement of a party!

The ministry has grown in the past two years to include the parish’s Confirmation candidates.  Working with typical energy and enthusiasm the young people have sponsored several “moms” on their own.

Adopt-A-Mom also coordinates an ongoing collection of baby clothes, supplies and furniture for “Helping Hands,” for BirthRight in Hamden and Derby and for our own parishioners in need.  We accept maternity clothes for Our Lady of Victory Clothes Closet in West Haven.  Group members sort and deliver the donations to these organizations.  Adopt-A-Mom is grateful for the ongoing generosity and support of our parishioners.

The Giving Tree

The Giving Tree is a true ministry of love.  The tree appears in the church in the weeks leading up to Christmas, resplendent with fragile paper ornaments that are the wish lists of people in need.  Generous parishioners remove the ornaments and return them attached to the gifts they have purchased.  As the ornaments are removed the tree becomes more beautiful, its bare branches giving eloquent expression to the kindness of our parish family.

A ministry that began in 1989, the Giving Tree has always been close to the heart of what it means to be a Stewardship parish.  Thanks to the good-hearted people of Saint Ann’s we are able to support 17-18 community organizations as well as homebound parishioners and families in need.  Last year we delivered 945 gifts to the needy.

Giving Tree stewards serve in a variety of ways.  Some create the ornaments, others sort and process the gifts as they are returned, and some don their Santa hats to help with deliveries.

Healing Wraps Ministry

People who are undergoing chemotherapy are often lonely and almost always cold.  When we provide a shoulder wrap, created in love, we are providing warmth for body, mind and spirit.  With one simple gift we are sharing our love, concern and prayers with those who face a devastating illness.

Our Healing Wrap stewards will deliver the wraps to anyone who is going through chemotherapy or radiation.  We have recently donated a basketful of wraps, accompanied by prayer cards, to the Oncology/Hematology Department at Milford Hospital. 

Please call the church office (874-0634 X11) if you know of someone – parishioner, family member, neighbor or friend -- who is undergoing chemotherapy or radiation and whose spirits would be lifted by the gift of a wrap.  All information is kept strictly confidential. 

Nursing Home Visits

Stewardship is about sharing, and nursing home visits provide a wonderful opportunity for you to share your time, your talent and the treasure of your presence with people confined to local nursing homes.

Bring the gift of song and the sunshine of your smile to those who may be ill, lonely or troubled.  With the right lyrics you can put them on Broadway, take them out to the ballgame or perhaps encourage a stroll down memory lane.

We make quarterly visits to Four Corners Rest Home, Golden Hill Health Care Center, West River Health Care Center and Milford Health Care Center.  We stay for about an hour, usually on a Saturday, a troupe of parishioners and friends of all ages.

The group is fun, flexible and welcoming.  Depending on the facility, we stroll the halls, stage single-room sing-a-longs, harmonize and sing a cappella.  Some of our most memorable visits have included dance and instrumental soloists.

We’d love to add new members to our “traveling troupe” – people who love to sing, dance, play an instrument.  Nursing home visits can be a family affair – the residents are always delighted to see children.

Come as you are and when you can.  No auditions or rehearsals required.  A recent Confirmation project visit was so well received we’re contemplating “teen performances.” Perhaps you’d like to come on board!

Parish Nurse Program

Nursing is a ministry that began, perhaps, with parenting, caring for the health needs of the family, soothing, comforting, helping to make things better.  Parish nursing is a ministry that, while still in its infancy, is a way to care for the health needs of the parish family.

Our Parish Nurse Program began with an emphasis on wellness.  Parish health care professionals share their time and talent at monthly blood pressure screenings after the 8:00 and 9:30 Sunday Masses on Coffee And weekends.  To date parish nurses have checked hundreds of blood pressures and have, in the process, established a wonderful rapport with the members of the parish family.  Sharing gifts through Stewardship truly strengthens the bonds of community!

We invite RN’s, LPN’s, paramedics, physicians, social workers and other allied health professionals to participate in this growing ministry.  With your help we can expand this marvelous ministry to include health education, blood drives, support groups, assistance in navigating the complexities of the health care system.

Relay for Life

Stewardship:  sharing our time, talent and treasure in the service of others.  We share our gifts and blessings with all of God’s family, within our parish community and beyond.

One beautiful example of Stewardship has been our parish’s participation in Relay for Life of Milford, a round-the-clock event held every September that raises funds to benefit the American Cancer Society’s “Race For The Cure.”

Hardly a parishioner has escaped cancer’s chilling touch.  Many have succumbed to this dreaded disease.  Many others have survived, thanks to prayer, to increased awareness and to the research that fundraising makes possible.

The Saint Ann parish family has been a part of Milford’s Relay since its inception in 2003. Teams of parishioners go to work in the spring, sponsoring a variety of innovative fundraisers during the weeks and months leading up to September’s Relay weekend. 

Parish participation continues to grow along with the realization that our efforts are important.  The money and the awareness we raise can make a difference in prevention and in treatment.

Rides To Mass

Rides to Mass is a simple, straightforward exercise in Stewardship.   There are parishioners who would love to come to Mass on the weekends but who cannot walk to the church and who do not drive.  Stewards in our Rides to Mass ministry bring these members of the parish family to Mass and then bring them home.

Talk about “giving someone a lift!”  Someone who was housebound can now be a part of our family meal, the celebration of the Eucharist.  Someone who might have felt isolated can now sing for joy in the presence of the Lord.

If you are available to “give someone a lift” to a weekend Mass, on a regular or an occasional basis, please consider signing on to this ministry of service.

Social Justice Ministry:  Two Feet for Change

Please help us test out a theory.  First, stand on one foot.  How long are you able to stand?  Next, stand on both feet.  How long are you able to stand?

You've just demonstrated the two feet of social action:

*  Charity or direct social services

*  Justice or social change

For many years, Saint Ann Parish has been involved primarily with one foot of social action --  charity or direct social services.  Many of our current social action ministries, like Beth-El Center dinners, Adopt-a-Mom, nursing home visits, Giving Tree and AmeriCares HomeFront, focus on direct service.  These important ministries help individuals meet their present needs.  Such ministries are vital and must continue while these needs exist.  By themselves, however, they cannot really solve long-term problems in our communities. 

Saint Ann’s formed a social justice ministry to begin to focus on the second foot of social action -- justice or social change.  Our principal concern to date has been education. We sponsored Break the Cycle of Poverty cyclists, Save Darfur education, Catholic Relief Services Work of Human Hands Sale/Fair Trade education.  Knowing how deeply poverty impacts the quality of life in areas around the world makes us better prepared to advocate for justice and peace.

The Social Justice ministry also provides an opportunity to receive and respond to "action alerts" on key social justice issues at both the State and the Federal level.  Such alerts suggest ways to take action on issues like poverty, hunger, homelessness, right to life, education, and aging.   

The goal of a Social Justice ministry, this second foot, is to effect social change in our communities so there is no more poverty, no more hunger, no more homelessness . . . and no more need for direct social services.