Please sign up to serve at The Branch of Nashville on October 12! See below for details.

WHAT'S HAPPENED RECENTLY?

Parishioner Jill Altom held a meeting this past Sunday to share more about Crowded Table Tennessee, a ministry to equip churches to provide practical support for Davidson county foster families and their caseworkers. This support includes meals, grocery runs, and yard care. TN ranks lowest in the nation when it comes to foster home transition rate. Families that are supported are more like 90% more likely to continue fostering. Executive Director Adam DeVries provides St. B's with his story behind founding Crowded Table here and more details about supporting foster families here. If you would like to learn more, contact Jill Altom. 

Recently our Mission & Outreach Committee made a discretionary grant to Fountain of Hope Ministries (Jinja, Uganda). You are invited by parishioners Cindy and Jim Judge to meet the Director of Fountain of Hope Ministries, Robert Sityo, at an informal reception at the Rectory on Monday night, October 7 at 7pm. During COVID, Fountain of Hope Ministries started a medical ministry in churches that now treat more than 350 people a month. Contact Cindy with any questions! 

The St. B's Justice Ministries is part of the local Coalition of Churches for Racial Justice, which is inviting interested persons to attend, "A Special Evening with Dr. Jemar Tisby & the Rev. Jim Wallis." This in-person conversation will cover how the teachings of Jesus speak to the heart of today's political, spiritual, and moral issues. This event will be held on Thursday, October 24, 6:30p.m. at Woodmont Hills Church at 3710 Franklin Pike, Nashville 37204. The event is free to the public, but registration is required.

The Mission & Outreach Committee is beginning to recruit its new class of incoming members. The M&O Committee determines how a substantial portion of St. B's Love in Action funds are spent, maintains relationships with our mission and outreach partners, and engages our parish in volunteering in our community. M&O meets 5-7 times a year and its members often serve alongside our parishioners at the Branch, ShowerUp, and other organizations. We seek a diversity of ages and tenures at St. B's. Please pray on this opportunity! Contact Chair Tom Mahan for more information or to express interest.

We have listed many new volunteer opportunities with St. B's partners on our website!  You can also join us for our regular volunteer opportunities below! 

October: We serve at The Branch of Nashville, a food distribution and language center in Antioch, on Saturday, Oct. 12, 9:30 a.m. - 12:00 pm. You can sign up here. Please fill out their volunteer form here if you have not done so before. 

November: We serve at ShowerUp, a mobile shower site that assists people experiencing homelessness, on November 10, 2024 at 1:30 - 3:30 p.m. Sign up here! We have two new slots for sandwich-making at home, which are perfect for families! (Please know that we are working hard with ShowerUp to ensure that there are not volunteer redundancies when we serve.) 

WHO ARE OUR MISSION & OUTREACH PARTNERS?

During 2024 we are highlighting mission partners each month in this email. The Mission & Outreach Committee gives funds, provides volunteers, and prays for our partners. M&O is a Vestry Committee. The full list of M&O partners for 2024 can be found on our website.

Room in the Inn is well-known at St. B's for its Winter Shelter program. During the winter of 2023-24, with the support of almost 200 congregations. including St. B's, and 7,000 volunteers, Room in the Inn provided over 31,000 warm beds during the coldest months. St. B's financial support helps fund RITI’s Hope University at its downtown campus, which offers guests access to shower and laundry facilities, a safe place to store essential documents, a mailing address for receiving important mail, assistance filling out government and job applications, art classes, and on-site job training.  Sign-ups for Room in the Inn will open in October.

In Tennessee there are over 9,200 children in foster care, but many fewer foster parents than are needed. Exacerbating the instability for children, one in four children entering foster care was re-entering after a prior episode in the system. Parental substance use and neglect were the two most frequent
circumstances associated with a child's removal from
home as of 2021. Read more here.

The Most Rev. Michael Curry is presiding bishop and primate of The Episcopal Church and he preached to the Diocese at St. George's Episcopal Church on Saturday, September 7. His nine-year term is ending on October 31, and the animating vision and message of his ministry has been Jesus's model of radical, sacrificial love. Watch a video of the sermon here.