DURING September, the Parish Life Committee will publicize, through poster displays and on this Internet site, information about the many programs supported by Parish Life benevolence funds. The Committee budget of $5700 for 1998 has supported nineteen programs thus far this year with donations ranging from $50 to $1000. These donations are entirely distinct from those of the Stewardship Committee. Of the nineteen programs, fourteen of them are designated benevolences which are supported each year.
THE Parish Life Committee will conclude the occasion of Social Ministry Month by unveiling Saint Mark's Social Ministry Project. After several months of research, the Parish Life Committee is pleased to present projects for the Saint Mark's congregation to support through financial and volunteer assistance. The school-based project consists of three integrated components that could have significant impact with even a modest investment of time and money. There is also a project to support Gay and Lesbian Youth. A formal presentation of these projects by representatives of the Greater Homewood Interfaith Alliance, Dallas Nicholas Elementary School, Tressler Lutheran Services, and The Gay and Lesbian Community Center of Baltimore is scheduled during the after-service coffee hour on September 27th.
The AIDS Interfaith Residential Services (AIRS) provides housing and a continuum of care to enhance the quality of life for low-income persons and families with HIV / AIDS. AIRS operates the Don Miller House Program (two five-bedroom homes) for individuals with end-stage AIDS. Each resident receives a private room, 24-hour personal care, meals, help with activities of daily living, transportation and recreation. AIRS also operates the Family Program, which helps parents and their children with HIV / AIDS to remain together in the community in a stable home environment.
The Augustana Lutheran Church Youth Program provides a ministry to city youth. Its Baltimore Summer Program serves 1,000 children and has inspired spin-off efforts to provide year-round activities: before and after school activities, basketball league, choir, arts and crafts, recreation, Bible school and tutoring.
The Augsburg Lutheran Home provides a continuum of care serving the elderly, particularly our Luthern brothers and sisters through its independent living units, adult day care, assisted living, nursing care, and Alzheimer units.
The Central Maryland Ecumenical Council serves as the channel for cooperation and unity of the Christian community in Baltimore City and neighbooring counties through ecumenical dialogue, collaboration, worship and information, and referral. The Council works on housing issues, handgun abuse, legislative advocacy, summer day-camp programs, education, domestic violence, Christmas Gifts Project, and choral concerts.
Charles North Community Association is the neighbohood association for the residential and commercial area surrounding Saint Mark's. Its boundaries include The Fallsway, Howard Street, Twenty-second Street, and Trenton Street. Its membership includes home owners, business owners, and tenents.
The Community of Saint Dysmasis a congregation of the ELCA in the Deleware and Maryland Synod that ministers to those in prison. Saint Dysmas provides a word and sacrament ministry to inmates at three correctional institutions in the Maryland Correctional System. A men's medium/minimum security unit in Jessup, a women's maximum/minimum security unit in Jessup, and a men's maximum security unit in Hagerstown. This ministry guides its members along the path of spiritual growth that leads to transformation of their lives and new commitments of faith that someday may enable them to begin a new life outside the prison system.
The Greater Homewood Interfaith Alliance (HIA) ia a partnership of churches and service organizations within the Greater homewood area. HIA has developed a project to serve four elementary schools with students who often need extra attention. These schools are Barclay at Barclay and Twenty-ninth Streets, Margaret Brent at Twenty-Sixth and Saint Paul Streets, Dallas Nicholas at Calvert and Twenty-first Streets, and Mildred Monroe at Guilford Avenue and Lanvale Street.
The Interfaith Action for Racial Justice promotes understanding and tolerance among people of diverse backgrounds and strives to end racism and ethnic prejudice by fostering dialogue, creating community, and engaging in action for justice. Interfaith Action for Racial Juctice works toward increasing inter-racial and inter-religious understanding by paring twenty-four religious congregations from many cultures and faiths across racial lines to build relationships and cooperate in social action.
The Lutheran Campus Ministry is a ministry of the ELCA that works to help people in academic settings discover and fullful their vocation in Jesus Christ. Although its primary focus is on a ministry with students, a campus ministry also serves administrators, faculty and staff. The Chruch has more than 155 pastors and lay professionals serving campusses nationwide. The Lutheran university ministry in Baltimore provides evangelism and outreach to students through personal phone calls and visits, the use of e-mail, The Connection newsletter and three peer ministers.
Lutherans Concerned the Christian ministry affirming God's love for Lesbian and Gay people by helping them reconcile their spirituality and sexuality in an uplifting way. In 1984 Lutherans Concerned of North America started the Reconciled In Christ program to recognise the Lutheran congregations that welcome Lesbian and Gay believers. Saint Mark's is the only Reconciled In Christ Lutheran congregation in the metropolitan Baltimore area.
The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg prepares leaders for the Lutheran Church by equipping persons for professional service, preparing them to address the gospel of Jesus Christ to the mission opportunities and challenges of today. It serves as a center of reflection and research training and study, worship and practice for the Lutheran Church.
Manna House offers asistance and support to the homeless, poor and needy of Baltimore, with services contributing to their independence and stability. Manna House operates a soup kitchen each Monday through Friday. The Transitional housing Program provides three families with apartment and broad-based support while individual family members work on their education and job training. The Thrift Shop collects and makes available low-cost clothing to members of the community.
The Maryland Food Bank gathers excess and donated food and grocery products from the food industry and the public and distributes these products to community food providers such as food kitchens, food pantries and emergency shelters. Maryland Food bank has two distribution centers, a 55,000 square foot warehouse in baltimore and a 10,000 square foot warehouse in Salisbury.
The Maryland Food Committee works in the forefront of the fight against hunger by providing food for people in need, helping those in need to help themselves, and by working for long-term solutions to prevent hunger in Maryland. The Maryland Food Committee provides meals for more than 75,000 people in need every month through food and equipment grants to more than 140 soup kitchens and food pantries.
The National Lutheran Home is a full-service, highly regulated and highly specialized comprehensive care facility for the elderly. The campus, located in Rockville, Maryland, consists of a 300-bed main facility and the 129-unit Independent Living Program.
The Shepherd's Clinic is a non-profit, inner-city health clinic providing primary health care to adults and children who are without health insurance. The medical staff provides the full range of primary care, laboratory, and prescription services. Volunteer doctors, nurses, pharmacists, neighborhood residents, and patients support the clinic.
Sisters Together and Reaching is a Christian based colunteer education and support program, developed to provide spiritual and emotional support to HIV infected sisters and their families. The program provides emergency financial assistance for food, medication, rent, utilities, and bus tokens. Additionally, it provides companion services with visitation for HIV women confined to their homes, the hospital, or hospice; and HIV education in churches and schools, and information on HIV prevention to agencies and individuals.
Saint Ambrose Housing Aid Center provides a full continuum of housing-related aid to Baltimore's home buyers and homeowners. Its programs include counceling of first-time home buyers, default mortgage counceling, legal service counceling, home sharing matching of homeowners with those seeking affordable housing, and renovation then renting or reselling of vacant housing.
Tressler Lutheran Services is a professional health and social service agancy affiliated with the ELCA and a partner in ministry with ELCA's Allegheny, Delaware-Maryland, Lower Susquehanna and Upper Susquehanna Synods. Among its programs are adoption services, crisis intervention for at-risk adloescents, employment training and in-home services for the elderly and disabled.