Members of St. Mark’s see involvement in the community and the world as an important part of Christian life. The Outreach Committee meets regularly to discuss existing and new efforts to express our faith through involvement in the community and world. Contact Nancy Colman, chair, if you would like to be involved in the work of Outreach. Please download this form, fill it in and send it to us if you would like your organization would like to be supported by St. Mark’s. The following organizations are supported both by member involvement and direct gifts from the budget:

Passage Home brings together congregations and communities to strengthen and stabilize low wealth families by assisting families in transition, developing affordable housing, creating economic opportunities to build family self-sufficiency, and strengthening the spiritual well-being of the communities served. St. Mark’s has a task group that meets once a month to support the activities of Passage Home. St. Mark’s contacts are Terry Wall and Sara Stohler.

Teams deliver noon meals to people in need, on the fourth Monday of the month. It takes about one hour. Meals are ready for delivery at 11:15. If you need to use your lunch hour from work, you can come up until 12 noon. St. Mark’s contact is Jo Todd.

The Care Team works through the Alliance for AIDS Services-Carolina to give emotional, logistical, and spiritual service to an individual. It meets once a month. St. Mark’s contact is Sara Stohler.

An effort to nurture native plants, provide an example of web of life interactions, and hold up the Creation as sacred on a part of St Mark’s property. St. Mark’s contact is Eve Vitaglione.

The Environmental Stewardship Committee helps educate us about practical and systemic ways in which we can have a direct impact on improving our environment. Members of the Committee have helped host an Environmental Fair, films that educate us about important issues for this fragile earth our island home, and supported the planting of trees on church property. St. Mark's contact is Sara Stohler

Habitat for Humanity develops partnerships to build healthy and affordable homes with and for God’s people in need. About twice a year, St. Mark’s members join others in building a home in Wake County.

An AIDS orphan care, famine relief, and malaria prevention project in East Africa, Malawi Children’s Village receives support from congregational and individual gifts, as well as annual work visits. St. Mark’s contact is Eve Vitaglione.

Walnut Creek 2000 –

St. Mark's participates with St. Ambrose Episcopal Church and others in Partners for Environmental Justice, a project to clean up and create an Urban Wetland Park in Southeast Raleigh. St. Mark’s contact is Eve Vitaglione.

Members of St. Mark’s bring food each Sunday for the basket that is part of the Offering. That food goes to Wake Relief, an organization started by Christ Episcopal Church that provides emergency food on a short-term basis. Items in greatest need are peanut butter, tuna, canned vegetables and fruits, dry milk, macaroni and cheese, and cereals.

The following organizations have recently been supported by gifts from the St. Mark’s Outreach Budget:

Loaves & Fishes: Faith based program in Raleigh providing children at high risk of failure support and mentoring.

Episcopal Housing Ministry: Provides affordable housing and support services for low-income and homeless families in Wake County.

Food Bank of NC: A non-profit agency providing food items to the needy throughout North Carolina.

Episcopal Farmworker Ministry: A faith based effort to support the mostly Hispanic farmworker community of eastern North Carolina through programs dealing with health and education, as well as celebration of language and culture.

Amigos en Cristo: An outreach group from several local churches who work together to address the needs of our growing Hispanic/Latino community, including early learning activities for children of parents enrolled in ESL (English as a Second language) classes.

Community Partnership: Provides one-to-one peer support services to help persons with psychiatric disabilities transition from Dorothea Dix Hospital to more permanent community living.

FIGS: Filling in the Gaps of Wake County, Inc. provides prescription medications and supplies for the medically indigent of Wake County.

The Center for Volunteer Caregiving: An inter-denominational effort which provides volunteer support to elderly and disabled adults of Wake County, with the goal to maintain independence, dignity, and quality of life.

In addition to Direct Gifts, the Outreach Commission sponsors an alternative gift-giving program during the holiday season. Some of the agencies and individual programs which have benefited from this effort include

Episcopal Housing Ministry

Meals on Wheels

Episcopal Relief and Development

Urban Ministries

Malawi Children’s Fund

Loaves and Fishes

Alliance of Aids Services

Thomson Children’s Home

Habitat for Humanity

FIGS—Filling in the Gaps

Hope for Haiti

This list is not definitive. St. Mark’s parishioners are encouraged to give to any non-profit organization they feel moved to help at any time during the year. Simply make out to the check to St. Mark’s Episcopal Church and place the name of the recipient in the “memo” line.