Virginia Episcopalian Magazine Winter 2013 Issue | Page 27

Multi-year Mission focus for St. Matthew’s Norm Hyde St. Matthew’s, Richmond has long viewed itself as a “sending church.” Mission is woven into the DNA of this parish. In fact a former rector, the Rev. Tad de Bordnave, founded Anglican Frontier Missions after serving at St. Matthew’s. But parish leaders were seeking to engage the entire congregation in mission in some form or another. In 2010, St. Matthew’s created a mission task force to seek a future direction for the parish. The goal of having every member of the parish serve in some mission activity came out of that eight-month study period, said Sue Rickman, chair of the Mission Committee. The first year of the mission plan involved training. Through special classes and a Lenten teaching series, every member of the parish attended at least one teaching on evangelism or apologetics. But finding a way to engage everyone in actual mission work was tougher. “Over the years we’ve put lots of mission trips and mission opportunities around Richmond on the table,” Rickman said. “But we wanted everyone to be engaged. Most of these activities only directly involved a few dozen of our members. Our congregation spans many generations, which presented quite a challenge in our committee’s goal to have everyone participate ‘hands-on’ in a mission activity.” The breakthrough idea came after months of discussion and even some discouragement, Rickman said. “That’s when we said ‘what if we took five, six or seven of the mission opportunities that we’ve been involved in over the years and brought them to the church itself, to carry out on a Mission Sunday after an abbreviated service?’” And that’s what the parish did. On Sunday, September 23, there was an abbreviated single service for the entire parish, featuring a baptism and Holy Eucharist. Then everyone rolled up their sleeves and began working on mission projects. Each member of St. Matthew’s chose one of the following projects to participate in: building table for CARITAS (Congregations Around Richmond Involved to Assure Shelter); making bag lunches for CARITAS clients; designing squares for Young Lives quilts; writing cards for missionaries and shut-ins; sewing new clothes for Ethiopian children; and assembling “Bags of Grace” (zip bags of snacks, water and toiletries with a Scripture verse for the homeless). Members of the parish also took turns praying in the chapel during the project time. The celebration concluded with everyone gathering together for lunch and the drawing of the winner of raffle for a quilt created by members of the parish, which generated $756 toward future mission work. “When we first started this mission committee two years ago, we thought we’d put a variety of mission opportunities out for everyone to get engaged,” said Rickman. “Parishioners got involved, but we didn’t see the response we’d hoped. By bringing it home to the church itself, it really caught fire.” (Above) Ann Shibut (left) and It also tied in neatly Laura Allin display some of the with a new foreign mission clothing made for Ethiopian opportunity for the parish. orphans at St. Matthew’s A mission team – including Mission Sunday. St. Matthew’s rector, the Rev. Chuck Alley, and five (Left) David Vachet sands other parishioners – visited one of the tables built for the Ethiopia in September CARITAS furniture ministry. to offer guidance and support installing an irrigation system. Former parishioner Mike Rogers and his wife Amy founded an organization called Langano Harvest Foundation. The Rogers felt called to foreign mission work several years ago and spent two years in the Langano community in Ethiopia. The foundation works to bring modern agricultural practices and clean water to this povertystricken area. You can learn more about the foundation by going to langanoharvest.org. “Not only were we able to engage our entire parish, but we’ve found a new foreign mission focus for our parish in the past 24 months,” Rickman said. “Our goal is to continue bringing these mission opportunities back to the parish a few at a time. And we’ll have another Mission Sunday next year for our annual St. Matthew’s Day celebration in September.” t Winter 2013 / Virginia Episcopalian 25