Catch up, act up was part of Bishop George Packard's challenge to the church as he addressed a
The Rt. Rev. George Packard describes
crowd of 420 Episcopal City Mission supporters gathered for the organization's annual fundraising dinner at Boston University on June 4.
Activism is true worship when it is based in a shared social covenant upholding the dignity of every human being, Packard said in a keynote speech that drew on his involvement with Occupy Wall Street--including his trespassing arrest in December 2011 for going over a fence onto Trinity Church, Wall Street property.
"These times call us to reach beyond ourselves and catch up with the Spirit at work," Packard, the retired bishop suffragan of the Episcopal Church's armed services and federal ministries, said.
Much of the evening was devoted to celebrating the work of Episcopal City Mission (ECM) over the past year, with grant recipients and exhibits from community organizations on hand to demonstrate both the focus and reach of ECM's programs, whose funding areas range from affordable housing and immigrants' and worker's rights to faith-based and poverty-related organizing efforts.
Spontaneous pledging from the floor raised $25,000 to furnish single room occupancy apartments for women at Worcester House in Boston's Back Bay.
ECM's program expenses and grants totaled just more than $700,000 in 2012, including grants made through its Burgess Urban Fund and through its diocesan and parish partnerships, according to the annual report distributed at the event.
Between dinner and dessert, a spirited innovation in this year's program raised $25,000 in spontaneous pledges from the floor toward a $40,000 goal to furnish new single room occupancy apartments for women at Worcester House in Boston's Back Bay.
ECM also honored two individuals and one church for their justice efforts: The Rev. Anne Fowler,
ECM award recipients (from left): The Rev. Anne C. Fowler; The Rev. Julie Carson and The Rev. Lorraine Mills-Curran of St. Andrew's Church, Framingham; Tina Chery
the just-retired rector of St. John's Church in Jamaica Plain, for her decades-long leadership in marriage equality and pro-choice causes; Tina Chery, Founder and President of the Louis D. Brown Peace Institute in Boston, for her violence-prevention work; and St. Andrew's Church in Framingham, for its organizing efforts and outreach to the local Brazilian immigrant community.
Bishop M. Thomas Shaw, SSJE, making one of his first public appearances since his May 17 brain tumor surgery, received a standing ovation and commended ECM for its advocacy work on economic justice issues and its grant programs, saying they have intensified over the past few years and "drawn our whole diocese into the heart of the Gospel" by seeking to bring people on society's margins into its center.
--Tracy J. Sukraw
See more photos here.