The Christ Church Outreach Committee offers a wide variety of opportunities to spread God’s love through ministries that help people outside of our parish. We work as a team with our clergy and vestry to involve the whole parish in:
- accepting all in need as children of God.
- achieving a Christ-like standard of compassionate giving in the community, diocese, state, nation and around the world.
- applying our resources to making the greatest difference in the lives of those we seek to benefit.
Prison Ministry
Christ Church provides volunteers and funds for several prison ministries.
Yoke Fellows provides regular visitation to local prisoners. Yoke Fellow visitors see between 40 to 100 prisoners a week.
Angel Tree — Parish members give Christmas gifts to more than 80 prisoners’ children each year through the Angel Tree Program.
Camp Hope — An annual camp held at Camp Bob at Kanuga every summer in July for 60–70 youth each of whom has a parent who is incarcerated. Christ Church volunteers do the administration and also attend to support the youth as adult volunteers. Parishioners support the campers financially in the spring by contributing to scholarships. Additional volunteers to help are always welcomed! Terry Brubaker terrytb49@gmail.com or 252-514-9550. Learn more about our Camp Hope ministry by watching our 2019 video.
Due to COVID-19, we are unable to host an in-person Camp Hope in 2020. We are, however, having a virtual camping experience beginning Monday, July 13. Click the links below for more information and daily activities.
Camp LeJeune Brig — Prison Visitation and Support encourages volunteers to visit prisoners monthly. The volunteers act as good listeners to support the prisoners in their diverse needs.
Community Volunteering
Our parish actively supports local community outreach programs including:
Merci Clinic
Merci Clinic serves the health needs of uninsured low-income people. The Clinic has a full-time Executive Director, an on-site Pharmacy with a part-time pharmacist, and over 200 volunteers, including doctors, nurses, lab techs, interpreters, social workers, interviewers and helpers.
RCS – Religious Community Services
Christ Church is one of 50 area churches that have joined forces to feed the hungry, dress those without clothes, shelter the homeless and help shelter guests find work. In 2004, 44 members of Christ Church volunteered regularly at the Soup Kitchen, Emergency Relief Center, Homeless Shelter, Crop Gardens.
Crop Walk
On the first Sunday of October each year, Christ Church supports this international hunger relief effort.
Pumpkin Patch
A month-long sale of pumpkins in the churchyard, the pumpkins are supplied by Pumpkin Patch Fundraisers, which leases 2,000 acres in New Mexico from Navajo Agricultural Products Industry, the Navajo Nation’s agribusiness. The company and the tribe have been working together for 15 years. All profits from the Christ Church Pumpkin Patch go to local outreach, including Interfaith Refugee Ministries and Religious Community Services. In 2009 we made approximately $3,000.00 in profit with all going to local outreach.
The Haiti Fund, Inc. is an ecumenical group that administers self-development efforts in Haiti. For example, they have provided literacy training for 400 adults and supported 2 schools with a total enrollment of 550. The Fund also builds cisterns to provide clean water, plants trees to reforest in an effort to control erosion and to produce cash crops, constructs field fish ponds for red tilapia, and provides a rural credit revolving loan fund for 700 participants.
Diocesan Outreach Programs
Some of the most significant outreach done by Christ Church is accomplished through programs sponsored by our Diocese of East Carolina.
Episcopal Farmworker Ministry at Newton Grove
EFM responds to the physical, educational, emotional and spiritual needs of farm workers and their families, including workers in over 30 migrant camps in Eastern North Carolina.
Interfaith Refugee Ministry
IRM, in affiliation with Episcopal Migration Ministries, New York, has been resettling refugees from around the world since 1992. The U.S. Department of State provides an initial stipend for each refugee. IRM works with parishes to help newly arrived refugees become self-sufficient within four months of arrival. IRM also participates in several grant programs that may offer additional resources to refugees for up to five years.
Episcopal Hispanic Ministries
EHM provides a variety of services including translation, ESL classes, child care scholarships, outreach to seafood workers and migrant camps, immigration services, emergency relief, community events, clothes closet, and information and referral services. Based in Washington, NC, it serves 8 counties.
Trinity Center
The Diocesan retreat center at Salter Path NC is a spiritual oasis for individuals and groups seeking renewal, learning, prayer, and Christian fellowship, hosting 40,000 guests per year and providing food, lodging, and meeting space to 300+ contractual events annually. Groups using the center include the Diocesan committees, Episcopal parishes and those of other denominations, non-profit and educational organizations. Trinity Center operates Camp Trinity (650 children in the summer), the Sound and Sea environmental program (8500 NC school children annually), and hosts 12 weeks of Elderhostel residential programs. Trinity Center program also oversees Pelican Retreat House.
For more information, contact the Rev. Cortney Dale.
