Diocesan News
St. Francis, Greenville, receives grant from UTO
St. Francis, Greenville, has received a grant from the United Thank Offering (UTO) Grant Committee in the amount of $15,000, which will be used to help pay the salary of a bilingual coordinator of an English as a Second Language (ESL) after school program that will target children in the Hispanic community.
There were 31 UTO grant applications submitted from Province IV. The UTO committee, during their recent granting session, was able to fund 21 of those grants for a total of $393,222.00. A grand total of 202 grant requests were received by the UTO committee for consideration, amounting to more than 8 million dollars. The committee funded 104 of those grants totaling $2,439,342.46.
The 2007 UTO grants booklet, detailing these grants, is now being prepared for publication and will be mailed to each Episcopal congregation in August. Grant application forms for 2008 will be available from the diocesan office in October. Grants are awarded to churches and organizations providing services that address human needs within the community. The end results of daily prayers and offerings of thanks collected from the UTO BLUE BOXES are truly astounding!
For more information, contact Clara Gillentine, UTO Diocesan Coordinator: gillentinelc803@aol.com, 803.796.3106.
Celebration of new ministry—
All invited!
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Community of Hope program offers lay pastoral care training in Upper SC
In the mid 1990s, St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital in Houston, Texas, began a program to train pastoral care workers for churches and institutions. Called the Community of Hope, this program is based upon Benedictine spirituality. Over a period of 14 Saturdays, candidates become part of a circle of prayer, concern, and worship as they receive training in various aspects of pastoral care. This Christian community continues after their commissioning as lay chaplains. In this “Circle of Hope” they share in complete confidentiality events from ministry in their own congregations in order to improve their abilities as caregivers, as well as to continue in regular worship together.
On April 22, 2007 Bishop Henderson commissioned the first Community of Hope class for our diocese in a service at St. John’s in Columbia. Planning is under way for the 2007-2008 class to begin in September 2007. Classes will be held at three different locations: in Columbia, Greenville, and Rock Hill.
For information
and application materials contact:
Columbia Group: Margaret Jennings Todd,
maggiejenn@aol.com;
Greenville Group: The Rev. Kathryn Tiede Hottinger, 864.271.8773 ex.155 or Peggy
Parham, 864.242.5403,
mkparham@charter.net;
Rock Hill Group: Jim Welsh,
jimwelsh_2000@yahoo.com),
Gene and Sarah Meyer, Meyere@asme.org.
Follow this
link to learn more.