TimesLeader.com

Episcopal churches get social grants

Money helps local churches to get more involved in community outreach.

By Steve Mocarsky smocarsky@timesleader.com
Staff Writer

Three area Episcopal churches – two in Wilkes-Barre and one in Scranton – are among six in Northeastern Pennsylvania that will receive social outreach grants totaling nearly $100,000.

This distribution by the Diocese of Bethlehem – the Episcopal Church in 14 counties of eastern and northeastern Pennsylvania – marks the first of five years of grant awards for local social ministry projects that will be made from $1.1 million in New Hope campaign funds.

The largest award – $40,000 – will go to Good Shepherd Church on Washington Avenue in Scranton toward the establishment of a men’s shelter.

The multi-year plan, for which $200,000 will be awarded over five years, includes preparing for use of the undercroft of the church as a emergency shelter on winter nights and on occasions when families in the community are displaced from their homes.

The shelter project is an expansion of the Seasons of Love program that serves healthcare needs of the homeless and working poor, said Canon Bill Lewellis, diocese spokesman.

On a visit to Good Shepherd on Sunday, Bishop Paul V. Marshall told the parishioners it was their vision for the creative use of their facilities that was the cornerstone of his many talks to raise money for the Northeastern Pennsylvania aspect of the New Hope campaign.

“What you have chosen to be and do has touched me and others very deeply. At every level in the diocese, people are cheering you on. You have taken seriously the truth that lay people are responsible for the life of their parish. You have chosen to be more focused on mission than survival,” Marshall told them.

Other local award recipients include St. Clement’s/St. Peter’s Church on Hanover Street in Wilkes-Barre, which will receive $30,000 toward start-up costs for a day care center to serve low- and middle-income families, and St. Stephen’s Church on South Franklin Street in Wilkes-Barre, which will receive $10,000 to expand its clothing/thrift store.

The Rev. William S. Marshall Jr., rector at St. Clement’s/St. Peter’s, said the parish will hire personnel for the center as soon as the state completes an inspection and issues a license. The center will have a 20-child capacity, and he hopes it will attract families from the community and Geisinger South Wilkes-Barre employees. He noted the center is just around the corner from the medical facility.