Ministries & Outreach

West Tennesseans support Episcopal Relief and Development (ERD), a collective response of Episcopalians to help people in need around the world. In the U.S. ERD provides emergency assistance. Overseas, ERD concentrates programs in the areas of Food Security and Primary Health as well as disaster response with a focus on ongoing emergency relief work and on long-term development and rehabilitation. For information on ERD, visit the national website at http://www.er-d.org.

Diocesan MDG grants

What can one congregation do to further the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals? The diocese will give your church the financial support to find out. In order to foster new and expanded MDG initiatives by local congregations, and to encourage diocesan-wide involvement in the essential, gospel-based work of eliminating extreme poverty in the developing world, The Diocese of West Tennessee has allocated $2,000 of the money budgeted for the MDGs to a new grant program. Diocesan churches may now apply for a matching grant of up to $400 in addition to their own investment of $800 for MDG-related projects. Both new projects and continuing efforts are eligible.
MDG grant programs in the dioceses of Spokane, Minnesota and Southern Ohio have enabled local churches to support medical missions, provide vitamins for school children, contribute to clean water projects, fight preventable, treatable diseases such as HIV/AIDS and malaria and participate in many other similar projects. For more information, contact Evelyn Piety(epiety [at] comcast [dot] net), Chair of the West Tennessee Global Reconciliation Committee. Visit www.er-d.org/MDGs for more information about the Millennium Development Goals.

Read Diocesan ERD Coordinator Betty Johnson's update on the rebuilding efforts on the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina. The update is a follow up to her article in the July edition of Church News.

Support Episcopal Relief and Development

You can support ERD by:

• Making an individual contribution to ERD
• Assisting with a parish-wide collection effort for ERD
• Volunteering as an ERD parish representative in West Tennessee
• Purchasing Bishop's Blend Coffee, premium line of Certified Fair Trade, organic, and shade-grown coffees from Central America and Indonesia that is available for sale at the Episcopal Bookshop
• Organizing a parish mission trip to work in another country