NEWS & STORIES

The second week of October is usually reserved for the annual Clergy Conference held at Beckwith each year. However, those clergy who were able decided to use the time this year to go support the two services of healing and commemoration in Panama City and Port St. Joe. Several clergy offered up an additional day to help build a Habitat for Humanity home for a single mom of three daughters, all of whom had been living in a FEMA trailer since Hurricane Michael swept away their

Ninety years ago, the heirs of Bishop C.M. Beckwith donated a 40 acre tract of land adjacent to Weeks Bay (near Fairhope, AL) to the Episcopal Church. Generations of young men and women have subsequently contributed their time, energy and fortune to turn this diamond in the rough into the beautiful Camp Beckwith facility we have today. Camp Beckwith has been alternatively described as a beautiful retreat, a spiritual sanctuary and as God’s front yard. Each is appropriate and

An annual event held in Mobile for a segment of the local population in need of various services, Project Homeless Connect (PHC) does exactly what it says: it connects the homeless with those who can meet their needs. The one-day event, held at the fairgrounds in west Mobile, this year on Friday, January 26, offered a wide variety of services, from medical checkups to haircuts to photo-identification cards. The event is organized by Housing First, Inc., a Mobile non-profit, b

A glimpse of the devastation in Marathon as a result of Hurricane Irma - view more images on the slideshow below. As the hurricane season draws to an end, for us in the Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast, we can thank God that we avoided major damage from a storm this year. However, we are prayerfully aware of the many people in the country that have suffered enormously. Many parishes have reached out to our brothers and sisters in need. As Christians near Gulf Coast waters, m

A number of years ago I was charged with developing and implementing a healthcare mission in Bondeau, Haiti. I was so excited. For years I had been traveling to Haiti, a tag-along with groups involved in the post-earthquake rebuilding of the Episcopal hospital in Leogane – Hopital Ste. Croix. I had become frustrated with the politics of the project and yearned to get out into the rural communities where there was no hospital – no medical care of any sort. I wanted to “do” som

After prayerful consideration of the needs of its surrounding community, the parishioners of Holy Cross recently opened a weekly food pantry to provide staple items and more to those who live nearby. The long-term vision will also include education, advocacy and increasing awareness of issues concerning those in poverty in our area. Mrs. Howard Johnson, head of this new ministry, said of the inaugural effort of August 2nd, “We supplied food to over twenty-five families, servi

This September we want to invite you to join us in a special celebration in honor of the life of Julia Chester Emery and her work with the United Thank Offering. This September, Julia would have celebrated her 165th birthday. She is best known for the 40 years of her life that she gave in leadership and dedication to promoting the spiritual discipline of gratitude and for tirelessly supporting innovative mission and ministry. For this reason, we want to invite you to spend Se

August 29th always brings with it painful memories and a feeling deep in my soul that is hard to describe. Although 12 years have passed since Hurricane Katrina the memories are still fresh and especially poignant with the devastation in Texas and Louisiana from Harvey. St. Patrick's in Long Beach, Mississippi where I was the rector was completely washed away by the storm, but the church remained. As you know, the church is the people, the body of Christ and while we were sla

During a recent camp session, the Holy Spirit Thrift Shop in Gulf Shores, Alabama, presented a check for $3,000 to the children and staff of Camp Happy Sands. These monies, according to Charlie Roose, executive director of Camp Happy Sands, support the attendance of up to 40 children from Gulf Shores and Orange Beach, AL, ensuring that this program is cost free to the families. Mr. Roose shares that Camp Happy Sands is celebrating 50 years of service this summer. It started

A BIG THANK YOU to everyone who participated in the Feed the Need food packing event. Your contributions and hard work paid off. We packed 75,000 meals - that translates into 430 boxes containing 10 Family Packs each. Each box contains 12,900 meals - a combination of Oatmeal, Mac & Cheese and Pasta & Tomato Sauce. Each Family Pack also contains boxes of raisins, cheese crackers, and peanut butter crackers. All this means we packaged 75,000 meals which included 17,200 boxes of