Parish Volunteers

Bunnie Collura, Vestry Member

Stewardship is not just about money, it is also about our time and our talents. I have heard stewardship described as a 24/7 lifestyle, extending well beyond our giving of tithes and offerings during a church service.

Volunteerism is part of that 24/7 lifestyle and it is alive and well here at the Chapel of the Cross. The 2003 Directory of Parish Ministries lists 76 separate ministries. And this is only a portion of the volunteer efforts performed by our parishioners. We volunteer here at our home parish, in the diocese, in our towns and cities, our state, and our nation. The list is never complete because volunteerism is everywhere, and new opportunities arise while some others may conclude.

The Chapel of the Cross offers a number of ministries where you can volunteer to keep our church 'working.' Some examples are: office guild - assistance in the day-to-day running of the office, Cross Roads labelers - who help with the monthly mail labeling, tellers - who gather to count the monetary offerings and prepare deposits or reports, and the vestry - our parish's lay governing body.

In addition there are volunteer opportunities in the worship life of our parish such as: acolytes -students who assist during services, Altar Guild -whose members prepare the altar for all worship services and maintain the elements, greeters -who welcome worshippers and assist newcomers, lay Eucharistic ministers - who administer Holy Communion on Sundays as well as to the homebound, choirs and organists - who provide the wonderful musical presentations for which our parish is well-known... and the list goes on.

Our parish offers numerous opportunities for service in the teaching ministry (Church school, book table, Bible study, parish library, vacation Church school to name a few) as well as the service ministry (examples: care teams, elder ministry, campus ministry, Episcopal Youth Community, foyer dinner groups, Loaves & Fishes, men's breakfast group, parish visitors, etc). These opportunities impact our parish, our parishioners, the community, and beyond.

Ministries that serve those in need and/or strive for justice and peace both inside and outside our parish also number among the far-reaching opportunities offered here. Some of these ministries are: Cross of Nails, AIDS care team, prison ministry, Habitat for Humanity, Inter-Faith Council, and the ABC Sale.

You may recall that, back in October, the vestry asked leaders of the ministries listed in our Directory of Parish Ministries to count the volunteer hours provided to each ministry for a one-month period. We felt it important, while planning the annual stewardship of money campaign, to look also at parishioners' contributions in time and talents. An exact count is something we cannot realistically achieve, but you will be heartened to know that, from the responses received, we tallied 2,819 hours contributed by 532 people in one month. This computes to nearly 34,000 hours a year, which would take over 16 people working 40 hours a week to achieve. It boggles the mind to think what the total might be if we could account for everyone's total volunteer hours.

God continues to bless the Chapel of the Cross with numbers upon numbers of volunteer commitments. We are good stewards of our time and talents as well as our financial resources.