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Believe in Angel Power!

 


 

Click to read :

 

More than 50 Religious Leaders Respond to Hatred With Letter

 

CCGB Board Member Spotlight

 

The State of the Council

 

 Marathon Challenge Raises $15,000!

 

ACT Grants Available

 

Scroll down to see current CCGB events & announcements


Believe in Angel Power!

Follow the link to The Council of Churches’ 26th Annual Angel Giving Guide, which invites you to "Be An Angel" this holiday season – one who leverages hope and transforms people's lives! Angel power is needed this year, now more than ever!  

The Council of Churches’ 26th Annual Angel Giving Guide invites you to "Be an Angel" – an angel who leverages hope and transforms people's lives!

How can we make gift giving a sacred act in which we give out of our own grateful hearts? How can we respond to the gift of Christ to the world in a meaningful way? How can we respond to the Gospel call to love God and neighbor in all we do?

Using The Angel Giving Guide, you can honor the angels in your life while you empower The Council of Churches to:

  •     Care for youth in crisis

  •     Challenge urban school children to keep learning

  •     Provide second chances for ex-offenders

  •     Connect people and communities to share needs and concerns

Here's how some of your neighbors use The Angel Giving Guide:

  • A local businessman uses it to honor his employees during the holidays. 

  • A Bridgeport doctor uses it to honor both colleagues and staff.  

  • Families use it to show appreciation for their children's teachers.

  • Stockbridge’s Gourmet Cheesecakes Shop in Shelton displays The Angel Giving Guide in their store and gathers donations from customers.

  • A daycare center in Shelton encourages parents to express their appreciation for the care their children receive by giving to The Council’s Hunger Outreach network in the form of Grocery Store Cards. 

The possibilities are endless!  Using the form, and an additional piece of paper if necessary, provide the names of the people who are "angels" in your life. Each one of them will receive a personalized note telling them of your thoughtful gift – inside that note will be tucked a little bookmark that says, “You Are An Angel!”

A gift made through The Angel Giving Guide can also be a beautiful way to embrace the memory of loved ones who have passed on.

God fills our lives with bounty.  As we celebrate the extraordinary ways in which God blesses our own families, may we become blessings to others who may be in desperate need of angels.

O Holy One, as we rush to shop and send out cards, as our Christmas trees are lighted, and Christmas songs are played everywhere, as we strive to make everything perfect, keep us close to you. Keep us close that the one whose coming we celebrate – Jesus the Christ – may be honored in all we do. May the gifts we give in this season shine forth with your love. May our lives shine forth with your love. Let Christ be seen in us; in all we do, in all we say, in all we are. For with wonder and with awe we pray in his name. Amen * based on a prayer by Ruth C. Duck

For more information, call The Council at 334-1121, ext. 243 Or email pattyjensen@ccgb.org


  • Watkinson Prisoners Aid Society awarded the CO-Op Center a matching grant of $1,350. The matching funds must be received by December 1, 2008.  Gifts in honor of this year's CO-OP award recipients can help reach the matching gift goal.  Scroll down to read about the 2009 awardees.  Write "co-op" on the memo line of your check. Click here for more information.
  • ACT accepting grant applications to December 2.  The City of Bridgeport , Advancing Capacity Together (ACT) Program is please to announce the Round 4 Request for Applications from community and faith based organizations providing services to those who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. Successful applicants under Round 4 will undergo an organizational assessment, participate in a series of capacity development workshops, and be eligible for small capacity sub-award awards up to $20,000. click here for more information and application.
  • Put those holiday gift cards to work! Individuals and/or companies who would like to support CO-OP Center’s efforts with the federal Support Court program can send unused gift cards to Dan Braccio at  The Council. Gift cards can be in any amount. Please designate the amount on a separate piece of paper in the envelope, or written plainly on the card. Gift cards to department stores, grocery stores, and restaurants are the most useful. Passes to movie theaters and other entertainment venues are also welcome.


BOARD MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

Allen Downs

Allen Downs first became involved with The Council of Churches two years ago, as one of five members of the Harvard Business School’s Community Partners, an organization dedicated to offering pro bono strategic planning services to selected organizations, helping them to clarify mission and use the Balanced Scorecard model as an assessment and planning tool.  Once the Community Partner project was finished, Allen agreed to  serve as Vice Chair for Planning, to help keep the valuable planning processes moving forward.  Allen lives in Shelton with his wife, The Rev. Donna Downs, (rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Woodbury) and their three wonderful teenage daughters.  Allen is a parishioner at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Huntington.

Allen answered the following questions for our interviewer:

What attracted you to The Council of Churches?

I was asked to serve on a consulting assignment through the Harvard Business School Club of Connecticut’s Community Partners program to help non-profit organizations.  As a MetroNorth commuter, I pass through Bridgeport daily on my way to work, and I have seen and read about some of the challenges in the city.  I had become aware of the work of The Council of Churches through a family acquaintance several years before and thought that contributing to The Council would be a personally rewarding experience and would allow me to help my neighbors.

How does work of The Council speak to your own values/hopes?

As a Christian, I understand Jesus’ call to be a good steward of my talents, to give to those in need, and to support the work of building God’s kingdom here on earth.  I give of myself at the church parish level, but saw with The Council an opportunity to contribute on a broader level to a larger community.  It has been an inspiring and humbling experience to meet and work with others who are devotedly and tirelessly serving to improve their communities.

In what ways would you like to see The Council grow?

I believe The Council should continue to be a catalyst for innovative programs to address human needs and to help build community in Bridgeport.

Quotable quote: “Being a Director of The Council of Churches……….”

 “Being a Director of The Council of Churches is inspiring and humbling to contribute with those dedicated to supporting the Bridgeport community.”


Read about CCGB honorees:

Co-op Client Recognition Event

2009 Great Friends Keynote Speaker &  Honorees 

2008 Great Friends Keynote Speaker &  Honorees 

 

 

“Reflections”

  December, 2009  

Prepare for Christmas.  Take out the trash.

I spoke with my younger brother the day after Thanksgiving about their trip to New York and about Christmas gifts.  I asked what he was doing that day and he said, “Going to the landfill.”

Oh, that sounds exciting” I replied. “Well, actually, it is,"  he retorted.  "I hate clutter and I love throwing stuff away.  Any activity that helps reduce clutter is fine with me.”  I didn’t ask him if he hires out!

My brother is a man after the heart of the prophets, who call us to take out the trash of our lives.  Malachi (3:1-4) defines it as a refining process, God turning up the heat to burn off the impurities of our lives.  John the Baptizer (Luke 3:1-6) likens it to a highway improvement project which, as we have seen from the Merritt Parkway, can take a long time coming!

What better way to prepare for Messiah’s coming than to clear a space by taking out the trash of our lives?  We do this as we prepare our homes.  Thanksgiving decorations are put away; if we’re behind in our cleaning we catch up; and seasonal decorations mark our preparation for the Christmastime to come.

What about our spirit life?  Are we clearing space there?  What trash and clutter needs to be thrown away?

A story tells of a conversation between a mother and son.  As the mom prepared a stew, the son declared that he should have no restrictions on his television and reading habits.  After all, it’s a free country: he should view and read what he wished.

The mother, listening attentively, began to toss some unsavory items from the composter into the stew: spoiled vegetables, flower cuttings, egg shells and the like.  Suddenly alert, the son yelled “Mom, what are you doing?”  “Well,” replied Mom, “since you don’t mind garbage in your mind I didn’t think you’d mind it in your supper.”

If “we are what we eat,” are we not also that upon which we read, view, meditate and pray?

Sometimes this matter of trash removal can be fun.  The payoff is a cleaned life, free and ready for something new.  Yet anyone who has ever had to move quickly, or sort through the possessions of an estate, knows how burdensome the task can be.  When it’s rotting garbage that has to go, it can be plain messy.

But not doing it is worse.  We become mired in the morass of a messy life, stuck.  Besides, what is our trash can be another’s treasure.  My friend Phil restores discarded bicycles.  Recently I drove a local road and saw six bicycles with a sign that said, “Free.”  I called Phil, who scampered over on his lunch hour.  He later wrote, “I had five of the six bicycles up and running in an hour. I’ll have the sixth one done before Christmas.”  What becomes of these bicycles?  These, and 25 more by Christmas, are given to children who have no bike of their own.  Partnering with others in the trash-removal process yields amazing blessings!

Christians come to the Lord’s Table where we draw on food which is wholesome and pure, feeding our spirits by the One who is the Bread of Heaven.  In preparation, we confess before God the trash of our lives.  May our confession not be idle words, but a renewed resolve to clear a space: for God, for the spirit life, for new beginnings, for the baby to be born in Bethlehem.  Let us ask God to help us take at least one item of trash out of our lives, to the landfill where we will really leave it.

And savor the space it opens and cleans, where we can place something wholesome and good, the feast of the spirit life, the godly life, that has been prepared for us and that prepares us for Messiah.

The Rev. Dr. Brian R. Bodt is President and CEO

The Council of Churches of Greater Bridgeport, Inc.  

 

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