|
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.
continued...(click)
|
in Crisis