Community Ministries

Community Ministries address issues of poverty, social justice and advocacy and the needs of the communities they serve throughout the diocese. The diocese provides financial support to Emmaus House, The Friendship Center at Holy Comforter, Chattahoochee Valley Episcopal Ministry, and Church of the Common Ground. Part of our community ministries is the work of our Deacons and the LGBTQ+ and Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking commissions, Jubilee Ministries coordination, and initiatives in our diocese that support our focus on Children, Prisoners, Soldiers and Immigrants.

In addition, and not supported in the diocesan budget, the Episcopal Community Foundation for Middle and North Georgia ECFimpact.org partners with Episcopal communities in our diocese to serve people facing poverty and oppression by providing grants funded from donations, and Appleton Episcopal Ministries appletonepiscopal.org partners with parishes in Middle Georgia to promote the health, safety, education and well-being of children and families.

 

ABSALOM JONES CENTER FOR RACIAL HEALING

Dr. Catherine Meeks, Executive Director

The Absalom Jones Center for Racial Healing opened in 2017 and continues the important work of building the beloved community. It is a place where participants are encouraged to engage their heads and their hearts in the work of dismantling personal prejudices and ending systemic racism. The Center offers a model of prayerful education that forms and reforms individual and collective action: a defined curriculum, thoughtful training, pilgrimages, and dialogue. To learn more about the work of the Absalom Jones Center for Racial Healing, please visit centerforracialhealing.org

 

CHATTAHOOCHEE VALLEY EPISCOPAL MINISTRY

Malinda Shamburger, Executive Director

Chattahoochee Valley Episcopal Ministry, Inc. (CVEM) is grounded in our Baptismal covenant. Episcopalians are invited to join with CVEM and our neighbors in compassionate service throughout the region. A Jubilee Ministry of The Episcopal Church, CVEM provides compassionate listening, financial assistance, and connection to community resources to our low-income neighbors in the region, including Russell and Lee counties in Alabama. Other CVEM programs bring children and youth from diverse backgrounds together to inspire creativity and spirituality, build self-confidence, embrace relationships across diverse groups, and recognize God’s love for us all.

CVEM programs and resources are focused on three missional goals: the work of dismantling racism, developing interfaith initiatives, and promoting asset-based ministry. To learn more about CVEM and about how you can make a difference, please visit cvemjubilee.org

 

CHURCH OF THE COMMON GROUND

The Rev. Kim Jackson, Vicar

As a “church without walls” on the streets of Atlanta, this worshipping community provides support for the pastoral and spiritual needs of women, men, and youth who live on the margins of our city. Church of the Common Ground (CCG) welcomes people of all faith backgrounds as well as those who seek a new connection to faith. Common Ground shares the good news with the urban poor and other underserved people and offers comfort and relationship through pastoral, social, and health care connections and referrals.

Living the Good News that all people are God’s beloved, we build on a solid foundation of community commitment and our Diocesan purpose to love like Jesus as we honor people who suffer the indignity of homelessness, poverty, racism, and social injustice. To learn more about Church of the Common Ground and about how you can make a difference, please visit churchofthecommonground.org

 

CONGREGATIONAL MINISTRY

Sally Ulrey, Canon for Ministry

As we seek to live out our diocesan purpose to Love like Jesus, enhancing vitality and strengthening our parishes is a major priority. We are convinced that the Episcopal Church’s mission is best accomplished through the hands-on work of the faithful in our congregations. To do this, we need strong clergy and lay leadership working collaboratively to lead congregations. To learn more about programs and resources, please visit the Ministry Development & Congregational Vitality and the Safe Church pages on the diocesan website.

 

EMMAUS HOUSE

Greg Cole, Executive Director

Emmaus House stands for justice and equity, rooted in faith and a deep respect for the dignity of every human being. We harness the power of community, education, hope, and love to dismantle poverty, racism, and other barriers to opportunity in the lives and communities we serve.

For 54 years, Emmaus House has walked with and provided services to children, individuals, and families in Peoplestown and surrounding neighborhoods to help them overcome the challenges of financial and racial disparities. Academic achievement and family economic success are intricately intertwined. We believe the most effective way to bring about change is to use a two-generation approach to engage both children and their parents with wrap-around support. A focus on Race and Economic Equity is central to all of our work. We use a race equity lens to assess strategy and programming. We continue to focus on equity to address systemic causes of race inequities and economic disparities. To learn more about Emmaus House, please visit emmaushouseatlanta.org

 

EPISCOPAL COMMUNITY FOUNDATION FOR MIDDLE AND NORTH GEORGIA

Dr. Lindsey Hardegree, Executive Director

ECF partners with Episcopal communities in Middle and North Georgia to lift up people facing poverty and oppression, creating sustainable impact for individuals, families, and communities. We provide charitable grants from The Rt. Rev. Bennett J. Sims Endowment to parishes and their nonprofit partners to strengthen community partnerships that serve people in need and encourage spiritual growth for Episcopalians through service. We help to resolve important issues in our local communities, including efforts around hunger, homelessness, generational poverty, refugee services, human trafficking, and those whose lives have been impacted by the criminal justice system. We raise funds and provide opportunities for individuals to establish a lasting legacy to serve the poor and oppressed, as well as honor their individual parishes in their estate. To learn more about ECF, please visit ECFimpact.org

 

HISPANIC MINISTRIES

The Rev. Mimi Guerra

The Hispanic Ministries in our diocese reach out to the Hispanic communities with joyful worship and spiritual growth in the Episcopal tradition. They have been blessed by a steady increase in membership and the planting of new congregations. Funding of these congregations is an example of the diocese and individual parishes partnering in financial support for the continued growth of this vital ministry. To learn more about Hispanis Ministries, please visit episcopalatlanta.org/hispanic-ministries/.

 

HOLY COMFORTER AND THE FRIENDSHIP CENTER

The Rev. Ashley Lytle Carr, Vicar

Our mission is to be an inclusive community that promotes the mental, physical, and spiritual wellbeing of adults marginalized by mental health challenges, disability, and poverty. We are a loving, caring, worshipping community where all who come may be seen, heard, celebrated as a child of God, and known. We are a family striving to support one other in our recovery and our humanity so that we can live the healthy, blessed, sustainable lives that God intends for us.

Those who come to Holy Comforter and The Friendship Center in southeast Atlanta are from an often unseen, forgotten, and underserved population: adults living with severe and chronic mental illness and in poverty. Holy Comforter established The Friendship Center in 1987 to serve this population when the number of publicly funded day programs was reduced. To learn more about The Friendship Center and about how you can make a difference, please visit friendshipcenter-atlanta.org

 

MIKELL CAMP & CONFERENCE CENTER

The Rev. Hazel Glover, Interim Executive Director

Mikell is a place of connection to God and our worshipping communities. Experiences here change lives. Mikell has often been referred to as a “thin place,” or a place where the veil between heaven and earth is lessened. It’s about students from all over Georgia who visit Blue Ridge Outdoor Education Center with their schools and discover a new connection to nature and their responsibilities to each other and the world around them. It’s about young people in the Diocese who have a place where they feel comfortable enough to explore more about themselves, each other and God, and live into who God created them to be. It’s about children from Emmaus House spending time in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. It’s about the numerous vestry, parish, spirituality, renewal, recovery, youth and art weekends where people come together to be a part of something bigger than themselves, to grow, and then to go back into their respective communities. And it’s about all those who come away with a new sense of God, nature, themselves and each other. It’s about the future — a future made holier by the transformations that happen to those who come here. To learn more, please visit campmikell.com

 

Youth and Young Adult Ministries

Holle Tubbs, Youth Missioner

 

YOUTH MINISTRY

We believe in forming disciples by sharing the all-inclusive and unconditional love of Jesus Christ through worship, service, and spiritual growth in our parishes. The Office of Youth Ministry provides support to parish youth ministers and coordinates diocesan-wide programs designed for middle and high-school youth. To learn more about our Youth Ministry, please visit eycdioatl.org

 

YOUNG ADULT MINISTRY

The diocese coordinates annual events for young adults, ages 18-25. Diocesan Young Adult Programs provide opportunities for young adults to serve in leadership roles and as chaperones for Diocesan Youth Events. To learn more about our Youth and Young Adult Ministries, please visit eycdioatl.org/campus-ministries.html