Cross RoadsJournal of the Chapel of the Cross X July 2011

You’re Going Where? Youth Mission Trips

Feeding Families -

One PORCH at a Time

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[ Contents ]

For a service schedule and information about the various ministries of the Chapel of the Cross visit:www.thechapelofthecross.org

On the cover: The west window of the church.

3 Dear Friends,

4 Stop Hunger Now

5 Environmental Stewardship Committee

6 Achieving the Vision of “A Light On the Hill”

8 Habitat For Humanity Keeps Moving

9 Junior Choir End-of-Year Celebrations

July 7 Early Music Concert for Two Sopranos

and Continuo at 8:00 p.m. in the church

July 24 Dinner on the Grounds after the 10:00

a.m. service

[ Dates to Remember ]

10 You’re Going Where?: Youth Mission Trips at the Chapel of the Cross

11 High School Senior Recognition

13 A Concert of Early Music for Two Sopranos and Continuo

13 Vestry Actions

14 PORCH – People Offering Relief for Chapel Hill–Carrboro Homes

15 Stewardship Transitions

July 24-30 Episcopal Youth Community Mission

Trip to Charleston, SC

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Dear Friends,Last month the Bishop of Western North Carolina

called me and asked for a favor. The Rt. Rev. Porter Taylor (the brother of Dick Taylor, currently on our Vestry) requested that we provide a summer internship for a seminarian of his diocese studying at Duke Divinity School, Brittany Love. As is true in our diocese (the Diocese of North Carolina, which covers from Tarboro to Charlotte), aspirants for ordination in Western North Carolina are trained in part by spending time in a parish different from the one sponsoring them. This experience gives them a wider experience of the Church and stretches them to use skills for ministry that they may not have had to develop before. I did not hesitate in telling Bishop Taylor that I would be glad to, and by the time you read this, you may already have met Brittany.

In my long experience as Rector of the Chapel of the Cross, I have never turned down a request to accept and supervise an intern. Most have come from our diocese, some from Duke Divinity School, a few from individuals in unusual circumstances. I have said “Yes” to all of them for several reasons.

One reason is that our parish always benefits from these dedicated and talented individuals. Despite their inexperience, they always bring gifts for ministry; and whether they have helped teach the Youth Inquirers Class or been involved in prison ministry or led adult education sessions or visited the sick and the shut-in, they have contributed to the work of our parish in a significant way.

Another reason is that I enjoy supervising men and women who are just beginning to form their practices and understanding of ordained ministry. I find it engaging to accompany them through new and different challenges and to help them learn from their experiences and articulate for themselves where God may be calling them and how they want to respond.

But the most compelling reason that I always welcome the opportunity to accept another intern is that such ministry is an integral part of the ministry of the Chapel of the Cross. We are certainly what is called in modern ecclesiastical parlance “a resource parish.” Our history and tradition, our wide-ranging ministry, our location, our people and staff, our size and resources all give us a strong role to play in shaping the future leaders of our Church and our communities. That has been more obvious, of course, in our campus ministry, a central part of our identity and mission since our founding in 1842. It has also long been a part of our approach to Christian Formation and Youth Ministry and Junior Choir. It has more recently become manifest in the Johnson Intern Program, which last fall celebrated a very successful initial ten years. And I also want you to know that I consider our regular opportunities to support and supervise interns in the ordination process another very important part of our call to mentor and to teach and to help form future leaders.

Thank you for all that you bring to this parish to make it a lively and engaging place for people to learn. Thank you for supporting the many and varied ways that we live into our identity and mission. Thank you for helping us be a city set on a hill which cannot be hid.

Stephen

Photo by Jerry Cotten

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On Sunday, May 15, over 100 members of our congregation gathered for an event with the organization Stop Hunger Now. Sponsored by our capital campaign, A Light on a Hill: Building to Serve, it was an evening of fellowship, service, high energy, and great fun to remind us of our mission to serve others and of the importance of the capital campaign to this mission.

Stop Hunger Now, founded in 1998 and based in Raleigh, provides life-saving aid in the forms of medical care, food, and clothing to some of the most impoverished areas of the world. Their increasingly well-known meal-packaging program was started in 2005. They have perfected a system for packaging meal packets that include rice, soy, dehydrated vegetables, and a flavoring packet

containing 21 essential vitamins and minerals. The meals are vegetarian to accommodate almost every faith and culture, have a shelf life of five years, and cost an astonishingly inexpensive 25 cents each, including all costs from administration to delivery. The goal is simple: to end hunger so that 25,000 people per day in other countries will not die from lack of food. The meals from Stop Hunger Now are primarily distributed through school feeding programs so

Stop Hunger NowBy Theresa Scocca

that they can influence more than hunger. When meals are provided in schools, enrollment increases because parents send their children so they can receive the meal. The simple step of children attending school begins a chain of increased self-sufficiency as education levels increase, birth and death rates drop, and women gain equality in their societies. To date, Stop Hunger Now has provided over 44 million meals through feeding programs in 76 countries.

During our event, we participated in this effort. After sharing a potluck dinner in the courtyard, we gathered in the dining room to start our work. For a little under two hours, the room buzzed with activity as we measured the rice and other ingredients, weighed and sealed the meal bags, and packed them into boxes. We sang to music and cheered each time the gong rang, once for every 1,000 meals we finished. Before we knew it, we had packaged 15,000 meals, halted only by exhausting the ingredients that were on hand! We had regular attendees of each Sunday service and people of all ages, from preschool up – the process is easy enough that there was a job for everyone, from the youngest carrying meal packets between stations to the strongest carrying large bags of rice and boxes of completed meals to and from the truck. Some people tried out different steps in the process until they found their favorite. Everyone felt the feeling of accomplishment that comes with making a measurable impact, and within the next couple of months, we hope to find out exactly where the meals we packed will be sent.

Imagine how much more we could accomplish with increased space. While we managed to finish these 15,000 meals in our current dining room, we were certainly at capacity, almost tripping over each other and having to navigate around the large columns in our way. With a new, large fellowship hall, we would be able to hold similar events involving more people that could accomplish even more work in less time. We could undertake larger projects that allow parish members of all ages and abilities to participate in outreach to a world that is in great need. We could even

Photo by Ted Vaden

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After several years of sterling service and guidance to this committee, Linda Rimer recently assumed the responsibility of Junior Warden for the Chapel of the Cross and has, therefore, relinquished the chair of the Environmental Stewardship Committee. She will be greatly missed on the committee and deserves the highest order of thanks from all of us at the Chapel of the Cross.

This report, the initial one under my chairmanship, firstly, brings to your attention the dedicated people who currently serve on the committee as technical and lay enthusiasts for the issues facing our environment for which we all have stewardship. I do this because I wish to promote an ongoing dialog with the members of the congregation so that we can hear and respond to all your thoughts. Each of the committee members listed below will be happy to discuss the work we are doing and will certainly offer you the option of participating in our goals. On another level, I wish to give you an understanding of what we will be trying to accomplish over the next few months; and this, too, will require your input which I hope will be both forthcoming and honest, after you have given it some critical thought. We, the committee members, are all in agreement that a committee cannot be successful without your participation.

Our current committee members are Martin Rody, Hugh and Mary Morrison, Mimi Kelly, Dana Hay, Tom Henkel, Roger Jerry, and Graham Swift, please remember we are always happy to have others join us.

Our aims are based on building from the foundation that Linda set for this committee. We will continue the adult classes on the Creation Cycle this fall, including the “Blessing of the Animals” service on October 2. The other three Sundays of the Cycle (September 18 and 25 and October 9) will be devoted to presentations related to the environment and our stewardship. Under final consideration are topics related to the elements of wind, water, and air.

Future programs that currently have prominence on our agenda are possible interactions with other groups in the church to promote local foods, and local activities in the managing of environmental changes that we are all living with now or will certainly meet around the corner. Some of these may be sensitive issues, but we want to be good stewards and communicators of what we see as issues of local, regional, and national concern for all Christian congregations. My hope is that we can put a truly vibrant and meaningful message from the Chapel of the Cross together emanating to all “our faithful” who understand what a gift and awesome responsibility we have inherited

from our maker in serving as stewards of the environment.

We encourage you all to support and participate in whatever way you are able or wish.

Environmental Stewardship CommitteeBy Graham Swift

build projects with other churches nearby; how exciting would it be to host a major Stop Hunger Now event where members of the Lutheran, Presbyterian, and Methodist congregations within two blocks of our own join us for a day of packaging meals? Our Stop Hunger Now event took place not long after our parish’s ABC Sale, which raised over $32,000 for our local community this year. Imagine the improvements to our sale with increased space and improved

accessibility…the possibilities for us to increase our outreach to our local community and the world are thrilling to imagine.

Thank you to the Capital Campaign Committee for giving us the opportunity to engage with each other in fellowship and service and to remind ourselves of the importance of the campaign’s mission.

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As we all know, the Chapel of the Cross has been engaged for some time in the capital campaign to fulfill the vision of “A Light on the Hill: Building to Serve.”

The vision, of course, to is enable our parish to carry on our missions both within the church and in the community by providing the space and facilities to support outreach, Christian education, campus and youth ministry, and parish fellowship for the generations to come. This improvement and expansion to our church home will be the third transformative renovation to the Chapel of the Cross – after the construction of the historic chapel in the 19th Century and the magnificent sanctuary in the 1920s. It will in effect be the final transformation, because the “Light on the Hill” program, when complete, will max out the constructible footprint on our Franklin Street property. It will also tie us more closely to the University, with the addition of a welcoming entrance on the Coker Arboretum side of the property.

A long time aborning, “A Light on the Hill” reached a tipping point this spring and summer with two major milestones. First, the parish in February submitted to the town the application for the permit to allow construction to proceed. More on that below.

Second, parishioner David Ross, a professional fund-raiser, stepped forward to lead a “Campaign Completion Task Force.” Dave made the extraordinary commitment to work virtually full-time for the church to lead a final push to put the fund-raising over the top.

In that, he and the Task Force team achieved impressive results. Their six-month effort brought in more than $500,000 from donors who either made a first-time capital pledge or increased their previous commitment. As of this writing in late June, we have met the $250,000 challange grant.

Achieving the Vision of “A Light On the Hill”By Ted Vaden

Those increases have brought total gifts and pledges to $4.45 million. That represents commitments from 341 parish members – more than half the pledging units in the parish – for an average gift of just over $13,000.

The campaign goal is $6.8 million, so we still have work cut out for us. The campaign total does not include more than $4.3 million in planned/deferred gifts and bequests that have been confirmed toward the capital campaign. This emphasis on planned giving is a new initiative for the Chapel of the Cross, and it has been unexpectedly successful. But the Vestry will be conservative in applying those commitments toward the campaign goal until they are actually realized – which, in the case of some givers who we hope still have a long and happy time ahead of them, will be years or even decades.

Where do we go from here?First, the Vestry has taken the next step toward

proceeding with the project. On May 22, it unanimously voted to select Barnhill Contracting Co. as general contractor for the project. Barnhill was chosen from among four contractors after exhaustive research and interviews with the firms by a team of parishioners who are professional planners, engineers, and architects.

Second, another team was scheduled to make a presentation on the expansion project on June 29 to the Town of Chapel Hill. This is a ground-breaking step in that the town for the first time will bring together all the advisory boards that normally review applications separately for one single presentation – potentially setting a precedent to speed up permit applications in the interest of both applicants and the town.

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Senior Warden Ford Worthy has prepared a detailed road map that outlines the decision-making process that the Vestry will follow as the project progresses through the design and financing phases, between now and the beginning of construction, which could begin as early as next spring.

A key step will be finalizing the financing for the project. The fund-raising has been successful so far, but there is still a large gap between our pledges and cash in hand and the funds needed to start and carry through construction.

Despite that gap, it is important to continue the process that has been laid out in the roadmap. Contractor prices may currently be at a low point and interest rates also are at historic lows. We may have a very small window of opportunity to take advantage of the favorable economic climate to achieve our vision at the most efficient cost.

So the advice of our financial counselors is that the parish consider bank financing as part of a package to enable

us to proceed on the planned timetable. Using debt is a controversial instrument for a church, but it is a tool that we have used in the past, for the construction of the sanctuary and improvements to the Yates and Battle wings.

You will hear about any financing plan before the Vestry makes a commitment. In the meantime, there is something you can do to help reduce the amount that needs to be financed. If you have not yet made a pledge, your commitment now will grow the equity base of our financing, and reduce the amount needed to borrow. Or, if you have made a pledge, paying more of your commitment up front, now, again will reduce the amount of financing that will be needed.

Please give prayerful consideration to making, increasing or paying your pledge now. Together, we can soon realize this extraordinary vision – A Light on the Hill – that lets us fulfill our mission and serve our community now and for generations to come.

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For over two decades, Chapel of the Cross parishioners have partnered with UNC students, St. Paul AME, East Chapel Hill High School students, and other members of our community to help poorly-housed families through Habitat for Humanity, a Christian nonprofit that welcomes participation by everyone. Habitat serves lower-income families who combine their “sweat equity” with the work of volunteers to build their own homes and purchase them with interest-free mortgages.

Habitat’s work is especially needed in this community, where the market price of decent housing often far exceeds what hardworking families can afford. In recent years, partnerships have had to raise $35,000 for each home and recruit the volunteers to build them. The Chapel of the Cross -UNC-St Paul-East Chapel Hill High School Partnership has put up at least 33 houses since 1988—often two per year. Our contributions also support homebuilding throughout the world, especially in Honduras and Thailand.

One of the most exciting things about Habitat every year is our annual visit from the riders of Bike & Build, a national organization that encourages young adult action for better housing by sponsoring cross-country bicycle trips. Traveling in groups of 30 to 35, each rider contributes $4,000 for the trip, half for expenses and half to support affordable housing nationwide. Every May, the Chapel of the Cross hosts a group of Bike & Build riders as they come through North Carolina, starting at Nag’s Head and heading to California. Led by Joey Parker, a UNC junior majoring in Health policy and Management, this year’s group rolled in on Thursday, May 19, spent two days working on local Habitat homes, and rolled out Sunday morning, May 22. Habitat volunteers cooked for them and they slept on the floors of the parish house.

The Bike & Build riders are always a joy to see and meet. They are all amazingly energetic, idealistic, and committed to building a better world. As Joey writes in his blog, “I love working with my hands to make a visible change in someone else’s life. I look forward to spending an entire summer immersed in affordable housing and I can’t wait to bring everything I experience back to my peers at school!” We are deeply grateful to the Bike & Build riders for their inspiration and for covering our costs for another

Habitat home in Orange County every year they have come. Please let us know if you would like to help host these wonderful young people when they visit again next spring.

Chapel of the Cross Habitaters took an ambitious new step in 2009-2010 by building a third house in partnership with all the Episcopal and AME parishes in Orange County. We did it again in 2010-2011, joined this time by Barbee’s Chapel and Binkley Baptist, and called ourselves BEAMEs—for “Baptist, Episcopal, and AME.” We love this new faith-based partnership because it expands our mission, gives parishioners more chances to build, and deliberately involves us with fellow Christians from historically black and white denominations.

A highlight of the BEAMEs partnership came on May 3 this year, when representatives of all the churches involved came together with Habitat homeowners for a thanksgiving service and light meal at Binkley Baptist to learn more about the work of Habitat for Humanity of Orange County and its challenges. The Rev. Stephen Elkins-Williams offered the benediction; Harry Watson of the Chapel of the Cross and Linda Bynum of St Paul AME also represented the partnership. It was a great joy to join with other participants in this project and to meet the homeowners who are benefitting from it.

Both of our parish partnerships will soon face a major challenge. Rising costs have forced Habitat for Humanity to raise the minimum contribution needed for each home from $35,000 to $50,000. All of us will need to increase our fund-raising efforts dramatically to meet this goal, especially to address the serious needs in Orange County with three new houses a year. The Chapel of the Cross has always given generously to the University and BEAMEs partnerships,

but the need will be greater than ever next year. To volunteer or to obtain more information, please contact Harry Watson (919-933-7050; hwatson@email.unc.edu), Jean and Peter DeSaix (919-929-1580; jdesaix@email.unc.edu) or Rob Hooke (919-563-8627; tarheelrob84@aol.com).

Habitat For Humanity Keeps MovingBy Harry Watson, Chapel of the Cross-UNC-St. Paul AME-East Chapel Hill High School Habitat Partnership Chair

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The audience for the Junior Choir’s end-of-the-year concert was large and very enthusiastic (not surprising given the demographics). The 32 choristers who were there to sing presented an interesting and varied program of pieces chosen largely from their repertory for this school year. Some new pieces as well as revival items blended with familiar favorites to create, we hope, an enjoyable and inspiring evening. The choir sang elegantly and showed the poise and confidence that only comes from singing week in and week out, year in and week out. The usual string trio, solo violin (senior Emma Lo), organ, and piano provided changes in color and musical texture appropriate for the style of each piece. While all the choristers are to be congratulated for a job done with dedication and excellence throughout the year, we wanted to highlight our four graduating seniors. Collectively they have amassed almost four decades of service to the choir and our church – a remarkable achievement. Their musical sophistication and flexibility shone forth in solos, a vocal quartet, violin playing, and shameless bee-bopping in the selections from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. The highlight was the four of them singing “Lift thine eyes” from Mendelssohn’s Elijah while positioned high in the pulpit. Earlier in the day Emma Lo, Emily Morris, Annie Poole, and Maggie Poole were honored at the 9:00 service, and presented with leather-bound copies of the combined Book of Common Prayer and the Hymnal 1982. Their lives as young people growing up at the Chapel of the Cross were a dynamic combination of prayerfulness and tunefulness. We hope that this complex and spiritually rich book will undergird their ongoing growth into the fullness of Christ. These four will be deeply missed in the choir and in the parish, but we have 31 excellent singers who are in no sense “left behind!” Eight of these received their choir cross and red ribbon in recognition of two years of service to the choir. Others received new colored ribbons recognizing 4, 8, and 10 years of service. Their names appear here.

Crosses for Two Years of ServiceIsabel BaldersonAnnie BrakerEllen CochranFranny CochranZell James HoolePhereby KershStella MandevilleWesley Mills

Purple Ribbons for Four Years of ServiceCarter BaldersonRachel DannerEleanor HollersDoreen Nalyazi

Yellow Ribbon for Eight Years of ServiceAnna Sumner Noonan

Blue Ribbons for Ten Years of ServiceEmma LoAnnie PooleMaggie Poole

Junior Choir End-of-Year CelebrationsBy Van Quinn

Photo by Jerry Cotten

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Our parish has been sponsoring youth mission trips for so many years that, to many of us, it seems logical, natural, and self-explanatory that we take such a trip each year. Every once in a while, however, someone with a confused expression asks me a question that reminds me that taking high-schoolers on a week-long mission trip each year is not at all self-explanatory. Some people wonder why we take the youth out of town when there is plenty of need right here in the Triangle. Some people confuse the mission trip with a pilgrimage, or even a vacation or mobile summer-camp for our youth - something to do if lacrosse camp doesn’t work out.

The real reason for and meaning of our mission trips lies right at the heart of the word itself. “Mission” comes from the Latin root “miss”, which means, “to send.” We do not go on mission trips as much as we are sent or propelled on them. In the Christian Tradition, God does the sending. The New Testament word for this sending is “apostello”, from which we get “apostle.” Going on mission is part of God’s apostolic charge to Christians.

At this parish, our youth outreach trips are specifically and deliberately out of town, and we choose to travel for a number of reasons. First, we go because we believe that we encounter Christ in the stranger, particularly the kinds of strangers Jesus names in Matthew 25 - the sick, the naked, the hungry, the thirsty, the prisoner. Second, we believe that we encounter Christ when we cross social and economic boundaries in our encounters with those whom we meet on our outreach trips. We come from a congregation with lots of social advantages; we need these encounters to discover God’s richness in the poor, and our own poverty and true richness before God. Third, our experience is that when we take youth somewhere else on an outreach trip, they can better disengage from life’s other occupations and preoccupations; and we can create a more intensive environment of Christian practices - service, personal prayer, common worship, and table fellowship. This intensive immersion experience in Christianity builds a very strong

community that pours life and energy into our Church upon our return.

This year, our group of twenty youth and five adults is going to Charleston, SC. We chose this destination carefully and for several reasons related to the preceding paragraph. First, the sharp contrast of wealth and poverty in and around the city will be a good environment for Christian reflection on wealth and poverty, and for the kinds of encounters we are hoping to have. Second, our church is located in a small town, whereas Charleston will offer a mix of urban and rural settings that will be new for our youth. Third, two of our leaders have contacts in and knowledge of Charleston. Fourth, it is far enough to be “away” but close enough to drive, which reduces the cost of the trip considerably.

The shape of our trips has been honed over many years now. We begin the day with breakfast together followed by a brief service of Morning Prayer. We work with local outreach ministries in our mission town or city all morning and afternoon. These ministries often represent a mixture of relational ministry, food ministry to the hungry, and building ministry to those without adequate housing. In the late afternoon, we spend at least a half an hour on individual spiritual practices like sacred journaling, contemplative prayer, praying in color, and others. After dinner together, we enjoy a variety of evening activities, followed by group reflections on the day, and Compline. We normally sleep on bunks in a hostel-type setting or on the floor of a gym, church, or school. We prepare most of our own meals in teams.

We invite your own participation in our mission trip to Charleston this summer. According to your ability and how the Spirit moves you, please:

• Pray for us• Fill out the “stockholder” sponsorship form on

page 12.• Come to the EYC’s mission trip presentation on

August 31 during Dinner on the Grounds.

You’re Going Where?: Youth Mission Trips at the Chapel of the CrossBy David Frazelle and Caren Parker

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On one level, in all these youth mission trips the youth are simply modeling for the rest of the congregation the kind of ministry to which we all are called. Whether you are sent abroad or next door, on medical mission or on a simple ministry of presence and friendship, as part of your work or as a pure gift of time, may you, too, share in the joy of Christian mission.

Pictured: (Back Row) Risa Moore, Gordon Morris, Jon Howes, Angela Schmith

(Front Row) Kathryn Thomason, Maggie Poole, Emily Morris, Emily Werk,

Annie Poole, Emma Lo

High School Senior Recognition

On Sunday, May 5, the parish recognized our graduating high school seniors at a festive reception. This class has been active throughout their high school years. They have been leaders throughout many parts of our parish life – serving as choristers, instrumentalists, acolytes, lay eucharistic ministers, members of the Episcopal Youth Community and the Youth Council. We wish them all the best and look forward to hearing about the next part of their journeys. Thank you, seniors, for your presence and your service through the years! Photo by Jerry Cotten

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WANTED!!!$TOCKHOLDER$

for the

Chapel of the Cross Youth Mission Trip

July 24 - 30, 2011

YOUCan be a STOCKHOLDER in the

Chapel of the Cross Youth Mission Trip

$25/share

entitles the STOCKHOLDER to

1. Receive a personal letter from a Chapel of the Cross youth from a mission site.

2. Attend the Chapel of the Cross youth presentation (on August 31) of their mission trip experiences.

3. The satisfaction of participating in God’s work in the world through the ministry of our youth.

Twenty youth and five adult leaders are going to Charleston, SC, to work with a variety of local outreach organizations, to meet Christ in the stranger, and to practice our faith intensively for a week

of prayer, service, and table fellowship together.

Please Join us in these Ministries by becoming a

CHAPEL OF THE CROSS STOCKHOLDER!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

YES! I want to be a CHAPEL OF THE CROSS STOCKHOLDER!

Name __________________________________________________________________

Address_________________________________________________________________

Phone______________ Email_____________ Number of Shares ($25/share)_______

Amount Enclosed/Attached (Checks payable to Chapel of the Cross designated for “2011 Youth Mission Trip”) _______________

Please return to:

Chapel of the Cross, Attn. David Frazelle, 304 E. Franklin St., Chapel Hill, NC 27514

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Vestry ActionsAt its meeting on May 14, the Vestry:• Elected Ford Worthy to another term as Sr. Warden, Linda Rimer as Jr. Warden, Nancy Kelly to another one-

year term as Clerk, and Eugene Dauchert to a three-year term as Parish Chancellor• Officially welcomed Joe Ferrell, Hugh Morrison, Alan Rimer, and Nancy Tunnesen to the Vestry• Received the Vestry Roadmap for Key Decision Points in the building project• Approved the recommendation of the Finance Committee to authorize the Capital Campaign Committee to

secure charitable gift annuity commitments from donors for the limited purpose of supporting the current capital campaign to raise funds for building Phase 1 of the Master Plan, including a set of stipulations to ensure feasibility and practical and legal issues, this approval subject to a Finance Committee study of the details of how to administer the program

• Received an outline of the process leading to selection of a general contractor, this recommendation to be presented to the Vestry by May 19 and considered for approval at a special meeting of the Vestry called for Sunday, May 22.

This exciting concert will be presented by Chapel Hill’s own Molly Quinn and Jolle Greenleaf, another of New York City’s leading early music (eg.Monteverdi, Purcell, Bach, Handel) singers. They will be accompanied by Hank Heijink on the theorbo (a bass or “arch” lute), and harpsichordist Avi Stein, from the Yale School of Music. The concert is free and open to all, although generous donations are needed and encouraged. For more information about and photographs of the performers, see this website: TENET Vocal Ensemble (tenetnyc.com). If you would like to be a sponsor, please write or call Van Quinn (929-2193 or vquinn@thechapelofthecross).

A Concert of Early Music for Two Sopranos and ContinuoJuly 7, at 8:00 p.m.

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We meet once a month in a crowded three-car garage in the Lake Hogan Farms neighborhood. There are bags of food everywhere and people rushing from one corner of the garage to the other with bags of food in their arms looking for where pasta, cereal, beans, fruits, meats, vegetables, or hearty soups are located. Everywhere you look, there are bags of groceries - on the driveway, on the lawn, on the ping-pong table. Cars jockey into position to unload their donations in the last small open space of the driveway. This is a typical sort on PORCH’s monthly collection day. It is a frantic scene filled with laughter, hugs and camaraderie, and a clear sense of purpose – we are neighbors making a difference, helping other neighbors in need. With one in five families in our community living in poverty, PORCH is filling a vital need.

PORCH (People Offering Relief for Chapel Hill-Carrboro Homes) was founded a year ago by three friends who were collecting food for a local food pantry. Christine Cotton, Debbie Horwitz, and Susan Romaine created a simple neighborhood food collection model of residents putting donations outside their front doors for those in need. What started as a grassroots effort in one neighborhood has grown exponentially in its first year of existence; there are currently 1,200 porches in 110 Chapel Hill and Carrboro neighborhoods participating each month. The beauty and success of PORCH is in its simplicity. Once a month, PORCH emails participating

households a list of items needed at local food pantries. Residents then put out bags of groceries on their front stoops on an appointed day and neighborhood coordinators go from porch to porch to pick up the donations and bring them to the sort. The sorted donations are then divided and delivered to six local food pantries – TABLE, Inter-Faith Council, St. Joseph’s CME Church, Rogers-Eubank Neighborhood Association, Orange County Social Services, and Orange Congregations in Mission – and the donated

food is usually made available to families in need within 24 hours. To illustrate the generosity of our community, last month alone, $18,500 in food and cash was collected from participating porches to feed hungry families in our community. Along with celebrating its first anniversary in May, PORCH also

launched Food for Families, a new program that will provide fresh produce to families identified by school social workers as being at risk of going hungry over the summer.

My daughter and I have been PORCH neighborhood coordinators for almost a year. Our commitment is minimal but our involvement is part of something much larger – we are part of a collective effort of 1,200 porches that together are making a difference.

For further information or to become involved in PORCH, go to www.porchnc.org.

PORCH – People Offering Relief for Chapel Hill–Carrboro HomesBy Allison Worthy

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Since 2002, I have written articles on environmental stewardship for our Cross Roads newsletter, on behalf of the Chapel of the Cross Environmental Stewardship Committee. On May 14, I was elected Junior Warden, which for our parish means assuming major responsibility for stewardship formation, a concept that includes stewardship of creation and goes far beyond.

With expressions of gratitude for his leadership, I want to tell you that Graham Swift has assumed the chair of the Environmental Stewardship Committee. As such, Graham will now be responsible for these monthly articles in Cross Roads. I have greatly enjoyed communicating with you over these nine years. As I begin a new, though related responsibility, I want to offer you these thoughts.

For the past year, our parish has been primarily focused on one aspect of Christian stewardship, that of financial stewardship. This focus was necessary, particularly given the reality of our operating budget in this challenging economy, and the need to raise the funds necessary to build our new and exciting parish hall, education, and office space. This need will continue in the new year as we complete our capital campaign and plan for the next budget cycle. But it is time to remind ourselves of the broad and all encompassing meaning of Christian stewardship.

In the words of Bishop Curry: “Stewardship is about being a disciple, about following the way of Jesus, about presenting the whole self… if you want to follow Jesus it means all of you, it means your money, it means your time, it means your gifts and talents, it means you, it means giving yourself over.” In this same speech to the combined dioceses of Ottawa and Ontario in May, 2010, Bishop Curry said that, as stewards, we must follow Jesus, love like Jesus, give like Jesus, and forgive like Jesus.

Our Bible and Book of Common Prayer give us many examples of this kind of stewardship:

• From David: “All things come of thee, O Lord, and of thine own have we given thee.” (1 Chronicles 29:14);

• From Jesus, speaking about the widow: “For they all contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, her whole living.” (Mark 12:44);

• From our Book of Common Prayer: O merciful Creator, your hand is open wide to satisfy the needs of every living creature: Make us always thankful for your loving providence; and grant that we, remembering the account that we must one day give, may be faithful stewards of your good gifts; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (p. 259)

Our Vestry and members of the Stewardship Formation Committee are currently reading Transforming Stewardship by C.K. Robertson, to increase our understanding of this broader sense of stewardship, what

I like to call “Loving God, Loving Creation, Loving our Neighbor.” I invite each of you to consider how we, at the Chapel of the Cross, can “live into” this spirit of stewardship and I welcome your ideas, suggestions and comments. I can be reached at lbrimer@bellsouth.net or 919-929-7076.

Stewardship TransitionsBy Linda B. Rimer

The vestry regularly m

eets on the third Thurs-

day of each month. A

ssignments, contact

information, and photos of the vestry m

embers

may be found on the parish w

eb site (ww

w.thechapelofthecross.org), and on the board across the hall from

the parish office.

The Vestry

Terms end 2012

Valerie Bateman

James M

oeser Linda R

imer (Jr. W

arden) Ford W

orthy (Sr. Warden)

Terms end 2013

Alice C

ottenN

ancy McG

uffin

Dick Taylor

Joel Wagoner

Terms end 2014

Joe FerrellH

ugh Morrison

Alan R

imer

Nancy Tunnessen

David Joseph, Treasurer

Nancy K

elly, Clerk

Eugene Dauchert, C

hancellor

The C

lergyTh

e Rev. Stephen Elkins-W

illiams, R

ectorTh

e Rev. Tam

bria E. Lee, Associate for U

niversity Ministry

The Rev. Victoria Jam

ieson-Drake, Associate for Pastoral M

inistryTh

e Rev. D

avid Frazelle, Associate for Parish M

inistryTh

e Rev. D

r. William

H. Joyner, D

eaconTh

e Rev. M

argaret Silton, Deacon

The R

ev. Dr. R

ichard W. Pfaff, Priest A

ssociateTh

e Rev. D

r. William

H. M

orley, Priest Associate

The R

ev. John M. K

eith, Priest Associate

The Staff

Dr. W

ylie S. Quinn III, O

rganist/Choirm

asterG

retchen Jordan, Associate for C

hristian Formation

Boykin Bell, Associate for C

hristian Formation

Caren Parker, Youth M

inistry Assistant

Mary A

nne Handy, Parish Adm

inistratorM

arsha Pate, Parish Administrative A

ssistantM

arty Rogers, C

omm

. and Tech. Manager

Debby K

ulik, Parish AccountantR

on McG

ill, Facilities Manager

Joy Gattis, Sunday M

orning Child C

are Director

Sarah McR

aeA

nna LorenzR

ebecca Rogers

Susan Gladin, Johnson Intern Program

Director

}

Wedding C

oordinators

Parish Offi

ce hours: Mon.—

Fri., 9 am to 5 pm

. Phone: 919-929-2193Fax: 919-933-9187 W

eb: ww

w.thechapelofthecross.org Em

ail: info@thechapelofthecross.org

The R

t. Rev. M

ichael Bruce Curry, Bishop

The R

t. Rev. W

illiam O

. Gregg, A

ssistant BishopTh

e Rt. R

ev. Alfred C

. “Chip” M

arble, Jr., Assisting Bishop

A Parish in the Episcopal Diocese of N

orth Carolina

304 East Franklin StreetC

hapel Hill, N

orth Carolina 27514