SHEPHERD’S TABLE

Shepherd’s Table is working towards preventing and ending homelessness for all residents, one person at a time. We provide 3 meals a day during the week, and 2 meals a day on weekends.

Our Resource Center provides information/referrals, mailing address, telephone, prescription assistance, and more. There is a weekly clothes closet. An eye clinic provides eye exams and prescription eyeglasses. There are also bilingual counselor services.

REFUGEE MINISTRY

The Faridullah Family left their ancestral home–a rural compound filled with extended family–to seek safety, work, and education. Grace parishioners said “yes” we would help resettle a refugee family of seven people and swung into action over the Christmas holidays to locate and furnish an apartment for an unknown family. We came together for the first time on January 3, 2019 at Dulles Airport very late at night.

Grace Church Volunteers. Volunteers located and furnished an apartment and oriented the family to the many tasks we take for granted. Adventures included riding the buses, going grocery shopping, locating mail, obtaining phones, learning to call 911, setting up a bank account and more. Volunteers accompanied the family to health appointments, helped pick up prescriptions, and contributed clothing. School placements were completed and volunteer tutors began to work with family members. Financial guidance got underway and computers were donated.

The Family. We immediately experienced the graciousness of the family as they warmly greeted visitors offering tea and snacks and calmly worked with us to understand each other. We gradually learned that people do not become refugees by choice. Refugees are forced to flee their homes on account of persecution, war, and violence. This family had lived their entire lives in a war torn country. The dad was a young child when the war began.
Ministry during the pandemic. All are weathering the challenges associated with the pandemic. Texts, emails, and phone calls suffice for what is easier to convey in person.

For nearly a year, all five children were participating in school on-line. Volunteers now provide a liaison role with teachers as the family becomes more familiar with the school system.

As children begin to return to school, the classrooms will be configured differently and new routines will emerge. And hopefully summer classes and camps will provide enrichment and additional time for learning.

The Goal. The goal of refugee resettlement is for a family to become self-sufficient. That includes work, safe housing, transportation, childcare, food, clothing, health and dental care, medicine and household necessities, paying taxes and more. These challenges continue to guide our work with the Faridullah family.
At this time, it is anticipated that achieving self-sufficiency will happen over a three to five year period with the family demonstrating increasing independence.

The Refugee Ministry at Grace Episcopal Church, Silver Spring, Maryland partnered with Lutheran Social Services/National Capital Area to sponsor a refugee family through their Good Neighbor program. Due to policy changes in immigration services at that time, we were surprised to have only three months of caseworker services and guidance. Lutheran Social Services is one of nine national agencies that works in partnership with the U.S Government to resettle refugees.

GRACE LITTLE FOOD PANTRY

Grace Little Food Pantry is located on Georgia Avenue where nonperishable food is available for our neighbors in need. The pantry was built originally as part of an Eagle Scout project, and is stocked by a dedicated group of volunteers. Each volunteer is assigned a Sunday, and on that day the volunteer fills the food pantry with canned goods and non-perishables purchased by the volunteer. The volunteer then comes by once during that week to refill as needed. We get donations from the parish, and from the Men’s Group food drives as well.

PARISH HISTORY OF RACE & RACISM

Mission: To reconsider the history of Grace Church by identifying and centering the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans in the story we tell ourselves about who we are as a parish.
Background: At Grace, we say that we strive to be a “City on a Hill” where people of all races and cultures may build their relationships with God and others. To continue moving toward this goal, we must recognize that not everything in Grace’s history is Christ-affirming.

At Diocesan Convention in January 2021, the EDOW Reparations Task Force invited parishes across the diocese to research and write the history of their entanglements with race and racism. Grace Church was one of first 18 parishes in the diocese to respond to this call and commit to learn and share our history as it relates to race, racism, and slavery.

PENNYWORTH SHOP

Pennyworth is located in Grace House, on the grounds of Grace Episcopal Church

The mission of the Pennyworth Shop, a ministry of Grace Episcopal Church, is to actively serve the Silver Spring community and surrounding area by selling clothing and other items at a reasonable cost; to provide an outlet for the community to dispose of useable items through reuse and recycling; and to afford volunteers the opportunity to contribute their time and labor to the benefit of our community. Money generated from sales provides financial support to other Grace Episcopal Church ministries and for local and national community organizations.

RACIAL JUSTICE MINISTRY: WADE IN THE WATER

Wade in the Water seeks to follow Christ’s example in challenging racism; building a community of faith that demands racial justice. We are cultivating a new generation of Christians to dismantle the racial hierarchies that pervade our society so that we may become Beloved Community. We humbly seek to model that community through leadership at Grace Church, in Montgomery County, and within the Episcopal Diocese of Washington.

We will:

  • Deepen our connections and solidarity as a congregation across race and ethnicity;
  • Raise awareness of and interrupt racism
  • Take action on important causes related to racial justice within and beyond the Grace Church community

We follow Christ’s example in challenging racism: building a community of faith that demands racial justice.
We are cultivating a new generation of Christians to interrupt racism that pervades society. We humbly model that community through leadership at Grace Church, in Montgomery County, and within the Episcopal Diocese of Washington.

Our Name: Wade in the Water

The leadership of Grace Church chose to name our racial justice ministry after a slave spiritual with deep historical and Biblical relevance.

Challenging Racism: The lyrics of Wade in the Water contain coded instructions to escaping slaves about how to avoid being captured and was sung by Harriet Tubman and others in the Underground Railroad guiding enslaved people to liberation and freedom.

Healing: The spiritual verses also reflect the Israelites’ escape from Egypt as described in the Book of Exodus. The chorus refers to healing (John 5:4 NIV), “From time to time an angel of the Lord would come down and stir up the waters. The first one into the pool after each such disturbance would be cured of whatever disease they had.”‘