Church of the Incarnation

Incarnation will have its fourth annual Hunger Knows No Vacation Food Drive on the weekend of June 7-8. Incarnation parishioners will invite shoppers to make extra purchases at several local grocery stores and transport the food to area food banks. Please consider taking a shift as a 'beggar' or a driver - a good service opportunity for adults and children of all ages. There will be a chance to sign up to participate after the Masses on the weekends leading up to the drive. The food is very helpful particularly as there is often an increase in hunger during summer months since children aren't in school and receiving free or reduced price lunch, and food banks see a decrease in donation during the summer as well. Parishioner H. Buz Goforth is coordinating the drive this year.

Nearly 2,000 local residents came to IMPACT's action meeting held at U Hall on March 10 to seek commitments from local decision makers on affordable housing and dental care. Officials from several health care agencies committed to hiring a fulltime dentist to serve low-income, uninsured adults by March of 2008. Four out of five city councilors committed to putting $500,000 in the city budget for affordable housing, but only two of six County Supervisors committed to putting funding in the County budget for recommendations coming from the City/County/UVa task force to meet the needs of families making under $20,000/year. IMPACT will continue to follow up with County officials to encourage them to respond to needs of the one in five Albemarle County residents who live in poverty. For more info click here.

The next part of IMPACT's annual cycle is our support drive to make the organization more financially self-sufficient. There will be a support drive celebration in the Incarnation Parish Hall on Thursday, May 15 at 7 pm - a chance to celebrate our successes, fellowship with people from the 28 IMPACT congregations, enjoy music and refreshments, and pledge support to this organization working for structural change in Charlottesville/Albemarle. For those who can't make the celebration, there will be an opportunity for parishioners to financially support IMPACT after the Masses on May 31-June 1.

Thanks to all who participating in PACEM this year! The shelter isn't open during the summer, and will reopen in November of 2008. Incarnation will host homeless men for two consecutive weeks: November 8-21. Sign-ups will be available in October of 2008 for parishioners who want to help with cooking, serving, spending time with guests, cleaning, set up, take down, etc.

Incarnation has a PACEM core team that helps to facilitate the hosting of the homeless. Its members are: Rhonda Miska, Fran Ingram, Tom Eckman, Jennifer Oliver, Jack Ostrowski and Buzz Goforth. If you would like to join the Core team, contact Rhonda.

For more information contact Diane at cvillerespectlife@gmail.com. Activities include hosting prayer gatherings in front of the local Planned Parenthood and sponsoring speakers.

The Incarnation Social Justice Committee is looking for new members. The committee meets every other month on Wednesday evenings from 7-8:15 and provide support, direction and guidance for the social justice ministries at Incarnation. Committee members will ideally have experience in social ministry and have some knowledge of Catholic social teaching, and must have a desire to see the social justice ministry at Incarnation continue to flourish and develop. Please contact Rhonda if you are interested. Current members of the Social Justice Committee: Susan Pleiss, Carolyn Hexter, Terri Goodwin, Janie Eckman, Pat Macionis, Bev Mirmelstein.

Laura and Steve Brown and their three daughters are currently serving in Chile as Maryknoll Lay Missioners. More information can be obtained at the Brown's website. If you are interested in receiving their mission newsletters (4-6 mailings each year), sign up by e-mailing your name and address to the Browns at: laura@familiabrown.net.

Are you concerned with poverty in our area? Incarnation hosts dinner at the Salvation Army on the first Wednesday and third Saturday of each month. Click here for more information.

Interested in keeping up with current events and learning more about Catholic Social Teaching but don't have much time? Consider subscribing to a weekly social justice email newsletter that comes out every Tuesday morning. It includes local, national and international social justice news, as well as a website of the week, a quote from Catholic Social Teaching and an action step that you can take related to social justice. It only takes a few minutes to read and is a convenient way to stay connected to social justice issues. If you want to subscribe, email Rhonda in the parish office.

As a Catholic, are you concerned about legislation around issues like abortion, health care, immigrants rights, stem cell research and support for low-wage working families? The Dioceses of Richmond and Arlington have collaborated to form the Virginia Catholic Conference, a network for Catholics in our state to stay informed about issues and how they relate to Catholic social teaching, and to easily communicate with elected officials. They send out advocacy alerts with suggested letters to email to elected officials. If you would like to sign up to receive email advocacy alerts from the VCC go to www.vacatholic.org.

The UVA Project on Lived Theology is conducing interviews with local individuals involved with spirituality and social change. Rebekah Menning, from the Project on Lived Theology, interviewed Incarnation's social justice minister Rhonda Miska. To read a transcript of the interview, visit the Project's webpage.