Episcopal City Mission

Women (ECW).

Today we are Episcopal Church Women of all ages, ethnic origins and socioeconomic backgrounds who hold a variety of views. However, the most common view of our members is the love of God and the wish and desire to do His work.

Diocese of Missouri ECW Board’s role is to represent all the women in our diocese; share in communication and leadership, and build support for ECW within our diocese and in the wider church.

Our mission is to offer every woman in the Diocese of Missouri an environment of support and encouragement, education and opportunity for ministry by providing: fellowship, communication, resource materials, and outreach to the diocese, nation and world.

Projects/Meetings. This past year Bishop Smith gave the Board the task, led by Cheryl Ward and Jeanne King, to coordinate the effort to the rebuilding of Holy Trinity Cathedral in Haiti by encouraging those in our diocese to purchase a brick for $10 to help in this rebuilding. We had about 4 months to accomplish this task and it was a huge success.

Four board members attended the 2012 ECW Province V Annual Meeting in South Bend, IN April 27-29, 2012, hosted by the Diocese of Northern Indiana. The total cost of this meeting was $1350. One board member attended the Church Periodical Club (CPC) Annual Meeting held in Indianapolis, In the week before Triennial. The total cost of this meeting was $599.00. Three board members attended the 47th Triennial Meeting held in Indiana, IN July 5-12, 2012 the same time as the General Convention. The total cost of this meeting was $4,579.19. Thanks to the money allotted from the diocesan budget to help defray the cost of these meetings, we were allowed to attend and bring back information to share within our diocese.

The Diocese of Missouri ECW held its annual meeting this year in Fulton, September 7 & 8. Guests were driven to Serenity Valley Winery for some wine tasting and then to Beks Restaurant for dinner and fellowship on Friday evening. The registration, worship service, and business meeting were held at St. Mary of Aldermanbury with the lunch and seminars held at St. Alban’s. By having this annual meeting in Fulton, more of the Fulton area was able to attend and share in the fellowship.

Upcoming Meeting. The Diocese of Missouri ECW will host the 2013 ECW Province V Annual Meeting to be held at the Doubletree Hotel in Chesterfield April 4-7. The theme of this meeting is “Gather Us Together”. Our keynote speaker for this event will be the Rev. Gay Jennings, President House of Deputies. A massage therapist will be available for a slight fee of $1/hour. A tour to the Missouri Botanical Gardens for an additional cost will be offered to the attendees on Friday, April 5th. Bishop Smith will preside at the Eucharist on Sunday, April 7th. Our goal is to have volunteers from each parish in our diocese to participate and attend the meeting. We hope to receive an amount from the Province V budget to help defray the cost of this meeting.

Introduction. Episcopal City Mission was founded in 1894 by an Episcopalian lay person who brought together volunteers to visit the less fortunate in St. Louis area institutions.

In 1913, the organization was asked by the court system to have chaplains available for children detained and awaiting adjudication. We dedicated our work to children in detention in 1954.

Today, ECM provides a chaplain to each of the three detention centers for children in the metropolitan area – St. Louis City, St. Louis County, and Lakeside Center. An ECM chaplain works to fulfill our mission of providing support, hope and healing to children in detention through a ministry of presence and programs designed to help a child make better choices.

Programs cover a wide spectrum of subjects, including self-esteem and healthy relationships, grief and loss, and questions of doubt and faith. ECM chaplains are available to listen when a child wants to talk. Over the course of a year, ECM chaplains will have over 10,000 interactions with children. Those interactions are the only opportunity for confidential conversations with a caring adult that a child has while in detention.

Report: In the last year we continued our existing programs: • Weekly nondenominational chapel services. • Monthly birthdays which bring adult volunteers to the centers to honor the celebrants. • Faith movies, faith dance, faith choir which give the children the opportunities to enrich a talent. • Volunteer visitation; the chaplains are available after a child’s visit with family since crisis sometimes happen after these meetings. • Grief and loss groups which help the youth explore the causes of their anger and behavior. • Safe conversations with a chaplain. • Community service: this is only offered at Lakeside where the children can leave the campus with supervision. They have volunteered at a Jewish food pantry, Gateway Greening, Nurses for Newborns, and St. Patrick’s Center. • Bible study based on a book, “Doing Time with God” which has stories by juveniles paired with a Bible passage. • Motivational movies which give the youth an opportunity to see examples of situations where someone had to make a difficult decision.

We are proud to announce that we were asked to offer chaplain services at the Division of Youth Services in 2012. The Rev. Dietra Wise went to the MET Center and visited with the children in the morning before school. She also went to Bellefontaine Farms and spent time with the girls in one of the cottages.

ECM and the work of our chaplains is being recognized throughout the area. The Rev. Dietra Wise was asked to serve on Mayor Slay’s Youth Violence PreventionTask Force. The mission of this task force is to develop and institutionalize a comprehensive youth violence prevention plan modeled on the National Forum for Youth Violence Prevention for the St. Louis region. Chaplain Kevin Aldridge is a member of the Youth Crime and Delinquency Work Group of another initiative in St. Louis called the Youth and Community Empowerment Collaborative.

ECM hosted two fundraising events again this year. Summer Solstice was moved to Grace Episcopal Church in Kirkwood and a record crowd enjoyed this annual family picnic. Additionally, a wonderful group of ECM supporters joined in the celebration at our Moment in Time gala dinner in September. It is our largest fundraising activity.