SAINTS’ BREW

1,384 meals served in April 2020

OVER 200,000 MEALS SERVED SINCE 2010

To volunteer to help with Saints’ Brew, please email saintsbrewtupelo@gmail.com

Immediate needs: coffee, powdered creamer and sugar

Early every weekday morning, a team of volunteers gathers in the All Saints’ kitchen to prepare a hot breakfast for an average of nearly 100 people in need. What started in late 2007 as a “temporary” ministry to extend through the Lenten season and served four people in its first week of existence, has continued ever since. Saints’ Brew serves breakfast to individuals, families with children, those employed who are food insecure and homeless persons.  It is staffed by volunteers – more are always needed – and funded entirely by contributions.

“Our faith teaches us that when we serve those in need we are serving Jesus Christ himself,” says the Rev. Paul Stephens, Rector of All Saints’.      This remarkable minstry, unique in the Tupelo area, defines All Saints’ identity as a church that seeks to identify and respond to the needs not only of its own members but of the community at large and the wider world. We believe this is what God calls us to do.

This servant ministry emphasis takes many forms. It may involve a group of parishioners helping in natural disaster relief efforts, as we did after Hurricane Katrina on the Mississippi Gulf Coast and in constructing a Habitat house for a family that lost its home in the Smithville tornado. Or it may mean contributing people and supplies to the Diocese of Mississippi’s Medical Mission to Honduras. It shows up in financial support for local, national and international charities, for scholarships to the Episcopal Diocese’s Camp Bratton-Green or in simply opening our doors to support groups that need a place to meet. And it is clearly manifested in the volunteer work of individual All Saints’ members, motivated and empowered by their faith, for a wide variety of community organizations.

Our Neighborhood 

Our Neighborhood Life committee is a very active outreach resource for All Saints’. Their mission statement is,

“To do God’s work in our neighborhood through service, fellowship and worship,” and this is evident in the many neighborhood and community events in which they participate. You can find them out on the front lawn of the church handing out orange juice and donuts to race watchers at the Annual GumTree Run, or hot chocolate during the annual Christmas parade. In addition, the Neighborhood Life Committee participates in the annual community Trunk or Treat and Festival on the Field events, both hosted by the downtown churches.  And every year, members of the committee organize and host our annual Saints’ Brew Christmas dinner.

Globally…

The Syrian Civil War has created the largest humanitarian crisis the world has faced since World War II. Food, clothing, water, sanitation and medical assistance are critically needed.

Snapshot of the Crisis

• 2 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance in Syria
• 6 million persons have been displaced within Syria
• Over 4 million Syrians have fled the war and are refugees in neighboring countries; half of the refugees are children

You can help meet the humanitarian needs by making a donation of money to one or more of the charitable organizations helping the thousands of migrants flooding into Europe or those groups doing incredible work on the ground, every day, in Syria. Groups include the following, all of which have received a “4 Star” rating by Charity Navigator. Charity Navigator is a good source of information about other organizations providing humanitarian assistance for the Syrian crisis (Google “Charity Navigator Syrian Crisis”).

Episcopal Relief & Development (ERD), www.erd.org

UNHCR, the United Nations Refugee Agency, www.unhcr.org

United States Fund for UNICEF, United Nations Children’s Fund, www.unicefusa.org

Doctors Without Borders, www.doctorswithoutborders.org

Medical Teams International, www.medicalteams.org

Mercy Corps, www.mercycorps.org

International Rescue Committee, www.rescue.org

Information about other groups assisting with this crisis can be found at www.theguardian.com/global-development/2013/jul/25/syria-refugee-crisis-donate

In these and many other ways, All Saints’ as a parish and its members individually attempt to seek and serve Christ in all persons, including those well beyond our doors. If you feel called to serve in this way, All Saints’ welcomes your involvement. Feel free to call the church office at (662) 842-4386 for more information.