Alpha House of Tampa is a non-profit organization founded in 1981 to serve pregnant women in crisis and their families.  Alpha House offers both maternity and post-birth transitional housing facilities. The mission of Alpha House of Tampa is to empower pregnant and parenting women in crisis to realize their ability to break the cycles of poverty and abuse and create promising lives. Alpha House’s provides mothers in need with safe housing, education and counseling, parenting and life skills training, vocational training and assistance, and spiritual support. During the month of May (around Mother’s Day), St. Mary’s Church collects donations (money and supplies) for Alpha House. Web-site link : http://www.alphahouseoftampa.org/

Angel Tree is a ministry that reaches out to the children of inmates and their families with the love of Christ around Christmas. This unique program gives our St. Mary’s Parishioners an opportunity to show Christ’s love and support to the prisoner’s families by providing presents and food around Christmas.  Each year our St. Mary’s parishioners buy, wrap and give hundreds of Christmas present to our Angel Tree children on behalf of their incarcerated parent.  Every December, St. Mary’s hosts an Angel Tree party at our church campus for our prisoner’s children and caregivers where we entertain and feed them before we send them home with Christmas presents (3 per each child) and Food Baskets for the families.  This outreach ministry teaches the true meaning of Christmas…it is better to give than receive. Web-site link:  http://www.angeltree.org/angeltreehome

Faith Café provides a hot lunch in a comfortable, safe environment to the hungry Monday through Saturday at a donated church hall at 3702 W. Kennedy Blvd. in Tampa.  The food served comes from donations from Metropolitan Ministries and donations from our partner churches, including St. Mary’s Church.  The mission of Faith Café is to serve our neighbors in need with dignity, love and respect, as Jesus would.   Faith Café welcomes anyone that would like to volunteer.  St. Mary’s is responsible for serving food to the hungry the first 2 0r three Fridays of each month at 11:30AM.  Other parishioners volunteer on other days when they can.  We take donations of food or clothing daily. Click here to learn more about how you can help support this ministry. Web-site link: http://faithcafetampa.com/organizations.htm

The Dominican Development Group (DDG) is a unique mission organization within the Episcopal Church. The DDG was founded to assist the Dominican Episcopal Churchin acheiving self-sufficiency.  The primary goal of the DDG is to seek human, material, and financial resources that are required to maintain the diocese’s rate of growth and to provide the diocese with the ability to maintain “quality” programs.  Each summer, St. Mary’s sends Missionaries (our parishioners) to the Dominican Republic (DR) on one-week mission trips where they help support the Dominican Republic Episcopal mission in a variety of ways including building, painting, and setting up schools and churches.  Our entire church gets involved by making financial and other contributions to the DR and our mission teams. Web-site Link: http://dominicandevelopmentgroup.org

Kairos Prison Ministry: Kairos Prison Ministry International, Inc. is the parent organization of a body of ministries addressing the spiritual needs of incarcerated men, women and children, their families and those who work in the prison environment. Kairos sprang from the Cursillo movement and is supported by volunteers from Cursillo and those other movements that consider Cursillo as their root. Although a separate ministry, Kairos has received the blessing and encouragement of 4th Day movements such as Cursillo, National Episcopal Cursillo, Presbyterian Cursillo, Lutheran Via de Cristo, The Upper Room’s Walk To Emmaus, and the independently ecumenical Tres Dias. Kairos Prison Ministry is a ministry rather than a movement.

Kairos is a ministry of the church … a ministry of the apostles whom Jesus, the Christ, has called into community and sent forth into the environment of the correctional institution in response to his instructions to the body of believers as described in Matthew 25: 31-46 (…when I was in prison you visited me. v. 36). Kairos has been called the best example of the early church in existence today.

A number of the parishioners at St. Mary’s serve the imprisoned through participation in 4 day prison weekends twice a year, primarily at Zephyrhills Correctional Institution, Sumter Correctional Institution and Hernando Correctional Institution (Women), as well as attending monthly reunions at these facilities. While not all feel called to enter these prisons, all are both welcome to participate and are asked to support the ministry through their prayers, monetary contributions, letters, posters and other items. As weekends approach, information is provided to St. Mary’s parishioners in the Sunday bulletin and through personal presentations by the parishioners participating on the teams for the 4 day weekends. Additional information may be obtained through the Church office or by contacting Steve Tedrowe (831-2674; res183sz@vrizon.net) or Locke Besse (489-3688; lockeb51@verizon.net) Web-site:  http://www.kairosprisonministry.org/

The RMH provide low cost housing and free meals for out of town parents of sick children on admission at the Tampa General Hospital.   For the past couple of years St. Mary’s parishioners have been providing meals during the summer time.

In June, the volunteer coordinator is contacted by me and available dates for Fridays and Saturdays in July, August, and September are obtained.  Then a poster with the dates is set up after Sunday services mid June and parishioners are approached and encouraged to sign up to provide meals.  They are given written instructions about the meals, time of delivery, and address of the RMH.  A reminder phone call or email is given the day before the meal is due to reminder parishioner.  The meals must serve 16 persons, and contain an entree with a side dish, and a salad, dessert, and drinks may be added.

An article is usually placed in the church bulletin and the Communicant to advertise the sign-up, and a thank you note is again placed at the end of the season.