For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me. [Matthew 25: 35-36]
Cluster Leader: Marilyn Benson Athey
Christian Services is the social ministry arm of our parish, dedicated to fulfilling Jesus’ instructions in the Gospel of Matthew: to serve, in love, our neighbors in need.
Ministries
Career Network Ministry
Volunteers from the Career Network provide help to job-seekers through targeting a search, resume construction, networking, assessing skills transference, improving interview skills, and other areas critical in successfully securing new employment. A mentor is assigned to each person who is engaged in a job search. The mentor will help the candidate to remain focused and to use the tools available to the fullest extent. The mentor is also a person from whom the job seeker will receive emotional and spiritual support or to simply have someone to talk to when one hits a bumpy patch in the search.
Deacon Lou Santore
Caregivers Support Ministry
There are times caregivers need a little help too. This group will help determine what assistance can be provided to those taking care of their loved ones. Volunteers are always welcome.
Marilyn Benson Athey
Christmas Sharing Tree
This Christmas Sharing Tree project is conducted during the Christmas season to assist people in our community who are in difficult circumstances. Through the use of a tree laden with ornaments containing gift suggestions, parishioners can contribute gifts that are collected and then distributed to our Savannah neighbors through approximately ten different social service agencies.
Hospice Helpers Ministry
Hospice Savannah requires many volunteers in order to provide the various programs and services it makes available to palliative care and homebound patients and their families. Volunteers are always needed.
Louise Quirk
Inner City Night Shelter
On the third Thursday of every month parishioners from St. James prepare and serve sandwiches and cakes at the Night Shelter in downtown Savannah. One hundred or so homeless and indigent people are fed. Volunteers arrive at the shelter at 4:15 and leave around 5:45 pm. This has been a parish ministry for 25 years.
Kevin Dutton
L.O.V.E.
Local Outreach Volunteer Educators (L.O.V.E.) tutor children in the Savannah school system who need a boost. No professional education is required. Volunteers are trained in a simple reading program and spend two hours one day a week with the children. Men and women accepted. The sacrifice is small and the impact and rewards are large!
Kevin Dutton
Martin de Porres Society
Volunteers truly live the Gospel by assisting in programs, activities, and fundraising events that provide food, activities, and material resources for children in need throughout the community.
Gail Brown
Migrant Workers
Collection drives are conducted in March and October for food, clothing and household goods to assist the migrant workers who temporarily work in agricultural pursuits in the surrounding area. Donations are distributed through Glenmary-run rural mission parishes.
Prison Ministry
People who are incarcerated struggle to put their lives back together to permit them to return to their families and society. Prison Ministry volunteers, through lectionary-based spirituality classes, bring Jesus' love, comfort, understanding, and strength to the inmates. Each class provides inmates an opportunity to reflect on how they are currently living and what alternatives there may be to help them along the path of rehabilitation.
Deacon Lou Santore
Social Apostolate
Located in downtown Savannah, the Social Apostolate receives a great deal of support from parishioners to fulfill its mission of “responding to the Gospel by caring for the poor, the homeless, the disabled, and the at-risk.” Volunteers are needed to provided services through a gift shop, a soup kitchen, a shower program, a crisis intervention office, social services case management, a health clinic, spiritual guidance, a school supply program, and a jail ministry.
Joyce Egan
Ministry Cluster 5: Christian Services
Thank you for your interest in our Christian services ministries. We welcome whatever time you can give, wherever you would like to help. If your area of interest or expertise isn't listed below, we invite you to contact us so we can help put your ideas into action!