Children's Sabbath

By The Rev. Anne Bolles-Beaven

May I speak in the name of the Living God by whose grace we are "holy partners in a heavenly calling." Amen.

I am very glad to be with you this morning on behalf of North Porch and at the request of Lindsay McHugh, my dear friend and long time president of the North Porch Board of Trustees. Thank you for inviting me and for choosing Children's Sabbath to highlight the ministry of North Porch Women and Infant Centers. St. George's has been a generous and faithful supporter for more years than I can count. North Porch could not do what it does -- which is provide emergency supplies for some of northern NJ's most vulnerable children -- without you and others like you working with us. Together we truly are, as Lindsay just read, "holy partners in a heavenly calling" (Heb 3:1).

I come before you today as a priest, a member of the North Porch Board of Trustees and a mom and must admit figuring out what to say to you this morning was an unexpected challenge. Is this a sermon? An introduction to North Porch? A plea from a mother on behalf of other mothers who cannot address you themselves? The answer is I hope it will in a way be all of those.

For those of you who may not be familiar with us, North Porch Women and Infants' Center is an emergency service organization providing 7 day supplies of formula, baby food, diapers, clothing, bed linens and other supplies to needy mothers and infants from birth to age 3. It is a ministry of the Episcopal Church Women of the Diocese of Newark. The name comes from the ancient custom of the church to regard the "north porch" of the church as a refuge and gathering place for women.

I explained this to our son who was then about 4 when I joined the Board who from then on referred to North Porch as "the church babies." "Are you going to the church babies meeting?" or "You can give my bottles to the church babies because I’m a big boy now." I love that. Though North Porch helps mothers (and fathers) of every faith and of no faith to me, and I expect to others, all the children who come to North Porch needing our help are God's children. I joined North Porch because Lindsay invited me to -- never underestimate the power of an invitation! -- and because it enables me to serve the Holy One who came among us as a child, poor and in a manger, in a way that even a child can understand. It's small. It's tangible. I can make a difference. What, I wonder, draws you to this ministry?

North Porch has 3 Centers to which mothers and babies can come for aid. The first opened in Newark in 1984 and is located in the former St. Philip's Academy building at 2 Park Place opposite the Cathedral. The Paterson Center opened in 1990 and operates out of St. Paul's Episcopal Church Paterson in conjunction with St. Paul's Food Pantry. Our third center opened in 1998 at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Dover.

Mothers find out about us through our contact organizations such as hospitals, health depts., churches, women’s shelters etc. with whom we’ve made a cooperative agreement and to whom we've given referral forms that the clients bring with them when they come. The families can come once every 6 months to get their 7 day supply from the Center nearest them.

The Centers themselves are overseen by a volunteer Board of Trustees -- on which Lindsay and I serve -- that meets monthly. The North Porch Dover and Newark Centers have part-time paid managers and the Paterson Center is staffed by volunteers who are assisted by the men from the Homeless Shelter that’s part of St. Paul's Community Development Corporation. The managers North Porch has hired are women who are only steps away from needing the assistance North Porch provides. It has been gratifying to be able to help them as they help us in turn help others.

It's gratifying to make a difference in people's lives -- like the father who came for assistance for his baby when he found himself out of work and then three months later returned to North Porch with a bag full of groceries: You were there for me when I needed it. I'm back on my feet and want to return the favor. Or to see a delighted 7 year old girl who'd come in wearing sandals in December try on her "like new" winter coat from North Porch beaming saying: O I LIKE this! I LIKE this! As her mother knelt alongside her saying: "Honey I TOLD you God would provide! Honey I TOLD you God would provide." God did provide. You helped.

The funding for all this comes from people like you. North Porch receives assistance through the outreach efforts of many parishes -- such as St. George's -- and various organizations, from interested and concerned individuals and granting agencies. Many supplies and all clothing are donated. We serve around 1100 mothers and their babies each year through our three centers.

North Porch was originally conceived as providing a stop-gap for mothers waiting for their next welfare check. With the transition from Welfare to Workfare, North Porch clients today are often employed but making so little money at minimum and low wage jobs that they can't get above the poverty level. These are people who tend to live from paycheck to paycheck and they are extremely vulnerable to disruptions like the recent rise in the cost of heating, gasoline, or an unexpected medical expense. North Porch is reaching out to try to ensure that fewer of these people fall by the wayside. The need is ongoing and great.

In an effort to address the deepening need North Porch has started a North Porch Future Fund, a trust fund that will allow North Porch to continue to serve needy women and children for many years to come. The Fund is invested with the Diocesan Investment Trust and proceeds from donations are currently being reinvested. Although our need for regular day-to-day contributions continues to be great, the Future Fund is helping us build for the future hopefully to enable us to expand our services. We'd like to be able, in the words of my godfather Bishop Paul Moore -- the father of 9 children -- to move "beyond charity to justice." To "establish justice in the gate," in the words of Amos. We hope one day to do more to help lift these women out of the circumstances in which they find themselves to make better lives for themselves and for their children -- even as we will continue to provide for their most basic needs. We have, in our own small way, as Martin Luther King, Jr. put it, "a dream." We invite you to be a part of it.

The work that North Porch does is so important. We wish it weren't. We wish, more than anything, that there were simply no business for us and that we had to fold up our tents and go home. But that's not what's happening. People -- babies and young children are going hungry in our communities. They shouldn't in this land of plenty, but they do and so long as they do North Porch plans to be there with assistance you help provide. In short we need you. We need your donations and your checks -- and we need you. We need you to pray for us, to sit on our Board, to help us with the nitty gritty work of caring and the o-so-vital work of envisioning what’s possible. Everybody's contribution is welcome and needed. No one else can bring the gift you have to bring.

I can't help but wonder, given the gospel for today, what might have happened if the passion of that rich young man -- who came running to Jesus falling at his feet -- had been channeled into following him? I wrote a poem about that once -- for New Testament class right before Christmas break -- what a difference each person makes.

No leafy boughs,
No glowing lights,
No ho ho ho
No Christmas night

No shining star
For kings to see
No manger bed
No calvary

Had one young maid
Like a rich man said
I cannot, Lord,
And hung his head.

God seeks "holy partners in a heavenly calling." We are so glad you're ours. Together we can make, literally, all the difference in the world. Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you about North Porch. Above all, thank you for helping us able to make God’s love visible to the mothers and babies who come through our doors. God bless you.

© 2006 The Rev. Anne Bolles-Beaven