Lessons learned at St. Andrew’s Children’s Clinic
Here is a real-life example of what it means to be a “missional” church. This is posted by the Episcopal News Service.
Lessons learned at St. Andrew’s Children’s Clinic
Here is a real-life example of what it means to be a “missional” church. This is posted by the Episcopal News Service.
By now you may have picked up a theme in this week after Christmas: children. With the joyful images and music of Christmas we celebrate the birth of the Christ child; now seems a good time to shine that Christ-light on the needs of children here and around the world.
Today (12/28) the Church commemorates the Feast of the Holy Innocents. We tell the story of the violent death of children in 1st century Palestine at the command of a tyrant, see Matthew 2:13-18. Sadly, centuries later, children in our own Coachella Valley still need to seek safety and healing from violence and abuse despite our efforts to live the kind of love that Jesus lived. The staff and volunteers (some of them members of St Margaret’s) are at the Barbara Sinatra Center to bring healing and hope to these children. ~dan rondeau
Founded in 1986 by Barbara and Frank Sinatra, the nonprofit Barbara Sinatra Children’s Center at Eisenhower provides counseling for victims of physical, sexual and emotional child abuse.
Our mission is to break the generational cycle of abuse by focusing on prevention and education.
Approximately 90% of our budget comes from the generosity of a caring, worldwide community, fundraising events and charitable organizations. This heartfelt support ensures that children are counseled regardless of a family’s inability to pay.
Barbara Sinatra Children’s Center Home Page
The Twelve Days of Christmas Calendar in one place
About the Twelve Days of Christmas Calendar
For further reflection
Logo: Barbara Sinatra Children's Center
In 2007 Natalie Tanner, only 5 months old, was diagnosed with a medulloblastoma (a cancerous tumor in her brain). Baptised at Loma Linda Children’s Hospital on the day of a surgery to remove as much of the tumor as possible, Natalie was given very little chance to survive. Kristen and Andrew Tanner, her parents and members of St. Margaret’s, were put in contact with St. Jude’s Hospital and Natalie was accepted as a patient, intercessory prayers ascended from St. Margaret’s while chemotherapy was begun at St. Jude. After initial successes and wonderful care the cancer returned, Natalie was placed on hospice care and I planned her Memorial Service with her parents. Intercessory prayers continued and a miracle of health and wholeness blossomed. By the end of summer 2008 the cancer had diminished and active care was resumed. Today Natalie continues to thrive. ~dan rondeau
Natalie was the Patient of the Month in September 2008
The mission of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital is to advance cures, and means of prevention, for pediatric catastrophic diseases through research and treatment. Consistent with the vision of our founder Danny Thomas, no child is denied treatment based on race, religion or a family’s ability to pay.
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital Mission Statement
St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital Home Page
The Twelve Days of Christmas Calendar in one place
About the Twelve Days of Christmas Calendar
For further reflection
Vision Statement
Our vision is to be the world leader in advancing the treatment and prevention of catastrophic diseases in children. This vision will be pursued by providing outstanding patient care; by conducting basic, translational and clinical research designed to elucidate biological mechanisms, understand disease pathogenesis, improve diagnosis, enhance treatment outcome, prevent diseases and minimize adverse consequences of treatment; and by educating health care and scientific research professionals. Through these efforts we seek to cure and enhance the quality of life for an increasing proportion of children who come to us for treatment, and by expanding and sharing knowledge, to advance treatment of children with catastrophic diseases worldwide, while developing strategies to prevent catastrophic diseases in children.
Values Statement
Our foremost responsibilities are to the children with catastrophic diseases, their families, and to the donors that have committed their personal resources toward our Mission. To fully meet these responsibilities, we are committed to an explicit set of values. These values are the standards of behavior that we use to guide our daily actions and decisions. We will ensure that these standards of behavior are adhered to through ongoing training of all personnel working at St. Jude, and by annually evaluating the executive leadership, faculty and staff in their adherence to these values.
Our values of ethical behavior are an important part of who we are, and their incorporation into the fabric of the institution directly impacts our ability to make progress toward achieving our Mission, while simultaneously strengthening our reputation.
To effectively live up to these ideals, institutional leaders and all employees must maintain a culture that promotes adherence to these values in all that we do.
Source: Mission of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
Logo: St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
In the Sunday worship our Rector quoted from a “creed” sent to him. The creed begins:
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, the Advocate,
Promised by Jesus,
Who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
The creed continues to celebrate and affirm the Spirit’s presence and power in creation, in the matriarchs and patriarchs and prophets of our ancestry, how the Spirit changed Mary and alighted on Jesus in the Jordan; the creed delights in the Pentecost experience and the power of preaching and healing let loose in the world. The creed finishes:
She dwells in and with God’s people,
Midwife to our rebirth as heavenly children.
One day she will welcome us home to the City of God,
And wipe away every tear from our eyes.
Written by Anastasia McAteer it can be read at Clayfire Curator: We believe in the Holy Spirit: A creed
Here is another indication of the “live word of the Living God.”
Come Holy Spirit….
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“Because the Bible is, as we confess, “the live word of the living God,” it will not submit in any compliant way to the accounts we prefer to give of it. There is something intrinsically unfamiliar about the book; and when we seek to override that unfamiliarity, we are on the hazardous ground of idolatry” –Walter Brueggemann in “Biblical Authority: A Personal Reflection” (2000)
The homepage of Clayfire Curator
Hear what the Spirit is saying 