Tag: Nonprofit

Second Day of Christmas: Dorcas House

Dorcas House

This vital ministry of compassion and hope is supported by the time, talent, and money of folks like you and me, members of the Episcopal Diocese of San Diego. It is not “too far” to go to be Good News. Here is a summary of the needs in Tijuana:

6,000 children live on the street

 80,000 do not attend school

 400 used to live with their parents in prison

 Dorcas House is changing that, one child at a time.

(About Dorcas House web page)

Mission Statement

A ministry of the Episcopal Church to serve and support children in Tijuana. (July 2011 Newsletter)

Dorcas House Home Page

Dorcas House Photo Gallery

The Twelve Days of Christmas Calendar in one place
About the Twelve Days of Christmas Calendar

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For further reflection

What’s with the funny name?

Dorcas is in the Bible—you can look it up. She was known for her kindness to people in need. Plus, it’s a name people remember. [See Acts 9:36-42]

 How many children live at Dorcas House?

We’re raising 40+ kids on $11,000 a month. Mexican businesses supply food, milk, and occasional building materials. American contributions cover the children’s school fees, uniforms, school supplies, and staff salaries.

 Why are they in foster care?

At least one parent is incarcerated. Until 2002, children of prisoners simply lived in the prison with their parents. The prison system was reformed in 2002 but Dorcas House remains the only foster home that will accept children of prisoners.

 Sounds like a rough place.

You’d be surprised. Our children bear scars from the past, but have hope for a better future. Six girls are in college preparatory classes, and two are in university and doing very well. We also have children with severe needs who are treated by a volunteer medical team and an on-staff psychologist.

 Why should I care about Mexico when there are problems here?

Where else can you do international outreach in your own back yard? The world is getting smaller every day, and the child you save today may be your neighbor tomorrow.

 What can I do?

To sign up for a trip PLEASE CONTACT Suzanne Warren: sharp.healthcare@sbcglobal.net

To join the medical team, contact Nanette Jiminez: njimenez413@yahoo.com

To make a donation, contact Chris Harris: harrisc@stpaulcathedral.org

Source: About Dorcas House


Christmas Day: Children’s Defense Fund

Children’s Defense Fund

Jesus entered this world as helpless, defenseless, and dependent as you and me and every child ever born. He was born in a stable and his bed was a food trough for animals. From that humble beginning, he escaped the death visited upon other children by a paranoid tyrant (Herod) and with the protection and nurture of his parents and their village was able to grow to adulthood—and he changed the world. All children, if we understand Jesus, are beloved by God and as God’s children have a dignity that calls forth our best efforts to protect, defend, educate, feed, and nurture them into adulthood.

Quote . . .The Children’s Defense Fund (CDF) is a non-profit child advocacy organization that has worked relentlessly for over 35 years to ensure a level playing field for all children. We champion policies and programs that lift children out of poverty; protect them from abuse and neglect; and ensure their access to health care, quality education and a moral and spiritual foundation. Supported by foundation and corporate grants and individual donations, CDF advocates nationwide on behalf of children to ensure children are always a priority. (About Children’s Defense Fund web page)

Mission Statement

The Children’s Defense Fund Leave No Child Behind® mission is to ensure every child a Healthy Start, a Head Start, a Fair Start, a Safe Start and a Moral Start in life and successful passage to adulthood with the help of caring families and communities.

CDF provides a strong, effective and independent voice for all the children of America who cannot vote, lobby or speak for themselves. We pay particular attention to the needs of poor and minority children and those with disabilities. CDF educates the nation about the needs of children and encourages preventive investments before they get sick, drop out of school, get into trouble or suffer family breakdown.

Children’s Defense Fund Home Page

The Twelve Days of Christmas Calendar in one place
About the Online Christmas Calendar

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For further reflection

What follows is the latest blog post by Marian Wright Edelman. She tells the story of one girl, Britany Lewis, who has “beaten the odds” of poverty, neglect, and abuse and will now go on to college. After telling Britany’s story  she wonders “… how many more of America’s 16.4 million poor children will never beat the odds stacked against them and grow up to reach their full potential the way [Britany] has? How many millions of Britanys have we already lost? How many poor babies were born today who will never win any awards and whose names we’ll never know—but who will instead grow up hungry, homeless, poorly educated, and unloved on the outskirts of the American dream?” Listen to this story and these questions while remembering the birth of Jesus in these Twelve Days of Christmas. ~dan rondeau

Remembering a poor baby by Marian Wright Edelman

When Britany Lewis was born, no trumpets and glad tidings or even balloons and baby showers greeted her arrival. She was just another poor baby. Britany never knew her father, and for the first six years of her life lived in virtual squalor with five siblings and a mother addicted to drugs who eventually went to prison. Britany barely remembers her, though there are some details of her early childhood that do stand out—like the maggots everywhere in their run-down house, even in the refrigerator.

When Britany was six, her then nineteen-year-old sister was awarded custody of her young siblings. But her sister was hardly prepared to be a parent or provider for her younger sisters and brothers, and the family was forced to live for over a year in a two-door Honda Prelude. The deplorable living conditions and lack of parental guidance caused Britany to miss an entire year of school. No one cared enough to notice or do anything about it. Her sister also began a destructive pattern of physical abuse toward Britany that would last for several years. Once, she dealt a devastating blow that forced Britany to miss two days of school while she nursed a black eye. Britany remembers that the physical pain paled in comparison to the disappointment of tarnishing the perfect attendance record she’d built up and determinedly maintained for several years in a row in the midst of the chaos at home. By then, school had become a refuge.

While millions of children have found safe harbor with relatives, Britany did not until she was 16. Her sister kicked her out and left her then in the care of her grandparents. In this current home Brittany has finally found the love, support, and guidance she needs and deserves. Despite the abandonment, homelessness, and physical abuse that permeated her childhood, Britany managed to stand tall against the odds that constantly threatened to destroy her dreams. Now a high school senior, she has a 3.94 GPA and is, according to her guidance counselor, “a proven force” on her high school campus. Britany serves as Associated Student Body President and is a vigilant community leader in programs such as the Youth Commission-City of Lancaster, California and the Teen Builders Community Service Club. Selected as a “Future Leader” by the Valley Press Newspaper, Brittany believes “I overcame the things from my past because I refuse to let them hold me back. My plan is to continue to do my best in school and help others along the way.”

Britany is now also one of the newest winners of the Children’s Defense Fund’s Beat the Odds® awards program, which recognizes outstanding high school students who have overcome incredible adversity to excel in school and display incredible self-determination and a drive toward achievement through the common thread of hard work, academic excellence, and service to their communities. On December 1, celebrities and child advocates joined CDF’s California office at an awards gala honoring Britany and four other extraordinary high school students from the Los Angeles area. Each of them will receive a $10,000 college scholarship and support services including rigorous SAT prep, one-on-one college counseling, state-wide college tours, internship opportunities, educational and life-skills workshops, and guidance and mentoring throughout the high school and college years.

I am so proud of Britany Lewis and the other youths recognized in Beat the Oddsawards programs in eight cities this year. But how many more of America’s 16.4 million poor children will never beat the odds stacked against them and grow up to reach their full potential the way she has? How many millions of Britanys have we already lost? How many poor babies were born today who will never win any awards and whose names we’ll never know—but who will instead grow up hungry, homeless, poorly educated, and unloved on the outskirts of the American dream?

In the afterglow of Christmas when Christians celebrate the birth of the most famous poor baby in history—the miracle of the incarnation and the belief that God actually came to live among us as a poor, homeless child—I hope we can honor this holy baby in our lives today by raising a mighty voice for justice and protection for all the poor babies and children made in God’s image still left behind in poverty and hopelessness.

Originally posted on 12/21/11 on The Huffington Post by Marian Wright Edelman
Meet and hear Britany: Britany Lewis: 2011 CDF-CaliforniaBeat the Odds® Scholarship Recipient

Still looking for gift ideas after Christmas?

Proudly introducing the St. Margaret’s Online Calendar for the 12 Days of Christmas

Beginning with Christmas Day, and continuing the theme of the Advent Calendar, a new posting will be made each of the 12 Days of Christmas to introduce you to a person, an organization, or a fund that embodies the Gospel imperative to “love your neighbor as yourself.” We celebrate the birth of a poor, homeless baby who grew to reveal God, who is love. We have been invited to love as he loved us. In these 12 Days of Christmas continue to become aware of the many needs that surround us and the many persons, individually and collectively, working to meet those needs.

Come every day to the Online Calendar for the 12 Days of Christmas to open a new “window” and look upon the world into which Christ is to be born. In quiet and prayer, hear what the Spirit is saying to you.

The Twelve Days of Christmas Calendar in one place

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For further reflection


Advent Calendar Day 28: World Vision

World Vision

In the next few days we will hear these thrilling words from Isaiah, “For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:6

Our hearts and minds, of course, will “see” Jesus as the fulfillment of the prophet’s words. As citizens of the 21st century, however, we cannot escape “seeing” other children, “the least of Jesus’ family,” in their need for safety, for clean water, for food, for education, for love. World Vision is dedicated to serving those children and their families.

Catherine and Richard from our Forum have supported children worldwide through World Vision. Chances are that those you worship with on any given Sunday also support children worldwide through the efforts of World Vision.

Quote . . .World Vision is a Christian humanitarian organization dedicated to working with children, families, and their communities worldwide to reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty and injustice.” From the World Vision website

Who is served and why

We serve close to 100 million people in nearly 100 countries around the world. World Vision serves all people, regardless of religion, race, ethnicity, or gender.  Motivated by our faith in Jesus Christ, we serve alongside the poor and oppressed as a demonstration of God’s unconditional love for all people.

Learn more: Who we are – World Vision

Advent Calendar in one place
About the Online Advent Calendar


For further reflection

It is better to give than to receive

When USA Today asked me about my favorite Christmas gifts given and received, I couldn’t help but reflect on the gifts I have received through World Vision. As a donor to World Vision U.S. for 25 years — and as its president for 13 years — I’ve found that the best gifts I’ve received come as a result of generous giving.  Read the rest of the story

Another story revealing the joy that is a gift to the giver

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Logo: World Vision Home Page


Advent Calendar Day 27: CareForTheTroops

CareForTheTroops

With the war in Iraq officially ended and the troops coming home, the challenges faced by these returning troops demands our attention and response. In Georgia the Rev. Robert Certain (Fifth Rector of St. Margaret’s), men from the Brotherhood of St. Andrew, and a couple of parishioners  organized an effort to meet the needs of returning veterans and their families. CareForTheTroops is a catalyst for action in Georgia and provides care. Moreover, CareForTheTroops provides a model for other faith-based and community efforts to increase awareness of the challenges faced by returning veterans and their families and provides a model for reaching out to those who have served us well.  ~dan rondeau

Quote . . .Dedicated to the mental health care of our returning troops and their families, we provide information and training to families, clinicians, congregation and community leaders, so that they become more aware of the culture, unique symptoms and issues faced by military families. (CareForTheTroops Home Page)

Mission Statement

  • Work to improve the ability of the civilian mental health infrastructure in the State of Georgia, then nationally, to work with military family members
  • Facilitate connecting military families to providers of spiritual and psychological services familiar with the military culture and trauma
  • Focus on addressing combat stress recovery as well as other spiritual and mental health related problems impacting the marriages and families of military veterans
  • Educate and train clinicians, congregation and community leaders, extended family, and civilian groups about the military culture and trauma associated with military deployments in order to better assess and treat mental health symptoms, and provide more effective referrals and care Provide opportunities for additional trauma treatment training to clinicians
  • Operate in an interfaith, non-political manner, focusing on the humanitarian interest that benefits the veterans and their extended family members

Source: CareForTheTroops

Previous Advent “windows” about caring for our Veterans

Advent Calendar in one place
About the Online Advent Calendar


For further reflection

Wounded Marine Corp veteran Adam Lewis outside his home on Monday, Nov. 7, 2011 in Yulee, Fla

Wounded Veterans Struggle To Find Civilian Jobs Amid Downturn, Bureaucracy

Adam Lewis, a strapping Florida man, joined the Marines in 2004 when he was 19, and within a year he was fighting in Iraq’s Anbar Province with Golf Company, 2nd Marine Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment. It was a bloody time in Anbar, with vicious and sometimes hand-to-hand combat with insurgents. Lewis kept busy.

He was first wounded in August 2005 by a bomb blast that perforated an eardrum and left him with ringing in his ears and other injuries. He wasn’t hurt badly enough to be sent home, so he went back on duty and was traveling in a Humvee when the road gave way and he tumbled down an embankment, suffering compression fractures in his back. The Marines put him on light duty until he felt better, and he went back out into the fight.

This time, during operations in Fallujah, Lewis was shot in the head by a sniper. Luckily he had just turned his head and the bullet struck his skull at an angle, but the wound was still severe. After surgery came more than two years of rehab, culminating with his retirement from the Marine Corps on medical grounds in 2007.

To help himself land a god job and a career, Lewis took remedial reading courses to help repair the damage from his head wound, and went on to college. It took him three years to earn his associate degree. He got married and has a two-year-old daughter. This past summer he began seriously looking for work.

So far, no luck.

Having given so much for his country, Adam Lewis, at 26, has been without meaningful employment for four years, and is frustrated and angry after four months of intense job hunting.

Read the rest of Adam’s story to see why organizations like CareForTheTroops will be needed for a long time to come

Other stories to raise awareness

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Photo: Huffington Post article of 11/11/11


Advent Calendar Day 26: Create Good Foundation

Create Good Foundation

It’s about water. It’s about sustainability and justice. Episcopal Relief and Development sells a Fair Trade Coffee called Bishops Blend. The coffee is purchased from Pura Vida Create Good. The Create Good Foundation was formed by Pura Vida Create Good in 1998 and continues to be supported by Pura Vida Create Good. Between Create Good Foundation and Episcopal Relief and Development water and hope are brought to and shared with coffee growers in Central America. ~dan rondeau

Quote . . .At the same time Pura Vida Coffee (currently named Pura Vida Create Good) was formed in 1998, the Founders also established a public nonprofit called Pura Vida Partners (currently named Create Good Foundation) to accept donations from customers and others to fund projects that would improve the lives of coffee farmers and their families. Pura Vida Create Good has funded from inception a significant portion of the overhead costs associated with operating the Foundation, and has and continues to make monthly contributions to the Foundation.

When you purchase Pura Vida coffee for your office, church or food service establishment, we hope you experience the intrinsic satisfaction of knowing you are helping us provide clean water, health care, and economic opportunity fo coffee farmers and their families. (Create Good Foundation website)

Mission Statement

The Create Good Foundation is committed to helping the lives of poor people who live and work in coffee growing regions around the world through water and economic infrastructure projects.

Vision Statement

We will be the premier organization to empower coffee producers, their families, and their surrounding communities through water and economic infrastructure projects paving the way for the next generation.

Source: About Create Good

Home Page for Create Good

Advent Calendar in one place
About the Online Advent Calendar


For further reflection

A key factor in having a stable and thriving community is to have an economic infrastructure that supports jobs. Throughout the developing world, jobs and opportunities are seriously lacking. This leads to migration, lack of personal investment, poor health, and little hope.

Water is a major issue throughout the world, which is why we work to bring clean water to people. However, clean water alone is not enough. People need access to jobs and opportunity. We are working to bring new opportunities to communities that allow innovation and jobs.

Here is what we have been doing;

  • Coffee land renovation in Oaxaca
  • Coffee processing equipment in Guatemala
  • Roasting business in Oaxaca
  • Business opportunities and training for the disabled in Peru
  • School rebuilt in Guatemala
  • Computer training center in Guatemala
  • Education facility in Guatemala
  • Computer center in Costa Rica
  • Women’s health training in Oaxaca
  • Vegetable greenhouse business in Oaxaca
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Text from the website for Create Good Foundation
Photo from the Facebook Page of the Create Good Foundation


Advent Calendar Day 25: Coachella Valley Rescue Mission

 Coachella Valley Rescue Mission (CVRM)

Since coming to St. Margaret’s in 1993 I have been proud of the partnership of this congregation (collectively and as individuals seeking to serve Christ) with Coachella Valley Rescue Mission. A strong bond with CVRM continues to this day through caring individuals and through our St. Margaret’s Outreach Center.  ~dan rondeau

Quote . . .Since 1971, Coachella Valley Rescue Mission has been an oasis, a place of refuge for the homeless and needy in our valley. We are a safe haven, a place of rest for the weary, and a place where daily physical and spiritual needs may be met.

Over the years the mission has continued to meet the ever growing needs of individuals, who for a variety of reasons, have found themselves without the basic necessities of life. A dedicated staff and volunteers serve more than 130,000 hot meals annually and provide shelter to thousands of men and women with children. Food, clothing, and showers are also provided for those who do not shelter with us.” (CVRM website)

Mission Statement

“To serve those in need by sharing the saving grace of Jesus Christ through the provision of food, shelter, clothing, and spiritual recovery.”

Vision Statement

As ministers of reconciliation, we are to facilitate the reconciliation of men and women to God, to themselves, and to society.

Those in need of recovery due to loss of job, home, health, emotional, mental or spiritual support, or physical or substance abuse find themselves drawn to our ministry.  We are to facilitate that reconciliation through the available means of this Mission, i.e. food, clothing, shelter, counseling and discipleship.  Through these modalities we pave the way for them to be reconciled.

Source: Mission & Vision Page for CVRM

Home Page for Coachella Valley Rescue Mission

Advent Calendar in one place
About the Online Advent Calendar


For further reflection

 

“The LORD blesses everyone who freely gives food to the poor.”  Proverbs 22:9 CEV

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Public Service Announcement from the CVRM website


Advent Calendar Day 24: charity: water

charity: water

If you have ever hiked or camped in the wilderness you KNOW how precious water is to your survival. Drink contaminated water and you become sick. Go without water, become dehydrated, and you are in peril within 48 hours. A person can survive without food for days or weeks, a person deprived of water will likely be dead within days, not lasting even a week.  ~dan rondeau

Mission statement

charity: water is a non-profit organization bringing clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations. Source: About charity: water

A 3-minute look at how water changes everything from the page: WHY WATER?

Advent Calendar in one place
About the Online Advent Calendar


For further reflection

The Founder’s story

In 2004, I left the streets of New York City for the shores of West Africa. I’d made my living for years in the big Apple promoting top nightclubs and fashion events, for the most part living selfishly and arrogantly. Desperately unhappy, I needed to change. Faced with spiritual bankruptcy, I wanted desperately to revive a lost Christian faith with action and asked the question: What would the opposite of my life look like?

I signed up for volunteer service aboard a floating hospital with a group called Mercy Ships, a humanitarian organization which offered free medical care in the world’s poorest nations. Operating on surgery ships, they’d built a 25-year track record of astonishing results yet I’d never heard of them.

Top doctors and surgeons from all over the world left their practices and fancy lives to operate for free on thousands who had no access to medical care. I soon found the organization to be full of remarkable people. The chief medical officer was a surgeon who left Los Angeles to volunteer for two weeks – 23 years ago. He never looked or went back. I took the position of ship photojournalist, and immediately traveled to Africa. At first, being the Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s court felt strange. I traded my spacious midtown loft for a 150-square-foot cabin with bunk beds, roommates and cockroaches. Fancy restaurants were replaced by a mess hall feeding 400+ Army style. A prince in New York, now I was living in close community with 350 others. I felt like a pauper.

But once off the ship, I realized how good I really had it. In new surroundings, I was utterly astonished at the poverty that came into focus through my camera lens. Often through tears, I documented life and human suffering I’d thought unimaginable. In West Africa, I was a prince again. A king, in fact. A man with a bed and clean running water and food in my stomach.

I fell in love with Liberia – a country with no public electricity, running water or sewage – Spending time in a leper colony and many remote villages, I put a face to the world’s 1.2 billion living in poverty. Those living on less than $365 a year – money I used to blow on a bottle of Grey Goose vodka at a fancy club. Before tip.

Our medical staff would hold patient intake “screenings” and thousands would wait in line to be seen, many afflicted with deformities even Clive Barker hadn’t thought of. Enormous, suffocating tumors – cleft lips, faces eaten by bacteria from water-borne diseases. I learned many of these medical conditions also existed here in the west, but were taken care of – never allowed to progress. The amount of blind people without access to the 20-minute cataract surgery that could restore their sight astonished me – all part of this new world.

Over the next eight months, I met patients who taught me the meaning of courage. Many of them had been slowly suffocating to death for years and yet pressing on. Praying, hoping, surviving. It was an honor to photograph them. It was an honor to know them.

Charity.

For me, charity is practical. It’s sometimes easy, more often inconvenient, but always necessary. It’s the ability to use one’s position of influence, relative wealth and power to affect lives for the better. charity is singular and achievable.

There’s a biblical parable about a man beaten near death by robbers. He’s stripped naked and lying roadside. Most people pass him by, but one man stops. He picks him up and bandages his wounds. He puts him on his horse and walks alongside until they reach an inn. He checks him in and throws down his Amex. “Whatever he needs until he gets better.”

Because he could.

The dictionary defines charity as simply the act of giving voluntarily to those in need. It’s taken from the word “caritas,” or simply, love. In Colossians 3, the Bible instructs readers to “put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.”

Although I’m still not sure what that means, I love the idea. To wear charity.

-Scott Harrison

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Images and text: from the website charitywater.org


Advent Calendar Day 23: The Episcopal Refugee Network

The Episcopal Refugee Network

As citizens of the 21st century we are sadly acquainted with the results of violent conflict and genocide, or drought and famine as hundreds of thousands of persons become refugees and are displaced from family, home, and even country. On behalf of you and me and all people of goodwill the Episcopal Refugee Network of our Diocese is working to meet the needs of refugees who arrive in San Diego.

Quote . . .San Diego hosts almost 3500 Sudanese refugees, mainly from the Dinka, Nuer, Bari and Equatorial tribal areas of the Sudan. … The Refugee Network also helps families who have been displaced by genocide in Burma and Bhutan.” From our Diocesan website

The work of the Episcopal Refugee Network

The Episcopal Refugee Network supports families during
their years of adjustment to American life by providing:

  • Help with documentation
    Enrolling children at school
    Social Security registration
    Welfare/benefits registration
  • Translation for
    Medical visits
    Official interviews
    Registering children at School
  • Assistance in
    Obtaining employment
    –filling out applications etc…
  • Tutoring Programs

Learn more: About The Episcopal Refugee Network

Advent Calendar in one place
About the Online Advent Calendar


For further reflection

Read MORE ON REFUGEES IN SAN DIEGO

Two Frequently Asked Questions answered by International Justice Mission:

Who are refugees and displaced persons?

They are men, women and children fleeing war, persecution and political upheaval. They are uprooted with little warning, enduring great hardship during their flight. They become refugees when they cross borders and seek safety in another country. They are displaced when they are forced to flee their homes, but remain within the borders of their native country.

The 1951 UN Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, as amended by its 1967 protocol defines a refugee as a person who “owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality, and is unable to or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country…”

The U.S. will not recognize persons who have participated in war crimes and violations of humanitarian and human rights law, including the crime of terrorism, as refugees. They are specifically excluded from the protection accorded to refugees.

How many refugees and displaced persons are there, and who makes up the majority of the refugee population?

Right now there are about 42 million displaced people in the world.   One in every 170 persons in the world has been uprooted by war.  This is the largest category of vulnerable people in the world.  About one third of them are officially recognized refugees because they have crossed an international border.  The other two thirds are so-called internally displaced persons, or IDPs, because they are still within their own country.  Of the world’s 12 million or so refugees, about 3.2 million are in Africa.  In addition, Africa has about half of the world’s 25 million IDPs.

80 percent of the world’s refugees are women and children who are more vulnerable to their unstable conditions.

Source: International Rescue Committee Frequently Asked Questions About Refugees and Resettlement accessed 16 Dec 2011

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Image: Episcopal Refugee Network Home Page


Advent Calendar Day 22: Claremont School of Theology

Claremont School of Theology (CST) and more

In 1984, as part of my preparation to be received as an Episcopal priest, I attended Bloy House on the campus of Claremont School of Theology. In 2008, before my illness, I had begun the Doctor of Ministry program at Claremont School of Theology. Cherry Remboldt, our deacon, studied for ordination at Bloy House and received her Master of Arts degree in Theology from Claremont School of Theology. John Tincher, an ordained United Methodist minister and a regular worshiper at St. Margaret’s, serves on the Board of Claremont School of Theology.  Claremont School of Theology is a leader in theological education and it’s just down the road from us, a wonderful resource for us all. ~dan rondeau

Mission Statement

Claremont School of Theology is United Methodist in origin and affiliation and ecumenical in spirit. As a founding school of Claremont Lincoln University, it seeks to instill students with ethical integrity, religious intelligence, and intercultural understanding. Nurtured by Christian Scripture, tradition, experience, and reason, it prepares individuals for ordination and effective leadership in service to God, the academy, and the world, and equips them to pursue peaceful coexistence and collaboration with other religions.

Adopted February 2010

Learn more about CST and its Affiliated Institutions:

Claremont School of Theology

Claremont Lincoln University

Bloy House, The Episcopal Theological School at Claremont

Other Affiliated Institutions – in addition to Bloy House and Claremont Lincoln University, CST is home to Disciples Seminary Foundation, Center for Lutheran Studies, Bayan College (educating Muslim leaders) and is affiliated with Claremont Graduate University, especially the School of Religion

Advent Calendar in one place
About the Online Advent Calendar


For further reflection

About Claremont

Claremont School of Theology isn’t like most theological schools. Yes, we educate ministers and other leaders in service of Church and society. Yes, we’re rooted in a particular tradition — The United Methodist Church — but we are broad in denominational composition and outlook. And yes, we offer opportunities for spiritual formation, intellectual exploration, and practical preparation.

But that’s where the similarities end.

Claremont School of Theology is a transdenominational theological school and a founding member of a new multireligious consortium that’s embarking on a bold 21st century experiment. Located in Southern California — the most diverse region in the United States — Claremont School of Theology is looking forward to the needs of the future church, one that’s ready to preach and practice the Gospel message of love and compassion in a radically diverse world.

To do that, we’re building on a relatively simple educational philosophy: we are desegregating religious education so our students can better learn about others as they learn about ourselves. Research is showing that students gain a deeper understanding of their own faith when educated in the presence of religious diversity. It’s a ground-breaking — and controversial — approach to ministerial education and Christian formation. –from the CST website, accessed 14 Dec 2011

Watch “Multifaith Theological Education” an Introduction to Claremont Lincoln University (a 7 minute video article from Religion & Ethics on PBS)


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