Outreach at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church: A short history of Faith in Action

by Bruce Gunter

St. Luke’s is as grounded in the history of Atlanta as much as any church or institution of any stripe in this city. The “crossroads”

location that we celebrate today and what shapes our response to the city around us was every bit a defining characteristic in 1864 when Dr. Charles Todd Quintard founded the church in the heart of downtown in response to the influx of refugees and attendant

homelessness created by the Civil War. Thus enmeshed in the affairs of the city from the very beginning, St. Luke’s drew a leadership cadre

to its pews, and this leadership has been active in every major civic and commercial institution and every social movement, especially

the reaching out to those less fortunate.

Though the term “outreach” has been branded as confusing and misleading--a “false dichotomy”---it has endured for forty

years. Outreach ministries at St. Luke’s encompass a wide range of organizations and structures, from independently incorporated

501(c)3 nonprofits with separate boards and staffs to in-house committees with fluid membership and mission. This entrepreneurial mish-mash of collective activities and individual parishioner initiative

has been built into the fabric of the parish as much as the stately brick walls and awe-inspiring stained glass windows. Though present

at the beginning, this brief history of outreach at St. Luke’s draws more on the past forty years, a period of time when it could be said

that outreach came to be a defining aspect of the parish.

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How and why did this come to pass? Consider this passage from the 2001 Parish Profile, We Sing A Song: “Our communal identity has been shaped by concern for the outsider and the needy, the sick and the suffering, the hungry and the homeless….The heart and soul of each of these ministries stem from the parish’s and individual volunteer’s commitment to serve Christ in the world.” Twenty years ago, a 1991 outreach brochure described it this way: “These outreach ministries are the church’s efforts to reach out to those separated from society by the invisible walls and boundaries of illness, poverty, race, language, educational limitations, or loss of shelter.” These words are directly traced to the gospel of Matthew, representing St. Luke’s response to Christ’s call.

Inception and Development

Much of the recorded history of St. Luke’s reflects the leadership of its rectors. One of the most influential of the early rectors at St. Luke’s was The Rev. Cary Wilmer, who assumed the mantle of rector in 1900. The Rev. Wilmer was lauded as “a man ahead of his time”, a moniker that can signify that he was at odds with current convention. Nonetheless, Rev. Wilmer brought the parish along with him on the pressing issues of the day, as he spoke out strongly against child labor and in favor of racial equality, human rights and social justice. He served as rector for 24 years, covering the time of the construction of the present-day building.

St. Luke’s kept up with the expansion of the city throughout the 30’s and 40’s, maintaining its identity as a “family parish,” which included a radio ministry to the broader Atlanta community. In 1949, St. Luke’s became the site of the Cerebral Palsy School Clinic until its relocation to the Cator Woolford Estate (now known as the Fraser Center) off of Ponce de Leon Ave. At the invitation of The Rev. Wilson Sneed in 1957, the Atlanta Public Schools moved its program for children with visual loss to the Parish House at St. Luke’s. And in partnership with All Saint’s, St. Luke’s founded the first continuing care community in Atlanta, Canterbury Court, in the mid-1960’s.

During the 1960’s, Atlanta, like the nation, was convulsed with change, as urban areas experienced social upheaval and out-migration of white families to the burgeoning suburbs. Many downtown churches dwindled to a fraction of their former size or left altogether. Once a church predominantly populated by elite and well-to-do communicants, St. Luke’s faced a turning point. Would it withdraw in the face of a seismic shift away from the city, or would it reinvigorate itself by attracting newcomers and by an energetic mission relevant to the tumultuous times? Enter The Rev. Tom Bowers.

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It can be said that outreach as we know it today was started under Tom Bowers. A prodigiously gifted and charismatic leader, Tom presided over the creation of a host of outreach ministries. A younger demographic began coming to St. Luke’s, attracted by its immersion in the issues and concerns of the city and its open and welcoming attitude. The year 1971 could be seen as the dividing point between an old St. Luke’s and a new one—between a membership drawn heavily from old families and old money to one that embraced the diversity and tumult thrust upon it. Rev. Bowers introduced a folk mass in 1972, followed by a television ministry which brought the Sunday service to 20,000 viewers each week. The Community Kitchen opened its doors in 1974, followed in rapid succession by the Street Academy and the Training and Counseling Center.

St. Luke’s was evolving into a parish that valued what the new public valued: participation, inclusiveness, diversity, and a commitment to a workable urban lifestyle.

Building on what Bowers instigated, starting in 1980 The Rev. Dan Matthews, Sr. solidified St. Luke’s reputation with stellar preaching and a leadership style that enabled all sorts of people to find a place at the church. Dan added a female priest to the staff (at a time when there were very few female priests), a black man of Panamanian descent, and a former Catholic Hispanic priest. Outreach activities proliferated, including the building of the church’s first Habitat for Humanity house, and the church prospered.

Outreach Ministries twenty years ago

In the early 1990’s, St. Luke’s was designated a national Episcopal Jubilee Center, reflecting our recognized commitment to outreach. Outreach was in full flower, with The Rev. Carol Jean Miller the first Director of Jubilee Ministries. The major outreach ministries as listed in the 1991 parish profile We Are a People were:

• St. Luke’s Community Kitchen, founded in 1974 by parishioner Jenny Pierson. Bill Bolling, founder and president of the Atlanta Community Food Bank, got his start directing the Kitchen. The Kitchen moved to its present location in 1997, relocating from the parish hall and incorporating as Crossroads Community Ministries, Inc. Stan Dawson assumed the head in 1999.

• Good Samaritan Center, started by the Rev. Isaias Rodriguez in the late 80’s, offered Sunday worship to an Hispanic congregation, a soccer team, a newsletter and other services. The Center moved to the Cathedral where it remains today under the leadership of Rev. Rodriguez.

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• St. Luke’s Street Academy, provided education to over 100 stidents each year who were not succeeding in regular school settings in a city with a (then) 45% public school drop-out rate. Founded by Neil Shorthouse, it was located in the adjacent Samaritan Annex, which was subsequently torn down to make room for the St. Luke’s Bell Tower. Exodus, later renamed Cities in Schools, administered the Street Academy, one of six such academies in the city sponsored by Exodus. Its offices were in the Peachtree Pine building (owned by St. Luke’s at the time, sold in 1997). The Atlanta Family Literacy Center was part of the Exodus complex until it, like Cities in Schools, moved off campus.

• Training and Counseling Center (TACC), founded in 1976 to serve as a counseling center for individuals and couples, as well as a training center for theology students seeking clinical pastoral education. The Rev. Peter Thomas was its first director, followed by The Rev. Palmer Temple. The Rev. Miriam Needham has served as executive director since 2001.

• SLEDCO (St. Luke’s Economic Development Corporation) was founded by The Rev. Reynell Parkins in 1982 with a mission to help the homeless find jobs and was located in the on-campus Samaritan Annex (since demolished). Led by John Petty for many years, in 1992 SLEDCO changed its name to the Atlanta Enterprise Center (AEC) and moved off-campus. In 2009, AEC merged with the Samaritan House, also co-founded by a St. Luke’s parishioner, to form the Atlanta Center for Self Sufficiency.

• Georgia Nurses Foundation Clinic for the Homeless, located off of the parish hall, worked with the Community Kitchen. St. Joseph’s Mercy Care Services took over operation of the clinic in the late 1990’s and remains on-campus today.

• La Solidaridad was the St. Luke’s Latin American study and advocacy group that sought to achieve peace, justice and freedom for the people of Central America (since disbanded).

Following The Rev. Matthews, outreach and the church itself began to experience limits to its growth, as the church confronted a pernicious “two Atlantas” syndrome, with Atlanta ranked among the highest in the nation in homicides, poverty, and drop-out rates. The line at the soup kitchen kept growing. Charged to rethink our approach to outreach, a Mission Vision committee, chaired by Melba Hughes, was appointed by The Rev. Spenser Simrill in 1993. It is instructive to read what this group viewed as the persistent challenges of outreach:

• Involvement with laity is inconsistent • Little connection between Sunday and weekday “parishioners”• Fragmented leadership and little coordination between outreach ministries

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• St. Luke’s Street Academy, provided education to over 100 students each year who

• Focus more often on the transformation of the lives of the people serving rather than those being served by the ministry

• Does not have leadership role in advocacy in the community

Although these perennial challenges ring true to this day, the history of outreach ministries at St. Luke’s suggests that the parish possesses a generous and entrepreneurial spirit that seeks to address the issues and concerns of the day.

Outreach TodayOutreach remains vibrant and a central feature of St. Luke’s. Four focus ministries-- Crossroads Community Ministries, TACC, Standing Together, and I Have A Dream (IHAD) -- remain our most visible and robust of the outreach ministries. They are by no means the only ones. For example, in recent years, youth mission trips such as those to Jamaica and New Orleans continue the tradition by inculcating a spirit of service to a new generation of servants. Here is the list of outreach ministries listed in the ministries brochure published in 2010, along with their founding year:

On-campus ministries • Crossroads Community Ministries, Inc. (1974)• Training and Counseling Center, Inc. (1976)• Courtland Street Mission (2000)• Standing Together (2005)• I Have A Dream (2001)• Refugee Resettlement Ministry (2007)

Off-campus ministries • Holy Comforter • Church of the Common Ground Fellowship• Midtown Assistance Center

An aspect of outreach perhaps least familiar to parishioners is the financial support the church provides to selected community nonprofits through its two endowment funds, the Smith-Hawkins Fund and the McBurney-Folkes Fund. In 2010, these funds--blessings from the past that continue to give in the present--awarded $157,000 to front-line, grass-roots nonprofits engaged in outreach. Here is a sampling of the groups that have received funding over the past decade:

Absalom Jones Student CenterChristian Council of Metro AtlantaSamaritan House *Midtown Congregations Assistance Center *St. Jude’s House *

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Habitat for HumanityAtlanta Interfaith AIDS NetworkGenesis Shelter for Mothers and Infants *Emmaus HouseAtlanta Community Food BankEpiscopal Charities FoundationNicholas House South Dekalb Center for Healthy LivingCircle of FriendsCovenant HouseCrossroads Community Ministries*Training & Counseling Center (TACC)*Trinity Community Ministries

Those ministries denoted by an asterisk * were founded in whole or in partnership by St. Luke’s. Collectively, these nonprofits represent a tremendous impact on behalf of the poor and beleaguered of our city. Several ministries were begun at St. Luke’s and subsequently “spun off” to other locations as they matured to the point of raising their own funds and recruiting their own boards. The Atlanta Community Food Bank, founded by the inestimable Bill Bolling, is the most lauded example (and likely the most well respected nonprofit in the city), but that list also includes SLEDCO, the Street Academy, and the Hispanic Ministry. One degree of separation away are nonprofits founded by parishioners, which list would include Progressive Redevelopment, Inc (PRI). Among its over two dozen properties around the state, PRI developed three properties in downtown Atlanta that today house and provide services to formerly homeless individuals. Other parishioners work at or serve on the boards of local outreach nonprofits such as Atlanta Habitat for Humanity, Chris Kids, and the Georgia Justice Project.

Finally, any history of outreach at St. Luke’s would be incomplete without mention of the literally hundreds of individuals who could be considered outreach ambassadors, taking the social Gospel into their work and civic affairs throughout the city. Though a complete listing would fill pages, think of the incredible impact that Ann Cramer, Neil Shorthouse, and Brad Currey, to name a few, have had in making our community a better place for everyone.

Going forward

The Rev. Dr. Reynell Parkins, one of the most respected and beloved leaders of St. Luke’s, continually challenged outreach leadership with the central question of outreach—whether to give a man a fish, or to teach him how to fish. This challenge is as pressing today as it was then. We struggle to find the right balance, searching our souls and Scripture for the answer. As the 2001 parish profile put it, “We can look at what we have to do, bury the portion of the past that no

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longer serves, be revitalized by the Gospel, and use new ideas to create new life. We are free to ask the question.”

What is in our hearts that motivates us to reach out to others, often seemingly so different from ourselves? Perhaps this theological reflection contained in the outreach Mission Vision Report of June 1994 touches on the answer:

God calls us to be risk takers, hope bringers, and mature Christians as we take our faith into Atlanta and the world. We must develop the kind of maturity that is wise to the ways of the world and clear about the structures and processes that inhibit God’s grace. Transfiguration is more than about hearing the voice of God; it is seeing in a new way. It is the capacity to see and define our brokenness. It is about noticing our barriers, counting on the breakthroughs and trusting in healing. It is being. It is doing. It is individual. It is community.

Those who have gone before us have endowed us today with an excellent location and physical treasures, a high degree of financial stability, and a heritage of service to the community beyond our walls. The Rev. Daniel P. Matthews, Jr. continues through his leadership and inspirational sermons the noble tradition of outreach that started almost 150 years ago. How will we continue to build on this legacy of outreach? If you perceive outreach to be God’s calling, how will YOU build on this legacy?

Go in peace to love and serve the Lord!

Bruce Gunter February 2011

For more information about outreach ministries at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, please contact The Rev. Liz Schellingerhoudt, associate for outreach and pastoral care.

Email: liz@StLukesAtlanta.org

Wherever you are on your spiritual journey,St. Luke’s welcomes you.