Marvelous Works Missioners (MWM)
Mission Statement
"Marvelous are thy works..." —Psalm 139
Marvelous Works Missioners is a Parish group that does outreach with an ecological focus on the stewardship of God's creation in the spirit of St. Francis of Assisi.
Our awareness of God's presence is often mingled with our awareness of the mystery, grandeur, and beauty of creation, and our scriptural tradition is replete with praise for God's "handiwork". At the same time, the "groaning" of a Creation yearning for redemption, as St. Paul tells us, is audible and acute. The reality of human exploitation of the natural world and the imminent threat to all life posed by global climate change challenges us to respond.
In response to this challenge, Marvelous Works Missioners will work to care for Creation and act to educate and inspire others to do likewise, here at St. Michael's, and beyond!
Saturday May 7, 9am-12pm: Marvelous Works Missioners and the Shepaug River Association
Marvelous Works Missioners, a ministry of St. Michaels, is offering a new opportunity to do environmental outreach in the spirit of Saint Francis, and in the context of our Christian community. This spring, we can get valuable training to assist in preserving our local resource – the Bantam River.
The Housatonic Valley Association is helping to coordinate volunteer efforts to monitor the water quality of all the tributaries of the Housatonic River. One way to do this is to take samples of tiny water creatures (microinvertebrates), identify and sort them, and preserve them for analysis (bioassessment) by water biologists.
For those who are new to this kind of work, there is a choice of two 2-hour training sessions the week before the event: Tuesday 5/3/11 in Washington (location TBD) and Thursday 5/5/11 in Roxbury (Town Hall). Both sessions will start at 6:30 and run about 2 hours. Volunteers only need to attend one of the two sessions – whichever is more convenient. (There is no cost for either the training or the event and all required equipment will be provided.)
Anyone interested in participating (in either the training or the event) is asked to email Meghan Ruta, Water Protection Manager of HVA, at mruta@hvatoday.org , in advance so that she can have enough food and materials for everyone.
This is a chance to join together as Christians, to get the training we need to monitor the health of our local waterways, to learn more about the natural systems in our immediate neighborhood, and to be part of a regional effort to protect the environmental quality of the whole Housatonic River watershed.
Please contact Barbara Putnam at 860-567-4465 or bdputnam@alum.mit.edu if you would like to join the Missioners in this effort.
2010 Trip to Newfoundland and Labrador
MWM membes took a mission trip to Newfoundland and Labrador in July 2010.This trip wove together a number of themes for our parish:
- Anglican identity and experiencing the Church as a world-wide communion
- Awareness of the natural world and caring for God’s creation
- Fellowship with a predominantly Inuit parish and building companion relationships with St. Michael’s
We have Big Plans! And they should be Big—the acts of Jesus’ ministry are our model and our inspiration. We are a small group but we bring with us the heart and soul of St. Michael’s community. Those who attended:
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Dana reports, "The Reverend Keeping, from the Anglican Parish of St. Philips, in Portugal Cove /St. Philips, Newfoundland, returned my call recently. He is very keen to become involved with us ! I expressed an interest in developing a reciprocal relationship with his parish, beginning with our visit next summer and perhaps helping them to create a trip to Litchfield ( and our area in general) in following years.
"Their parish is just beginning to form a Youth program and we hope to connect some of our youth to theirs in a 'cyber friendship', ahead of our visit next year."
Another connection has been formed, with the Canadian environmental organization called "Ocean Net". Ocean Net is a well established group whose mission is to organize local groups to perform beach clean-ups, as well as to raise awareness (and funds) for the preservation and rehabilitation of the coastal marine environment in Canada. They have an interesting website and a ready welcome to us as volunteers. We will be participating with them in cleanup operations along the coast of Labrador, during our trip next summer.
Contact us if you want to learn how you can help support this mission.
