Mission & Outreach

Facets of our Mission and Outreach:

The Joel Nafuma Refugee Center is the only day center in the city catering to the needs of refugees and forced migrants. Approximately 150 people per day come to the center, whose daily services include hospitality, entertainment and educational programs as well as necessary help with bureaucratic procedures and finding places to eat and sleep. The Center is staffed by volunteers who come to offer help with teaching languages and computing, art and music.

St Paul's Hospitality Committee works to coordinate refreshments and potluck meals for special occasions, such as the Bishop's visits, Africa Day, ecumenical celebrations at St Paul's, parties for various occasions. The congregation of St Paul's has always been very generous in giving food for such occasions, and it is one of the ways in which St Paul's has made and maintained a reputation for being an open, welcoming church. Mention should be made here of the ladies who provide coffee and cake each week for the congregation and one or two of the cities poor who have discovered that breakfast is provided at St Paul's on a Sunday morning!

St Paul's Welcome Table is manned by volunteers each Sunday and is where visitors to Rome can pick up free information about the Anglican Communion, the Episcopal Church and about St Paul's and the Refugee Center in English or Italian. Copies of our monthly newsletter 'Awakenings' are available as well as the Convocation newsletter and the newsletter of the Anglican Center. Copies of 'Forward Day by Day' or the New Chamber Singers' CD may be purchased, postcards and other mementos of the church, and of course visitors are asked to sign the Visitors' Book. The Welcome Table is also where people may get information about baptism, marriage, parish membership etc.

St Paul's African group was begun with the dual aim of resolving problems between the various ethnic groups and of becoming more visibly involved with serving on Sundays. The group has so far had huge success on both counts: the celebration of African Sunday has now become an Annual event, and volunteers have come forward to help out in all areas of ministry. The group meets regularly for prayer and discussion; there is a pastoral ministry in visiting the sick and bereaved, and plans are underway to expand the ministry to include finding ways to assist the unemployed members of the group.

The Latin American Ministry began ten years ago with the arrival in Rome of a priest from Ecuador and his wife and young family. They were here to minister to the numbers of Latin-Americans who come to Rome to work. Over the years the ministry has grown from seven to over 100 people who come to worship in Spanish each Sunday. The ministry includes weekly bible studies and social services including help with legal, bureaucratic and medical problems and help with finding work; regular entertainments including children's parties, raffles and communal meals. In 2001 Aldo Erazo was licensed as Lay Pastoral Leader to this wonderful dynamic group.

St Paul's Outreach program supports two children in depressed parts of the world through the World Vision program, and other monies are given to organizations and projects worldwide who can put even small amounts of money to good use. During Lent we take part in a joint outreach program called Rice Bowl, organized by the English Speaking churches of Rome to provide funds for a food-related project in some part of the world.