St. Michael's Episcopal Church

African Team Ministries is a Christian ministry working as an intermediary between African and American churches. With the help of the Episcopal/Anglican, Methodist, Presbyterian, and Lutheran denominations, they provide funding for orphan and refugee relief missions and evangelism in East Africa. The support they receive is sent directly to the partnering Bishops to provide school fees, tuitions, books, and uniforms. This support ensures that the children receive an education and measure of stability needed to rebuild their minds. St. Michael’s sponsors a displaying of East African crafts, jewelry, and soapstone works in the month of December.Chair: Ferris Hotard.

Kairos is a lay-led Christian ministry that conducts a highly structured program designed for use in male and female correctional institutions. The mission of Kairos is to bring Christ’s unconditional love and forgiveness to all incarcerated individuals, their families, and those who work with them. Volunteers are needed at every level from being a team member and actually going to the prison, to being a prayer partner, or support volunteer in baking cookies. Chair: David Smith.

The goal of the Sunshine Committee is to provide assistance to the members of St. Michael’s when there is a need such as an illness, injury, surgery, or death in the family. There are many ways in which to assist: from cooking a meal, visitation, or assisting in minor chores such as getting their trash to the street, picking up the mail, or changing a light bulb.

St. Michael’s is part of a core team of churches of many denominations working together to help alleviate homelessness among families and youth on the NorthShore.  The coalition is working with Family Promise, a national organization dedicated to alleviating homelessness among families with children and with St. Tammany Parish.

About Family Promise:

Our mission is to help homeless and low-income families achieve sustainable independence.

We recognize that poverty is a multifaceted problem that requires a multifaceted response. We respond by integrating educational outreach, smart programming, effective policies, and the hands-on work of thousands of volunteers. We provide food, shelter, and support services for homeless families. We provide advice and advocacy for at-risk families to prevent their becoming homeless. And we educate people about poverty and the means to combat it. http://www.familypromise.org

The Samaritan Center is a Christian organization offering emergency assistance with food for those in our community who are in need. St. Michael’s has been involved with the Samaritan Center since its inception in 1989. St. Michael’s has representation on the Board of Directors and volunteers who pick up the donated food from the Church and deliver it to the Samaritan Center.

About the Samaritan Center:

The Samaritan Center is a vital partner in our community, providing a place for local people to volunteer and express their faith through service to those in need. Founded 20 years ago by a group of pastors and priests, the Samaritan Center is a centrally located Emergency Center and Food Bank.

In 1989, several Christian churches in Mandeville banded together to improve services to the poor in our community. Pooling resources of money, volunteers, donated canned goods and clothing, they hoped to streamline services by distributing them from a central location.

Victims of fires, floods and other emergencies received immediate assistance of food, clothing – and moral support. Single mothers and their children, families whose breadwinner had lost his or her job, and people who had suffered injuries and were enable to work found help, both material and spiritual, from Samaritan Center staff and volunteers. Then, as now, community support was tremendous.

Jesus said, “If you love me, feed my sheep.”
~John 21:17

That’s what we do at the Samaritan Center. http://samcen.org

Since 1994, St. Michael’s Senior Ministry has been providing religious services at two Mandeville Nursing and Retirement Faculties. Members of this ministry preside at Morning Prayer services by reading scriptures and leading in easy sing-along hymns. This is a very rewarding ministry and much-needed ministry for the elderly in our community. 

The St. Michael's Episcopal Education Center serves children aged 18 months to 5 years old. The Preschool is designed to create an environment of trust where children can grow socially, emotionally, physically, intellectually, and spiritually. All people within the Preschool, children, and adults, are learners and teachers. Everyone is valued as an individual. See the St. Michael's Episcopal Education Center page for more information.

St. Michael’s Pet Ministry provides a number of different services. The Pet Ministry helps people who are ill or injured take care of their pets, helps people through the grieving process when a beloved pet dies and provides services such as pet memorial services and Blessing of the Animals. The Pet Ministry also helps provide foster care for abandoned pets and helps with relocating these pets to places in which the can be adopted.