Our Outreach Commission seeks to do God’s work in the world, being Christ’s arms and legs, helping those in need.  There are several groups and organizations that are supported by Outreach through funding, and/or, the work of individuals who volunteer and donate their time and talents to do Christ’s work both here and in the world.  Below are some of the ministries that offer a chance to become involved in helping our community:

Feed My Sheep

Feeding the hungry on the streets of Norfolk on the second and third Sundays, every month. This ministry is a blessing to everyone involved. We often feed over 100 people with food we typically prepare at Old Donation the day prior. We always need: shoppers, cooks and servers. The team usually feels like they have been more blessed than those we serve. 

Judeo-Christian Outreach Center (JCOC)

Volunteers buy, prepare, and serve dinner to homeless adults and children at the JCOC located on Virginia Beach Boulevard. Old Donation provides dinner several times a year, and assists with occasional special projects, such as: in 2008 Old Donation upgraded the bathroom facilities that serve the dining room area for the homeless and volunteers have provided various toiletry items and socks during the winter. Each year we make generous donations to help some similar project.

Kairos Prison Ministry

Serve on the ODEC Kairos Prison Ministry team by being on the “inside” for a weekend, or on the “outside” – offering support by: baking cookies, donating money, decorating  place mats, remembering the team and inmates in daily prayers, or by attending the closing ceremony.  Kairos, like Cursillo, provides inmates, incarcerated in state prisons, with a weekend dedicated to learning how to live their Christianity right where they are. Ecumenical “inside” teams of 25-30 people give testimony of God’s love and offer unconditional love to the inmates.  This exceptionally powerful ministry truly changes the lives of the incarcerated and enables them to live a more Christian life, both in prison and after release. Old Donation has women and men participating "inside" for weekends several times a year.

Mission of the Holy Spirit

The Mission of the Holy Spirit is a diocesan outreach ministry for at-risk urban youth in Norfolk. The Mission provides worship opportunities, food and other goods, tutoring and other programs to effect a real change in the lives of these young people. Old Donation supplies a priest to lead worship and provides dinner for the children and youth on the fourth Sunday of each month. The Mission meets at St. Stephens Episcopal Church, Norfolk. We also take up offerings during the year to help support the needs of this ministry.

Angel Tree

This project uses volunteers to buy, wrap and deliver gifts to children who have a parent in prison, and would likely have few or no gifts from their parent. Each December the prison ministry team puts up a tree in the parish hall with tags that list the name of a child and a requested gift.  Parishioners will take a tag, buy the gift, wrap it and bring it back for the team to collect. Volunteers deliver the gifts to the families before Christmas.

Stop Hunger Now!

Volunteers package food for the international organization, Stop Hunger Now!, which distributes the packages to areas in the world where people are in desperate need of food.

Belize Mission

We support our companion diocese the Episcopal Church in the Province of the West Indies located in Belize, Central America, either with financial help or through periodic mission trips for education, construction work, or other needs.

Canterbury Center at ODU