IPC IMMIGRATION FUND

"When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God." – Leviticus 19:33-34

The Episcopal Church on Staten Island supports our immigrant neighbors. In light of the difficulties faced by many immigrant communities in the current climate, we have established an Immigrant Support Fund to assist detained immigrants and their families.

If you know someone who needs help, you can request a grant of up to $150 to assist with the payment of a bill (groceries, utility payments, medication, toiletries, cell phone, transportation) or $30 towards commissary and/or phone calls for people in immigration detention. Referrals must be made by an IPC delegate (clergy or lay) or warden.

Please send these requests to info@ipcsi.org with the subject line "Immigration Fund Request."

College for Congregational Development (CCD) 5x1 Program: 2026/2027

Registration Now Open

Saturdays, November 2026 - March 2027
Synod Hall and Dio House
Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine
1047 Amsterdam Avenue New York, NY Registration Deadline: Friday, October 30, 2026

The Episcopal Diocese of New York invites lay and clergy leaders to participate in the College for Congregational Development (CCD) 5x1 Program, a five-month leadership formation experience designed to equip leaders to develop congregations of all sizes, locations, and conditions into more healthy, faithful, and effective communities that discern and participate more fully in God's mission. Participants gather one Saturday each month to explore practical tools for leadership, mission, organizational development, systems thinking, and healthy congregational change while applying what they learn in their own ministry settings.

The CCD curriculum follows a two-year cycle (Year A and Year B), and participants may begin with either year. There is no requirement to start with Year A. 2026–2027 Year B Sessions: November 21, December 19, January 16, February 20, and March 20 (storm date: April 17). Sessions will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. We offer breakfast at 7:30 a.m., lunch at 12 p.m. We pray together at 8:30 a.m. and 4 p.m.

Registration deadline: Friday, October 30, 2026.
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

Announcements

OUR FALL SCHEDULE BEGINS Today

As we welcome the beautiful fall season, Christ Church New Brighton is excited to return to our regular Sunday worship schedule! Sunday Services: 8:00 AM & 10:00 AM. We look forward to gathering together again for worship, fellowship, and all that Christ Church has to offer this fall. Come join us, bring a friend, and be part of our church community as we begin a new season together! We look forward to seeing you on Sunday!

BREAST CANCER AWARENESS MONTH

Help us support an important cause! Sheila Hewitt will be selling Breast Cancer Awareness swag bags and merchandise on Sundays after services, now through the end of October. All proceeds benefit Staten Island Breast Cancer, helping support those affected by breast cancer in our community.
Show your support, grab some BCA merchandise, and help us make a difference! Thank you for your generosity and continued support!

Pastoral Care

If you or anyone you know needs pastoral care, please contact Willie Black, III at 917-848-8339.

THE PUMPKIN PATCH IS COMING TO CHRIST CHURCH

It's almost pumpkin season! Our pumpkins will be **delivered on Saturday, September 26th**, and we need YOUR help getting our Pumpkin Patch ready!

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED! We are looking for volunteers to help **Saturday morning, September 26th**, with unloading the pumpkins and getting everything set up and ready for the patch. We'll also need volunteers throughout the season! If you would like to help at the Pumpkin Patch, you can **request a volunteer time slot** that works for you.

Pumpkin Patch Dates:
September 26th – October 31st
Open Daily: 12:00 PM – 6:00 PM

Interested in volunteering? Please get in touch with the Parish Office to be added to the volunteer list. Whether you can help with unloading pumpkins, setting up, or volunteering during the season, we'd love to have you join us! Come help us make this year's Pumpkin Patch a great one!

Calling All Cooks!

We are looking for chili cooks to participate in our Annual Chili Cook-Off on Saturday, October 17, 2026! This is a fundraiser to benefit Staten Island Cancer.
Cooks are invited to bring their own unique chili recipes for submission to the contest.

• Important Note: Please ensure you bring enough chili for both judge sampling and selling!

Come sound the alarm and fill our stomachs for a great cause! To sign up for a spot, please contact Sheila Hewitt at 718-759-7265.

A NEW & IMPROVED LOOK FOR OUR UPSTAIRS AUDITORIUM

Take a look at the new and improved look of our upstairs auditorium! Thanks to the generous donation of an anonymous sponsor and the hard work and creativity of Alleida Mitchell, we now have beautiful new draperies in the back of the auditorium, along with elegant draping across the lower front of the stage. What a difference a little bit of dressing up can make!

And we're not finished yet! There are still more improvements to come, including a final set of decorative drapes for the back of the stage.

If you are interested in helping us complete the project, donations toward the remaining draperies are greatly appreciated. Please contact the Parish Office if you would like to contribute.

A huge THANK YOU to our anonymous sponsor and to Alleida Mitchell for her time, talent, and hard work in helping make this happen! We're excited to keep making our spaces more beautiful and welcoming for our church and community!Pastoral Care: If you or anyone you know needs pastoral Care, please get in touch with Willie Black, III at 917-848-8339.

Listening for the Church Tomorrow

An invitation to read, reflect, and imagine faithfully together

Stephanie Speller

Staten Island Collaborative Ministries is now about halfway through our shared season of reading the newest book by the Rev. Canon Stephanie Spellers, Church Tomorrow?  What the "Nones" and "Dones" Teach Us About the Future of Faith.
We began this conversation in June with the opportunity to hear directly from Canon Spellers about her work and what she learned from the Millennials and Gen Zers she interviewed.
Our read will culminate on October 24 at 10 a.m. at Christ Church with a Staten Island-wide conversation about what we have learned, what we want to try, and how our collaboration might shift in response.
Over the last few months, I have heard several questions about this book. 

• Why are we reading it?
• What can we hope to learn? 
• How might a book study help us make real change? 

These questions deserve more than quick answers. They invite us into the deeper work of listening: to one another, to people beyond our pews, and to the Holy Spirit.
To be frank, this is not always an easy read, especially for those of us who find deep meaning and connection in The Episcopal Church. 
Many of us find purpose and inspiration in the life and worship of the Episcopal Church.
At the same time, much of what is familiar and life-giving to us may be inaccessible or unpersuasive to many of our neighbors. That realization is not a cause for despair. It is an invitation to humility, courage, and love.
Why are we reading this book?
We are reading Church Tomorrow? because the long-term trends affecting our congregations—aging leadership, smaller congregations, lower average Sunday attendance, rising costs, and generational disconnection—are not unique to one parish or one part of Staten Island. They are systemic trends, and they require a faithful, shared response.
Looking honestly at our situation together can help defuse the power of fear. When we name reality in community, we do not have to carry anxiety alone.
We can begin to ask better questions:

• What is God showing us? 
• What have we been reluctant to see?
• What might the Holy Spirit be asking us to notice, release, receive, or try?

Spellers' book offers us a starting point for a critical conversation. She doesn't give us a simple formula, instead helping us listen to voices we need to hear. We are facing challenges that require prayerful and creative responses.
What can we hope to learn?
Church Tomorrow? gives us a window into the perspectives of Millennial and Gen Z "nones" and "dones," people who left organized religion and people who never participated in the first place. Their stories and the perspectives they offer can be challenging to hear, but they are also a gift. 
They help us understand not only national trends, but also the questions, hurts, hopes, and longings that shape how younger generations encounter faith communities.
The book invites us to consider responses that may be creative, unexpected, and uncomfortable. It asks us to think beyond programs and quick fixes. It presses us to ask how our congregations and our collaboration might become more open, more courageous, more honest, and more responsive to the world God loves.
How can this book help us make change?
First, we can approach it with open minds.  There are hard realities named in these pages by the author and by the people she interviewed. Our first calling is to listen without rushing to defend ourselves. We do not have to agree with every observation in order to take the conversation seriously.
Second, we can carefully consider the possibilities Spellers presents. She is asking congregations and denominations to think honestly about sacrifice, change, and new life. The choice before us is not simply "change or die." It may be the harder and more faithful work of recognizing what has already died, allowing some things to be released, and trusting that God can bring life in ways we do not yet fully understand.
Finally, we can read prayerfully and in community. By the grace of God, we have already been given gifts for the ministry to which we are called. What we need may already be among us. God may simply be asking us to use our gifts differently, so that the good news of Jesus Christ can be shared with the world around us in ways that people can hear, trust, and receive.
How to participate:
There is still time to join the conversation. Several book groups are already scheduled, and you are warmly invited to take part in the format that works best for you.

St. Alban's, 76 St. Alban's Place: 10:30 a.m. on August 19, August 26, September 2, September 9, September 23, and September 30.
Contact Fr. Chris Dreisbach for information at cd8757@comcast.net
Christ Church, 76 Franklin Ave.: 3:00 p.m. on September 2, September 9, September 16, September 23, and September 30. 
Contact Catherine Barnett for more information at catherinegmbarnett@gmail.com

Online group: 7:30 p.m. on September 9, September 16, September 23, September 30, October 7, and October 14. Register at
https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tENfJMDcRBqorierQD9uaw. 
Contact Mtr. Kirstin Swanson for information at kswanson@dioceseny.org

You can also start your own reading group. Contact The Rev. Kirstin Swanson at kswanson@dioceseny.org to add it to the schedule and invite others to join you.
Most of all, please plan to attend the Staten Island-wide gathering on October 24 at 10 a.m. at Christ Church. Together, we will share what we have heard, what has challenged us, what has given us hope, and what we believe God may be calling us to try next.
This shared read is not only about one book. It is about practicing the kind of listening, courage, imagination, and trust that the church needs for the days ahead. Join the conversation.

October 10 Mission Fair at Christ Church

 

On Saturday, October 10, Christ Church will host the 10th annual New York Episcopal Diocese Mission Fair. The Fair will start with breakfast at 8:30 a.m. and run until 4:00 p.m. Clergy and lay leaders from across the Diocese will be attending. Members and friends of Christ Church are warmly invited too! Admission is free and breakfast and lunch will be served. Registration is available through the link at the bottom of this article. 

The Fair takes place at different congregations each year, typically alternating between Manhattan and congregations outside Manhattan. This is the first time it will be held on Staten Island!

The Fair's theme this year is "Proclaiming God's Love Across Real and Imagined Borders." The verse inspiring this theme is from Ephesians 2:17-20:

So Christ Jesus came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; for through Him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but are fellow citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets

with Christ Jesus Himself as the chief cornerstone…

The Fair's keynote speaker will be the Rev. Canon David Chavez, the Episcopal Church's partnership officer for Latin America and the Caribbean. The Rt. Rev. Matthew Heyd, Bishop of New York, will deliver a Global Mission homily.

The Fair has many other highlights. Various mission-oriented groups will sponsor booths illustrating their goals and activities. Each group will also have spokespersons to discuss initiatives and answer questions. The Episcopal Global Women's Fund will sponsor a discussion by a panel of representatives of various countries, including Liberia, Haiti and Mexico.

The Fair is sponsored by the Global Mission Commission of the New York Diocese. The Commission is made up of clergy and laity from across the Diocese. Its mission is to "educate, empower and inspire individuals and parishes within the Diocese as we respond to God's call for engagement in mission through relationships and spiritual transformation throughout the Anglican communion."

Every year the Commission makes grants to global sustain-able projects. These are projects that typically enable local church-affiliated interests to strengthen agricultural, educa-

tional and social development. Individual parishes apply for these grants with specific international partners and projects in mind. Highlights of the Fair include report-outs by last year's grant recipients and the announcement and awarding of this year's grants.

Here is the link to register for the Fair. See you there!

https://dioceseny.org/event/the-10th-annual-global-mission-fair/

Help shape our programming!

Does your congregation want to improve its social media presence, but you're not sure how?
Let us know how we can help by completing this short survey about what you need from a social media training: https://forms.gle/dZPzVLtZ4MdA9xg18

Fall 2026 Antiracism Workshops

Saturday, October 3
St. James Fordham Church
2500 Jerome Avenue (East 190th Street)
Bronx, New York, NY
Registration closes August 26, 2026

Workshop Purpose: To provide awareness of how the sin of racism impacts ALL our lives, and how we unconsciously and consciously participate in racist systems. The concept of race and its legacy is examined from scientific and historical evidence. Dialogue is the foundation which includes group exercises. The viewing of videos and online exercises is pre-work assigned to participants. Church location is accessible by public transportation.

The workshop meets the diocesan requirement for antiracism training which is expected to be fulfilled by all clergy and lay leaders elected or appointed to a diocesan position. Every four years all are required to recertify by taking a workshop or alternative options – click here for details and click HERE to register. Of the hundreds of workshop participants, 98% have found the workshop useful in their work and daily lives.

Registration Now Open 

CCD 5x1 Year B (2026–2027)

Registration is now open for our next CCD 5x1 Year B Program!

One of the unique features of the College for Congregational Development is that participants may begin their CCD journey with either Year A or Year B. The curriculum is designed as a two-year cycle, and there is no requirement to begin with Year A. Many participants start with Year B and then complete Year A the following year.

If you completed Year A during the 2025–2026 program year, we encourage you to continue your CCD journey by registering for Year B and submitting your Year A Intervention Report.

If you are new to CCD, you are also welcome to register for Year B as your first year of the program. You will then complete Year A during the next cycle.

If you or members of your congregation are interested in participating, please register using the link below:
Registration:
https://forms.cloud.microsoft/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=8l0GlyAzM0qOWC7KI6wd0z7M8hMxVbRGmf9Hl6ugselUNFVRVVZQSjdGSFlPSTZUT0lUVTFDRFMxVS4u

We encourage congregations to send teams of clergy and lay leaders to learn together and bring these tools back to strengthen the life and mission of their congregations.

IPC Schedule of Events

September 27 – November 20 (on Friday evenings at 6:00 PM)
Church of the Ascension, Adoration & Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, followed by fellowship and discussion.

PET BLESSINGS
Saturday, October 3rd
Christ Church, St. John's and St. Paul's at Alice Austen House, 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM
St. Mary's, 12:30 PM
Ascension, 1:00 PM
St. Albans, 4:00 PM

Sunday, October 4th
St. Andrew's, 10:00 AM during the service.

IPC Annual Island-wide GAME DAY AND BBQ for young people of all ages (5 - 18).
Children in elementary school must be accompanied by an adult (parent or church designee).
Everyone is welcome. Join us on Sunday, October 4th from 1:00 to 4:00 PM at Church of the Ascension,
1 Kingsley Avenue, 10314
Please RSVP by September 30 to RichmondIPC@gmail.com

Sunday, October 18
St. Alban's, Trunk or Treat, 2 – 4 PM

Saturday, October 24
IPC Church Tomorrow event held at Christ Church, (half day event). Bishop Heyd will be joining us for part of the day.

Do not forget to join one of the book groups as together we read Stephanie Spellers, CHURCH TOMORROW? What the 'Nones' and 'Dones' teach us about the Future of Faith.

Monday, November 3
Church of the Ascensions, All Souls' Day - Mass at 7:00 PM with the reading of the necrology

Saturday, Dec. 5
Church of the Ascension, Visit with Santa - 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM.

Sunday, December 6
St. Mary's Advent Concert, 4:00 PM

Pet Bereavement Support Group (Third Wednesday of Every Month)
Church of St. Andrew, 7:00 to 8:30 PM

Christ Church Parish Prayer List

The following individuals have requested our prayers:

Fred Allen, Ricia Augusty, Betty Babb, Elma Babb, Erma Babb, Marcella Babb, Jenny Badger, Willie Black, III, Joseph Bonner, Mary Boyce, Deborah Broome, Irvin Celestine, Eva Charney, Matthew Cileli, David Clark, Wayne Clark, Marcia Clendenen, Sandra Cocks, Carmen Conrado, Barbara Corregan, Laura Craig, Gaynelle Cumberbatch, Anne Devlin, Nick Dowen, Garfield Evans, Tabitha Foxx, Julio Gambuto, Mary Gannon, Ann Gardner, Sandra Giambalvo, Peter Gilchrist, Eddy Gregory, Steve Gross, Suzanne Guglielmi, Steven Haley, Mary Hamblin, Mary Haugen, Anne Heather, Avion Hernandez-Elcock, David Holder, Aretha Jadusingh, Michael Kelly, Angela King, Nicholas Lettiere, The McIntosh Family, Renea McCarthy, Eva McClary, Mary Mcclellan, Julie Murphy, Teri Murray, Minister Robert Perkins, Peyton Ramsey, T. Rauch, Ann Reilly, Ricardo Rivera, Sage Martin-Rolla, Leila Rollock, Tiffany Ruperti, Willie Marcus & Dylan Schumaker, Lorelei Shull, Daphne Smith, Faith Meighan-Smith, Joyce Smith, David Lloyd Stephens, Christopher Still, George Sullivan, John Trach, Fred Tucher, Linda Tuell, John Tuohey, John Watson, Lucille Williams, Doreen Wood, Leighton Wynter, Marsha Wynter, Teresa Brown-Zapken, Patrick Zapken.

Please Note: The Prayer List is intended to uphold and encourage those who need healing prayers. If persons have been fully recovered and no longer need to be lifted up in this way, please let us know so that we can make room for others. This list will be updated every three months unless otherwise notified. If you need a loved one or friend to remain on the list, please call the parish office. Thank you!

We pray for the repose of the souls of all the faithful departed. May their souls rest in peace. 

We pray for all the frontline and essential workers in our parish, around S.I., and around the world.

We pray for the hundreds of immigrant neighbors, particularly on Staten Island.

We pray for comfort to the families and communities impacted by gun violence, and for the will and determination to enact appropriate gun control legislation and promote a culture of safety. 

We pray for an end to armed conflict and hope that world leaders can move towards peace and diplomacy.

We pray for all those negatively affected by climate, environmental, and natural disasters.

We pray for those who are suffering from the impacts of systemic racism, and for those who are committed and working towards change, unity, and equality for all peoples.

Memorial Candles

Memorial Candles are available in honor of your loved ones. Donation envelopes are available at the Ushers' station.

Columbarium candle

Lit in loving memory of those who perished on 9/11. From Christ Church New Brighton.

Sanctuary Candle

Lit in loving memory of those who perished on 9/11. From Christ Church New Brighton.

We give thanks to God for the following individuals who are celebrating their Birthdays this week. Willie Black, III (27), Alidel Zayzay (29),

We give thanks to God for the individuals who are celebrating their wedding anniversaries this week.

In the Richmond IPC Cycle of Prayer, The Christ Church-Wagner College Choir Scholarship Program, the faculty, students, and staff of the College of Staten Island.

In the Anglican Cycle of Prayer, we pray for the Church of Bangladesh.

In the Diocese of New York, we pray for +Sean, our Presiding Bishop; +Matthew and +Allen, our Bishops; The Dean of the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine; St. Michael's Church, Manhattan; All Angels' Church, Manhattan; Union Theological Seminary; The Liaison for Global Mission; The New York Altar Guild and all the Parish Altar Guilds of the Diocese; and Society of St. Francis.