1. St. Alban’s Episcopal Church in SunnyBrae is pleased to announce that at our recent Annual Meeting the congregation voted unanimously to become a Welcoming Church. This designation means that we are a Christian community that fully welcomes gay, lesbian, transgender, and bisexual people and their participation in all areas and at all levels in the life of the congregation. The vote was taken after a year of thoughtful exploration, study, and deliberation.

We plan to live into the promise of being a Welcoming Church by participating in the annual Gay Pride parade, conducting a November remembrance of murdered transgendered folk, advertise our welcoming status through signage and brochures, create space in our library for books and DVDs on LGBT subjects, and continue to offer Forums on LGBT topics of interest.

We invite LGBT folks to visit us at 1675 Chester Avenue, Arcata, California 95521, Telephone: (707) 822-4102.
All are welcome here.

2. Many members of Saint Alban's work to serve the needy and vulnerable in the community. Several members of the congregation regularly cook meals for the Arcata Night Shelter, the only organization providing temporary emergency shelter in Arcata.

3. Saint Alban's has partnered to care for the homeless in our community by serving as one of five host churches for the Extreme Weather Shelter on nights when the temperature drops below freezing or during extended periods of wet weather.

4. Each year members of Saint Alban's contribute food to the Community Thanksgiving Dinner at the Veteran's Hall.

5. In April of 2011 Saint Alban's initiated Street Meals a ministry to those who are hungry in our community. Every Tuesday parishioners meet at Saint Alban's to prepare bag lunches. The lunches are then distributed in Arcata in conjunction with the food box distribution by Food for People at the Arcata Presbyterian Church at the corner of 11th and G Streets.

6. Missio:Engage!ministry: St. Alban's is engaged in this service oriented leadership program. One of our projects is an outreach program to the Wyiot Tribe who are indigenous to the Northcoast. Read these PDF files to learn more:
Native Ministry and Wiyot Massacre

In General, the goal of missio:engage is to assist communities of faith in the process of re-rooting their ministries in the communities they are called to serve, with enough critical mass “back home” that this initiative is sustainable and avoids “burnout.”
For more information about Missio:Engage!, visit this website: http://plantingcentral.typepad.com/bench/missioengage.html