Christ Church Honors World Mission Sunday

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

CONTACT:
Tara Knox, Development Director

Historic Christ Church; Alexandria, VA

703-549-1450; 703-626-4837(cell)

703-549-5883 (fax)

tknox@ccalex.org

www.historicchristchurch.org

Christ Church Honors World Mission Sunday

Alexandria, VA, March 2, 2014 — On Mission Sunday, March 2, 2014, Christ Church honors our relationships around the world. This year, Christ Church focuses on South Sudan, where a civil war has already claimed too many lives. Some of the contributions given at our Christmas Eve services has already been used to fly medical supplies into the Diocese of Renk. We also remember our mission partners in Honduras, pray for the medical team at Mengo Hospital, and lift up the work of our mission partners in the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem.

Christ Church’s guest preacher World Mission Sunday is Richard Parkins. Upon retirement after 14 years as director of Episcopal Migration Ministries, the refugee and immigration program of The Episcopal Church, Richard Parkins accepted the position of Executive Director of the American Friends of the Episcopal Church of Sudan (AFRECS). He was among the founders of AFRECS in 2005.  Parkins had a career in refugee and immigration work having served as Operations Director in the US Office of Refugee Resettlement.  As a manager of various faith based refugee resettlement and assistance programs, he served on the staff of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops as refugee policy director and later was elected chair of the Refugee Council USA.  Earlier in his career, Parkins served as a consultant with The Ford Foundation in India and Nepal and with the Asian Development Bank in Malaysia and the World Bank in Thailand.  In recent years, he has been a frequent traveler to South Sudan in promoting the work of AFRECS as a partner with the Episcopal Church of Sudan and South Sudan.

For further discussion, a forum is being held at 10:15 a.m. in the Meade Room of Christ Church, where Russ Randle, parishioner and Board Member of AFRECS, will provide an update on the current situation in South Sudan. 

For additional information or a photo, Contact: Tara Knox, Development Director, Historic Christ Church; Alexandria, VA, 703-549-1450, 703-626-4837(cell),703-549-5883 (fax), tknox@ccalex.org.    

The parish home of George Washington and many other government and legislative leaders since, Christ Church has long been at the center of the religious and public life of the metropolitan Washington, D.C. area. Nearly all the Presidents have attended Christ Church during their term of office. Other visitors include British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Senator Elizabeth Dole, former Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey, Rosa Parks, Nobel Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former Secretary of Veterans Affairs Togo West, former Chief of Staff of the Army Gordon Sullivan, former White House Press Secretary Ron Nessen, and former Assistant Secretary of State Hodding Carter.

Christ Church is a historic church with an active congregation. Located at 118 N. Washington St. in Alexandria, VA, Christ Church is home to 2,400 parishioners and provides ministry to communities local and global.

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