Outreach
With the campus of New Mexico Tech just across from the church on Leroy Place, Epiphany always extends a warm welcome to Tech students.
Through the academic year, a free dinner is provided to them in the parish hall on the first Wednesday evening of the month at 6 o’clock.
Through its budget, Epiphany reaches out to the following community programs:
Puerto Seguro Safe Harbor, which has fought homelessness and poverty in Socorro County since 2001. It provides a safe place where clients may shower, acquire clothing and food and be connected with other agencies to help them with housing, employment, education, rehabilitation, counseling and medical issues. Clients include men, women and children of all ages and many veterans and native Americans. Safe Harbor does not charge for any service. Its support comes from donations as well as its Secondhand Store, a local thrift shop it took over in 2017. The store is also the source of clothing and household goods for meeting the needs of clients.
Socorro Storehouse Food Pantry that since 2002 has sought to feed the hungry in Socorro County. This is done through the serving of meals every Thursday from noon to 2 p.m. and by providing boxes of food to an average of 200 families per month. Another way is to help with community gardens where healthy food can be grown. Epiphany is committed to keeping up the Storehouse’s stock of pinto beans.
Among the causes which Epiphany and individual parishioners support financially when needs arise as well as direct involvement are the following:
Episcopal Relief and Development, which works in some 40 countries throughout the world struggling with hunger, poverty, disease and the impact of a changing climate. Established in 1980 as the Presiding Bishop’s Fund for World Relief, it responds too to disasters such as the unprovoked war in Ukraine for which it set up a Ukraine Crisis Response Fund to which members of Epiphany contributed. It is able to leverage the expertise and resources of Anglican and other partners to deliver measurable and sustainable change in the lives of those helped.
Borderland Ministries of the Diocese of New Mexico, which for some decades has provided relief and done advocacy and development work for those on both sides of the border with Mexico in Far West Texas and New Mexico. Its base is in El Paso. Epiphany’s ongoing “Saved Soles” project, started in the summer of 2021 by a teen worshipper, collects “gently used” shoes to go to migrants seeking asylum in the United States who are in safe shelters in Juarez and Ojinaga, Mexico, operated by the Ministries.
The Episcopal Church in Navajoland, established by an action of the 1979 General Convention of the Episcopal Church. It is contiguous with the borders of the Navajo Nation in New Mexico, Arizona and Utah and headquartered in Farmington, N.M. The Navajos make up one of the largest American Indian tribes. The church has three regions—San Juan, Southeast and Utah—each with three churches. It publishes a quarterly newsletter called “The Beauty Way” and operates a web development shop among its several enterprises.
Roadrunner Food Bank of New Mexico, which addresses food insecurity throughout the state and following disasters provides food and water to victims. It came about through a Lutheran pastor in Albuquerque who in 1978 attended the country’s first food bank conference. There he learned about reusing discarded food from such places as grocery stores and restaurants and “banking” it for distribution to the hungry. The next year he founded the bank in New Mexico. It provides the food distributed weekly by two programs in Magdalena with the help of Annie and Mike Danielsen of Epiphany.
Casa da Esperanca in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which provides homeless children and their families with food, clothing, medications and other help. This work was brought to the attention of Epiphany by member Gaby Vocello, a native of Brazil, who organized a fundraiser for it at the church.
El Puente Del Socorro, a local domestic violence agency that presents itself as “the bridge to family help.” Founded in 1987, its services include shelter for victims and advocacy and counseling for offenders. It too has been a beneficiary of an Epiphany fundraiser.
Lutheran Family Services Rocky Mountains, since 1975 the designated agency in New Mexico for resettling refugees in the state. It has refugee and asylee offices in Albuquerque and Las Cruces. In the fall of 2021 Epiphany gathered requested supplies for the Afghan refugees resettled in Las Cruces by the office there.
The Animal Protective Association of Socorro, whose mission since 1968 has been “the prevention of cruelty to animals, the relief of suffering among animals, the extension of humane education and the prevention of overpopulation of unwanted pets.” It is a membership organization run entirely by volunteers. Some of the proceeds from Epiphany’s rummage sale in 2022 went to the association.