When the Appalachian Ministries' Task Force for the Diocese of East Tennessee was founded in 1999, no one dreamed the ministries would bloom so.

Harry and Patty Chase had moved back to the Knoxville area after Harry sold his company in New England. They began work with Aid to Distressed Families in Appalachian Counties (ADFAC), Harry working with the housing program and Patty with the children's outreach programs. Discouraged by what he saw as a lack of Episcopal Church involvement in the Appalachian counties in upper East Tennessee, Harry began talking to Bishop Charles von Rosenberg and others about ways to get the church to have a ministry of presence in Anderson and Campbell counties in particular.
With the bishop's blessing, Carolyn Dicer, the Diocese of East Tennessee's Deputy for Program, called together a group of people interested in outreach ministry and/or active in Anderson and Campbell counties. Her charge to the group was to network existing ministries in Campbell County with East Tennessee congregations wanting an opportunity to live out the gospel in the region.

Support for existing ministries

"We are not going to establish new ministries, just give congregations a chance to help ones already functioning," Dicer told the group.

The Task Force's first order of business was to visit some of the ministries in Campbell County to see what sort of help they needed and/or wanted from East Tennessee congregations.

From this first pilgrimage came a directory of Appalachian ministry opportunities to educate congregations about mission and giving opportunities. At the same time, the Task Force began to put together an educational display for the Diocesan Annual Council (Convention). Somewhere in the course of these activities, attention was drawn to the fact that with 4000 students in Campbell County eligible for food stamps, some families were having to choose between food and school supplies for their children.

The backpack project

A flyer asking for backpacks stuffed with the school supplies needed by the different grade levels was sent to each congregation, asking for help in collecting at least 400 backpacks. More than half of the congregations responded, providing 430 backpacks and an additional $4,197.88 to be divided among the 14 schools receiving the backpacks.

About the same time, Harry began working with Henderson Settlement School, an alternative school and work camp host organization in eastern Kentucky, as they renovated a dorm to house work camp groups coming to the area to do home rehab. With Harry's help, much of the cost of the renovation was raised from St. Martin's in Chattanooga. Harry and a team of volunteers from St. Martin's also did a great deal of the construction work.

The backpack collection has continued, with nearly 650 backpacks being collected in both 2001 and 2002. The visit to ministry sites in Campbell County has become an annual Appalachian Pilgrimage for which the Task Force is joined by Bishop von Rosenberg. A long-term relationship has been forged between community organizations and the Diocese.

Diocesan staff shares of
themselves at Christmas time

The visit to the Parent Resource Center in Duff resulted in the diocesan staff deciding to make a contribution of what they would spend in a Christmas gift exchange for the work of the Center. The next year, the diocesan staff went one step further and bought and delivered Christmas gifts to the children in the Center's pre-school program and the families in the home visitation program.

Vans full of diapers

During one of the visits, the Center's director mentioned that babies and children in the home visitation program and parenting classes often wore the same diaper all day because food stamps did not cover the purchase of diapers. Two members of the Task Force went home to Chattanooga and started a diaper drive in their congregations of St. Paul's and Good Shepherd. Van loads of diapers were delivered to the Parent Resource Center and the Mountain Women's Exchange. This has become an on-going ministry.

Young people involved, too

Other congregations provide Easter gifts for the children by collecting clothing and toys during Lent. The young people of St. Paul's in Athens held an art and music camp last summer for the children. Another group is planning an enrichment program for the young people at the Woodland Community Development Center in Roses Creek this summer.

The Task Force did a workshop on outreach possibilities at Council this year, and the room was packed with people wanting to learn how their congregations could be involved in this ministry. As a result of the workshop, a local knitting mill donated 200 dozen pair of socks to be distributed by the groups in the area. Other persons are volunteering to join the Task Force and help spread the word of this opportunity to reach out to their neighbors in the upper portion of the diocese.

Diocese of East Tennessee's Appalachian Ministries Task Force Lives Out Partnership In Mission

Jubilee Centers named

One of the most concrete ways of living out the partnership in mission is that the Mountain Women's Exchange in Jellico-a multi-faceted program to improve the educational and economic status of women-and the Parent Resource Center in Duff have been named Jubilee Centers by the Episcopal Church Executive Committee as joint ministries between the local community group and their sponsoring Episcopal Church. St. Clare's in LaFollette, the only Episcopal Church in Campbell County, sponsored the Mountain Women's Exchange in this effort and St. Francis in Norris sponsored the Parent Resource Center. The dedication ceremonies at each site were attended by more than 50 persons from around the diocese and from the local community.

The Rt. Reverend Charles von Rosenberg (right), Bishop of East Tennessee , and Deacon Wade Frye, Jubilee Officer for the Diocese of East Tennessee, congratulate Wanda Perkins, staff member of Mountain Women's Exchange (MWE), upon MWE's being named a Jubilee Center.