Christ Church is a member of Project Hospitality's "Interfaith Bed Network." The Project Hospitality Drop-In Center on Center St. (near the Library) oversees the emergency faith-based shelter program providing overnight beds in churches and synagogues throughout Staten ISland. Other local churches in the network include Olivet Presbyterian, St. Andrew Episcopal, Our Lady of Mt. Loretto, New Directions Baptist, Unitarian Church, St. Philip's Baptist, and Holy Rosary.

Between twelve and fifteen men who currently do not have a permanent residence use our downstairs gymnasium as a shelter. We provide them with folding cots and fresh linens, a small kitchenette, bathrooms and showers, and an area to sit and watch television or socialize. The sleeping area is heated during the summer and cooled in winter.

Our guests generally arrive around 8:30pm and depart by 7:00am, leaving the gym available for church and community activities during the day. Shelter guests occasionally attend evening church services and breakfasts sponsored by the parish.

Staten Island Community Supported Agriculture is a group of Staten Islanders who buy shares in a farmer's vegetable and fruit crop for the growing season. We support Starbrite Farm and John Krueger, the farmer, and share the risks and benefits of food production with him.

There are dozens of other community-supported agriculture (CSA) groups in the New York metropolitan area, all coordinated by Just Food. Typically, members or "share-holders" of the farm or garden pay for a share in advance to cover the anticipated costs of the farm operation and farmer's salary. In return, they receive shares in the farm's bounty throughout the growing season, as well as satisfaction gained from reconnecting to the land and participating directly in food production.

Members also share in the risks of farming, including poor harvests due to unfavorable weather or pests. However, by direct sales to community members who have provided the farmer with working capital in advance, growers receive better prices for their crops, gain some financial security, and are relieved of much of the burden of marketing.

Another benefit of the program is that farmers can continue to make a living on their land and pass their farms to their chilcren rather than be forced to sell to developers to pay for retirement. CSAs, therefore, help maintain open land near metropolitan areas. They also reduce members' reliance on vegetables and fruit trucked across the U.S. and from other countries.

For more information about the Staten Island Community Supported Agriculture program, follow this link.

The Staten Island Hunger Task Force is a coalition of dozens of soup kitchens, community service centers, houses of worship, food pantries, and other organizations that have banded together to fight hunger on Staten Island. The Task Force works with City Harvest to collect food resources and distribute those resources to the people that need them.

It is the mission of the Staten Island Hunger Task Force to advocate for the needs of food-insecure families and individuals and not-for-profit emergency feeding programs in order to ensure that hunger needs are met in the borough of Staten Island.

The Hunger Task Force is committed to bringing awarness to the issue of hunger in our borough in order to muster the will of community leaders and members to fight for an end to hunger on Staten Island.

We will support the work of our local emergency feeding programs through education, advocacy, and coordination of services as well as support the sity, state, and federal positions that advance both sufficient anti-hunger resources as well as an end to hunger itself.

Music literacy has long been thought to be an integral part of a well-rounded education. Many of us remember when schools routinely offered choral and instrumental music programs.

Regrettably during this era of declining revenues, many schools have been forced to drop their music programs. The Christ Church Community Youth Choir fills that void by engaging young people in a comprehensive choral music program.

The goals of the Christ Church Community Youth Choir are:

• To learn musical rhythms
• To learn to read music
• To learn basic music theory
• To learn traditional vocal production
• To gain poise in performance

Who is eligible? Any child ages 7-14 who has a treble voice and is living on Staten Island.

How much does it cost? There is no charge. Your child will receive a small monetary allowance for participating in rehearsals and performances.

What training will my child receive? We offer practical professional training to create excellent singers. Your child will be performing while learning how to read and interpret music with sensitivity.

What kind of music do they sing? Choristers experience some of the world’s finest music in a wide range of classic styles and periods.

What is required of us? That your child commit to the full schedule of rehearsals and practices, and that you support the Community Choir in a volunteer capacity, such a bringing a healthy snack, caring for vestments, or serving on the board.

When are the rehearsals and performances? The choristers rehearse once a week usually in the afternoon for about 2 hours at Christ Church. The Community Youth Choir performs once a month, usually on a Sunday at Christ Church. A complete rehearsal and performance schedule is published each year.

What are the rehearsals like? During our two hour session, we will explore many different aspects of music appreciation and performance. The first 45 minutes will be filled with waking up the body through stretching and breathing, followed by rhythm exercises, ear-training and instruction in healthy voice production. Choristers will be introduced to recognizing and reading rhythm and melody to promote confidence in sight-singing. After a 15 minute break with a healthy snack, choristers will use their new skills to rehearse music for performance.

Do we have to join Christ Church? No. Musicians have a long history of crossing religious boundaries. We offer an opportunity to perform some of the world’s greatest music in the context for which it was written. Many parents wish their children to have this experience for cultural reasons. Since performances are often in the context of a church service, the children receive practical training so they can function, but we respect each child’s religious background.

Staff

Beth Johanning, Director. A native of Canton, Ohio, attended Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music on an opera scholarship, where she made her mark in an array of operatic roles in theaters all over Germany. In 1995 she was awarded a stipend to the Bayreuth Festival for her portrayals of Siefried Wagner heroines. In addition to her work on stage, she has committed four of her opera characterizations to disc for the Marco Polo label.

Ms. Johanning has worked extensively with young singers at Brooklyn Technical High School, the Staten Island JCC, and as choral director and vocal instructor at Moore Catholic High School in Staten Island. Since 2006, Ms. Johanning has been the musical director of the Richmond Choral Society Youth Chorus, and has led the young singers in works for treble voices by such composers John Rutter, Benjamin Britton, J.S. Bach, and Giovanni Pergolesi.

A cantor/soloist in various Staten Island churches, Ms. Johanning has performed with the Staten Island Symphony and in a number of opera concerts and vocal recitals for the Serenade Concert series. She is married and has a son.

Jacqueline Parrot, Pianist. She studied at Julliard, New England Conservatory and Music Academy of the West. She has been a soloist with the Honolulu Symphony, New England Conservatory Orchestra and Music Alliance Chamber Orchestra.

Ms. Parrot has made numerous appearances in the U.S., including the prestigious Weil Recital Hall in NYC and the first Rachmaninoff Society Festival in Westchester, N.Y. She has performed with Staten Island’s Chairs Chamber Ensemble since its beginnings in 2005. Other Staten Island performances include concerts at Snug Harbor, Veteran’s Hall, Wagner College Performance Center, and the JCC Music Institute. Also a violinist, Ms. Parrot played with the Honolulu Sympony, the Staten Island Symphony and the S.I. Chamber Music Players. In Staten Island she has been on the JCC Dorothy Deson Kuhn Music Insistute faculty and maintains a private piano studio. Ms. Parrot is a past president of the Saint Cecilia, a women’s music society founded 116 years ago in Staten Island. Active in Staten Island charitable organizations, Ms. Parrot has donated her musical talent through fund raising concerts for Project Hospitality and other organizations.

To contact the Community Youth Choir: cccommunityyouthchoir@gmail.com

Christ Church has taken part in the Saturday Feeding Program at Trinity Lutheran Church for the past couple of decades. On the second Saturday of each month a group of Christ Church parishioners prepares enough food to feed about 120 people.

From October through May, we prepare a hot entrée (chili, macaroni & cheese, pasta & meat sauce, hot dogs & beans, sometimes even hot soup), a tossed salad with dressing, a ham and cheese or a turkey and cheese sandwich, dessert, juice and coffee (plus any donated fruits or other items) for the clients. From June through September the hot entrée is replaced by a cold pasta salad.

All of the food is prepared by Christ Church volunteers. After cooking, the volunteer delivers the food either to Trinity Lutheran Church or to Christ Church, where it will be picked up and delivered to Trinity. Volunteers then plate the food and serve it to our guests.

Cooking Schedule January 2012 to December 2012
January 14, 2012
Elbows & Meat Sauce
Valerie Quinlan	273-3668
Eve LeBer	727-2906
Kirsten & Brian	448-7960
Please note that was the slowest month we've seen in years.			Total	91
February 11, 2012
Macaroni & Cheese
Roxanne & John	447-5779
Elaine & George Smith	273-8355
Mark Gherzo	448-7325
Is this an indication of a rebounding economy? Two months in a row with less than 120 people at the soup kitchen?			Total	105
March 10, 2012
Beanie Weinies
Lisa Rhoades	420-0363
Jane Sharif	447-6014
Susan & Victor	720-1169
			Total
April 14, 2012
Chili
Liz & Chuck	390-0011
Tony & Tina Colucci	420-0314
Unknown Entity
			Total
May 12, 2012
Macaroni & Cheese
Nick Lettiere	981-0262
Victor Stanwick	720-1169
Eve LeBer	727-2906
			Total
June 9, 2012
Cold Pasta Salad
Mary & Kevin	285-4963
Mark Gherzo	448-7325
Jane Sharif	447-6014
			Total
July 14, 2012
Cold Pasta Salad
Sheila/Connie/Debbie	447-8049
Susan & Victor	720-1169
Alleida Mitchell	442-8175
			Total
August 11, 2012
Cold Pasta Salad
Susan & Victor	720-1169
Jane Sharif	447-6014
			Total
September 8, 2012
Cold Pasta Salad
Eve LeBer	727-2906
Susan & Victor	720-1169
			Total
October 13, 2012
Rice & Beans
Nick Dowen	448-2006
Sheila/Connie/Debbie	447-8049
Ali Mitchell	442-8175
			Total
November 10, 2012
Macaroni & Cheese
Nick Lettiere	981-0262
Susan & Victor	720-1169
Mark Gherzo	448-7325
			Total
December 8, 2012
Beanie Weinies
Susan & Victor	720-1169
Jack Martz	email
			Total

It's not cast in stone. You don't have to sign anything. There are no dues, it's free. No one takes attendance, you can show up or not, it's up to you. Sometimes there's only a couple of people, sometimes we're crowded round the table like the close-knit group we are (snicker).

Contrary to popular belief, the Christ Church Knitting Group is NOT a bunch of "70-years-old-plus" people sitting around eating pastries, drinking tea and other soft beverages, and yakking away about this and that and everything in between, all the while knitting scarves for seamen and hats and other clothing for infants (including blankets and pillows). It's not like that at all, no siree. There's a couple forty-year-olds there, as well. And sometimes a nine-year-old.

The knitting group meets on the second and fourth Thursday of each month in the Vestry room. As indicated above, there's usually a pastry available (sometimes a home-made treat from John Walsted) and coffee, tea, juice, or other light refreshments. The Christ Church Knitting Group is open to the following:

• People who have never before in their lives knit.
• Experienced knitters.
• People who want to learn to knit.
• People who are knitters, but not so experienced.
• People who know how to macramé, but not knit.
• People who roam the streets aimlessly and have somehow found themselves in the Vestry room amongst knitters eating pastries and drinking tea while talking and knitting, and felt comfortable and welcome even though they are strangers, and decide they kind of like it here and then cause a scene when it's time to close up and go home.
• People who used to knit all the time but haven't lately and would like to get back into the knitting-saddle.
• People who believe that knitting is for old ladies and would be amused to see a large growling carnivore like Victor sitting there knitting with two telephone poles and a ship's mooring hawser.
• Bad knitters who want to improve.
• Good knitters who want to excel.
• Excellent knitters who want to poke fun at the rest of us.
• People who like pastries and tea but are not so partial to knitting, but maybe have a good joke to share.
• Fat kids, skinny kids, kids who climb on rocks.
• Tough kids, sissy kids, even kids with chicken pox.

If you fit into any of the categories above, or several categories, or no categories at all, you are welcome to join the Christ Church Knitting Group. We do not discriminate based on race, creed or color. We discriminate based on shoe size, so no ducks, clowns, or sasquatches, please. Everyone else is welcome. We hope to see you there. Actually, we wouldn't mind having a duck there. Or a sasquatch. But we're afraid we're going to have to draw the line at clowns.