Episcopal Church Men (ECM)

ECM (Episcopal Church Men) Organizational Meeting

There already have been activities conducted by the men, such as the annual Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper and Ladies Night Out.  On May 7, 2011 a meeting was held at David Beck's home to form an ECM group, to lend support and discuss possible directions. The organizers were David Beck and Bill Smith.

A summary of the May 7 meeting is here

The group helped with the June 4 community dinner. 25 people from the Port Royal community enjoyed hot dogs, chips, beans and snacks

A fellowship breakfast was held on June 11 at Hornes Restaurant. 11  men were in attendance. Plans are being made to work with Caroline Schools on tutoring.

The next breakfast was held on August 13th with 9 men present

The group suggested a new ministry for St Peter's informally titled "Transporation in Need." The idea was proposed by Mike Newman to provide an active list of parishioners that could be available to transport people to medical appointments and other needs such as shopping for food. People could email or call this list of volunteers ideally ahead of their need for transportation. The decision was made to announce it in Church on Aug 14 and first gather a list of volunteers who would specify days during the week they could serve and then formulate details of how the program would work in practice before setting a start date. The list was ready for Sunday, Sept. 4, 2011 and implemented

Fund raising ideas were discussed, such as selling food, but no decisions were made. Helmut provided a devotional reading from the Methodist publication, the Upper Room

The men helped support the September 3, 2011 second community dinner

Helmut and Bill organized the group for setup/cleanup for the September 17 for "Gospel on the Rivah."  We cleaned bathrooms, swept the pavilion, setup the chairs and raked around the area.  See the photo gallery

ECM returned to Horne's on Oct. 8, 2011. 8 men were there with Helmut leading a discussion from the Upper Room. Despite the bad news we read daily, "we are tethered to God by our needs and the world’s needs, and our inability to meet them — but this is the source of our hope: our unbreakable connection to God and God’s will for our good."  

Jim Heimbach introduced a new program that he and Elizabeth will participate in Fredericksburg. It is called "Breakfast Buddies" where community members eat breakfast with a child in school on a regular basis to develop a relationship and positively impact the student. Jim felt it may be a good fit for Caroline County, an idea which will be explored.

The ECM met at Hornes on Nov. 12, 2011. Here is a summary of the meeting. 

We met again at Hornes on Dec. 10, 2011.  We welcomed Rev. Chris Agnew to lead a devotion and finalized plans to help our Christmas family. We thank Stanley and Cindy Fields for purchasing the gifts as we raised over $300. Here is the meeting summary.

On Jan 14, 2012, we met at Hornes with a record number of 13 men. Bill Wick led a talk on Epiphany and mentioned key dates in the first quarter. We spent time introducing ourselves. Here are the meeting details. 

On Feb 11, 2012, the next meeting of the ECM took place. Meeting details are here.