Dear Massachusetts Bible Society:
Thank you for your generosity and commitment to Ecclesia Ministries common cathedral. Your support of our ministries provides a "place", a spiritual home, for the poorest people of Boston, those who live on its streets and in its shelters, and fosters relationships between housed and unhoused people, from which both reap great benefits.
Ecclesia Ministries has been actively engaged in street ministry in Boston since 1994 and has provided outdoor Sunday worship as common cathedral since 1996. Ecclesia Ministries common cathedral provides companionship and community to people on the street, a sustaining fellowship that serves to lessen the isolation that people face when they have no place to call home. We appreciate your contribution to our community and hope you continue to partner with us in this important journey of relationship, healing, wholeness and justice.
In God's Peace,
The Rev. Kathy McAdams, Executive Director
December 22, 2009
Dear Sir:
On behalf of the staff here at Baystate Children's Hospital, I would like to thank you for your generous donation of children's and young adult Bibles. Each child who received one was delighted with their gift. You were instrumental in fostering the spiritual comfort we as chaplains try to impart to all the children here.
Enclosed find some photos of a young man and his mother sharing a peaceful moment on the playdeck. Please feel free to use the photos to promote your wonderful services.
Thank you again for your generosity.
We wish you a very happy and holy Christmas.
Sincerely,
Ute Schmidt - Manager, Spiritual Services
Linda Kelly - Chaplain, Spiritual Services
January 21, 2010
Dear Michael,
We are incredibly grateful to the Massachusetts Bible Society for the Bible grant of 30 HarperCollins Study Bibles. Our ministry with this congregation and the larger community has broadened in the last five years. We include regular Bible Studies through which we encourage people to contemplate scripture in their daily lives. Last year, more than 25 people participated in the Adult Education Program.
This may seem like an obvious focus for a church community, but our deliberate and intensified approach to scripture has definitely opened the minds and hearts of both people who have been hearing scripture all their lives as well as folks who are new to Christianity.
Each member of the Bible Study classes will receive their own copy of the Study Bible during our Lenten classes. And the remainder of the Bibles will be available for Sunday worship in the Sanctuary Pews.
Sincerely yours,
Rev. Laura Biddle
October 14, 2008
Dear Reverend Robertson:
Thank you so much for your generous donation of Bibles to our department through the Bible grant program. We were pleasantly surprised at the variety and number of Bibles you provided. It felt like an early Christmas! Thank you also for sending the Qur'an and Bible reading guides. We were delighted to receive them.
We are currently in the process of building up our department, so it is wonderful to have these resources on hand to provide for our patients and staff. The Bibles also came at a perfect time -- the supply we had was running out.
Thank you once again for your partnership. We are blessed by your ministry and hope to continue working with you in the future.
Sincerely,
Rev. Julia Dunbar
Director of Pastoral Care & Education
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
October 23, 2008
Dear Folks,
Thank you so very much for your support of our prison Chaplaincy! This week we received from you a shipment of 100 New American Bibles. I am humbled by your generosity, and thank God we have a resource to call upon for such a needed tool.
I am very careful to tell each inmate when he receives the Bible from my hands that this is a gift from the Massachusetts Bible Society. I tell him that it is now his property, and should be taken home with him when he leaves our custody. Some of the men tell me that they've never owned a Bible before! Hopefully, this is the first step toward making it the most important book in their possession!
Thank you again and thank you to your many benefactors for making this very important gift to us!
Sincerely yours,
Deacon Gary E. Miller
Worcester County House of Correction
5 Paul X. Tivnan Drive
West Boylston, MA 01583
The American Bible Society received a special gift yesterday from the Massachusetts Bible Society designated to purchase 100 Arabic Bibles for Bethlehem Bible College in Israel. Thank you for the blessing of such support.
I can thihnk of no finer investment than one that helps to provide God's message of faith, hope, and love. Thank you for your efforts to secure these funds and then to serve as a conduit in helping to complete a wonderful Scripture-sharing project in a place with great needs. This side of heaven we cannot know the full impact of the Scriptures you wil hlep to provide to the arriving students annually, but we are confident that God's Word will do all that He sent it to do.
Robert L. Briggs
Vice President for Development
American Bible Society
Thanks to the Massachusetts Bible Society for sending us three large-print Spanish bibles, 40 regular Version Popular Spanish Bibles, and 10 Harper-Collins NRSV Study Bibles. We also thank the society for many copies of Bible study guides in both English and Spanish!
Rev. Jonathan Tetherly,
Chaplain
Hampden County Correctional Center
Thank you so much for our recent grant and making all these Bibles available to the inmate population here at the Massachusetts Treament Center. Please know that these Bibles are very much appreciated and they are being used daily for Bible study and Christian programs.
Rev. Orlando Jardine
Protestant Chaplain
Oh behalf of The Salvation Army, we would like to thank you for supporting the 2007 Christmas Castle.
With your generous contribution, we were able to provide nearly 5,000 clients with bibles throughout the week of our Christmas Castle event at The Boston Park Plaza.
Carolyn Brunis
Volunteer and Special Events Manager
The Salvation Army
On behalf of the staff and patients at Lemuel Shattuck Hospital, I would like to thank yo uand the Bible Society for your on-going support.
At the Shattuck Hospital, we have patients and staff who come from all parts of the globe and the Bible Society has always been very accommodating in finding the appropriate translations to meet our needs.
It's so very hard to describe the look of joy that I see every time I give out a Bible that was donated by the Bible Society, especially to those patients and staff who are not native English speakers. I have been told a number of times by our patients that to have a Bible in one's own language has enhanced their spiritual journey and helped to find sources for hope in difficult times.
Reverend James Gannon, M.Div., LCSW
Director of Pastoral Care and Patient Advocacy SErvices
Lemuel Shattuck Hospital