Through the Easter Season, the great festival stretching from the Easter Vigil through Pentecost, we in the Diocese of Newark celebrate Easter's life-changing abundance. We are given fifty days - which, tellingly, is longer than Lent - to rejoice and experience what it means when we say  Alleluia! Christ is risen!

 

A gift to the Alleluia Fund is a joyful way to celebrate and share the abundance of Easter. Your generosity last year resulted in $171,000 in grants to 38 programs; 33 provide practical, hands-on support to our neighbors in northern New Jersey and five offer support internationally. Key areas of support include food for the hungry, shelter for the homeless, education for youth and adults, and international programs providing relief and/or support of the Millennium Development Goals. All grantees are all sponsored by our diocesan communities of faith or their members. (A complete list can be found at 2015 Alleluia Fund Grants.)

 

During the Easter Season we will be sharing Alleluia stories, profiles of men, women and children whose lives have been transformed by Alleluia Fund ministries. The first Alleluia story will be published in the April 6 issue of our diocese's electronic newsletter, The VOICE Online, and features Marco, an energetic nine-year-old who attends the Success For All After School Program at St. Peter's in Morristown. (Please click here to subscribe or read past e-newsletters.)

I invite you to join me in celebrating these ministries and God's abundance with a gift to the Alleluia Fund. Together, our Episcopal charity transforms lives.

The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!