As Christians, we are called to “seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving our neighbor as ourselves.” At Saint David’s, we take that commitment seriously. Much of our energy is devoted to our immediate neighbors, people in Agawam and West Springfield with whom we can develop meaningful relationships. But we also participate in international efforts to help transform the world from the nightmare it is for some into the dream that God has for us all.
May was another big month for us! 
We had another successful Veterans Lunch on the 7th (a repeat of our yummy pork Community supper from the night before) and a good group at Church without Walls. One of our participants seemed to be under the influence of something and was a lively presence. But then he asked if he could lead us in the Lord’s Prayer, and was clearly moved. It was a reminder to be patient and let the Holy Spirit work away!

We also continued our WCCC Bible Study on the first Monday of the month, although they cancelled our session on the 4th Monday for Memorial Day.

The main additional Outreach activity was a sermon by Mary Moore about her mission trip to Jamaica with Food for the Poor. In conjunction with her sermon, we took up a collection for Food for the Poor.

Looking ahead, we’ll participate in a River Clean-up on June 1, and the Appalachian Trail Ministry on June 22.

We are also one of the sponsors of a Golf Tournament to support the Parish Cupboard at St Anne’s Country Club on Tuesday, June 11. (They are still looking for participants if you are a golfer!)

Local Outreach
Our most consistent outreach is Church without walls. We have joined with six area Churches representing four denominations to provide a short worship service and lunch each Sunday at noon at the Parish Cupboard (1023 Main Street, West Springfield). We cover the second Sundays. This has been a really wonderful project for us because it has given us an opportunity to get to know some of the people we are called to serve.

We call another regular outreach effort in our area The Agawam Project. Every Christmas, the Town Nurse gives us the names of families (first names only, along with the age and gender of the child) who could use a little help with Christmas. Parishioners buy presents and clothes. We deliver the presents to the Nurse who in turn delivers them to the families. At Easter, we do the same thing with Easter baskets.

For the last two years, towards the end of the summer, we have also provided Backpacks for local children (in partnership with the Christian Lighthouse). We filled the backpacks with school supplies and distributed them during a day of fun events. Last year we also followed up this project by donating new coats to every child who needed one.

Love in a Backpack wrapped up June 21, 2025, with stuffing of the backpacks - we filled 27 backpacks and St. Andrew's added 10 more! 37 backpacks for women exiting the W. MA regional women's correctional facility.

We support "Bumpa's Crew" in the Agawam Relay for Life, with fundraising events like a special dinner and a Paint and Sip event.

In addition to those special events, we collect food for the Parish Cupboard and tabs for the Shriners each week. We host Overeaters Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous and Al-Anon each week. And we participate in occasional ecumenical outreach efforts like the Convoy of Hope.

Women's Correctional Center Bible Study, by Deacon Terry: 
10/1/2024. Update:  With regret, we discontinued our Prison Bible Study. Our most faithful participant moved to another prison, and there did not appear to be much interest among the other inmates. 
Outreach
Updates
7/2025 by Fr Harvey:
Unfortunately, I missed our June Veterans Lunch, but Bob tells me they served another excellent meal, this time turkey. Our crowd was small, which may have been due to the beautiful weather. We won’t offer a Veterans Lunch in July since it would fall during the week of Independence Day. But we’ll be back at it in August on the 5th.
At our June Church without Walls, we met in the parking lot of the Parish Cupboard. I was worried that might reduce our numbers, but we had our normal crew and what turned out to be a particularly rich conversation about the problems of division, the desire for unity and peace, and the challenge of making ourselves vulnerable. We also gave thanks for the fact that one of our crew was moving into an apartment for the first time in three years.
We had two special outreach projects in June.
  • ​Love in a Backpack wrapped up June 21, 2025, with stuffing of the backpacks - we filled 27 backpacks and St. Andrew's added 10 more! 37 backpacks for women exiting the W. MA regional women's correctional facility.
  • Appalachian Trail Magic. Lots of Churches have teamed up to offer “trail magic” to hikers passing through on the Appalachian Trail. That means things like hot dogs and soda, or else a free charge for hikers’ cell phones. The food, drink, and chargers are all provided. Our role was to welcome hikers and offer them the stuff. Chatting with them is interesting, to say the least! 

International Outreach
Through the Episcopal Diocese of Western Massachusetts, we contribute to a number of international outreach efforts as well. Twice a year, we take up the United Thank Offering, which goes to fund mission efforts around the world. We have taken up special collections for Episcopal Relief and Development; overseas missionaries; a program called Change the Babies that helps an orphanage in Africa; Food for the Poor, and other organizations.
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United Thank
​Offering
United Thank Offering: This is money collected from Episcopal Churches around the country, pooled, and then given as grants to help people in need.
The 2016 grants were awarded to projects in 32 dioceses, which included 25 dioceses located in the United States, five non-domestic dioceses, six companion dioceses, one grant to the Office of the Presiding Bishop – Episcopal Migration Ministries, and one to Presiding Bishop Currey