When two or three are gathered at St. Alban’s you can count on two things:  food and fun! We believe in sharing the joy of living and celebrating together the many blessings of life. The church calendar includes major events such as the annual Parish Picnic, Pancake Supper, Spaghetti Dinner and autumn Pig Pickin’ barbecue. We also do small Wednesday suppers, and Parish members cook dinner for Davidson students on Sunday evenings during the school year.

We are blessed at St. Alban’s with many young families, and every effort is made to include children whenever we can in Parish Life activities. And part of the fun  of being located in a new neighborhood is opening our doors to our neighbors and inviting them to our dinners and activities.

All women of the parish are members of the Episcopal Church Women (ECW), and our ECW is part of an extraordinary fellowship of Episcopal women across the country who manage to do the impossible on a regular basis! ECW raises money both nationally and locally, and provides support for those in need both in this country and overseas.

The St. Alban’s ECW participates in Davidson’s annual community Town Day and sells plants loving dug up and donated. They sponsor the annual Pancake Dinner and Bingo Night (lassoing members of the Men’s Group to help). Through these activities and smaller fundraising project through the year, ECW raises money they uses it for a rich variety of projects – from replacing worn vestments in our own church to buying books for seminary students to offering help to the Mission San Lucas in El Salvador.

ECW meets on the second Tuesday of each Month from September through May. To learn more about ECW’s activities in North Carolina, visit the Web site http://www.ecw-nc.org.

For information on the ECW Holiday Harvest Fair, click here!

Men of St. Alban's: MSA

Just as all women of St. Alban’s are members of ECW, the men of the church all are welcomed into Men of St. Alban's. There is no formal structure in the Episcopal Church for men’s fellowship and service, so the men of our church have carved their own path.

MSA sponsors monthly social gatherings where members can relax and informally share fun and fellowship. It also coordinates labor for workdays at the church, handles the heavy work of setting up and taking down tables at parish events, and generally provides manpower for a variety of events.

The major event of the year for MSA is the annual Pig Pickin’ Barbecue in the fall. The work starts well before dawn as teams get the barbecue fires going and begin preparations. By late afternoon, everything is ready and families and individuals pour in from across the community to enjoy traditional southern barbecue with all the trimmings, music, and a ton of fun. The money raised all goes to Outreach, which provides the perfect end of this great day.

As a young and growing church, St. Alban’s welcomes visitors every Sunday of the year, and we have been delighted to see many of those visitors decide to join our parish family.

If you come to St. Alban’s, you will find friendly faces at the door waiting to welcome you and help you find your way. You will find a Guest Book in the narthex (the lobby), and we invite you to sign it and give us information about where you live and whether you’d like more information. Children are welcome to visit the Sunday School, and Adult Education is open to visitors as well.

Of course, all are welcome to join us as we gather to worship. After each service, there is time for coffee and conversation in the narthex, and that is a good time for you to meet us and us to welcome you.

Every few months, members of St. Alban’s open their homes for newcomer brunches. These are an excellent opportunity for newcomers, clergy, vestry members and other parish members to get to know one another a little better.

In short, you may come to St. Alban’s a stranger, but you won’t be a stranger for long!

Outreach 2010 and MDG's

The United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are eight goals agreed to in 2000 by 189 heads of state and government -- including the United States -- from around the world that address the deepest material brokenness in the world today. Specific objectives were defined for each, with a target to complete by 2015. The goals are:

Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
Achieve universal primary education
Promote gender equality and empower women
Reduce child mortality
Improve maternal health
Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
Ensure environmental sustainability
Create a global partnership for development with targets for aid, trade and debt relief

The St. Alban's Outreach Team is planning to focus much of 2010 on activities and events in support of these goals. We've already made a difference with our successful Stop Hunger Now event last Fall. And we hope to do more this year. On Sunday, February 21, we'll be hosting a Millenium Development Goals Fair to give you more information about how we can help achieve these goals. You can also visit the Episcopal Relief and Development web site (http://www.er-d.org/MDGs/) for more details.

Our partnership with the Diocese of Costa Rica to build a school/day care in Heredia is going to get a lot of focus this year. With the tragedy in Haiti, we have innumerable opportunities to participate in the relief and rebuilding efforts there. We're also planning another mission trip to Bay St.. Louis. And of course, we'll continue to provide assistance to those in need in our own community.

The Outreach Team welcomes your participation in making plans for 2010. Please feel free to attend a team meeting, or pass along your ideas to either Sherry Klepfer at ncsu1970@yahoo.com or Deacon Rebecca at RYarbrough@gostalbans.org.

As we reach out, we also reach up and come closer to the risen Christ. The challenges are great – the opportunities to serve are many. Click here to see some of the places St. Alban's reaches, from Davidson to Costa Rica and beyond.

Outreach donated $1,000 to

Ada Jenkins on December 8, 2009

Pastoral care at St. Alban’s combines the work of our clergy with the special talents of a professional therapist and a caring team of parishioners in serving the needs of our church family. Assistance is offered during times of illness, death, birth, hospital stays and other special needs as they arise.

The work of the clergy is at the center of pastoral care. But in addition, lay members of the church help by taking communion to those who are ill or homebound, taking meals if a family is dealing with a death or other major event, offering help when a baby arrives, and performing countless other planned and random acts of kindness.

St. Alban's houses the Diocese of North Carolina's ministry to the students at Davidson College known as Canterbury@Davidson.

The Rev. Elizabeth Marie Melchionna, Our Episcopal Chaplain to Davidson College, works under the Rev. Rob Spach, Chaplain of Davidson College.

During the school year, Canterbury holds a 4:30 p.m. Eucharist on Sundays at the Lingle Chapel on campus, then students walk to the Carolina Inn for a simple supper prepared and served by members of the parish.

For more information visit www.canterburyatdavidson.org.

Servers