Ministries
Incarnation’s Life Together Doesn’t End at Noon on Sundays
We invite you to learn about our church's small groups and ministries, both those that enrich our community life and those that do outreach in the broader community. Our congregation is small in numbers currently, but stable, generous, and engaged [see ECI Membership Statistics]. If you would like to know more about any of these groups, please send an email to either:
Interim Pastor Dean Aponte-Safe, pr.dsafe@gmail.com
Administrative Assistant Catherine Daligga, admin@incarnationannarbor.org
Meeting the Needs of Our Church and its Members
Many people work to nurture our building and grounds, our members and friends, and our spiritual life together.
Children's Ministries
Children at Incarnation are invited to join Sunday morning youth programming, which takes place during the worship service in our youth room each Sunday morning, beginning at 10:30am. Programming ranges from a youth reflection time at the beginning of service, to arts and crafts, stories, and other activities appropriate to children's development and questions. Our children's ministry seeks to be a space where all know that they belong, and is welcoming and affirming of our children's experiences and wonders.
The Vestry
The Vestry at Incarnation operates as the church’s board of directors. They meet monthly to discuss church business and make decisions on everything ranging from equipment repairs/replacement to major building enhancements to determining goals for the church. Leadership roles on the Vestry include Senior Warden, Junior Warden, Secretary, and Treasurer. Vestry members serve three year terms.
Hospitality Ministry
Ever gone to visit a church and find there is no one there to greet you, no one to direct you to the place of worship, or no one to tell you where the bathrooms are located? Our Hospitality Ministry does all those things on Sunday mornings and more. The Greeter receives people at the door and assists those differently abled or needing help. Welcome Table Attendants provide information and go out of their way to make newcomers feel welcome and members feel warmly received as well.
Meal Ministry
Meal Ministry is an informal ad-hoc group of people helping with all things food: providing meal support; food drives; helping with our potlucks; pantry stewardship; helping with FedUp Ministries and more.
Pastoral Care Committee
The Pastoral Care Committee works to identify and support Incarnation's members who are struggling with illness, economic stressers, or other issues.
Incarnation Choir
The choir is an eclectic ensemble. In alignment with the church's broader mission, we explore a variety of musical styles and vintages from "down-home gospel" to "high-church hymns," with everything in between. We celebrate the beauty of other cultures from around the world, incorporating music from other parts of our global family--singing in other languages at times--and also love to express our faith through finding spiritual connections in pop music as well! All levels of experience are welcomed; you just gotta want to sing!
Worship and Music Development Committee
This committee works with the pastor in the enhancement of the Chapel appearance for our weekly and special worship services and programs. It exists to be a resource to the pastor in the creation of bulletins the development of socially conscious and responsive liturgies and engaging and transformative music experiences. The Worship and Music Committee is also tasked with having ongoing conversations with the congregation that helps us to ask and answer the questions: "What serves us well in our worship at Incarnation? What do we wish to change? How can our worship further our commitments and values?"
Stewardship Development
Stewardship is the utilization of all God's gifts in the realization of our ministry to all God's people. It includes the time we give in service to others, the talents we use to bring wholeness to our neighbors, and the money to use to help heal humanity's wounds. Our work includes educational efforts to teach "stewardship as a way of life," the recognition of all our resources as gifts from God, and the annual stewardship campaign.
Event Planning Committee
The Incarnation community often has the honor of hosting and/or coordinating special events, which may include parties, information fairs, receptions, rallies, protests, and more. The Event Planning Committee swings into action upon invitation to help ensure the necessary preparations for such an event are completed in a timely, organized, and enjoyable manner.
Building and Grounds Committee
The committee tends to the care and maintenance of the building and grounds. In all we do, we are committed to green/sustainable solutions. We also focus on the safety and comfort of all who enter our space. There is always work or larger projects to be done. We would greatly appreciate having a couple more members who can help with the physical work of maintaining our infrastructure and grounds.
Working for Justice
Incarnation has been actively engaged in justice outreach since our inception. Below are some of our outreach programs and groups focused on issues around social and environmental justice. If you would like to know more about any of these groups, please send an email to either:
Interim Pastor Dean Aponte-Safe, pr.dsafe@gmail.com
Administrative Assistant, admin@incarnationannarbor.org
Creation Care Committee
The Creation Care Ministry (CCM) connects members of ECI to local and global movements for transformative environmental and social justice. We believe that addressing the climate emergency requires creation of a world-wide culture of mutual care, respect, and interconnection of all beings rather than one based on exploitation and extraction. Our actions include: sharing information, sponsoring and supporting public actions and engagement, and advocating for policy and program changes in every possible arena. We focus on activism related to water, especially water protection and water affordability for all communities, to honor our obligations as residents of the Great Lakes watershed.
Restorative Justice
In our first year as a congregation, we decided to focus our outreach on criminal justice reform. Over the years this has taken many different forms, from sponsoring prisoner organizations like the National Lifers of America and Hasta to leading Bible studies in the Women’s prisons to doing major educational programs like Teach-Ins to organizing the Washtenaw County branch of the Michigan Prisoner ReEntry Initiative (MPRI). In response to the success of the MPRI program the Department of Corrections cut our budget by 60%, so some of us decided to focus on working to build a restorative justice system in our county. This led us to help launch a group called Friends of Restorative Justice (FoRJ). FoRJ is responsible for restorative justice being centered in the recent campaign for county prosecutor, and its current priorities include: working to pass state legislation to make restorative justice an option for all crimes everywhere in the state; working to establish a restorative justice center in Washtenaw County; and continuing community education around restorative justice.
Poor People's Campaign
In 2018, The Rev. William Barber helped launch a new Poor People’s Campaign to focus on the inter-connected evils of systemic poverty, racism, militarism, and environmental devastation, as well as to create a new moral agenda for our country. In May of that year, 25-30 members of Incarnation were involved in a 40-day campaign of protests in Detroit and Lansing. In January of 2019, we organized a day-long summit to address how we can best challenge the racial and economic caste system in Washtenaw County and we have been working on ways to do that ever since.
Nicaragua Project
The Nicaragua Project has provided assistance to El Puente, a group in Catarina Nicaragua working to develop jobs in their community. Our organization was started by members of Incarnation, but was spun off as an independent charitable entity. Currently, half of the Project Board members have ties to Incarnation, and half are other community members. We are currently seeking more people to help carry this project forward.