Diocesan Website Aids Mississippi’s Unemployed
The Diocese of Mississippi has added a feature to its website that gives employers and Episcopalians looking for work an opportunity to connect.
The most recent statistics from the Mississippi Employment Security Commission estimate that 9.2 percent of state residents able and willing to work are unemployed.
“These difficult times we’re hearing about are a reality for many members of our church, people who are very close to us,” said the Rt. Rev. Duncan Gray III, Bishop of Mississippi. “The church has probably been a little slow to respond effectively and pastorally to those who’ve been impacted in dramatic ways.”
The Rev. Scott Lenoir, editor of The Mississippi Episcopalian, said he was inspired to act after seeing an article in the Diocese of Southern Ohio’s Interchange. The resume and employment opportunity hosting service was announced in an article in the diocesan newspaper that included interviews with the first three persons to post their resumes.
“I was thinking of doing something long before I saw the [Southern Ohio] article,” he said. “The drama, trauma, of going through [unemployment] is something I felt needed to be communicated, to put some faces behind the statistics and get some practical information to people."
After the House of Bishops issued a pastoral letter on the economy at the conclusion of their spring retreat in March, Fr. Lenoir said he spoke with Bishop Gray and the idea came into clearer focus.
“We hope the article and the webpage will provide help to people searching for jobs,” he said. “The webpage particularly may initiate some networking possibilities for people that didn't exist before.”
http://www.livingchurch.org/news/news-updates/2009/4/17/diocesan-website-aids-mississippis-unemployed
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