Thank you for your involvement in this phenomenal ecumenical ministry we call Stauros. I wish all of you a Joyous Holiday Season. To my Christian sisters and brothers I wish a very Merry Christmas and a Joyful Epiphany. My wish for all of you, fellow sojourners on this earth, is peace. I pray that you may realize good will towards all people in every place and at all times. In this, as in all things, may our thanksgivings be to God!

As the Executive Director since July 1st, I have been learning about Stauros. One of the things I've learned is that there are many diverse activities going on at Stauros. In order to share these activities with you I have included an informational brochure. If there is one word, however, that describes the focus of our efforts for the coming year that word is "outreach". Stauros seeks to outreach to people who experience suffering, to people who care for them, and to people who would be healers. We seek to outreach to churches, parishes, community organizations, and hospitals via print, radio, television and the internet.

To "outreach" Stauros needs your help. There are three things on my Stauros wish list this year: prayers, volunteers, and sustaining resources. You can help make one or more of these wishes become realities.

First and foremost, I ask each of you to hold Stauros in your prayers. Pray for all who have been touched and are about to be touched by this ministry, that they might find a path to spiritual peace and healing. Pray for the volunteers who work in this ministry, that they find the needed support and strength to proclaim the compassion of God to a culture that mediates pain and suffering with mind numbing media, hollow materialism, and maximum marginalization.

Secondly, we need you to volunteer. People with human abilities become the faces of Stauros. Can you make phone calls, write letters, stuff envelopes, be a web master, or monitor an email discussion group? Can you host an educational forum at your school, church, parish or community center? Can you participate in or lead a group discussion, write a reflection, draw a picture, or create an illustration for the Notebook? Do you have experience in operating a television camera or in video editing? Can you afford to go to Israel with us and be an attendant or push a wheelchair? Please let me know. We need your help as a Stauros Volunteer.

Thirdly, Stauros needs the sustaining resources to maintain its ministry and to "outreach". To touch people through print, radio, television and the internet costs money. Dollars support volunteer efforts with the tools, supplies, and needed training. Many of the people Stauros reaches do not have much money, but they find a way to help with a $5 or $10 donation. Bless you. People with different financial security, donate $500, $1000, or more. Blessings be to you. The rest of us fall somewhere in between. Can you be a Sustaining Partner with a donation of $50 to $100 dollars to defray the costs of materials and operating expenses for our existing programs? Can you be a Program and Development Partner with a donation of over $100 to help Stauros design new and creative outreaches to people struggling to come to grips with the reality of suffering in their lives or the lives of people they care about? I know each of you will do what you can according to your means.

As we prepare for the new millennium, the mission of Stauros continues to grow in importance. A society in denial of its own mortality needs an authentic witness to human suffering that does not lower but raises the value of all human life. Human life, lovingly created by God and imbued by the energy of the Holy Spirit, is sacred. Born 2000 years ago, Jesus provides not only Christians but all humanity with a model of human sacredness fully realized in the suffering of his passion and death.

Merry Christmas,


Larry J. Huiras
Executive Director