With sad hearts, we inform you that our priest Hentzi Elek has resigned due to health reasons.

Hentzi, your leadership, fun-loving spirit, warm heart and wisdom will be greatly missed at St. George. The love you gave us in your short time in Leadville will never be forgotten! Thank you for everything!

In order to give Hentzi an opportunity to say goodbye in his own words, we have posted his resignation letter below:


​To the community of St. George, Leadville,

With the strong urging of my Oncologist and Primary Care doctors, I must, with a broken heart, tender my resignation as Vicar at St. George, Leadville, effective today, November 30, 2022. This is a copy of a letter I emailed to the Bishop on Novermber 30, 2022. The Diocese has been back in touch with me in response to this letter. I will contact them to let them know as soon as the three of us have spoken. They should then be in touch with you.

As I shared with the Bishop’s Committee as part of the Search process, I have been living with ET, a cousin of Leukemia, for just short of 18 years. I had very much hoped I could serve as The Vicar at St. George for five or more years for the ministry there is breathlessly wonderful in its faithfulness and effectiveness.

Sadly, due to the blood cancer, I am literally losing hemoglobin and red blood cells, and I can’t physically can’t catch my breath in Leadville. I had hoped to keep soldiering on, and that eventually, I would be able to adapt, but as my doctors showed me, my declining blood count is a mountain I can’t conquer.

You, the Wardens Lisa and Amy, The Bishop’s Committee, and all the people of the wider St. George community have been most welcoming and kind. My resignation will undoubtedly be a shock to you, as its necessity breaks both my heart and dreams.

With my prayers and gratitude to the people of St. George, Leadville,

The Rev. Hentzi Elek 


About St. George Episcopal Mission
St. George’s serves Lake County, a rural community that dwells at 10,152 feet of elevation. Due to our geographic location and other structural barriers, Lake County struggles with food access at the individual, household, and community level. Located 24 miles off of the I-70 corridor, and only accessible via high mountain passes, food procurement is a challenge for our community. Lake County only has one grocery store for all 8,000 residents.

Prior to the impact of inflation, groceries in Lake County cost 18% higher than the national average and 11% higher than our neighboring communities. Additionally, 70% of our community commutes 40 miles or more over high mountain passes to work in the wealthier surrounding ski communities. With the high cost of living and rising prices of gas to commute, St. George’s food program has become even more essential. We prioritize providing the fresh, nutritious food our community deserves but is often unattainable due to financial constraints and
other barriers.

This year, our food budget has been impacted significantly by inflation, both increasing the number of households utilizing our programs and increasing our cost to purchase nutritionally essential and culturally appropriate foods. Just this year the number of people who visit our Pantry has more than tripled, and the number of people attending our Community Meals has more than doubled. We have estimated that we will spend approximately $200,000 on food alone in 2022. This is $80,000 more than what St. George had budgeted for food. The Food Pantries of our neighboring communities receive a majority of their funding from private donors, whereas at St. George, only 5% of our funding comes from private donors. The majority of our funding comes from grants, which are not guaranteed. St. George will continue to respond to the needs of its community in whatever capacity it can, but we are hoping to make our particular dilemma more widely known so that we can build a broader base of support.

As a trusted ally in our community we strive to build community through the sharing of food while meeting each individual with dignity, love, and respect. As a team we are constantly striving to see through individual and collective pain and into the innocence of each person in an attempt to ease suffering, if only a little. The results of our work has shown us time and time again that if you love people and feed them nutritious food, it can have a positive impact on their physical, mental, and spiritual well being, and in turn they are more likely to thrive within a community. The ripple effect of this mission happens in small ways, in every interaction, but the results are huge and are creating more peace in this chaotic world.

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ABOUT US

The heart of the matter
​
At the heart of St George is a diverse community of faith focused on knowing our neighbors  through sharing a common table. The people at St George delight 
in the adventure of our mission, building community by welcoming, nourishing, and loving our neighbors as ourselves, or our secret mission:

If we have food, by God we'll SHARE it!

We celebrate diversity.  All of our kitchen meal coordinators speak some English and some Spanish. We enjoy sharing the adventure and the ongoing conversation with folks of all faiths or no faith. 

This LOVE goes deeper than categories or creeds.

Thank You

​Whether you help through monetary donations, volunteering your time, or telling our story through word-of-mouth, thank you. We couldn't continue without the help of friends like you. If you would like to sign up to Volunteer, go to "Get Involved!" under the donate option above. Thank you again!

​CREATING CONNECTION THROUGH SHARED MEALS

​The Community Meals is the heart of our experience and our "theology".

We seek to confuse the issue of who is giving and who is receiving. In the sharing of food, we are all enriched, as is our community. As can be seen in this photo, the "Eucharist"  (communion) flows from the altar to the ordinary table. Of course!

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