By Paula Day

Stuart and Virginia (Ginger) Cashin of Sacred Heart parish in Atlanta will be among the honorees at the 23rd Annual Community Breakfast hosted by the Christian Council of Metropolitan Atlanta.

The Cashins will receive the Mrs. Fred W. Patterson Award for Exceptional Personal Ministry. Other honorees will be Lynn Westergaard for his work in human relations, the Lizzie P. Thomas Missionary Circle of Ebenezer Baptist Church for outstanding community service and members of St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church for exemplary community outreach. This last award was established four years ago in memory of the late Archbishop Thomas A. Donnellan specifically to honor a church congregation. All honorees will receive plaques detailing the recognition.

Sister Valentina Sheridan, RSM, nominated the Cashins for the honor. As administrator of Sacred Heart Church, she witnessed their involvement in ministry to the homeless and to persons with AIDS and their concern about social justice in the business world.

“One thing that really impressed me is their concern to help people grow – whether it be marginal people or people in the parish.” She noted that the couple routinely set aside for charity an amount matching half what they spend on themselves for a vacation or similar expenditures.

Mrs. Cashin helped develop a program using art to build the self-esteem of young people. She works weekly with children at the Moreland Avenue Shelter for Women and Children. Through her ministry to persons with AIDS she has become a close friend of an HIV-infected person and assists him wherever possible. The couple are involved in foot ministry to the homeless. Stuart Cashin helped organize a group of Catholic businessmen and others who study Catholic social teaching and try to bring Christian values into the marketplace.

Cashin expressed reticence about the honor. “Ginger and I are just trying to do God’s work here,” he said. “We’re honored, but we didn’t seek it. The publicity is not something for us. It may help others to think of what they can do for the kingdom of God.”

Award recipient Lynn Westergaard, a Presbyterian layman, has helped elderly people winterize and repair their homes and has involved a wide range of people in this work, according to Neal Ponder, associate director of the Christian Council. The Lizzie P. Thomas Circle involves young people in its missionary activities. For more than a decade St. Bartholomew’s Church, 1790 Lavista Road in Atlanta, has sponsored a shelter for homeless families and more recently has been active in ministry to persons with AIDS.

President-elect of the Council, Father Richard Kieran, pastor of Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in Atlanta, will make the presentations at the March 13 breakfast.

Other recipients of Christian Council awards over the years have included Bill Bolling, Betti Knott, Dorthy Miller, Sisters Marcella Meyer, CSJ, and Our Lady of Perpetual Help Home.

The Christian Council has sent 13,000 invitations to the awards event, which is open to the public. Tickets are $12 per person; $120 for a table of 10, and may be purchased after Jan. 20. The breakfast begins at 8:30 a.m. in the Grand Ballroom of the Atlanta Hilton and Towers in downtown Atlanta.

The Council was formed in the 1970s to promote dialogue across racial and denominational lines among Christians in Atlanta.