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LAMP Ministries is a Catholic lay
missionary association, comprised of people
who serve among the materially poor, with a
focus on evangelization. LAMP missionaries may
be married couples, single men and women, as
well as religious brothers, sisters and priests. |
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A Call
To Holiness |
Are
you called to the mission of
Lamp? |
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Make
A Donation |
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Although you may
not be able to visit a materially poor person or
family in a crowded shelter or walk-up apartment
in the New York City Metropolitan area, you can
help to make it possible for a LAMP Missionary
to do so. |
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"You,
Lord, give light to my lamp; my God, You brighten the
darkness about me."
- Psalm 18:28 |
LAMP's History
(Continued)
They received his affirmative reply on March 25,
1981 (Feast of Mary’s Annunciation), inviting them
to come to the Archdiocese to begin LAMP. Because
of the graces that Tom & Lyn believed this
affirmation contained, they considered that date as
the beginning of LAMP Ministries.
Their plan to return to New York City was hampered
by the fact they didn’t have the money to rent an
apartment for their family. On the Feast of St.
Joseph (May 1, 1981, they received a phone call from
Mr. Mike Burke, an elderly shop keeper in the
Riverdale section of the Bronx. He had heard of
the Scheurings and their desires, and wanted to
offer a small apartment to them for a year, which he
usually offered to missionary priests. They only had
to pay the utilities. Upon returning to New York,
Tom acquired a job (to feed the family) serving two
days a week at St. Nicholas of Tolentine Parish in
the Bronx, developing a Baptism program for the
parish. The rest of the time Tom & Lyn began
developing LAMP and prepared a brochure for
recruiting purposes and fundraising. They met with
Archbishop Gerety of the Newark Archdiocese and
Bishop Mugavero of the Brooklyn Diocese to receive
their blessing and permissions to have LAMP in their
Dioceses. Contacts began to be made with pastors
who would be open to having a LAMP Missionary serve
in their parish.
During that first year, longtime friend of the
Scheurings, Marybeth Mutmansky (later Greene)
desired to serve with them. She left her job as
Campus Minister at Manhattan College to assist in
the administration of LAMP when there were not even
any funds to pay her. Mike Burke also provided a
desk in his little store to serve as LAMP’s first
“office”.On
July 1, 1982, the Scheuring family and LAMP’s office
moved to 2704 Schurz Ave. in the East Bronx where
their family lived on the second floor of the house
and LAMP’s office and meeting space was on the first
floor.
Further aspects of LAMP’s history and subsequent
development can be found in the book: The Poor and
the Good News: A Call to Evangelize, with the
Foreword by John Cardinal O’Connor (1993: Paulist
Press).
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