Honor Reverend Skip Vilas

2019, at BKLYN Studios in Brooklyn, New York; and WHEREAS, Founded in 1978, Brooklyn Community Housing and Services (BCHS) is committed to ending homelessness in Brooklyn and empowering all the residents of its home community of Fort Greene and the surrounding neighborhoods through innovative and comprehensive social, educational and job-training programs that enable residents to achieve maximum independence; and WHEREAS, Every year, BCHS provides clean and safe supportive housing and services to more than 1,000 formerly homeless families and single adults and helps them to learn how to live independently; and WHEREAS, BCHS' programs provide short-term, transitional and permanent housing, homelessness prevention, personalized case management, mental health care, on-site nursing, vocational training, substance abuse counseling, recreational activities and other vital services; and WHEREAS, Born and raised in New York City, Skip Vilas attended Yale University and Virginia Theological Seminary, and was ordained to the Priesthood of the Episcopal Church in 1960; and WHEREAS, Throughout his esteemed career, Reverend Dr. Vilas has been active in the field of mental health and in the ministries of environmental stewardship and ecojustice; and WHEREAS, As the Rector of St. Ann's Church in Brooklyn Heights, Reverend Dr. Skip Vilas participated as a member of the Carter Administration's Panel on Mental Health during the late 1970s; through his work on the panel, and in response to the emerging crisis of homelessness in downtown Brooklyn, he helped lead the creation of Pastoral & Educational Services, which later changed its name to Brooklyn Community Housing and Services; and WHEREAS, In addition, Reverend Dr. Skip Vilas is the founder of the national Episcopal Environmental Network and of GreenFaith, an interfaith statewide organization in New Jersey; he serves on an interfaith advisory committee to the United Nations Environment Programme and is a board member of the Highlands Coalition; and WHEREAS, Reverend Dr. Skip Vilas was also a curate at St. Mark's Church in New Canaan, Connecticut, and rector for both St. John's in Beverly Farms, Massachusetts, and St. Paul's in Chatham, New Jersey; and WHEREAS, In his much deserved retirement, Reverend Dr. Skip Vilas and his wife Joyce have served on an interim team at several churches in New Jersey; and WHEREAS, It is the sense of this Legislative Body that those who enhance the well-being and vitality of their community and have shown a long and sustained commitment to excellence certainly have earned the recognition and applause of all the citizens of this great Empire State; now, therefore, be it RESOLVED, That this Legislative Body pause in its deliberations to commend The Reverend Dr. Skip Vilas upon the occasion of his designation for special recognition by Brooklyn Community Housing and Services on