CARE OF THE NEIGHBORS

 Outreach Committee Chairs                             Carol Knight & Andrea Harles

 Answering Our Community’s Call

             The Outreach and Community Service Committee helps to channel the talents of a vibrant congregation in response to the needs of our community – both here on Capitol Hill  and beyond.  This year the committee continued some of our traditional ministries and launched new ones, often building on the personal missions of our parishioners.

Capitol Hill Group Ministry

            Christ Church participates in a collective ministry to people in Ward 6 through membership in and contributions to Capitol Hill Group Ministry. Group Ministry staff work with those in need of housing, work, training, and other types of support. Two of the social workers are located in two offices which we provide for them. The cost of this space and one telephone line is donated by Christ Church.

Community Support

            A variety of community based groups use the parish hall for nominal contributions or for free. These include AA, Families in Economic Downturn, Friends of Tyler Tutoring Program, Different Drummers, Hill Havurah, Dignity, St. Mark’s Players, CHAW, Capitol Hill Chorale and Capitol Hill Youth Chorus, and other groups who need a one-time or occasional meeting space. This is much valued and appreciated in our community.

Church of the Brethren Nutrition Program

            The Church of the Brethren with assistance from other churches and agencies provides more than 100 hot lunches every day – a service that only became more critical during the city’s recent economic downturn. Without fail Carol Knight makes sure the church purchases, chops, and delivers mountains of vegetables on the first Monday of each month for the nutrition program’s soup.

Brown Bag Lunches

            The first Sunday of the month the preparation of bag lunches for those in need at Seward Square replaces our regular coffee hour. Under the leadership of John Jameson and Linda Mellgren members of the parish have been purchasing the ingredients for the lunches, and the entire congregation pitches in to put them together.

Capitol Hill Arts Workshop Youth Chorus

            The CHAW Youth Chorus which was founded in part with a Multicultural Ministries Grant from Christ Church and the Diocese continues to grow. Marian Connolly (president), Laurie Lindsay (publicity), Mel Abrecht (secretary), Jean Denton (new secretary) and Judith Davis serve on the board of directors. The outreach committee has provided financial support to this community ministry. Several parishioners sing with the chorus.

Holiday Activities

            Christ Church always rises to the occasion in celebration of holidays. For Labor Day/Back to School supplies for 30 school bags were collected. At Thanksgiving, members provided bags full of all the fixings for 22 holiday dinners. And for Christmas, our congregation answered Tommy Wells’ call for toys and books that fathers in the Community Action Group’s rehabilitation program could present to their children.

Food Bank Support

            We began working with the Pleasant Lane Baptist Church (500 block of E St SE) to support its food bank program which supports needy families in the Capitol Hill area. Members of the congregation bring food on an on-going basis which is left in the back of the church.

Hurricane Katrina/Rita Support

The Christ Church – Capitol Hill quilters decided that the proceeds of the quilt lottery which was $2000 should be used to support people impacted by the hurricanes in Louisiana and Mississippi. This was matched with money from St. Nicholas Dinner and designated gifts to make a total of $5000 which was sent to the Diocese of Mississippi for St. Pierre’s Church in Gautier, our adopted parish which was devastated during Hurricane Katrina.

Individual Ministries

            The committee continues to encourage individual ministries as an important part of our church’s corporate ministries. We encourage individuals to identify a specific ministry in which they are directly involved and to share that with the committee and others in Christ Church so that these ministries may also be upheld and supported. The committee has developed a process to support this financially in certain instances. The committee will continue its work in developing structure to better facilitate the sharing of identified individual ministries.

Contributions

The committee looks forward to keeping outreach at the forefront of our parish life in 2006, in keeping with the Christ Church mission:

To encourage and empower our members, individually and collectively, to work and witness in Christ’s name within and beyond our parish community, especially to comfort and aid those who are homeless, hungry, ill, or in any kind of trouble, sorrow, or need.