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CARE OF THE NEIGHBORS
Outreach
Committee Chairs -- Megan Wilson & Carol Knight
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. In
2008, the committee was larger than in recent years and met on a
monthly basis. It sponsored a series of well-attended sessions
in the Adult Forum that featured speakers from local and global
public service organizations. These included representatives
from the Capitol Hill Group Ministry, the Capitol Hill
Foundation, the Community Action Group, SMYAL, Episcopal Senior
Ministries, Capitol Hill Village, Bread for the World and
Population Services International. The Committee also adopted
as a policy of allocating its annual financial contributions on
a three to one basis, with seventy-five percent going to Capitol
Hill-related groups, and the remainder to national or
international organizations. This year the committee has
continued its traditional ministries while also exploring new
ones.
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.
Community Support
A variety of community based groups use the parish
hall for nominal contributions or for free. This is a much
valued service and appreciated in our community.
Church of the Brethren
Nutrition Program
The Church of the Brethren, in cooperation with
other churches and agencies, provides more than 100 hot lunches
every day to neighbors in need. On the first Sunday of each
month, the Christ Church veggie choppers slice, dice and package
several fat bags of ingredients to be transfigured into soup by
the Church of the Brethren chefs.
Brown Bag Lunches
Also on the first Sunday of each month, parishioners
use coffee hour to prepare bag lunches for those in need around
Seward Square and local homeless shelters. 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.
Holiday
Activities
Christ Church always rises to the occasion in
celebration of holidays. For Valentine’s Day and the Fourth of
July, parishioners donate hundreds of dollars worth of phone
cards for wounded military personnel. For Labor Day/Back to
School supplies for 30 school bags were collected. At
Thanksgiving, members provided bags full of all the fixings for
28 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
Several years ago, 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. There was a
renewed emphasis on this program in 2008, as the economic
downturn threatened to increase poverty and hunger in the
region.
UN Millennium Goals
The Christ Church – Capitol Hill quilters decided that the
proceeds of the quilt lottery (more than $2000) should be used
to support the UN’s Millennium Development Goals.
Contribution
Highlights in 2008
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Capitol Hill Group Ministry |
$4,000 |
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Church of the Brethren Soup Kitchen |
$4,000 |
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Partners in Health |
$1,000 |
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Episcopal Senior Ministries |
$750 |
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Hurricane relief |
$500 |
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Pleasant Lane Food program |
$400 |
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Community Action Group |
$250 |
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Capitol Hill Community Foundation |
$250 |
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Other global, national & community groups |
$700 |
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Theological Education |
$900 |
The committee looks
forward to keeping outreach at the forefront of our parish life
in 2009, in keeping with one of Christ Church’s principal
strategic goals:
To work and witness in Christ’s name in and beyond our parish
community, and especially to comfort and aid those who are
homeless, hungry, ill, or in any kind of trouble, sorrow, or
need.
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