How Does Your Church Address Social Concerns?

[SpiritMeadow]

Given the economic climate, I’m told that food pantries and homeless shelters are falling behind in their attempt to service all those in need. What does you church do and how is it dealing with the increases in those coming for help?

Have you enlarged programs?
Added new ones?
reorganized to make them more efficient?
Joined interdenominationally to conserve and more effectively use resources?

Those are just some possible ideas. Do you have others?

Are you finding prison and jail ministries growing? Are increased inmates from serious crimes or petty crimes (designed to eat and so on. vagrancy?)

Have you increased/decreased your evangelization budgets? Are they effective in an economic downturn?

Have you instituted new programs to deal with helping people find government programs they might be eligible for such as food stamps, medicaid, supplemental insurance, or others? Is this useful to your church area?

My point is to help each other help our respective church by offering ideas that work elsewhere and ways of working that indeed work.

 

[SpaceNeedle]

I got a letter from Father a month ago (clearly a mail merge, everyone would’ve gotten it)…the first paragraph talks about the economy, and asks if your (my) household needs any financial assistance, as limited assistance is available.

And, paragraph #2 was, if you’re lucky enough that paragraph #1 doesn’t apply, can you please dig deep. (I am paraphrasing; it was not so blunt). Not only do we give out money and canned goods to those who need it, but we also have a soup kitchen at our parish. So, we serve more people than just our own parish family, we’re helping all sorts of people.

The letter did talk about our massive budget shortfall for this year. I pray we will all find a way to make sure we can meet as many needs as possible. I think the direct mail helped

We are working with other faith-based groups currently to help single moms, homeless, etc. A group effort seems to help.

 

[Wesley7]

The Church probably has some type of social doctrine dealing with issues in society.

 

[Publisher]

Due to the economic issues, Friends have been called on to also “dig deeper”. The American Service Friends Comittee has implemented programs to assist regions and Friends have been volunteering in various capacities with other faith traditions.

The request ot provide meals and food to those who are in difficult times through the various food banks and other social programs has been met with sucess.

Some of us have volunteered at the local rescue missions to serve during the holidays.

Weekly voluteers drop off food baskets and or meals to those afflicted with AIDS or those who suffer with cancer.

We have Friends who volunteer to deliver meals through “Meals on Wheels” and some of the senior centers in the area.

 

[SpiritMeadow]

I got a letter from Father a month ago (clearly a mail merge, everyone would’ve gotten it)…the first paragraph talks about the economy, and asks if your (my) household needs any financial assistance, as limited assistance is available.

And, paragraph #2 was, if you’re lucky enough that paragraph #1 doesn’t apply, can you please dig deep. (I am paraphrasing; it was not so blunt). Not only do we give out money and canned goods to those who need it, but we also have a soup kitchen at our parish. So, we serve more people than just our own parish family, we’re helping all sorts of people.

The letter did talk about our massive budget shortfall for this year. I pray we will all find a way to make sure we can meet as many needs as possible. I think the direct mail helped

We are working with other faith-based groups currently to help single moms, homeless, etc. A group effort seems to help.

Wow, I really like the idea of trying to identify those within your own parish who may be in need. I can see pairing them with those in the parish who have talents in locating the specific help others might need as well. I’m going to remember this one for our next parish meeting on Sunday. Thanks for a great suggestion.

We too find that we can accomplish more with our food pantry and so forth by working with other churches. We definitely reach more people.

Thanks for replying.

 

[SpiritMeadow]

Due to the economic issues, Friends have been called on to also “dig deeper”. The American Service Friends Comittee has implemented programs to assist regions and Friends have been volunteering in various capacities with other faith traditions.

The request ot provide meals and food to those who are in difficult times through the various food banks and other social programs has been met with sucess.

Some of us have volunteered at the local rescue missions to serve during the holidays.

Weekly voluteers drop off food baskets and or meals to those afflicted with AIDS or those who suffer with cancer.

We have Friends who volunteer to deliver meals through “Meals on Wheels” and some of the senior centers in the area.

It strikes me that some things are best met on an individual basis, like having a health care free clinic. But I wonder if it makes sense to try to combine more services, like a pantry with professional help in filling out forms for food stamps, medicaid, and stuff like that.

How do Friends help ferret out the valuable skills within the community? That’s something we are struggling with how to do. Questionaires don’t seem the answer. Some suggest we just have to spend more time talking to members we don’t know and learn more about each other that way. Any ideas?

 

[Publisher]

It strikes me that some things are best met on an individual basis, like having a health care free clinic. But I wonder if it makes sense to try to combine more services, like a pantry with professional help in filling out forms for food stamps, medicaid, and stuff like that.

How do Friends help ferret out the valuable skills within the community? That’s something we are struggling with how to do. Questionaires don’t seem the answer. Some suggest we just have to spend more time talking to members we don’t know and learn more about each other that way. Any ideas?

Surprisingly…we use questionaires/applications. Friends have “Peace and Social Care Committees” which are comprised of those Friends who have a “concern”. It is discussed concerning which “concerns” should be addressed in the community. It is then brought to the Meeting for Worship for Business each month and discussed on the best course. If the meeting as a whole choses to support one of the “concerns” of the Committee then a “Committee of Oversight” is designated and it is up to them to begin the process of getting support via monetary giving or voluteers. If it is decided that some “concerns” are best taken over by an individual or a couple of individuals then they begin the ground work. If the work becomes too much…it is brought to the attention of the next Business Meeting and further resources are looked into.

Most Friends do not follow the liturgical year…so Christmas and Easter are not given the importance they are given in liturgical communities. Not to dismiss Christmas or Easter as important…but “Christ must be born in our hearts daily, not just celebrated one day a year…” “Christ must be risen in our lives daily, not just celebrated one day a year…” Each First Day is a celebration in and of itself…but back on topic…since some of these holidays are not given the significance that other faith communities hold, individual Friends and families offer to serve at homeless shelters or rescue missions on these days…which frees up some of the voluteers from other faith traditions.

A few of us voluteer at our local Hospice Centers…or at the hospitals…kind of “Friendly candy-stipers”

One of the Episcopal churches in the area serves food to the homeless one week-end a month at some of the local parks…some Friends assist. The Meeting House is opened to serve meals and offer shelter during hard winter nights for the homeless.

Each Friend is given the task to become involved in our community. A couple of our “Queries” which basically act in place of the “Creed” states."

"Do you respect that of God in every person? Do you search yourself for and strive to eliminate prejudices such as those related to race, religion, gender, age, sexual orientation and economic condition? In what ways do you accept and appreciate differences among your friends and associates? Do you avoid exploiting or manipulating others to accomplish ends, however worthy? "

or

"Do you promote social justice and make your life a testimony to fair dealing? Do you seek to understand and appreciate differing cultures and social values? Do you support fair treatment of all regardless of race, gender, age and other differences? Are you concerned for those in our society who are disadvantaged? Do you take your full share of civic responsibility by voting and giving service? Do you oppose the use of land, labor, technology and capital for human exploitation or in ways destructive to other living things? "

We “challenge” one another to answer such questions put forth to us…I’m not sure if that answers your question Friend SpiritMeadow…I tend to get long winded.

 

[Luke35]

Hello,

I’ve just recently created a new ‘group’ on the site where I was hoping to get similar collaboration ideas and feedback for this sort of thing. I would invite any of you involved in this ministry to join the group and maybe we can get an ongoing dialog of ideas for action.

I am the chairperson of our parish Social Concerns Committee and we have monthly meetings to address some of these issues. Much of our ministry involves charitable collections where we “set out the boxes” and ask our generous parishioners for their donations. One time it might be blankets or coats, another time it might be household paper products, another time = toiletries or baby needs, etc.

Every year we do a special event/drive for Make a Difference Day which was just last weekend. We planned and prepared a hot meal for any in need to attend and served quite a few homeless and/or others down on their luck.

We also periodically serve meals at the homeless shelter, at the Boys & Girls Club, and for local migrant farm workers. We are involved with a local teenage pregnancy center and some other worthwhile charities and organizations. We cannot solve all the world’s problems and don’t have the resources to get involved in EVERY aspect of Catholic Social Teaching, but are always looking for small ways within our means that we can continue to promote the dignity of the human person especially in the current economic climate.

 

[SingleMomMonica]

The Orthodox Church aids people in a few of different ways:

1. On the Worldwide Level: ocmc.org/ & iocc.org/ by medical aid, building homes, giving food, etc. Both individual people and entire parishes donate their $ and time to this missions.
2. On the Community Level: philoptochos.org/ each local GOC has a Philoptochos Society in which Ladies fund raise and donate to different local needs - like a local Maternity Home or Homeless Shelter, etc.
3. On the Parish Level: may local Churches have Family Night where parishioners, other and homeless come together for Prayer in the Church, then Bible Study or Youth Night after a community dinner. The homeless are not singled - we all eat together as a community. This gives the homeless a sense of dignity, a feeling of belonging - plus we all just have a lot of fun on those nights.
4. On the Individual Level: Each Parish has a fund set aside to help the homeless that come to us to ask for help as well as to help it’s own people - our priests know each one of our Church members on a personal level because they will not give Holy Eucharist to just any one - since they know our circumstances, they will call the person in need to set up a time to bring over help. Year before last, me being a Single Mom and all, one of the priests and his wife came over and brought us food, wine, an Icon in addition to their love and company. We played Uno together after my apartment was Blessed. It was a lot of fun, very personal and did not leave me feeling like a begger in anyway partly because they reached out to me and partly because the charity was done with such respect and diginity.