Pastoral care
Our minister and deacons provide
pastoral care to our members, including home visits,
hospital visits and pastoral counseling. The
deacons also visit parishioners who are no longer able
to attend church regularly. The pastoral ministry
of the Diaconate assists members with such things as
getting to medical appointments, picking up a medication
or finding a hot meal. If you have a pastoral need,
please
contact our pastoral staff.
Adults
The Prayer Shawl Ministry
meets every Wednesday morning at 10 a.m. in the Guild
Room, where knitting enthusiasts create prayer shawls,
hats, blankets, mittens and items for hospice patients
and those in need.
The Sewing Group
meets every Wednesday at 4 p.m. to make quilts that are
sold in fundraisers or donated to hospitals. The
session is ended every week with a soup-and-bread
dinner. Summer schedule - the group will
meet every other Wednesday in July and August beginning
July 7.
South Church Cooks is a
group that cooks and serves meals on a monthly basis for
the Loaves and Fishes program. Dates (usually a
Tuesday morning at 10:30) are announced in the
Crossroads calendar, the Website calendar and the Sunday
bulletin. The next date will be Tuesday, July
20 at 10:30 a.m. at Christ Church Cathedral.
For more information about any of
these groups and how to participate, or if you have an
idea for a new ministry, please contact the
church office.
Children and Youth
In addition to our Sunday school
program, programs are happening for our children
and youth, including field trips, a children’s music
program (see below under Music) and joint parent-child
events. Here is a schedule for the coming weeks
and beyond:
August 14, 2010:
Family day trip to the Eco Tarium,
a museum of
science and nature in
Worcester
with a focus on hands-on exploration and discovery.
Departure from the church will be at 9 a.m. and the
cost of admission will be covered by the Christian
Ed committee. Paricipants will bring their own
lunch and snacks. A sign-up sheet will be posted in the Parish Hall.
September
19, 2010: All-church picnic at King Phillip's
Stockade, to happen after church. A sign-up sheet
will be posted in the Parish Hall.
Summer of 2011:
Vacation Bible School or a mission trip to
Nicaragua? Or both? One would be geared
toward younger kids (pre-teen) while the other would
be more appropriate for teenagers. Planning
needs to start now and volunteers will be greatly
appreciated. Let us know what you think.
Contact
Jeanne O'Brien
with your helpful suggestions.
Benevolence
The Benevolence Committee and the
Taylor Benevolent Fund at South Church provide financial
assistance to organizations in the community who
minister to those in need. In addition to
administering a scholarship program for students in the
congregation who attend a seminary or university, these
programs have also given financial assistance to such
entities as Youth with a Purpose, the Emergency Fuel
Fund of the Council of Churches, Open Pantry, the Food
Bank of Western Massachusetts, Action Centered Tutoring
Services and other. Requests for donation are
accepted each year in the fall and are awarded in the
spring of the following year. For more information
or to make a request contact the
church office.
Social Justice Task Force
Be a Local Hero! Did
you know that the average bite of food travels 1,500
miles from farm to fork? Over the past 50 years or so,
our country’s agricultural policy has favored large
farms growing a single crop and depending heavily on the
use of chemical fertilizers. However, there is a
growing movement toward smaller scale organic farming.
Economist Bill McKibben makes a strong argument for
local farming as an important part of a sustainable
local economy. Food experts and nutritionists agree
that fresh, local organic produce tastes better and is
nutritionally superior.
There are 6 farmers’ markets
operating in Springfield during the summer months. The
largest of these is the Farmers’ Market at the X, which
opens on May 4 at a new location next to Cyr Arena in
Forest Park. (There will be no fee for entering the park
to attend the market.) Other Springfield locations are
Avocado Street, Hampden Bank in Indian Orchard, Mason
Square Health Center, Shriner’s Hospital and Tower
Square, In addition, there are farmers’ markets in
Chicopee, Hampden, Holyoke, Three Rivers, Westfield and
Wilbraham.
Several local farms offer
Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) shares. The
Marlborough Street Farm, located in Springfield, offers
vegetable shares from June to November. If you can’t
get to the farm to pick up your share, bicycle delivery
is available. Red Fire Farm in Granby, MA offers main
season, full season and deep winter vegetable shares, as
well as egg, fruit and flower shares. The shares are
available for pick up at the Farmers’ Market at the X,
as well as at the farm in Granby.
Information about farmers’ markets
and local farms offering CSA shares may be found at the
Social Justice area in the Parish Hall. Applications
for Marlborough Farm and Red Fire Farm shares are also
available.
The United Church of Christ is offering a training
program called Justice Leaders Engaging and Developing.
http://www.ucc.org/justice/training
There is a link to several health care
reform tools on the United Church of Christ web site.
Visit
http://www.faithfulreform.org/
for a description.
You may want to sign on to the vision statement, A
Faith-Inspired Vision of Health Care. To read the
statement and sign on, visit the following site:
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/1973/t/7355/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=1851
A link to a UCC page on human trafficking:
www.ucc.org/justice/human-rights/human-trafficking.html
Greening the Church
For more
information on future events contact
Dave Carlson.
Facilities
With its expansive worship spaces
and numerous meeting rooms of various sizes and styles,
South Church affords the opportunities for many outside
organizations to make use of the building affordably.
Currently a number of groups use our space weekly,
monthly or at specific times of the year, including
Action Centered Tutoring Services, Alcoholics Anonymous,
Loaves and Fishes, Morning Star Church, the Visiting
Nurses Association and a Round Dancing group.
Ample parking is available on weekends and after 5 p.m.
weekdays and kitchen space can be arranged for meal
preparation.
Also, spaces in our parking lot
are available to rent between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.
weekdays. At present there is a waiting list, but
to have your name added to it or to find out more about
using our facilities please contact the
church office.
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