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Don't Forget the Newton Food Pantry!
Remember the Newton Food Pantry when grocery shopping. Bring your contribution to church on Sunday morning. The Newton Food Pantry provides a three-day supply of nutritionally balanced food items once a month to Newton residents who need their help. They serve an average of 30 families each week. Clients are referred to them by the Newton Department of Human Services and also by clergy, health and other social service workers. Their clients are elderly persons, or single parents, or unemployed or other people who are unable to work. |
Next Shelter
Cooking - September 18SeS
This month Second Church will cook dinner for United Homes Adult Shelter, Dorchester only once on Saturday, September 18 from 2:00 – 4:00 p.m. Nancy Brown does the shopping, - the food expenses come out of the Mission and Advocacy budget. Head cooks are Laura Dorfman and Lissa Gilbert. They provide the recipes and menu and are accompanied by a team of 4 or 5 volunteer cooks. Cooking is done here in the church kitchen, and an employee of the shelter picks up the meal and delivers it to Dorchester. Call Barbara Cancellieri (617-244-2690) if you would like to join in the cooking on September 18.
Shop at Shaws and Earn Contributions to Help the Hungry
No more saving receipts! There's now a new way to earn contributions towards Second Church's gift cards for the hungry with Shaw's Community Rewards program.
How it works:
Use this Shaw's website to link your Shaw's Rewards Card to Second Church's Community Rewards number. When you shop, you can earn contributions on purchases made on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. Certain items including prescriptions, alcohol, tobacco, stamps, money orders, gift cards, electronic gift cards, lottery tickets, photo processing, milk and other items prohibited by law are excluded. Contributions apply to total order purchases after discounts, coupons and sales tax. Shaw’s will contribute a percentage of each registered supporter’s eligible monthly purchases, which will be paid on a quarterly basis.
Signing up:
To sign up your Shaw's card, go to the Shaw's Community Rewards website at http://www.shaws.com/communityrewards, and follow the instructions to link the number on your Shaw’s Rewards Card to the Second Church's Community Rewards 11-digit ID number: 49001018878. Then, just go shopping!
We will have a sign-up sheet in Fellowship Hall for those who don’t have access to a computer. We will need your name, Shaw’s Rewards Card number, and telephone number. A volunteer will enter your information at a later date.
Moments for Mission
Sept. 26: Neighbors in Need is a special mission offering of the UCC that supports ministries of justice and compassion throughout the United States. One-third of NIN funds support the Council for American Indian Ministries (CAIM). Two-thirds of the offering is used by the UCC’s Justice and Witness Ministries (JWM) to support a variety of justice initiatives, advocacy efforts, and direct service projects. Look for offering envelopes and bulletin inserts in Sunday bulletins, beginning September 26 and continuing through October 10.
Child Sponsorship
The United Church of Christ continues to respond to the call to serve those in need in many ways, in many places. You may have seen ads on television showing a child picking through the rubbish in some impoverished country. Your “heart strings” like mine may have been tugged while you are asked to subscribe to this child’s support. There is just such a program available through our Global Ministries. Sponsorships are available in a number of countries, including the orphanage at Mt. Silinda, Zimbabwe, where the Masters and Donaldson families lived and worked. If child sponsorship is something you are interested in, speak to Mary Ann Donaldson or look at the information on the Mission and Advocacy bulletin board in Fellowship Hall.
From the Board of Mission and Advocacy Annual Report - 2009
The year 200 found members of our congregation active in mission in numerous ways. Folks shopped and prepared meals for 100 men at United Homes Shelter once or twice each month. Weekly donations to the Newton Food Pantry were delivered. We walked in Newton's Walk for the World. We participated in City Mission Society's Christmas Shops, collecting and delivering gifts for those who were in most need during the holiday season. We collected Christmas cards for inmates at Billerica House of Correction and collected Shaw's cash register receipts which resulted in Shaw's gift cards for people coming to the church for assistance. Fair Trade Coffee that benefits farmers and the environment was used at Coffee Hour. Folk of Second Church are members of boards of various non-profit organizations, providing business expertise and invaluable support.
| Through the benevolence portion of our yearly pledges, we were able to support 37 different organizations and the Second Church Youth Mission Trip to West Virginia. These charities and non-profits serve children, teens, men, women, and families, covering diverse needs and fostering community. |
Organizations supported in 2009 included
| UCC - Our Church's Wider Mission (OCWM) | Minister's Discretionary Fund Gift Cards |
| Accion International | Mass. Council of Churches |
| Advocates, Inc | Match-Up Interfaith Volunteers |
| Andover Newton Theological School | Middlesex County Prison Coordinator |
| Boston Area Rape Crisis Center | Newton Community Service Center |
| Campership | Newton Food Pantry |
| Can-DO | Newton/San Juan Del Sur Sister City |
| Church World Service | NWH Protestant Chaplaincy |
| City Mission Society | REACH |
| Congregational Library | Refugee Immigration Ministry |
| Cooperative Metropolitan Ministries | Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice |
| Fair Trade Coffee | Rosie's Place |
| Friends of Open House | Rural Farm Advancement |
| Grassroots International | Seafarers' Friends |
| Hands On Worldwide | Second Step |
| Homes for Our Troops | SERRV Development Grants |
| MBA Just Peace Coordinator | Springwell |
| Mass. Bible Society | United Home Shelters |
| UCC/GLC | |
| I | |
Accion International is dedicated to bringing financial services and business training to the smallest small business people – market vendors, seamstresses, sandal makers – known as “micro” entrepreneurs. They work in 18 countries and the US.
Advocates, Inc. Advocates' mission is to help people with psychiatric illness, chemical dependency, developmental disabilities, or other problems in living. They provide community-centered services that empower people to deal effectively with their difficulties, to pursue their own individual aspirations, and to realize satisfaction in their relationships, their work, and their communities.
Andover Newton Theological School
As a graduate school in the Reformed tradition, in faithfulness to Jesus
Christ, we strive to educate leaders who are: enlivened by
rigorous study in a community embracing diversities of faith and life;
devoted to the renewing of church and society through ecumenical witness
and creative expression of the Gospel; and committed to enacting God’s
ways of justice and love in the world.
Boston Area Rape Crisis Center Founded in 1973, the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center is a community-based, grassroots organization with a mission to provide free crisis counseling and advocacy services designed to empower, support, and educate survivors of rape and sexual assault, their families and friends, and the professionals who work with them.
CAN-DO Citizens for Affordable Housing in Newton Development Organization, Inc. (CAN-DO). Its mission is to own, develop, preserve, and manage affordable housing in Newton.
City Mission Society - Transforming Individuals The City Mission Society is an urban social justice agency serving over 3,000 people each year. They are the oldest multi-service agency in New England, addressing the educational, economic and social needs of impoverished area residents since 1816.
The Congregational Library The Congregational Library was founded in 1853 by a group of ministers, out of awareness that an educated clergy is an essential ministry in congregationalism. It started with 57 books. Today the Congregational Library is a unique Boston repository of over 225,000 books and pamphlets documenting the history of American Congregationalism.
For nearly a century and a half, The Congregational Library of the American Congregational Association has been the archives for Congregational history and thought, a center for scholarship on both religious and secular topics, and a "loan/learn-by-mail-library." It houses the finest collection anywhere of books and papers about the history of Congregationalism, its Puritan roots and its influence in the formation of this nation.
Cooperative Metropolitan Ministries Through our programs of civic engagement, legislative advocacy, youth peacemaking and leadership training, voluntarism, interfaith education and cross-cultural dialogue, we continue to tackle the most pressing issues of our day.
Grassroots International promotes global justice and social change through grant making abroad and education and advocacy at home. They are based in Boston.
Hands on Disaster Response is a U.S. based, volunteer staffed, non-profit organization dedicated to timely disaster response and relief. The organization harnesses the power of volunteers to bring direct assistance to disaster-affected communities around the world.
Homes for Our Troops is a non-partisan, non-profit organization that builds new or adapts existing homes for handicap accessibility to meet the needs of our most severely wounded veterans. Thanks to countless volunteers, this Taunton, MA based charity builds homes for disabled Veterans at no cost to them.
Just Peace Coordinator – This ministry is dedicated to enabling us to grow together as a community of faith seeking to “do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God,” while honoring Jesus’ invitation to love our neighbors as ourselves.
Massachusetts Bible Society The purpose of the Massachusetts
Bible Society is to further biblical theological study and reflection through a
variety of means (educational programs, grants, and book services), so that the
ecumenical church is empowered to be faithful; that individuals might have faith
strengthened for service; and that the broad outlines of biblical vision of
reality be lifted up in the larger world. Massachusetts Council of Churches Mass. Council of Churches is an ecumenical partnership of 17
denominations dedicated to fostering Christian unity and witness in the
Commonwealth. The Council educates and evangelizes for unity, promotes
ecumenical worship, fosters council interdependence, provides a forum for
dialog, stimulates social mission and prophetic witness, and offers services,
resources, and consultation. The Massachusetts Council of Churches is
the statewide organization of Christian churches that helps heal hurts,
break down barriers, and build bridges.
Match-up Interfaith Volunteers
is committed to helping isolated elderly and disabled adults remain living
independently in their own homes by bringing caring and helpful volunteers into
their lives. Since its founding over 20
years ago, Match-Up Interfaith Volunteers have given over 410,000 hours of time
– freely from their heart – decreasing the social isolation of and changing the
lives of over 12,000 elders and adults with disabilities.
Metropolitan Boston
Association Just Peace Coordinator
This ministry is dedicated to enabling us to grow together as a
community of faith seeking to “do justice, love kindness, and walk
humbly with God,” while honoring Jesus’ invitation to love our neighbors
as ourselves.
Middlesex County Prison
Coordinator’s Committee Middlesex
County Prison Coordinating Committee meets here at Second Church on the second
Wednesday of the month. Their mission includes education in matters
concerning Billerica House of Correction and the Cambridge Jail, services to the
House of Corrections, and advocacy around criminal justice issues.
Neighbors in Need offering supports ministries of justice and compassion throughout the United States, including the Council for American Indian Ministries (CAIM), justice and advocacy, and direct service projects; administered by Justice and Witness Ministries.
Newton Food Pantry
The Newton Food Pantry was founded in 1983. Serving an average of 30 families each week, the Newton Food Pantry provides a three-day supply of nutritionally balanced food items once a month to Newton residents who need their help. The food pantry is located in the basement of the Waban Branch Library.
Second Church is a supporter, delivering food dropped off at the church on Sundays to them. Most requested items are canned fruit, tuna, meals (i.e., stew, Chef Boyardee, etc.) peas, and beets, and boxes of cereal. The pantry staff requests that any individual toilet articles from hotels and motels be brought to the pantry for distribution. Please put them, along with nonperishable food items, in the food collection baskets found in the Narthex.
Newton’s Sister City - San Juan del Sur Newton/San Juan del Sur Sister City Project: Free High School for Adults in San Juan del Sur. This is the only high school in San Juan whose students teach adult literacy and the only one where such teaching is required of seniors. This year there are 100 student-teachers.
Newton Wellesley Hospital Chaplaincy –The chaplain, Rev. Fran Bogle, D Min., provides pastoral care and crisis intervention to patients, their families and hospital staff.
One Great Hour of Sharing By giving to One Great Hour of Sharing, an offering of the United Church of Christ, we join with communities struggling to overcome poverty, illiteracy, illness, and the dangers of wars and disasters. Nine Christian churches support One Great Hour of Sharing, a life-giving tradition that began in 1949.
Our Church's Wider Mission (OCWM) Our Church’s Wider Mission means teaching and healing, sending missionaries overseas, working here in the U.S. toward justice and compassion for all people. But Our Church’s Wider Mission also keeps the church strong by helping in every way possible to support local United Church of Christ congregations: the foundation of all mission.
Project Bread’s Walk for Hunger is a 20-mile walk to raise money and awareness of the problem of chronic hunger and malnutrition in Massachusetts.
Project Care and Concern – Offers day and residential camperships to inner-city children and youth.
The Protestant Chaplaincy Council, Inc.
The mission of the Protestant Chaplaincy Council, Inc. is to establish and support the ministry of a Chaplain for the Protestant population of the Newton-Wellesley Hospital.
REACH, REACH is committed to advancing the safety, healing, and empowerment of those who experience relationship violence. They offer direct services and education while promoting social justice for individuals and families of all backgrounds.
Refugee Immigration Ministry
Refugee Immigration Ministry provides community-based services for its clients. This support allows them to find employment as soon as they receive authorization, builds social capital upon which they can stand to enter the community and offers them friendship and support. After working with asylum seekers and refugees in a community-based resettlement model for the past 10 years they are convinced, by the success of former clients, that this approach is making a major difference in their lives. Refugee Immigration Ministry is an Interfaith, community-based organization that was founded in 1986. A corps of dedicated volunteers brings clients into relationships with their communities. Included programs are resettlement of asylum seekers and refugees, job preparation through English and computer classes, and Spiritual Care Givers who provide chaplaincy services to immigrant detainee.
Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice
Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice is guided by the principle that every woman should be free to make decisions about whether and when to have children according to her conscience and her religious and/or spiritual beliefs.
Rosie's Place
The mission of Rosie's Place is
to provide a safe and nurturing environment to help poor and homeless women
maintain their dignity, seek opportunity, and find security in their lives.
Founded in 1974 by Kip Tiernan Rosie’s Place was the first drop in and emergency
shelter for women in the United States. It provides emergency and transitional
services including hot meals, groceries, shelter, and clothing, and is committed
to helping women achieve independence by creating permanent solutions through
advocacy, education, and permanent housing.
Rural Advancement Foundation International – USA is dedicated to the preservation of family farms, conservation of agricultural biodiversity, socially responsible use of new technologies, safe food and a sustainable system of agriculture.
Seafarer's Friend
Since 1827, Seafarer’s Friend has supported seafarers from around the world with a ministry of pastoral care, hospitality, information and referral, and human rights advocacy.
The Second Step
Second Step – Our gift to them helps survivors of domestic abuse and their children heal from the trauma they have experienced, become economically self-sufficient, and break the cycle of violence..
SERRV Development Grants expand development services – professional training, quality control oversight, trend updates and product design – which enable groups of artisans and farmers to improve quality and find new markets for their products.
Springwell, Springwell – For more than 30 years Springwell has helped Newton seniors live independently at home. One of their cornerstone services is to provide 250 Newton elders with a hot lunch at home each day. Their “Meals-on-Wheels” Program serves over 200,000 hot meals per year
UCC Coalition for LLGBT Concerns, a group recognized by the United Church of Christ, is committed to ministry with and justice for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender UCC members, their families and friends.
United Homes Adult Shelter United Homes Shelter, a 106 bed adult homeless shelter in Dorchester known for its warmth, relaxed atmosphere and which prides itself in taking many men barred from other shelters because of behavior problems or substance abuse.
Second Church furnishes a dinner for United Homes Shelter clients on the first and third Saturdays of the month. Call the church office (244-2690), if you would like to participate in this outreach project.