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Outreach
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Deacons' Fund
It is an old custom in our church to receive a
special offering for the Deacons' Fund on Communion Sundays - the first
Sunday of every month. Administered by the Deacons, the fund is a
remnant of one of the oldest traditions of the Christian church -
extending a 'helping hand' to those in need in our church and immediate
community.
Gift cards to the local supermarket are purchased
from the Deacons' fund and are available for the ministers to give to those who
come seeking assistance. BCCUCC supports
Tap-In, our local food pantry, in a number of different ways
(see below) and we encourage those seeking
assistance to visit them where they will be given non-perishable food
items and other assistance as needed. The gift cards we give out
are especially helpful as they can be used to purchase perishable food items
as well as such things as diapers and baby formula that are
unavailable at Tap-In.
The Deacons' Fund is also used to assist with rent
or utility payments on a case by case basis. The requests come
mostly from people outside our church, but we are also able to assist
church members if needed. We encourage all who come
asking for help to contact local social service agencies and provide
them with the necessary information to do so. But there are those
who fall between the cracks and so we offer a 'one time' emergency
assistance when appropriate.
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Community Soup Kitchen Volunteers from our church prepare and serve dinner at
the Community Soup Kitchen on a rotating basis with other churches.
The soup kitchen
is located at Park Place Congregational UCC, 71 Park Place, Pawtucket.
We also
make an annual financial contribution to help pay some of the expenses. Our church is responsible for providing dinner one
Saturday every 2 months. Different ministry teams take turns to do this
and always welcome others to help. To volunteer to provide food and/or to
go and serve at the soup kitchen, contact our Soup Kitchen
Coordinator, Dianne Todd at
dianne.todd@verizonbusiness.com
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| Tap-In Touch A Person In Need (Tap-In)
is a local volunteer-run social services organization located in the center of
Barrington. It runs a food
pantry, provides rides, furniture, household goods and children's clothing for
those in need. BCCUCC has an on-going collection of canned goods
and other non-perishable items for their food pantry, and also has special collections of food several times a
year. In addition donations are taken after worship on Mothers' Day and Fathers' Day to
purchase grocery store gift cards for Tap-In to give out to their clients.
A number
of our church members volunteer at Tap-In working on the help desk,
offering rides to medical appointments, or working in the food pantry or
clothing closet. To volunteer, contact Tap-In at 247-1444. |
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George Hunt Help
Center Working in
conjunction with St. John's Episcopal Church, we collect used, casual
men's clothing for donation to the George Hunt Help Center, an inner
city drop-in center for the homeless in Providence. The center
provides a place where the homeless can drop in for relief from the
street and a cup of coffee. A collection basket in our vestry provides a convenient place for the collection of the clothing and a
member of St. John's regularly stops by to pick up the donations and
take them to Providence.
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Habitat for Humanity
If you are a novice wanting to learn handyman (or
handywoman) basics or an expert willing to share your skills, Habitat
gives you the chance to help others out of sub-standard housing and the
chance to swing a hammer or wield a paintbrush.
Our church's
participation with Habitat for Humanity is coordinated with other
Barrington churches through Beyond Our Walls (BOW) - see
below. A work party from
the Barrington churches is sent to the Providence Habitat affiliate on
the 4th Saturday of every month.
A typical
work party starts on site at 8:30 a.m. and usually finishes up
mid-afternoon. If you are
interested in helping out please email Rich Simpson of our church at
rts.ri@cox.net or Dave Renner of BOW
at daverenner@cox.net.
They are also willing to answer any questions you may have.
More information
about the current projects in Providence can be found at: www.habitatprov.org.
To learn more about Habitat for
Humanity visit www.habitat.org |
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Beyond Our Walls (BOW)
BOW, a non-profit
established in 2005, was created as an interfaith group to do good for
the local community and beyond. BOW members include people from various
faith traditions - including members of our church - as well as individuals with no religious affiliation.
Anyone with a willingness to share their knowledge, energy and creative
talents and a desire to better humanity as a whole is welcome to join
them. BOW members come from all walks of life - working people, retired
people, stay-at-home-moms, students, single people and more. They all
have one common goal - community betterment.
BCCUCC members have been
involved with BOW since its inception, and many participate in their
annual Great Day of Service. For more information go to
www.bowri.org
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One Great Hour of Sharing
BCCUCC participates in the annual One Great Hour
of Sharing (OGHS) collection. Nine different denominations
participate in this national collection that raises millions of dollars
each year to be disbursed to needy people throughout the world.
Our church is proud to participate and know that in our small way we are
touching the lives of refugees, disaster victims, politically suppressed
societies, those suffering form human rights injustices, as well as many
who suffer from chronic hunger and poverty. |
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Neighbors in Need
Every fall our church collects for Neighbors in
Need (NIN) - a special mission offering of the United Church of Christ (UCC) that supports
ministries of justice and compassion throughout the United States and
Puerto Rico. One-third of the NIN funds support the Council for
American Indian Ministry (CAIM), including the 20 American Indian
congregations in the UCC. 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.
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Justice and Witness
projects
Our church's Justice and Witness (J&W) team
organizes various outreach projects in which all are invited to
participate:
In the weeks before Christmas a Mitten
Tree sits near the back of the church and it gets covered with hats,
gloves, scarves and mittens for all ages that are donated by the
congregation. Some are even hand made by the church knitting
group! They are then given to various local agencies for distribution to
those who need them.
Also at Christmas time a
Holiday Gift Card Sale takes place in which donations are accepted
from church members to purchase gift cards from various stores to give to the residents at
the Women's Resource Center. These include gift cards for
pharmacies, grocery stores, toy stores, discount stores etc. The
cards are given to the Center before Christmas so that the women can use
them to purchase items they may need for Christmas. In addition, a
monetary donation is given to the Salvation Army Good Neighbor Energy
Fund, which helps low income households pay their energy bills during
the colder winter months.
J&W organized an 'All Church
Mission Project' in which hygiene kits were assembled for Church World
Service to distribute at disaster sites. They plan to do more such
'all church' mission projects in the future.
J&W also makes monetary
contributions to various mission organizations. Recent donations
have been to Bread for the
World, Back Bay Mission, and the RI Conference Haiti Fund.
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Disaster Relief
Whenever a natural disaster occurs in the
world whether it's a tsunami, earthquake or flooding etc, a special
collection is taken in worship and BCCUCC members are generous in their donations.
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