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Hunger Outreach
Hunger Outreach
is a program of the Mission Board which provides monetary support for the
Beacon Avenue Food Bank, located at Bethany UCC, and the Emergency Feeding
Program (EFP), located in the Central District. Our church also provides
groceries monthly to EFP, which supplies food for people who are
experiencing a crisis in their lives.
Volunteers are needed to help pack these groceries each month. This
commitment is as simple as being on a list of participants and getting a
call to help every few months. The actual packing takes about one hour and
is a wonderful activity to do with friends, family, or a special group.
Contact: Diane Adam (206) 522-0925
Parent Group for Adults Raising Children on a Different Track
We share the struggles and joys of parenting, provide each other with emotional support, and share resources. We also occasionally plan social outings for our families.
This support group meets the second and last Sunday of each month at 9 a.m. at the Burke Cafe. For more information, contact Tina Michalak at tinabina54@comcast.net or 206-789-3614.
Multicultural Circle
The
Multicultural Circle holds a vision of a congregation for University
Congregational UCC that is increasingly multicultural and multiracial. Its
bimonthly meetings often include programs or activities of cultural or
global interest. These gatherings are part of an effort to bring together
supportive church members and friends, and visitors of ethnicities that are
under-represented in our congregation. This group was first organized in
2000 as Pacific Islanders, Asians and Friends, and became the “Multicultural
Circle” in the spring of 2005.
Contact: Aileen Pruiksma (206) 363-3872
Rabour Village Sister Church Relationship
The UCUCC Church
Council has endorsed a sister church relationship with St. Mathews Anglican
Church in Rabuor, Kenya. This church works closely with the Rabuor Village
Project, sharing its space with a nursery school for orphans and providing a
meeting place for the Women’s Group. We are looking for someone to work with
Loyce Mbewa and Don Mackenzie to bring life and substance to that
relationship. This would be a wonderful opportunity for a small group.
Contact: Rev. Don Mackenzie (206) 524-2322 or
DMackenzie@universityucc.org
Rainbow Followers
Join LGBTQI
members and friends for social and community outreach events throughout the
year. 2006 activities included an evening of gay bingo to support Lifelong
AIDS Alliance, a workday at a local Habitat for Humanity building site, and
a summer barbecue.
Contact: Christine Suter (206) 725-3312
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St Katherine
Sister Church Relationship
Our Russian
sister church is named St. Katherine, Great Martyr in Murino, just a few
kilometers from St. Petersburg. We have had this partnership since September
1994. We have agreed to pray for each other and to support children’s
Christian education, which was new for them. If you go there be sure to
climb up the bell tower to the giant bell that says, "In Christ there is no
east or west." Our church members contributed to the funds to build this
bell finished in 2002. So far 23 people from this church have visited our
sister church, and another trip is being planned.
Contact: Rosh Doan (206) 525-0175 or
roshdoan@comcast.net
Sacred Earth Matters
Our mission is
to celebrate the sacredness of all creation and to inspire and mobilize our
congregation to play a leadership role in building a just and sustainable
world. We believe that care of our earth is a moral and spiritual
imperative.
The Sacred Earth Group is a fellowship of individuals who have a love of
God’s creation and wish to actively interconnect creation and their
spiritual journey. Over the past several years we have participated in
outdoor restoration activities, Earth Sunday worship services and the UCUCC
Elementary education program. We are a Greening Congregation and
participate in CSA (Community Supported Agriculture).
We began a new
initiative in 2007 to engage and inform our congregation about global
climate change, and to help individuals understand ways to make a
difference.
Sacred Earth Matters aims to provide useful tools to deal with these
pressing issues.
We are very open to new ideas for how carry out our mission and are looking
for new members who might be interested in working with us. We meet the
second Sunday of each month after the morning service, and often share a
light lunch.
Contact: Mary Ellen Smith (206)525-0494
Sacred Earth Matters Webpage
Superfluity
Each year a
community of UCUCC members and friends joins together to host a huge Garden
and Rummage Sale that we call Superfluity. Members of the congregation
donate “superfluous” but very useful items from their homes to the sale,
where the items are sold to someone who will give them a new home. This is
the ultimate in “recycling.” The net proceeds raised from the three-day sale
are used to support various charities in the community, most of which
provide direct services to individuals and families at risk due to their
socioeconomic status in society. In 2006 we disbursed $14,500 to these
organizations.
Contact: Mary Ellen Smith (206) 525-0494.
Teen Feed
Teen Feed is a
dinner program for homeless and street-involved youth. Operated by
University Street Ministry and hosted by District churches, we serve dinner
Sunday through Thursday. University Congregational hosts Teen Feed every
Wednesday and Thursday evening.
The heart of our
program is having Advocates available to interact with the youth. An
Advocate commits for a minimum of six months to show up once a week and sit
and talk to the guests. Volunteers are also needed for food teams that plan,
cook, and serve meals monthly, as well as to substitute for food team
members. In addition, we would appreciate a church representative to be
present each week on evenings when UCUCC is hosting. Evelyn Rucker helps on
Wednesdays and would be happy to work with another person.
Contact: Eric Wirkman, Teen Feed Coordinator (206-522-4366)
teenfeed@yahoo.com
Turning Point Preschool
Turning Point
Preschool seeks to prepare South-Central Seattle children to begin
elementary school with the same foundation as those attending private
preschools. Developed by the UCUCC Agape Circle for Diversity and the Prince
of Peace Baptist Church, it offers children Montessori materials and
curriculum. Monthly parent meetings focus on supporting pre-reading and
reading activities.
Volunteers are needed to help with preschool parties up to four times each
year, to provide child care at monthly parent meetings, and to help organize
educational materials once a month, preferably during school hours or early
afternoon.
Contact: Mary Elizabeth Maltman (206) 524-3281
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University Churches' Emergency Fund
UCEF provides
financial assistance and referrals to people in need living in northeast
Seattle. Clients include people who need help with rent in order to avoid
eviction, elderly people who can’t pay their utility bills, and street youth
and other homeless people who need bus tickets and personal care items. UCEF
is housed at University Congregational UCC and is supported by twenty-two
University District churches and the wider community.
Volunteers are needed one morning a month to interview people seeking help,
to write grants (a constant need), and to help with fundraising events two
or three times a year. During the winter, UCEF also needs donations of warm
socks, gloves, and hats.
Contact: Jo Gustafson, Director (206) 524-7885 or
ucefseattle1@juno.com
University Congregational Housing Association (UCHA)
UCHA works in
creative ways to prevent homelessness and to provide housing for people in
need. That takes shape in a lot of practical ways - making welcome baskets
for Sandpoint Housing, helping plan and sponsor an Inter-Faith Habitat for
Humanity Build in 2006 (fundraise, volunteer, serve food, work with other
faiths), and maintaining two facilities and all the details that come with
property management. There are many practical, creative ways to help UCHA,
and the group is fun and the work very rewarding.
Contact: Roger Morris (206) 726-1156
UCUCC Child Care Programs
University
Congregational UCC cares about children. It has supported two Child Care
Missions for over 35 years: the Trettin Drop-in Preschool and the Child
Learning and Care Center.
Trettin Drop-in Preschool is a unique
pre-school for over 35 youngsters, the first to offer part-time childcare in
this area. Children ages 2-5 come on a drop-in basis for a maximum of 4
hours a day. In all, over 600 families are registered. Ten percent of
Trettin children are on scholarship, paid for by the Mission Board.
The
Child Learning and Care Center provides a warm weekday family for
children 15 months to six years old. Open from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., the
Center has a diverse population of 42 children. This NAEYC-accredited
preschool provides an environment that nurtures and promotes the
development of the whole child.
We welcome your support for these programs!
Contact: Joan Davis, Chair (206) 729-0973 or
joanddavis@earthlink.net
Programs Related to
University Congregational UCC
Local BFW
members meet at 7:30 p.m. on the third Tuesday of each month at Bethel
Lutheran Church in Shoreline.
Contact: Sharon D'Amico (206) 827-8910
Faith Advocacy Network
The Faith
Advocacy Network of the Washington Association of Churches (WAC) enables
people of faith to support state and federal legislation that supports
justice, peace and environmental sustainability. The Washington Association
of Churches provides online action alerts describing upcoming legislation,
as well as Biblical and theological understanding that inform these
positions.
Contact: Elizabeth Dickinson (206) 320-0432
Interfaith Activities
UCUCC connects
with Seattle interfaith activities through the organization, Unity Project
Seattle, which sponsors interfaith worship every two months, classes on
various topics related to interfaith work, panel discussions on social
action issues, and the recent “Journey of the Heart” interfaith trip to
Israel/Palestine. Don Mackenzie, Rabbi Ted Falcon and Muslim leader Jamal
Rahman have been the principal religious leaders. People are needed to help
integrate interfaith activities into the ministry of our church, to provide
publicity within our congregation for Unity Project events, to attend
worship services and classes and, on particular occasions, to help with
logistics (including food) for events.
Contact: Rev. Don Mackenzie, (206) 524-2322 or
DMackenzie@universityucc.org
Interfaith Book Group
This group seeks
to get acquainted with each other and to explore religion and religious
issues through monthly book discussions. Currently comprised of Jews,
Protestants, and Roman Catholics, the group is reaching out to Muslim faith
communities as well. In the past year, they have read The Chosen and
The Promise by Chaim Potok, Death Comes for the Archbishop by
Willa Cather, Islam by Karen Armstrong, Inherit the Wind by
Jerome Lawrence, Desire of the Everlasting Hills by Thomas Cahill,
and Dreamer: A Novel by Charles Johnson.
Contact: Thurbon Tukey, (206) 283-6264 -before 9:00 p.m., please
Jubilee Northwest Coalition
Based on Jesus’
ministry to “bring good news to the poor and let the captives go free,” the
Jubilee campaign is an international effort to achieve debt cancellation for
the world's poorest countries. A local chapter, sponsored by the Church
Council of Greater Seattle, seeks to understand global economic injustice
and to advance a prophetic vision of fairness, equality and hope for the
world’s poor. Attend our meetings from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. on the first Monday
of each month at St. Marks Cathedral or sign up for e-mail alerts at
Jubilee Northwest.
Contact: Sharon D’Amico, (425) 827-8910
Rabour Village Project (RVP)
This non-profit headed by UCUCC member, Loyce Mbewa,
was organized in March 2004 to counteract the devastation of HIV/AIDS in
Loyce's home village in Western Kenya. RVP is assisting the villagers as
they provide a nursery school and hot meals for HIV/AIDS orphans, improve
the village's water supply, and offer HIV/AIDS prevention education and care
for those afflicted with the disease.
Contact: Barbara Peterson (206) 523-6340 or
barbp@nwlink.com
ROOTS/Young Adult Shelter
Formerly known as Teen Shelter, ROOTS/Young Adult Shelter provides nightly shelter for youth ages 18-25 at the University Methodist Temple. The shelter serves 25 young people each evening and provides them with showers, laundry facilities, food and videos.
There is a desperate need for volunteers for the evening, 8:00 -10:30 p.m.,
or for overnight, 8:00 p.m. to 8:30 a.m. There are also opportunities for
groups to provide a hot breakfast, 6:30-8:30 a.m., or for individuals to
serve on the ROOTS Board.
Contact: Laura Pritchard or Carla Buonon (206) 632-1635 or
yashelter@yahoo.com.
Carla can also be reached at (206) 729-0820 (voice mail) or (206) 920-2006 (cell).
University District Ecumenical Parish
The UCUCC participates in the Ecumenical Parish
fellowship of six active
University District congregations sharing worship, education, spiritual
growth, and
fellowship activities. The Parish churches also cooperate in ministry to
the vulnerable in our community and encourage joint programs in outreach
and social justice. Through regular potlucks, worship, service and study
opportunities, congregations are finding common ground and demonstrating a
unity of faith in the University District.
Greg Turner is our representative on the Ecumenical Parish Council.