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Making Christ Known - Mission
at First Congregational UCC
"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and
with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength
. . . . Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no
commandment greater than these."
Our congregation expresses its love for God by imitating the
compassion of Christ in caring for our neighbors, both in our
community and beyond. To better meet the human needs
throughout Cuyahoga County, our members founded Church Street
Ministries in 1994:
- to serve the needs of pre-adolescent,
at-risk, and chemically dependent youth,
- to provide emergency assistance and
counseling to the homeless, transients, and refugees,
- to educate our community about those in need and provide them with opportunities
to serve.
Our two Second Mile Thrift Shops
transform donated goods into funding to carry out these missions of
love.
Our church has a food pantry to serve the
needy in the Berea area, and we continually gather food and other
non-perishables for this purpose, especially on the first Sunday of
each month. For Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter, we
assemble and distribute baskets of food to those in need.
During Advent, our church's love spills outward from our Giving Tree
as it becomes surrounded by donated gifts for disadvantaged children
and families. Through our Alternative Catalog, our members
honor Christ's birth by giving thousands of dollars to a wide range
of charitable organizations. Other financial support is
provided by our church to ministries outside of the United Church of
Christ, for example for the youth programs of the West Side
Ecumenical Ministry.
At our Church Street
Ministry offices,
398 W. Bagley Road, we host a weekly meeting of Al-Anon, which is a support group for
friends and family members of alcoholics. Along with other
community groups, we host periodic gatherings of the local Native
American community.
In love, we act in faith to bring forth God's Kingdom across the Earth. As a
Just
Peace church, we struggle with the
social and economic injustice which prevents peace in our
world. For example, through a letter writing campaign in early
2003, we expressed our concerns as Christians to our nation's
leaders about their intentions regarding Iraq.
Reaching out in Mission
Through the United Church of Christ (UCC),
our congregation reaches out in love to those in need both locally
and across the world. In 2005, our members contributed
thousands of dollars for disaster relief through the UCC. With
donations from across our nation, the United Church of Christ was
able to provide about $10 million of aid in response to the recent
hurricanes and tsunami.
We are a "5 for 5" church, providing basic support to Our Church's Wider Mission
and contributing to each of its four special
offering.
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