Outreach Programs
(For information about these programs, scroll down or click on the above titles.)
Local Outreach
Dorothy Day Soup Kitchen
We have a group of servers, team leaders and a coordinator who provide meals for the local soup kitchen sponsored by the Salvation Army. We have been doing this ministry for decades.
Bangor Area Homeless Shelter
Another group provides meals on regular occasions for the Bangor Area Homeless Shelter. In both of these efforts, All Souls is served by our quartermaster who secures and organizes the food supplies for the various teams in the field.
We provide financial and volunteer support to this important community organization. Members are encouraged to give time in support of this local effort to address homelessness. http://volunteer.united-e-way.org/uwem/org/219153.html
Good Shepherd Food Bank
We work cooperatively with Good Shepherd Food Bank North to distribute food to the needy in the area. http://gsfb.org
Habitat For Humanity
All Souls is a partner with the local branch of Habitat for Humanity. We have provided funds for housing projects and workers who contribute time and expertise to the building projects. http://www.habitat.org
Shaw House
We provide financial and volunteer support to this important community organization whose primary focus is homeless teenagers. Members are encouraged to give of their time in support of this local effort to reach out to at risk youth.
Manna Ministries
While not a primary focus of our local outreach, this ministry is supported when special requests come, especially during the holidays. Financial and volunteer contributions are both encouraged so that this ministry can continue its work as a shelter and an addiction recovery program with a Christian spiritual component. http://www.mannamaine.com
The King's Daughters Home
Since 1891, members of our church have provided some funding and participated with twelve area churches serving on the Board of the King’s Daughters Home, a Christian Boarding Home for Women. Located on Ohio Street, KDH offers low cost room and board to girls and women who are in Bangor to further their education or start a career in a setting where Christ is honored and kindness, courtesy and respect are the norm. Some of the Board members’ responsibilities are to manage the finances, oversee the maintenance of the house, supervise the live-in staff, and create opportunities to socialize with the residents. Among the current population living at the home are several international students from China who attend a local high school and have been given many opportunities to learn about America and our way of life. KDH prides itself on being “a home away from home.” http://www.allsoulsbangor.com/kdh
Makers of Meals (MOMS)
The Deacons also have oversight of the Makers of Meals (the MOMS) who provide meals for our members who are suffering some kind of reversals in health or circumstances. There are many of our members who make it their own ministry and practice to visit people on behalf of the church. And there are all the other “ambassadors” of All Souls, who transport people to church or to prayer or to other places of service, or who represent Christ and our congregation in so many ways and places just by the other service they perform in the community. They take Christ into the city and the region and into the work place.
Deacons’ Fund
The Diaconate also oversees a “Deacons’ Fund” specifically earmarked for provision of material aid for people within and beyond the congregation. This fund typically provides for food aid, security deposits (not typically to members of the larger community, but on recommendation of other religious bodies or within our own congregation), aid to financially distressed families, fuel assistance, some medical assistance, and the like. This fund is replenished by the “open offering” of morning service of the first Sunday of each month.
Family of Friends
Within the church family there are a number of our elders who are institutionalized or shut-in who still enjoy visits from parish members. In addition twice a year, the Board of Deacons sponsors a meal for all of our seniors in order to bring our treasured elders together for fellowship and encouragement....This is an area that always welcomes willing visitors.
Community Cafe
We have begun a new phase of outreach to the elderly by opening our church to the Eastern Area Agency on Aging. They are sponsoring a community dining room here for elderly persons of our region. A noon-time meal is provided three days each week. Our church has committed thirty people to help with this program. One surprising outcome is that we have more church members present as assistants and leaders than we have participants in the program! We are not ready yet to abandon this venture and have sought ways to promote the program while keeping our parishioners involved and enthusiastic. We believe that partnering with secular agencies without financial entanglements or direct government support to the church itself can be a healthy way to focus and concentrate both secular and religious efforts for the marginalized and for people who need a setting that allows for food, friendship, and shared interests. http://www.eaaa.org
Stephen Ministries
We are developing a Stephen Ministry and plan to send members to a training session at the Stephen Ministry headquarters in St. Louis, Missouri early in 2010. http://www.stephenministries.org
Campus Ministries
Our Deacons also see to and provide support for various campus ministries in Bangor-Orono and beyond. We have developed electronic connections to many of our college aged students and the Rev. Mrs. Garrett spends some time each month on the local campuses meeting with students there. We seek to keep our college-aged students connected to much of the mission and advocacy work that they have helped to develop here at All Souls. In addition, Dr. Haddix is involved in the development and administration of a Judaic Studies Program at the University of Maine.
Women’s ReEntry Center
All Souls is developing closer connections with the local Women’s Reentry Center from which former women convicts are seeking to reenter life “on the outside”. We have a number of people who are working diligently with the women in this center and who are able to provide women there both opportunities and material aid from the church, church members, and from other sources. All Souls members invite some women from the center into the church for participation in some of the activities available here.
Intercessory Prayer
Every week we offer Intercessory Prayer in the Chapel. People gather as they can for this prayer time, from 12:30 until 1:00 in the afternoon. Prayer requests received from individuals or through the church office are brought to those who gather for intercessions. Prayer is an important—a key—part of our life together.
Hospitality
The Coordinating Committee provides for special meals at the church and for the regular coffee hour that follows morning services. There is a special Funeral committee that sees to the receptions that we provide for members and friends of the church following funeral services. Some of these receptions are catered but our committee helps with the serving. Other people also provide receptions for Music Committee and the Baillie Steinway Concert Series events. Through these generous members, we offer hospitality and refreshment to church members and to the wider community too, as people come into our buildings.
The Gardeners
Many who drive by All Souls Church are familiar with the work of the Gardeners. These folks make the church grounds beautiful with gardens and plantings each year. They come to the church every Wednesday morning during the growing season. They work hard and they enjoy each others company as well. The Gardeners provide a lovely luncheon for church members each year and they participate in the Church Bazaar.
Labor for Your Neighbor Day
All Souls Church partners with other churches in the area to provide service to the greater Bangor community. The inaugural "Labor For Your Neighbor" Sunday, May 16th, 2010 sent members to some of the Bangor Public Schools to do yard work and painting as well as providing a cleaning crew for the Children's Room at the Bangor Public Library. One of our local news stations, WABI, did a story on the event which can be viewed at: http://www.wabi.tv/news/11811/labor-for-your-neighbor-day.
Foreign Ministries Outreach
Heap and Jennifer Him (Cambodia)
Our Diaconate also sees to our support for other overseas missions. Our church helps support a missionary in Cambodia. Heap Him and his wife Jennifer carry on a vigorous though difficult ministry among women and children (primarily) with HIV-AIDS. There is a “business” component to this ministry in which these women are given an opportunity to earn money for their own support by making items for sale. We support this aspect of the Him’s work as well.
Alison Stendahl (Turkey)
We also send “extra money” to the United Church of Christ mission in Turkey where our denomination runs schools (notably for girls). Our missionaries there also learn of other needs that emerge in that crossroads country. Our gifts have supported refugees from the Iraq war, medical needs of marginal and disadvantaged children, and opportunities for women, etc.
Jimmy Rivera (Mission Discovery)
All Souls Church and specifically those who participate in the ASSIST-JC mission trip to Honduras have benefited from the ministry of Jimmy Rivera. He coordinates the entire effort on the ground in Honduras; making contact with the local pastors, arranging for transportation, lodging, meals and projects. His work is solely financed by individuals and churches since Mission Discovery does not provide a salary. Like all missionaries, he must raise his own support. http://www.missiondiscovery.com
Watoto Childcare Ministries
For eight years, the members of the high school class have supported two orphans from Uganda. Through the Watoto program, students are being given homes, families and a solid education. Our students write to Caroline and Joshua and they respond with news of their life and their hopes. http://www.watoto.com/index.php
Nuevo Sacramento, Honduras, CA (Pastor Silvio Vasques)
Pastor Silvio Vasques
All Souls Church has sent financial contributions to the tiny church in Nuevo Sacramento to help with its ministry to the very poor in the area around the tiny community established after Hurricane Mitch. This village is the first community in which ASSIST-JC participants built homes and provided medical care through its mobile clinic. Bi-monthly support is also sent to Pastor Silvio to help him provide for his family.