The following are brief descriptions of a few of the many organizations the First Congregational Church of Reading supports through the generous giving of our members:

Hunger and Homelessness

• Habitat for Humanity is an ecumenical Christian movement dedicated to eliminating poverty housing. Houses are built and sold at cost to economically disadvantaged families on the basis of need, regardless of race or religion.
• Emmaus House is located in Haverhill, and serves homeless families and individuals by providing a structured family environment, counseling, and referrals to outside agencies. It is run by Emmaus, Inc., assisted by individuals, churches, and other charitable groups.
• Rosie’s Place – Eighty-four cents of every dollar donated to Rosie’s Place goes directly to services for the women and children who come to them for help. They not only provide over 6,500 nourishing meals a month, short-term housing for hundreds each year, and other emergency services—from lawyers and doctors to rape counselors and housing advocates—but they seek to create solutions to homelessness.
• Reading Food Pantry – Under the auspices of the Reading Clergy Association, the Reading Food Pantry serves residents of Reading and members of Reading churches. In addition to a monetary donation, we collect food and help to staff the pantry.
• OXFAM America is dedicated to creating lasting solutions to hunger, poverty, and social injustice through long-term partnerships with poor communities around the world. As a privately funded organization, we can speak with conviction and integrity as we challenge the structural barriers that foster conflict and human suffering and limit people from gaining the skills, resources, and power to become self-sufficient.

Education

• Andover Newton Theological School – founded in 1807, is the country's oldest Protestant graduate school of theology. Today its students include more than 500 men and women from 45 Protestant denominations, as well as the Roman Catholic and Jewish faiths.
• Boston Cambridge Ministry in Higher Education – Campus ministry truly is the church’s presence on our college campuses. Students need the presence of a caring Christian community to help them deal with college pressures. The campus is where today’s values are being formed, and as today’s students prepare to be tomorrow’s leaders, the church must be present. Because God is at work on college campuses, we as a church must be at work also.
• Chikore Secondary School, Zimbabwe was established in 1955 in Zimbabwe, then known as Southern Rhodesia. Donald and Jeri Abbott had been appointed to serve as missionaries in Southern Rhodesia in 1950, and by 1958, Donald was the principal at Chikore. That was the year when Dan Hall, a former member of our church, took his young family to teach at Chikore.
• Peki Seminary, Ghana is run by the Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Ghana. It prepares lay leaders and musicians for positions of responsibility in churches throughout Ghana.

Counseling

• Interfaith Counseling Service of Reading, MA – This program offers counseling services to individuals of all ages and faiths who are suffering from emotional problems. It has the advantage of combining pastoral counseling with psychotherapy.
• Interfaith AIDS Ministry is for people with Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, serves the Greater Boston Area and strives to bring "a fuller understanding of God's love for persons affected by AIDS and to serve as a bridge between caregivers and congregations.

Additional Outreach Opportunities

• Elon Homes for Children is located in Elon College, North Carolina, is a private, non-profit corporation with close ties to the UCC. Elon Homes provides programs that include: residential care for court-ordered children, two charter public schools, community based services for children in foster care homes, a family care program, and a center for child development.
• City Mission Society – The mission of this organization, founded in 1816, is: "to work with the urban poor to fashion a vision of wholeness of human life against the realities of economic, racial, and social injustice."

Peace

• Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) seeks to replace violence, war, racism, and economic injustice with nonviolence, peace, and justice. We are an interfaith organization committed to active nonviolence as a transforming way of life and as a means of radical change. We educate, train, build coalitions, and engage in nonviolent and compassionate actions locally, nationally, and globally.

Local and National Conference

• MACUCC (Mass. Conference of the United Church of Christ) these dollars are used to support programs for ministers, local resources, youth resources, etc.; further, a large portion of those dollars goes to the national UCC where they provide both National and International financial support to those in need
• Turner Falls
• One Great Hour of Sharing (OGHS) is an annual interdenominational offering for disaster relief, economic development, and refugee resettlement in more than 100 countries across the world, including the U.S.

Contact us for more information on how you can contribute to opportunities at the First Congregational Church of Reading.