UUCC: Community Involvement

Community Involvement

Our church is involved in the community and wider world in a variety of ways:
     Social Action Committee
     Religious Education
     Sexual/Gender Orientation
     Adult Discussion Group
     Other Involvements

Social Action Committee

Our Social Action Committee (SAC) holds special Faith-to-Action collections once a month to raise money for local, state, national and international groups. Recently the SAC partnered with an Episcopal Church to prepare and serve meals at a homeless shelter. The SAC also initiated our participation in the local CROP Walk, and 2011 will mark the 4th year our church has participated, along with many other Columbia area faith groups.

For several years, the SAC has been among the sponsors of Columbia's annual Martin Luther King Jr. Diversity Awards Breakfast – at which several of our members have received awards over the years.

The SAC also has undertaken several larger projects. In the late 1990s and in 2004, we sponsored refugee families from Bosnia and Sudan, respectively. Other churches and agencies were involved, notably the Immigration and Refugee Services, the Mission Office of the Diocese of Jefferson City and Olivet Christian Church. Members of our church provided the bulk of the refugee families' support from furnishing their dwellings to English tutoring. The two families have thrived, and members of our church continue with friendship and support of the families.

Under the auspices of the SAC, a group of our church members have been working on Festival of Sharing kits for four years now, encouraging all church members to collect and contribute items requested by selected social service agencies to serve people in need in Missouri, the United States and around the world. In addition, the group meets weekly to sew, crochet and knit items to include in the Festival of Sharing kits. This project involves frequent contact and coordination with other faith groups in the community.

Internationally, SAC and our congregation have forged ties with the Juan Pablo Segundo Fair Trade Sewing Cooperative and community center near La Ceiba, Honduras. Church groups of 25 and 21 members traveled to Honduras in 2009 and 2011, respectively, to help build latrines and help in various other ways. Fundraising for projects in this area of Honduras are continuing, and future trips are being planned. In the past, we have informally cooperated with a local United Church of Christ congregation in our Honduras work, and that cooperative arrangement will become more formalized in the future as our congregations plan some joint fundraising efforts.

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Religious Education

Under the guidance of our Director of Religious Education, our children's religious education program provides opportunities for our children and youth to become better acquainted with our community.

For example, our 6th through 8th graders go through a "Neighboring Faiths" curriculum in which they visit various other houses of worship in the community.

Every first Sunday of the month, the children participate in Service Sunday, performing service projects of various sorts, and every year families involved in the religious education program take on specific Festival of Sharing projects.

The Our Whole Lives (OWL) sexuality education programs offered by our church have been open to the community, and they have generated interest in our church among the participants and their parents.

In addition, the children's religious education program offers a variety of opportunities for volunteer work in the community. YRUU groups have gone on various service trips over the years, including Habitat for Humanity trips and a volunteer work trip to New Orleans last year.

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Sexual/Gender Orientation

The Center Project for the local LGBTQ community was housed in our church until it was able to raise enough funds to rent its own separate space.

We have hosted celebrations, meetings, and education events for and in conjunction with PFLAG, PRISM, and the Mid Missouri LGBT Coalition.

Our church has received a Catalyst Award from the MU Resource Office for "speaking out and often" on LGBT issues.

We have a booth at the annual PrideFest in a local park in June.

Individuals from our congregation are involved in many groups, events, and training activities related to LGBTs.

Our former minister, the Rev. Bill Haney, was an important force in the Welcoming Congregation efforts and in outreach to and support of the LGBTQ community.