› SPC Family Service Project with Welcome Church in Philadelphia
› SPC Family Service Project with Welcome Church in Philadelphia
Sunday, September 5 / 2:00 pm – 4:30 pm
at Welcome Church Cost: we are bringing supplies, TBD!
oin us as we connect with a church partner in hosting a fellowship coffee hour. Welcome Church engages with persons who struggle with home insecurity, so we recommend elementary age kids and above. Thinking of joining us for our family service project? See below a message from Rev. Sarah Cooper Searight:
Extending Hospitality and Enacting Our Christian Love!
by Rev. Sarah Cooper Searight
he Welcome Church is a joint witness of the Presbyterian and Lutheran churches, a worshiping community made up predominantly of people who are housing insecure. This means that many who attend currently live on the street or perhaps in temporary housing, such as shelters, or with friends and family. Their circumstances are different than ours, but their identity is the same. All of them, of course, are beloved children of God, just as we are; and this is their church, just like SPC is our church. Some may be there for the first time, but many come regularly.
There are many reasons why someone would find themselves with unstable housing, but we are not there necessarily to ask this question. We are there to extend hospitality in the form of snacks and water, and (in my opinion, more importantly) to enact our Christian love in the form of our engaged presence.
Here are a few things you can expect for your time with Welcome Church:
- We will meet outdoors, on the Parkway in Aviator Park (just across from the Franklin Institute).
- We will be asked to walk around the area to give out the snacks we have prepared.
- At a certain point, we will be called into the grassy area for a time of worship. This will be informal, but intentional, and led by one of the Pastors for the congregation.
- There will be other things going on in the park at the same time. It will feel busy, it is as equally a truly holy space.
- Some people will want to engage in conversation and others will not. We want to respect this and take the cue from the person with whom we are talking.
Furthermore, it is true that people who experience housing instability also have high incidences of mental and physical illness, sometimes a cause of but as often, an effect of their living situation. It will likely be the case that as we serve together, we encounter people with various struggles. It is likely that our time with the Welcome Church will bring up questions that are hard to answer for parents, like: Why doesn’t she have a home? Why does he look like that? Why are they acting that way? It might also bring up some emotions of sorrow or frustration.
While the questions are difficult, they are important ones to ask and the emotion is true.
I encourage those who attend to take the opportunity to wonder along with your children. Help them to notice similarities alongside the differences that will be apparent between themselves and those they meet. If you’re up for it, this is a good time to lean into conversations about race and poverty, in the simplest or more complicated forms depending on what you think your child is ready to engage. And as always, your (and their) pastors are ready and willing to help think through these questions as well. I encourage parents to set the example, talking to our friends from the Welcome Church, and being attuned to where conversation is welcome (or not).
I am looking forward to our time together with the Welcome Church in September, and hope to see you there! – Sarah
