United Church of Christ
Missoula, Montana
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you are welcome here! Who We Are |
Mission Statement
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Justice and Witness Hopes and Prayers
In 2009, we will focus our energy on: • Offering ways for parents and children in our congregation to work together in promoting peace and justice in our world and community. • Working to promote accessible health care, care for the hungry and homeless and peace in our lives and world in cooperation with our five mission partners:
Partnership Health Care Center. • Provide continued discourse on the affects of war, in particular the conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan and the ongoing political crisis in Burma. • Offer education, motivation and insight into lowering the carbon footprint of our members individually and the church as a whole.
Earth Stewardship 
EARTH STEWARDSHIP
Many thanks for a very successful resuable bag campaign! We sold 102 bags to church members and friends, and UCCC Preschool parents! Missed the sale? Get your own at
Here are some bottled water facts, brought to you by UCC Power and Light, to encourage you to find alternatives to bottled water:
Bottled water costs the same as soda and three times as much as gas
Packaging and shipping consumes energy and contributes to global warming
Global consumption reached 41 billion gallons in 2004, up from 57% in 1999
Empty bottles add to litter and solid waste
No safer than the water from municipal water systems
Blind taste tests show that few people can distinguish between bottled water and tap water
Water shortages have occurred near bottling plants
Privatizing water hurts local economies
For more information, go to:
Earth Policy Updates
For more information and action about this topic, the Justice and Witness ministry invites you to sign an online petition asking our congressional representatives to take leadership in the political discussion around global warming. You may do so by going to Global Warming Solutions and clicking on 4 Climate Change questions for Congress. At the same time you may learn more about solutions toward global warming.
Thank you to all who brought pasta, rice and beans for the food bank. In total we donated 277 pounds of food. Amazing and wonderful.
Did you know the ‘Pov’ has a food pantry that is used daily by folks needing all manner of food? It’s open M-F, for 1 ½ hrs. each day and staffed by volunteers. During that time, those needing food visit the walk-up window for dry goods as well as any refrigerated donations from the various grocery stores. On a busy day, it is not uncommon to serve as many as 25 clients/families over the daily period the pantry is open. These are people - families, singles, couples - who do not live at the Poverello, but depend on both the daily meals served there and “pantry” groceries to get by. Clients may use the ‘dry good’ section of the shelves twice a week, and the refrigerated portion every day.
Hunger in Missoula does not take a vacation. The number of children served by the Poverello Pantry has increased dramatically in the past few years. Each summer, those of us who work weekly (and there are now 4 from our church who do!) at the pantry have been dismayed to see practically bare shelves as the summer months wane on.
Below is a list of items that would help stock the “Pov” Pantry Shelves. OR check this link for current photos of pantry shelves and needs!
“Regular” sizes of cans, etc. are more useable than giant (i.e. Costco-type) sizes, as many of the folks who come for food are walking, riding bikes, or taking public transportation. Lists are also available on the JW kiosk in the Narthex. You may bring any donations to church, leave them in the box in the narthex, and one of the ‘Pov’ Volunteers will see that your donation gets delivered. Thank you for your generosity!
“Regular” Size Provisions:
Cake, brownie, muffin mixes
UCC provides the midday meal for Poverello Center
residents on the 4th Sunday of each month, except during the summer months. There are
many opportunities to assist in this wonderful form of
outreach, from providing food, to assisting with
preparation, to serving the meal.
If you would like more information please contact the church at 543-6952.
Join us in this important ministry of food and service. The Poverello serves over 10,000 meals a year to Missoula’s most vulnerable population of homeless folk. Leadership for this important service is provided by two couples.
We are currently looking for several more people to help in a leadership capacity and to share the role of coordinating the meals at the Poverello Center. Recipes for the meals will be provided. A basic knowledge of cooking, an ability to welcome and lead people in the cooking and serving process is the most significant part of this leadership role. Please contact Amy Carter in the church office (543-6952) if you feel like you can provide leadership to this essential ministry of our church.
HUMAN RIGHTS
Join church folk in helping build a home with Habitat for Humanity. Here are two dates for this summer:
July 24 — Volunteers needed to help prepare and deliver lunch at 11:30 a.m. to the job site.
Work days begin at 8:30 with sign in, coffee and treats. Workers are fed lunch at noon. Work days end between 3:30 and 4:00 with sign out. If you are working a half day in the afternoon, you should plan to come at noon to share lunch. You must be over 16 to volunteer at this site.
The work site this summer is at the east end of Deveraux in the Windsor Park Development off Expressway.
If you cannot help during these specific times, please feel free to call the Habitat for Humanity office to volunteer your time on another day. Habitat’s phone number is: 549-8210 or visit their web site at http://www.habitatmsla.org.
A sign up sheet is posted in the narthex. Thank you.
The United Church of Christ’s commitment to justice and peace is funded primarily through an offering called Neighbors in Need. Two thirds of the offering issued by our denomination is to fund a wide array of local and national justice initiatives, advocacy efforts and direct service projects. This also funds UCCtakeaction.org, which offers resources for people to respond to a number of national advocacy issues. One third of the offering goes to support the 21 UCC congregations of the Council of American Indian Ministries. This offering is taken in the fall during church.
Our collection for Neighbors in Need this year (2009) totals $1519.20. Through this offering we are able to offer programming and support to millions of people addressing a whole range of social issues and concerns. Last year we collected $1207. What a wonderful statement for our church to exceed last year’s amount. Thank you for your over-the-top generosity.
SERVICE AND RELIEF OF HUMAN SUFFERING
On Tuesday, June 15, the Service Trip 2011 group will meet in the Fireside Room at 7:30 p.m. to focus on the 2011 trip. Dave Scheel will present photos along with information on God’s Child Project in Antigua, Guatemala; a date for the trip will be set; the place will be confirmed; cost will discussed; and money raising projects will be talked about. Please come if you interested in this opportunity.
We are sending $1868 to the United Church of Christ’s Haiti Earthquake Relief fund. 100% of that money will go to support the people of Haiti as they seek to rebuild their lives. Your ministry of service both through financial gifts and the offering of your time, energy and expertise help to make this church a place of service.
For continued updates on work being done in Haiti, go to United church of Christ Website.
In 2005, our church raised $7,983.76 in response to the Hurricane Katrina disasters.
Monies were sent via the United Church of Christ which coordinated help in the relief and recovery efforts after the hurricane. The UCC directed money to the following: Church World Service, which provided hands-on emergency relief and rescue; Slumber Falls Camp, the UCC South Central Conference's outdoor ministry in New Braunfels, Texas, which housed evacuated residents of the Gulf Coast Region; the Southest Conference of the UCC, which provided food to evacuees in Atlanta through the Hosea Williams Feeding Program; The Amistad Resettlement Project of the Community of Faith in Houston, which worked to resettle 50-100 families; and UCC’s Back Bay Mission in Biloxi, Mississippi, which was devastated by the storm and is beginning to re-build.
We thank you for your generous gifts.
TO ADVOCATE
Find your elected officials or candidates.
From falsehood to truth.
Lead me from despair to hope
From fear to trust.
Lead me from hate to love,
From war to peace.
Let peace fill our hearts
Let peace fill our world
Let peace fill our universe.
Through the storm, through the night, lead me on to the light
- Be present, O God, with those who are discovering that loved ones have died, that homes and jobs are gone. Embrace them in your everlasting arms.
- Be present, O God, with those who suffer today in shelters, hot and weary from too little sleep and too much fear. Let them know they are not alone.
- Be present, O God, with those who wonder what they will find when they return to homes battered by wind and engulfed by flood. Teach them to hope.
- Be present, O God, with those who have not been able to reach loved ones, who are frantic with worry. Offer them consolation.
- Be present, O God, with those who have hardly recovered from last year’s storms, who are unsure how much they can bear, who yearn only for quiet. Grant them peace.
- Be present, O God, with all who respond - mayors, police, firefighters, FEMA employees, Red Cross workers, pastors, church disaster response coordinators. Their work is just beginning, and will not end for many months. Strengthen them for service.
- Be present, O God, with the people of the United Church of Christ in storm damaged areas, and especially with the staff and clients of the Back Bay Mission in Biloxi where we fear so much has been damaged. Inspire us by their determination to care for others amid their own trials.
- Be present, O God, to each of us as we pray, that distance may not deter us from generous giving and enduring companionship. Help us remember tomorrow, and next week, and next month.
- Be present, O God, with all affected by Hurricane Katrina. May Immanuel, God with us, our precious Jesus, take every hand and lead us home. Amen.
John H. Thomas
General Minister and President
United Church of Christ
August 30, 2005
This prayer was written by the Rev. John H. Thomas, the
President and General Minister of our denomination, the
United Church of Christ.
We come to You in silence, O God, entering once again a Way of Sorrow.
We can only weep
For the people of Iraq, burdened by years of oppression,
by a decade of sanctions, and now facing death and destruction,
For those in flight, joining refugees throughout the world
in a journey of profound uncertainty,
For soldiers and their families
facing dire threat and days of anxious waiting,
For Jerusalem and for all it represents throughout the Middle East -
would that they, and we, knew the things that make for peace,
For those who are poor, whose needs are set aside
while we pay the costs of war,
For ourselves,
despairing that we could not turn hands and hearts
from the way of violence.
Allow us our silence, O God, but do not leave us alone.
Receive our tears,
but also gather them together to remind us that as we have been baptized
into Christ¹s death, so we are also baptized into Christ¹s resurrection.
Thus may our journey with Jesus on the Way of the Cross be filled with hope,
that in these days we might not lose heart.
Amen.
LINKS
National UCC Ministry for Justice
Find your Elected Officials and Candidates.
The Episcopal Church as Prophet to our Day
HUMAN RIGHTS
Community Action for Justice in the Americas
Hate Crimes News and Information
NEWS SITES
News and Views for the Progressive Community
ORGANIZATIONS
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The Justice & Witness Team includes: Marcia Bishop, John Brown, Frank Clark, John Firehammer, Alison Forney-Gorman, David Gorman, Steve McArthur, Linda Noson, Hazel Pfluger, Nick Roberts, and
Karen Wilson. Staff Liason: Amy Carter
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