Serve the Lord with gladness...
We demonstrate Christ’s compassion for others as we address the range of human needs outlined in Matthew 25:34-36: hunger, poverty, incarceration, illness, and the needs of refugees. Every month we highlight a local or national organization that is doing work in these areas and, throughout the month, we learn more about their work and support it with our prayers and offerings.
In addition to monetary donations, many of our members serve on the boards of, volunteer for, and in some cases were the founding organizers of the organizations we support. These include:
Alfred Area Food Pantry: The Food Pantry, now located at the Alfred United Methodist Church (KonXions UMC), 1389 Moland Rd., Alfred Station, NY continues to serve the people of the Alfred-Alfred Station area. The children of our church bring food for the Pantry every Sunday (when we are not dealing with Covid). Church members also contribute both food and money, and volunteer time at the Pantry.
Allegany-Cattaraugus-Chautauqua Fund for Women: This organization exists to invest in the lives of women in the communities of the Southern Tier in order to promote sustained self-sufficiency. Their mission is supported by strong guiding principles, including: empowerment, community, good stewardship, equity, diversity, and self-determination.
Allegany Senior Foundation: Identifies the unique needs of seniors living in Allegany County that are not being met by current services, and tries to efficiently coordinate and fund if necessary non-governmental efforts to fill those gaps.
Amnesty International: A global movement of more than 10 million people in over 150 countries and territories who campaign to end abuses of human rights. We lend our support to Amnesty especially because of the incarceration of Chinese human rights activist Ding Jiaxi in China. We have a web page that provides details of his plight and explains what you can do to help.
Cameron Community Ministries: This ministry began as a soup kitchen in one of Rochester’s poorest districts and has expanded to offer medical services, counseling, teenage pregnancy prevention programs, youth services, and many other innovative programs.
Equal Justice Initiative: Founded in 1989, EJI is a private nonprofit organization that provides legal representation to people who have been illegally convicted, unfairly sentenced, or abused in state jails and prisons. EJI challenges the death penalty and excessive punishment and provides re-entry assistance to formerly incarcerated people.
Faith in Action: Coordinates a large network of volunteers who visit the homebound in the wider Hornell area (including Alfred). Volunteers may also help out with odd jobs, and provide other small services to their assigned person. Several members of the congregation have been volunteers with the Interfaith Caregivers.
Habitat for Humanity – Genesee Valley Chapter: Habitat for Humanity provides low-cost housing by working with a family to build their own home. The Genesee Valley Chapter covers Allegany County and beyond.
Haiti Outreach: After a youth service trip to Pignon, Haiti to help build a home for a family, our youth urged the church to support the work of Haiti Outreach in that region. Haiti Outreach is a community based organization that, among other things, funds scholarships for school children and digs wells for villages to provide clean drinking water.
Hart Comfort House of Allegany County: A house in Wellsville, NY operated for the purpose of providing assistance and comfort care to terminally ill residents and their families. Hart House can accommodate up to two terminally ill patients and family members at a time.
Journey’s End Refugee Services: A Christian community-based organization in Buffalo with the mission of welcoming refugees without regard to ethnic origin or creed and to assist them to become healthy, independent, contributing members of the Western New York community. Support for Journey’s End was UUC Lenten Project for 2022.
In addition, the church supports distribution of Christmas baskets to families in need, and has donated special offerings to Matthew 25: Ministries for crisis relief. Recent examples include humanitarian aid for Ukraine and for earthquake victims in Türkiye and Syria.