Serving Our World

“If one of the brothers or one of the sisters is in need of clothes and has not enough food to live on, and one of you says to them, ‘I wish you well; keep yourself warm and eat plenty, without giving them these bare necessities of life, then what good is that? In the same way faith: if good deeds do not go with it, it is quite dead.” (James, 2: 14-17)

This passage from the letter of James is just one of the hundreds in the Bible that show us that acts of mercy, compassion and justice are essential to the Christian life.  It is our responsibility to be with the weak, the hungry, the sick, the lonely and the oppressed. As the Rt. Rev. Frank Weston preached in the early part of the 20th century, “It is folly—it is madness—to suppose that you can worship Jesus in the Sacraments and Jesus on the Throne of glory, when you are sweating him in the souls and bodies of his children. It cannot be done.” We strive to make a difference from the local, personal level, up through the structures that obstruct social justice and undermine peace, to the macro level of environmental preservation and restoration for all creation.

Our actions include:

  • weekly gatherings of donations to the Berkeley Food Pantry.
  • the second Sunday of every month when we serve our famous jambalaya at the Open Door Dinner.
  • throughout the year when we gather offerings for local, national and international agencies of justice and mercy every Advent and Lent.
  • participation in the building and rebuilding of homes here in the East Bay with Habitat for Humanity and Rebuilding Together.
  • Mission Trips to New Orleans, San Diego and beyond.

And, as part of our responsibility includes our impact on all of the Creation, we are active in our efforts both in our lives and at the Parish to be strong stewards of the Environment, God’s gift to us.