Home » Hopewell Borough Churches Team up for Third Annual “Sunday of Service”

Hopewell Borough Churches Team up for Third Annual “Sunday of Service”

by MercerMe Staff

On Sunday, November 4, members of Hopewell churches will exchange their morning worship bulletins, hymnals and Sunday attire for hammers, buckets and work gloves to collaborate on community service projects throughout the Borough. The “Sunday of Service” (formerly known as “The Church Has Left the Building”) is sponsored by the Hopewell Council of Churches and is intended as a symbolic demonstration of a shared vision of ministry throughout the year to those in need in the Hopewell community and beyond. It is also an open invitation to all Hopewell residents to join with neighbors to reach out to the less fortunate.

“Hopewell is a generous community whose residents have a healthy awareness of their blessings,” said President of Hopewell Council of Churches, Cathy Peterson. “Feeding the hungry, clothing the ill-clad, visiting the forgotten and comforting the sick are all acts that transcend religion. We are called to care for others, and by doing so, we rule the powers of love and peace in the world. We’re eager to see what it will look like when the whole community comes together for this purpose.”

“Sunday of Service” begins at 9:30am with a kick-off gathering at Calvary Baptist Church, 3 East Broad Street, next to the Boro Bean coffee shop.

Following the short commissioning service, volunteers will leave for their respective service projects that include: packing lunches, making soup mixes and collecting canned goods for area food pantries and soup kitchens; tying blankets for Project Linus; a visit to The Atrium nursing home; a 5K walk to help provide clean water to hill tribe in Thailand; shoe-pattern cutting to help provide shoes for Ugandan children suffering from the crippling effects of the jiggers parasite (Sole Hope); sorting and packing winter clothing to aid Syrian refugees through the upcoming Bosnian winter; and a Habitat for Humanity site.

The day of service will conclude with a 5pm dinner and community celebration hosted by Hopewell Presbyterian Church at 80 W Broad Street in Hopewell.

“Sunday of Service is a great opportunity for churches and the community to come together and display the love of God in action,” said Reverend Laura Steele, pastor of Hopewell United Methodist Church. “Not only does it give the community a chance to interact with people of faith in service to the world, it also gives people of faith a good reminder that their mission field extends outside the walls of their churches. It’s so exciting to see people working together on a Sunday morning with one, unique goal – to serve God’s children with love.”

All Hopewell residents are invited to participate in the Sunday of Service by volunteering a few hours to help ease the burdens of their neighbors near and far.

“It’s a wonderful collaborative act of communal unity, celebration and gratitude in the season of Thanksgiving,” said Dennis O’Neill, pastor of Calvary Baptist Church.

For more information on any of these projects, or how to volunteer, contact Lucy Ducko at 609-466-0758 or email [email protected].

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