top of page

MINISTRIES

Learn about the various ministries at work at Holy Spirit Episcopal Church

Contact us if you're interested in helping us with any of the below! 


Worcester Fellowship (http://www.worcesterfellowship.org/)

​

Worcester Fellowship is outdoor church that reaches out to the homeless and at risk adults, providing Sunday Service and lunch, Thursday Café, worship, bible study and weekday activities. The Church’s message is: “GOD LOVES YOU NOW!” God loves you regardless of your sobriety or cleanness, your sexual preference, your housing status, or whether you have fully committed to non-violence. God loves you now regardless of your mental health status, your prayer life, or lack thereof. God loves you right now if you’re just out of jail or have never had any brush with the law.”

 

Here at Holy Spirit, our main support for Worcester Fellowship is our contribution to Sunday Service and lunch. Every Sunday, several local churches each provide about 60 bagged lunches, share conversation with WF congregation members and join in the service that is held on Worcester Common. Church members at Holy Spirit regularly respond generously for the monthly request for supplies for the lunches and, frequently, white socks, and they enthusiastically make sandwiches and fill the brown lunch bags. Lunches are taken to Worcester Common for the 1:00 pm lunch which is followed by the service.

We further support WF with hats and scarves for the winter, knitted by our parishioners, donations of toiletries and, occasionally, supplies for Thursday Café. Each Thursday afternoon from early September through the end of June, volunteers and WF members gather at All Saints Church in Worcester to provide food, companionship, rest, hot coffee, cold drinks, socks and underwear to homeless adults in the city. At Thursday Café, guests can sleep on air mattresses in warmth and safety for a few hours without fear that they will lose their few precious possessions. The number of guests to Thursday Café has been creeping up over the last year and now it is usual to have more than 100 visitors on a Thursday afternoon.

 

If you would like to know more about Worcester Fellowship you can check the website: http://www.worcesterfellowship.org/ . This website contains links to their Facebook and Twitter pages.

​

Connect Africa (www.connect-africa.org)

​

Founded as a non-profit in 2005, Connect Africa is a grass roots organization that helps villagers in Uganda who are struggling to support children orphaned by AIDS.  Their mission is to strengthen families by providing educational sponsorship to orphans and business loans to the guardians of orphans.  Connect Africa works in communities that are often overlooked by large charitable organizations.  

 

The AIDS pandemic has left many families with an elderly grandmother, aunt or older sibling as the sole provider for upwards of eight children.  The grandmothers subsist on pennies made from the sale of their produce.  Aunts and older siblings make do with their meager earnings of less than $1.50 USD per day.  Connect Africa provides crucial financial support to orphans who have no other means of obtaining an education and loans to the guardians to help them bring up the children.

 

Connect Africa is a unique, community-based organization.  Our Church has partnered with individuals in the villages in which they work and we are guided by their expertise and knowledge.  Our approach allows us to connect the donor and the Ugandan recipient, creating a direct, personal, and long-lasting relationship.  

bottom of page