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The Christian Action Team is the umbrella organization for a number of Christ Church outreach and service ministries which we call “task groups”. Most CAT task groups seek to meet local needs and challenges but CAT also serves as a catalyst for mission trips and pilgrimages elsewhere in the United States and the larger world as well. All of the task groups welcome new participants and membership in both the task groups and the overall CAT umbrella organization is open to all parishioners willing to roll up their sleeves and become involved in the work. In a typical year tens of thousands of dollars and hundreds and hundreds of volunteer hours are deployed in the CAT task groups’ many programs. CAT’s regular monthly meetings are on the last Tuesday of each month at 5:30 p.m. in the Parish Hall. The task groups described below are among those catalyzed or sponsored on a continuing basis by Christ Church Christian Action Team. Still others serve for a period of time in response to various needs as perceived by the umbrella group. For more information or to get started in any of our Outreach ministries please contact us.
Health and Wellness Ministry is our newest ongoing task group, fostering awareness that, as Christians, we believe that physical and mental wellbeing are integral with spiritual health. Health and Wellness Ministry places the “backdoor health tips sheets” in restrooms all over the church buildings prompting us to be aware of a variety of personal health issues. Health and Wellness Ministry sponsors Health Fairs on Sundays after services, in the Parish Hall, inviting many health and wellness agencies and organizations to exhibit and share information. A series of Health and Wellness Ministry programs are offered on announced evenings dealing with topics as varied as What to do about Ageing Parents; Healthy Parenting for Challenging Kids; Patient Rights and Getting the Most out of Your Hospital Stay; Using Cardiopulmonary Devices; and more. Marie DiPasquale, Ph.D., R.N. is the coordinator of this task group which is recruiting new participants at its monthly meetings on the third Tuesdays of each month, usually in the office library. They especially welcome nurses and physicians to join the task group but participation is by no means limited to people in the health professions.
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Front Door Ministry is a low-key CAT task group responding to people who show up at the front door of the church or parish office seeking assistance from food to housing. The numbers of such needs varies according to the season and weather. The office staff contacts the task group person serving at the time to respond. Responses range from helping the individuals or families with essentials either through funds budgeted through CAT or by referral to appropriate community service agencies. Careful records are kept and consulted to assure that these responses serve the truly needy. CAT umbrella participants hand off these tasks among each other and hopefully, thereby, avoid “compassion fatigue.”
Hunger Ministries are several task groups who help with several local food programs. Each day people residing in the one local homeless shelter are provided sack lunches so that they have something to eat as they go about seeking employment or work at their temporary day-jobs. In cooperation with other community faith groups, meals are prepared and delivered to the homes of shut-in individuals and families living on very meager means in our community. From time to time, special need situations arise which CAT hunger ministries can help with. Various CAT umbrella participants are active in these Hunger Ministries.
Helping Hands is a much loved CAT task group with a wide portfolio of tasks. Often Helping Hands volunteers drive parishioners and other members of the community to doctor's appointments, to the supermarket to shop, sometimes even to appointments across the Bay. Some Helping Hands volunteers help with home tasks like cleaning a front porch in time to make it attractive for summer, pulling ivy off chimneys, building ramps for people in wheelchairs, taking down limbs that have fallen on a house after a storm, and all kinds of small jobs around the homes of parishioners and others – everything except complicated professional jobs. The Helping Hands task group especially needs more volunteers from the parish to be among those “on call.” Catherine Murphy coordinates Helping Hands with the able assistance of Jay Harford and Fred Smyth. CAT’s Helping Hands task group has become widely known and has recently begun to recruit and mentor the formation of similar ministries in Christian congregations outside the county as well.
Waterfowl Festival – Duck Inn – Duck Inn is in operation the second weekend of each November during the Waterfowl Festival. Debuting in 1993 as a way to earn extra funds for our local outreach program, we made over $1700.00. Realizing that our location is in the heart of the Festival, we have continued our operation and our success. Profits from Duck Inn have been used totally for our outreach program and have exceeded $130,000 over the fourteen years of its existence.
A menu of seafood (crab cakes, oyster fritters, clam chowder, and clam strips) and accompaniments (fries, salads, soft pretzels, and drinks) are prepared in the kitchens and then sold from the duck blind-decorated booth by members of the parish to the visitors, exhibitors and volunteers of the Festival.
The work begins on the second Tuesday of October when we congregate in the Parish Hall and make the crab cakes. Pizza is served at 5:00 p.m. and through teamwork and an assembly line, by 8:30 p.m. we are cleaned up and have approximately 2400 crab cakes in the freezers. The next phase of work begins on the Tuesday of Waterfowl Festival week. The booth is assembled and decorated, the kitchens prepared, and the lawn café is set up. Throughout the weekend, by working together to prepare, cook, and serve the food to our guests, parishioners are afforded an excellent opportunity for fellowship as well as service. Help is needed for 3-4 hour shifts during the Friday, Saturday, Sunday weekend.
Sign-up sheets will be available after church services starting the end of October. Whatever your talents, there is a job for you! Jobs include prep work, cooking, wrapping sandwiches, running food from kitchens to booth, working in the booth, refilling condiments, cleaning tables. Support our fantastic outreach program under the direction of the Christian Action Team, which has assisted individuals, families, and other programs, not only in our local community, but in other parts of our country and world.
We give thanks for this opportunity to serve and spend time together. Please mark your calendars for Waterfowl Weekend, November 14th, 15th, and 16th, 2008. Contact Reggie Phillips for questions @ 410-822-0781 or regphillips@verizon.net.
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