HANDS-ON FAITH

Members and friends of Bethany United Church of Christ are actively involved in finding ways to support those in need, both in our local community and beyond. If you're ready to feed, clothe, house, and stand in solidarity with people, we’ve got places for you to pitch in!

Bethany partners with The Night Ministry (TNM) to prepare and serve meals for people at The Crib, an overnight youth shelter. (First opened in 2011, The Crib has become a model for youth shelters in Chicago and is recognized for its LGBTQ-competent services.) Every Advent, we stuff stockings with items meant to ease life lived on the street for TNM to distribute to unhoused clients.

We sponsor refugee families through RefugeeOne, helping them make home in a new place. (We also throw a great Chili Cook-off party every year to support that work.) When the government prevents the arrival of immigrants, we continue to work to support newcomers as they make home.

We take group shifts at Nourishing Hope, sorting mountains of food for distribution.

We travel almost annually to Biloxi, MS to work with Back Bay Mission to support un- and under-housed people.

Our Green Team educates, inspires, and drives us to action for environmental justice, from contacting legislators to sewing cloth bags for use at farmers’ markets, from securing a grant to replace all our light bulbs with LEDs to beginning to compost at the church.

We’re also a member congregation of Lighthouse Foundation, organizing for Black, queer, justice in Chicago and beyond.

As we grow as a church, we continue to expand and refine our Service & Justice work, while striving to find the right rhythms, partner organizations, and processes. In the meantime, individuals volunteer with and give to so many other projects and organizations. Ask around — they’re more than happy to tell you about it.