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Notes And News

How Can You Help?

by The Reverend Peter Thompson on August 05, 2022

"How can I help?" In an email, over the phone, in person on the steps of the church—at various times, many of you have told me that you'd like to contribute more to the life of St. Bart's, the community we all know, love, and call home. In the moment, I often find it difficult to answer such a question. There are so many needs at St. Bart's, from ushers and acolytes to gardeners and knitters to choral singers and bookstore cashiers. Where to begin?

I want to ask: "What are your passions? What is God calling you to do now?" Several New Testament letters (1 Corinthians, Romans, Ephesians) talk about the various gifts that we as Christians are given by God. A healthy Christian community, Scripture suggests, matches opportunities for service to the unique gifts each person possesses. All of us, the Bible makes clear, are called to serve in some way. But those ways differ from one another just as much as we differ from one another as individuals.

For most of my time at St. Bart's, our approach to volunteering has been scattershot. When a particular ministry finds itself in need of volunteers, it puts a notice in the enews or the service leaflet or makes a direct ask of a few individuals. This effort fills a dire, immediate need but doesn't help to build a larger volunteer base that will sustain a particular ministry into the future.

Meredith+, Zack+ and I—together with our colleagues Manny Rodriguez-Leach and Veronica Shea—are excited to share that we have assembled a new comprehensive listing of all the various volunteer opportunities that exist at St. Bart's. We hope this listing will help you find a volunteer opportunity that is right for you and fits your interests and talents.

We're pairing this new listing with an initiative that will take place throughout the month of August, which we're calling Volunteer Recruitment Month. During Volunteer Recruitment Month, we're challenging each member of our community to consider volunteering in at least one new way. If you've read Scripture in our Sunday services for years, we hope you'll continue doing that, but perhaps you'd like to arrange flowers or serve in the food pantry, too. Or maybe you've sat in the pews but never volunteered. Perhaps you'd like to step up and serve on the Altar Guild or bring out your inner thespian and join the St. Bart's Players.

You don't even need to be physically present at St. Bart's for some volunteer activities. We're eager to recruit digital ministry volunteers who will assist us in extending our Radical Welcome to those who attend online. You can knit or join in our advocacy work even if you don't live in the tri-state area.

Click here to read more about all of our volunteering opportunities and to sign up. Should you encounter any problems in doing so, St. Bart's Central is ready and eager to help. Just email or call 212 378-0222.

The past few years have had a profound effect on our volunteer corps here at St. Bart's. Because of COVID and many other factors, habits changed. Some folks moved away. Long-time ministries shifted scope or ended; new ministries took shape.

We now find ourselves in need of volunteers in at least two dozen areas! We hope you'll step up to one of the opportunities that is presenting itself to you and take the risk of saying yes. We're confident that, through your service, you'll change St. Bart's for the better and that, in the process, your life, too, will be changed.

Tags: volunteer, how can you help

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