Social Ministry

The Social Ministry Committee is a joyful active committee at Grace. We meet every month to plan our events and activities. Sometimes we will meet after church on Sundays, other times we meet at 7:00 every second Monday of the month and still other times we meet for pizza and discussion. It is a committee of outreach into our immediate church family, our city, and beyond. Like a pebble dropped into the center of a pond, our reach ripples out from our church. We realize that people have many ways to give—monetary donations, possessions, time and talkent! The committee attempts to educate the members of Grace about social issues in our community and in the greater world.

In the past, Social Ministry has sponsored collection drives for charitable organizations such as: Needham Food Pantry, Women of Means, Ruth House, Greentree Boy’s Home, Sandra’s Lodge, Horizons for Homeless Children, back to school supplies for children living in teenaged group homes through Lutheran Social Services, among others. WE have organized the making and mailing of care packages to individuals serving our country in Iraq. We have served meals through the Harvard Square Homeless Shelter at University Lutheran Church in Cambridge, picked up trash at Horseford Phon, Walked for Hunger, and worked on Habitat for Humanity as “homesteaders” in a Blue Hill neighborhood in Boston.

We have identified the Greentree Girls Home in Arlington as “our” Lutheran Social Services program, and are working at supporting these young women in a variety of ways. We were able to fill wish lists for Christmas, send them Easter baskets of goodies, and collect school supplies for them. They’ve expressed interest in learning to crochet, so our first crochet session will be coming soon!

The Social Ministry committee also hosts educational forums for the congregation from time to time.

Grace serves fairly traded coffee from Equal Exchange at our coffee hour following worship every Sunday, and we provide Fair Trade Coffee for purchase on a monthly basis. We also support a table at the Needham Craft Fair to provide the community an opportunity to purchase Fair Trade Items. We also encourage giving to the ELCA Domestic Disaster Response and Lutheran World Relief to fight world hunger and to eradicate suffering in the wake of disasters.