While the Outdoor Church is not itself a
social service agency, it works closely with the many local and
state agencies and institutions that provide social services to
homeless men and women in Cambridge. The Outdoor Church connects
people on the street with much needed help and provides them
with information about meals, shelters, detox centers and
programs, shelters for abused women and children, legal support
and medical assistance.
Some staff members participate in the Cambridge Coalition of Care,
an umbrella organization for public and private social service
organizations that address the problem of homelessness in Cambridge.
Meals
Although there
are many meals programs and food pantries in Cambridge, only two
meals are
served on the street during the week and none are served on the
street over the weekend. Because they have trouble finding their way to a shelter, a
surprisingly large number of chronically homeless men and women in
Cambridge – the very people we hope to serve – remain hungry. They miss or
avoid meals because they are too confused to find their way to the
meal, because they have difficulty matching the times that meals are
served with the admission requirements of the shelter at which they
are staying, they are frightened of some of the people who attend
meals program or they simply forget when meals are served. For these people we are often the sole source of a reasonable
meal over the weekend.
There
is a pressing need for more outdoor meals,
especially over the weekend. In response, we have extended our meals outreach beyond Sunday.
Teams of volunteers from our supporting churches have begun to offer meals on
other days of the week, starting with Saturday, under the
supervision and with the support of the Outdoor Church. In
time, we hope to serve a meal outdoors on every day of the week on which a free meal is
not otherwise being offered in Cambridge.Providing a meal to our homeless congregants is one of the most important pastoral services we can offer them. Taking a meal to the street, the only place where most of our congregants are likely to be found, is the way we meet both the spiritual and material needs of the homeless people we serve, in the form of a Eucharistic meal.
Clothing
Members of our
supporting churches contribute clean white socks, jackets, blankets
and other clothing that we distribute to homeless men and women.
Volunteers collect the clothes and make them available during
and following the meal served at Christ Church on Thursday nights.
Every month, children at First Church Congregational, Cambridge,
make sandwiches for the Outdoor Church as part of their celebration
of communion. Teenagers at Harvard-Epworth
prepare small packages of
toiletries (toothpaste, safety razors, soap, shaving cream,
bandages, etc.) that we give out together with our sandwiches and
socks.
Other
All of the staff of The Outdoor Church bring additional professional gifts to the ministries of The Outdoor Church. Among the staff members are social workers, lawyers and teachers. The Outdoor Church encourages its staff to use these gifts in pastoral service to its congregants. For example, Rev. Mannis, who is also an attorney, provides pro bono legal services to homeless men and women both outdoors and at shelters throughout the Cambridge area. Since 1999, he has represented or advised more than two hundred and fifty homeless men and women in Boston and Cambridge.