STORIES
Photo: Paul Jeffrey/ACT Alliance
Celebrate Service4/23/2024 National Volunteer Week 2024Volunteerism empowers individuals to find their purpose, to take their passion and turn it into meaningful change. When each of us, in our own way, answers the call to make a difference, we make progress in solving our most persistent problems, and create stronger communities and a more just society. - Points of Light Foundation, on the 50th Anniversary of National Volunteer Week Week of Compassion connects volunteers to opportunities across the life of the ministry. We give thanks for the wide variety of people who are part of disaster relief, long-term recovery, and refugee response in congregations and communities. update from Haiti3/18/2024 As Florida Regional Minister Sandy Messick offers pastoral care for our Haitian Disciples in this time of upheaval and distress in Haiti, Week of Compassion is working with partners, especially with CWS (Church World Service), to address critical care and humanitarian response there in the ways we are able. aid in the Middle East3/7/2024 assisting Palestinian refugees in JordanWeek of Compassion remains alert to the ongoing needs in the midst of the Middle East crisis. In conversation with our colleagues at Global Ministries, especially Peter Makari, GM’s Global Relations Minister for the Middle East and Europe, Week of Compassion continues to respond. Most recently, Week of Compassion through Global Ministries is responding with the Middle East Council of Churches’ Department of Service for Palestinian Refugees in Jordan. Given the already significant economic crisis in the region, which has affected Jordan as well, and the desperate situation of Palestinian refugees amid the ongoing crisis and the defunding of the UN Relief and Works Agency, partners are stepping in to fund initiatives that would ordinarily find support from other sources. As other partners’ funds are being delayed or diverted to care for the extreme needs of refugees during this conflict, emergency funds like the Week of Compassion and Global Ministries response through DSPR are crucial, both as an expression of interfaith solidarity, and to address these critical needs. 2 Years in Ukraine2/26/2024 updates from partners on long-term responseSaturday February 24 marked two years of war in Ukraine. It also marked two full years of daily response to the needs of thousands of impacted families, along with refugees and displaced persons, both inside Ukraine and in the surrounding nations. Week of Compassion's implementing partners within the ACT Alliance network continue to serve amid the most challenging circumstances. We are grateful to share this glimpse into that ongoing work: Response Fund 20232/15/2024 In January, Week of Compassion shared our annual Year in Review, highlighting the ways in 2023 that Disciples responded with compassion around the world, and how the work of disaster relief, refugee response, and sustainable development carries on from one place to the next.
The graphics below give a summary glance of that longer list of responses - by designation (how the gifts were used) and by global region (where the gifts were shared), plus a single combined snapshot. Refugee Resettlement 20231/9/2024 year in reviewIn 2023, more than 70 Disciples churches responded to the needs of refugees, evacuees, asylum seekers, and immigrants in their communities. Thousands of people from all over the world saw the support, care, and compassion of Disciples who welcomed the stranger through radical acts of hospitality and love. Learn more about Week of Compassion's committment to Disciples' refugee response and ongoing opportunities to connect to this life-changing ministry.
Refugee Response Tour11/20/2023 reflections on recent conversationsRecently, Rev. Alan Dicken, Week of Compassion's Associate for Immigrant and Refugee Response, spent a week in the Ohio Region, bringing together congregations and resettlement partners to make connections about the ongoing work and future possibilities in caring for new neighbors in their communities. Churches asked questions, shared insights, and discovered ways to partner for the good of those around them, offering welcome and hospitality in ways large and small. Alan offered brief reflections and photos from each stop of the Refugee Response Tour: What a joy it was to join Disciples leaders from all over Ohio in October! Ohio was a wonderful host, with fruitful gatherings where resettlement offices and church leaders from all over the state were able to develop new relationships. Together, we were able to learn more about what is happening with refugees in the world and how congregations and the whole region can be involved in faithful refugee response. In Akron, First Christian Church Stow hosted the International Institute of Akron who shared about the need for home set-up supplies and the ways congregations can take up collections for refugee families who are being resettled weekly in the Akron area. Disciples Christian Church, which has a rich history of refugee support, connected other Disciples churches in the Cleveland area to the United States Committee of Refugee and Immigration (USCRI) Cleveland offices. Three USCRI representatives came to speak with over a dozen of Disciples leaders regarding the needs for newcomers who come to call Cleveland home. First Christian Church Wauseon shared space for a rich conversation about the situation facing refugee populations and how congregations can be actively involved in helping to support the needs in Toledo, Columbus, and remotely in more rural northwest Ohio towns. The resettlement offices in Dayton, through Catholic Charities Miami Valley, opened their doors to Disciples in the area to learn more about transportation volunteers, conversation partners, and ways that volunteers can connect with refugees even for an hour or two per week. Heartfelt Tidbits hosted Cincinnati area clergy and shared their unique opportunities to come alongside refugees in community gardens, school support, and in connection to neighborhood programs around the city. Disciples clergy gathered together for a district dinner and we heard more about support programs in the city. Chauncy Christian Church of the Hocking Valley Parish welcomed leaders from around the Athens and Jackson area for delicious donuts and dialogue about refugees who come to Ohio University - and discovered how close Columbus is for direct service projects and setting up houses for refugees who land in central Ohio. Community Refugee and Immigration Services (CRIS) in Columbus offered a tour of their facilities and engaged Columbus area clergy in conversation regarding their volunteer coordination programs and how churches can serve as welcome teams. St. Andrews Christian Church leaders shared how their involvement as a CRIS Welcome Team has blessed their church and community immensely as they’ve worked with an Afghan family over the past year. Although each site had vastly different conversations, each resettlement office had different needs for volunteers, and each church had different levels of volunteer capacity and engagement, each place had the same Spirit at work. Regardless of where a refugee comes from, what their background is, or where in Ohio they might be, there are chances for Ohio Disciples to be welcoming communities of support. Together, we learned that no matter how large or small, urban or rural a church may be, any Ohio Disciple can make a huge impact by being part of a welcoming refugee response. As congregations consider how to faithfully and effectively engage in new refugee support or continue existing ministries, Week of Compassion is honored to join in conversation, education, and action to support refugees throughout Ohio. Thank you for hosting me, and thank you for joining in this vital region-wide commitment of support for refugees. For more information about Week of Compassion's Immigrant and Refugee Response, contact Alan Dicken. |
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