CR OS S R O AD S
August 25, 2010
On the first Sunday of every month, members of Bell Street Chapel make bag lunches for the clients of Crossroads Rhode Island, a shelter for our homeless and needy fellow citizens. We gather in Eddy Hall immediately after the service and share fellowship and fun while we make 100 bag lunches, which a member of the Peace and Social Justice Committee delivers. We have been doing this for over a decade. We hear fromthe staff at Crossroads that our reliability and the quality of the lunches we provide are very much appreciated by the clients. We try to make the lunches as nutritious as possible within our budget.Crossroads Rhode Island is the largest provider of services to the homeless in the state. It depends on volunteers to provide lunches on weekends. Anyone who delivers the lunches cannot fail to be saddened by the large number of souls who gather at the facility for lunch. It reminds us to work not only for the immediate needs of the homeless, but also for their long-term needs, which can only be met by policy and legislative changes. Many hardworking and responsible individuals and families become homeless because of the acute shortage of affordable housing in RI. Other homeless individuals are mentally ill or addicted and have not been able to get the help they need.
This is a safe way for children to work for social justice. If at least eight volunteers participate, we are finished within an hour or so. If you are unable to join us in making lunches, you can participate by bringing juice boxes, cookies, or large cans of solid white tuna to church each Sunday. We also need lunch bags, baggies, napkins, and mayonnaise.
Let’s let our homeless and hungry fellow citizens know that we at Bell Street Chapel do care about them. Clara Hardy heads up this project, which is sponsored by the Peace and Social Justice Committee.
Book Through Bars Update
June 29, 2010
July and August’s recipient of Share the Plate proceeds will be Providence Books Through Bars, whose library is housed in the Bell Street Chapel Parish House. Although BTB is again out of postage money for our national outreach; the good news is that we have finally received permission to donate books to the ACI’s Intake Service Center. A building that houses up to 1500 inmates, the ISC currently has no provisions for getting books to these men. Over the summer, we plan to place at least one bookcase with about 300 paperbacks in each, into the first eight “modules.” The bookcases must be metal, not wood, and we may have a resource to secure these. As usual, thanks to the Big Gray Book Bin, the generosity of our congregation and many local libraries, we have plenty of books! We hope to start answering letters and mailing books again in September.
Mother’s Day Baskets for McAuley Village
April 1, 2010
McAuley Village is two-year transitional housing program for homeless single parents and children. The Village has 23 apartments and an on-site child care center. They provide the basic human needs of shelter, child care, supportive services, advocacy and guidance to homeless families seeking help. Village residents have diverse backgrounds and different levels of preparation. Some residents did not graduate from high school. Others are victims of domestic violence and some are immigrant families. Whatever their backgrounds, all are homeless and living in desperate poverty.
This Mother’s Day, May 8th, Bell Street Chapel will be delivering Mother’s Day Baskets to the 23 mothers of McAuley village. Children in the village receive lots of attention, but mothers are often overwhelmed, overworked and still living in difficult conditions. We hope that these baskets will send a message of love and hope to the single mothers of the Village.
If you would like to help, we will be providing baskets, ribbons and tissue for adornment by the children, and art supplies for cards, but we need the small gifts to fill the baskets. Some ideas are: toiletries (trial sizes?), small flowering plants or flowers, hair accessories, mini sewing kits, or anything else you can think of! (Sister Holly, the administrator, asks that we NOT donate candles). Cash donations will go toward gift cards to CVS. We will need 23 (or 11 or 12) of each item, so they can be distributed evenly. Please see Carol Wiseman about your donation or fill in your idea/donation on the form in Eddy Hall. Thank you!
Ethical Eating: The Truth About Water
November 7, 2009
Aggressive advertising by corporations has convinced many US citizens that drinking bottled water is healthier and safer than drinking tap water. Guess what! It’s not. And there are good reasons to drink tap water instead. Although there are some places where mineral content adversely affects the taste of tap water, the truth is that tap water is safe to drink all over the USA and Europe (don’t try this in India or Africa). In fact, public water supplies are much more carefully regulated and more frequently tested than the sources of bottled water, which is one of the least-regulated industries. And about 40% of the sources of bottled water are merely tap water from somewhere else! Recent studies by the National Resources Defense Council concluded that bottled water is not safer or cleaner than tap water. (Go to their website at nrdc.org/water for details.)
People, including those who can least afford it, spend 10,000 times more per gallon for bottled water than tap water. Providence Water recently pointed out in their annual water quality report to consumers (which you all received – remember?) that 8 glasses of water per day, including that used to make coffee, tea, juice, etc., costs $1400 per person annually if bottled water is used, whereas the same amount of tap water would cost 49 cents!
And then there are all those plastic bottles. Despite nationwide efforts to recycle, the Container Recycling Institute estimates that 90% of plastic water bottles end up in landfills. And if you need more convincing, there are the costs to the environment of moving all that water from one place to another. I am always surprised when I notice huge trucks delivering massive quantities of water to residences, stores, and restaurants.
Okay – once in a while a Pellegrino or Gerolsteiner is a treat – but, for every day use, drink water from your tap and be grateful for safe drinking water. It is a privilege that all too many citizens of this world lack. This is one ethical choice that is easy to make.
March for Marriage Equality – Saturday, Oct. 17
September 28, 2009
Come out and MARCH to the State House for Marriage Equality on October 17th. Every town in Rhode Island will be represented. March with your neighbors, or local organization. Our New England sister states will all join us in our call to action. The time is NOW to send a clear message to our state legislators that MARRIAGE EQUALITY must be the law in Rhode Island. Don’t miss this great day of solidarity and action….and fun. We will gather at Burnside Park (opposite Kennedy Plaza) at 10:00 AM. The march to the State House will begin at 11:00 AM, followed by Rally for Marriage Equality on the south steps of the RI State House at 1:00 PM.After the rally, at 4:00 PM, there will be a Marriage Equality Reception at Downcity Diner, 50 Weybosset Street, followed by other fun events. For more information, visit:
Share the Plate Benefits Trees 2020
July 28, 2009
Each month, Bell Street Chapel shares a portion of our offertory with a charitable organization in Rhode Island through our “Share the Plate” program. We donate half of the unallocated (non-pledge) donations) received to an organization chosen by the Peace and Social Justice Committee. Nominations for Share the Plate are located in Eddy Hall.
Due to the smaller church attendance in the summer months of July and August, a single organization has been selected to get a portion of the offertory for those two months. The organization selected is “Trees 2020″ a non-profit environmental project funded by the Helen Walker Raleigh Tree Care Trust Fund to increase the tree canopy in South Providence which will decrease summer temperatures, lower rates of childhood asthma, and increase bird habitat.
Sharing the Plate
May 23, 2009
Each month, Bell Street Chapel shares a portion of our offertory with a charitable organization in Rhode Island through our “Share the Plate” program. We donate half of the unallocated (non-pledge) donations) received to an organization chosen by the Peace and Social Justice Committee. Donations for May will benefit Marriage Equality RI, which works for equal marriage rights for gay and lesbian individuals, and donations in June will benefits Community Music Works.Thank you to everyone for you generosity, which allows us to share our gifts with the community.
Movie Night – Friday, May 8, 6:30 p.m.
April 27, 2009
In an effort to live out our commitment as a Unitarian Universalist Association Welcoming Congregation, Bell Street Chapel sponsors a monthly movie night featuring films that examine gender identity issues. Over the past several years, we have seen dramas and documentaries, comedies and heart breakers – all acclaimed and artistically significant films. Genevieve Peri seems to have an endless number of ideas for films in this category.
May Movie Night, our final one for the 2008-2009 season, will be on Friday, May 8, at 6:30 p.m. The film is a classic 1959 film regarded by the American Film Institute as the “greatest American comedy film of all time.” It won many awards and honors. Our licensing agreement does not allow us to identify the film by name in public communications, but anyone who hasn’t guessed the title and wants to know more may contact Carol Crowley at ccrowley8@cox.net.
As always, we will share a potluck dinner before the showing of the movie. We always follow up with a short discussion led by Genevieve Peri. So do join us on Friday, May 8, at 6:30 p.m. in Eddy Hall for a memorable end to our Movie Night season – and give us your ideas for films to be shown next season!
What Is Marriage For? Book Discussion Group May 4 and 11
April 10, 2009
Bell Street Chapel and Marriage Equality Rhode Island will host a two-week discussion group based on the book “What is Marriage for?: The Strange Social History of our Most Intimate Institution,” by E.J. Graff. In this book, Graff describes marriage as “a kind of Jerusalem, an archaeological site on which the present is constantly building over the past, letting history’s many layers twist and tilt into today’s walls and floors.” Indeed, the institution of marriage has changed dramatically over the centuries to reflect evolving understandings of family, money, sex, love and power. Graff traces Western marriage customs and rules of law from their emergence in ancient times to the present.
This program will allow participants to share ideas about evolving notions of marriage. The objectives of this program are:
To investigate historical beliefs and practices with regard to marriage;
To explore modern marriage customs and laws, and the belief system inherent in them;
To examine attitudes toward marriage of same-sex couples against current beliefs about the purpose of marriage; and
To develop a personal definition of marriage (both what it is and why we do it).
During the discussion sessions, participants will examine laws and customs of bygone eras to better understand underlying beliefs and assumptions. They will also explore current practices to determine the extent to which these practices reflect modern values and assumptions about marriage. Finally, they will consider how a faith community can honor each individual spirit as we “live up to the rigorous demands of love.”
The group will meet for two consecutive Mondays, May 4 and 11, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Participants are asked to read “What is Marriage For?” prior to the first session. A sign-up sheet is available in Eddy Hall. The book can be purchased for $16 from Beacon Press at www.beacon.org, or through major online book retailers such as Amazon.com.
~Donald Laliberte
Food pantry at Youth Pride, Inc.
April 10, 2009
Throughout the month of April, Bell Street Chapel will be collecting nonperishable food items to support the community food pantry at Youth Pride Inc. (YPI). YPI is a nonprofit organization committed to building a strong and vocal community of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning (LGBTQQ) youth and their allies to ensure that they are heard and accepted as members and leaders in our community. YPI offers a variety of services to LGBTQQ youth, including a drop-in center, support groups, tutoring and other activities..
YPI’s community food pantry has been in operation for nine years, and provides food to anyone in need in the greater Providence area. The food pantry distributes more than 1,300 pounds of food per week, and serves over 1,200 individuals per year. The food pantry is typically in need of the following items:
Nonperishable food items and personal hygiene items will be collected before and after Sunday worship services from April 5 through April 26. You can leave donations in the box in the main lobby in the chapel. With your support, we can help YPI feed people in need.