Outreach Committee

Do all the good you can, in all the ways you can, to all the souls you can, in every place you can, at all times you can, with all the zeal you can, as long as you ever can.
-John Wesley

Park Avenue UMC, as part of the United Methodist Church, has a firm commitment to social justice. The Outreach Committee for PAUMC meets regularly to oversee the church's opportunities to service in the wider New York City community. As part of our ministries, we participate monthly in the Saturday Community Lunch Program, located at the Park Avenue Christian Church, feeding 140 of our neighbors. Each month we collect food for the Yorkville Common Pantry(www.ycp.com), one of the largest food pantries in NYC. We also partner with Habitat for Humanity-NYC (www.habitatnyc.org) by volunteering on builds. Most recently helping with construction on Habitat houses in Harlem, the South Bronx, and in Jamaica, Queens. Advocating for affordable housing in NYC is also an important part of our work. The East Side Congregations for Housing Justice is another way we work with other faith groups to advocate for affordable housing in our city. Through our work with Exodus Transitional Community, Inc. (www.etcny.org), we help people leaving prisons and jails to rebuild their lives. A specific focus on the needs of children is met through our work with Camp Olmsted (www.campolmsted.org), by providing volunteer support and biannual rummage sales to fund camp scholarships for inner city children.

In addition to our regular projects, the committee also provides information to the congregation about opportunities to reach out to local, national and international communities. In the recent past, our church has made donations to UMCOR, the United Methodist Committee on Relief (www.umcor.org), to help our neighbors who have suffered from the devastating losses caused by the tsunamis in Southeast Asia and Hurricane Katrina along the Gulf Coast of the US.

Our church is also embarking on new outreach ministries with mission trips. Mission teams to the Gulf Coast region continue to aid in the rebuilding efforts after the devastations of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. We work with St. Paul UMC in Biloxi, MS and we have a covenant relationship with a Houma Native American congregation, Clanton Chapel UMC, in Dulac, LA.

We have participated in international mission trips too, through the New York Annual Conference (www.nyac.com). In 2004-2005, 9 members of the PAUMC family traveled to Siquirres, Costa Rica, as part of the church's inaugural mission trip, to participate in building a recreational facility for the youth in that town. In 2005-2006, members of PAUMC returned to Siquirres to continue their work by establishing a sewing ministry for women in the community and to do building improvements to the local United Methodist Church.

Interested in outreach opportunities?
Contact us! Joins us!

Jessica Anschutz (Assistant Pastor)
J. Elizabeth Clark (Chair, Outreach Committee)
Lisa Smith (Saturday Community Lunch Program)
Mary Ellen Kris (Habitat for Humanity)