Undercroft Use Updates
Recently the Rev. Melanie W. J. Slane, our Associate for Mission, updated us all on the changes happening with our Mission Partner, Found House: Interfaith Housing Network. If you missed her message, you can read it here. We are excited to witness and participate in the transformation of this organization that provides such a vital service to our community. As Melanie noted, we will have some opportunities through the end of the year to once again host families in our undercroft for a week at a time. So please be watching for information on how you can support the families during those weeks.
It has been nearly 20 years since the Undercroft space was renovated. That renovation was undertaken with the purpose of making the undercroft a multi-use space: Both to accommodate overnight IHN guests, and and to serve our parish’s education and formation needs. As Found House: IHN transitions away from temporarily housing families in churches, our Family Ministry Team, along with church leadership, have begun discussing how the undercroft space can better serve our Children and Youth Ministries today. Our hope is to design the space to act as a hub for gathering children and families: For Christian Education on Sunday mornings, for our Youth to hang out on Sunday afternoons, and for the students in our new CoR After School program.
This will take some time to plan and implement. It will also require that our children and youth will need to find another space on Sunday mornings during this time of transition. It is with this in mind that we are inviting our Children and Youth ministries to join us on the main church level this program year. We will be determining which spaces they will use over the next week and will communicate the details to the congregation as soon as we have a clear picture of where each ministry will be located.
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