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"Part of the mission of the Church is to serve the poor and the disenfranchised," said Rev. Dominic Isopo, pastor of St. Luke's parish in Schenectady. "It takes both faith-based and community organizations to do this."

As such, St. Luke's has reached out to other Catholic parishes and Christian churches to collaborate in meeting the needs of people in the city. The parish is a member of the Central State Street Ecumenical Cluster along with St. Paul the Apostle parish, Tabernacle Baptist Church, Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church, Stanford United Methodist and Woodland Reformed Church.

Communal effort
The churches work together to help people in the Central State Street neighborhood. The cluster churches participate in the annual CROP Walk, which raises funds to combat hunger; provide free and low-cost lunches to children in the summer; offer ecumenical programming for children and youth; and celebrate the week of Christian Unity together.

Father Isopo said that each of the churches in the cluster also takes up food collections to benefit St. Luke's food pantry.

During the summer, the cluster sponsors an ecumenical Vacation Bible School. From this effort, an Ecumenical Youth Group has developed.

Father Isopo said the children who began coming to the first Vacation Bible School six years ago are now teenagers. The teens wanted to continue coming together, so they created the Ecumenical Youth Group.

Doreen Wright, coordinator for lifelong faith formation at St. Luke's, told The Evangelist that "this summer, the teens recommended that we meet throughout the year to work on service projects for the community."

The youth have performed service for Bethesda House, the City Mission and the Salvation Army. This month, the group will make care packages for families staying at Ronald Mc-Donald House in Albany. Other planned projects include volunteering with the Northeast Parent and Child Society and for the Special Olympics.

Cards and mats
During December, a group of 20 youth made Christmas Cards for 50 homebound people in the Central State Street neighborhood, Mrs. Wright said. She said there are 15 regular members of the youth group, though some activities draw additional youth.

The group also rallied teens from additional Catholic parishes and Notre Dame-Bishop Gibbons School in Schenectady to make placemats to be used at meals for the needy at Bethesda House and the City Mission.

"We collectively made over 500 Thanksgiving placemats," Mrs. Wright said. "We received great feedback. Many who ate at the locations asked to take the placemats with them after their meal. They were touched by the outreach of so many of our youth."

One of the goals of the youth group is to show the community that young people can do much good. Of the ecumenical efforts, Mrs. Wright noted: "When we work collaboratively, we can reach out to so many more of our community members in need."

Esther Singh, 18, is a member of Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church who participates in many of the Ecumenical Youth Group activities. She is a student at Schenectady County Community College studying math and science. Although her schedule is full, she likes to make time for the youth group.

"I've gotten to meet so many different people," she remarked. "Our doctrine may be different, but one thing we have in common is serving God."

'You become better'
Prior to her participation in this group, she said, she didn't have the opportunity to volunteer in the greater community. But she believes volunteering is something all youth should do: "It builds character. You become a better person."

St. Luke's also works with other Catholic churches in the Schenectady area. At Christmas, St. Luke's organized distribution of more than 400 food baskets and gifts to people in need - assisted by Our Lady of Fatima, Our Lady of the Assumption, St. Paul's, St. Gabriel's and Our Lady of Mount Carmel parishes.

"We provide food and toys for 300 families and 50 seniors," said Mary Moller, pastoral care and outreach minister at St. Luke's. "This year, we had such a large demand that we took on an additional 150."

Seventy volunteers from the different parishes helped distribute the food and gifts.

With the downturn in the economy, more people living in the Central State Street neighborhood are in need, Father Isopo said. It was his goal that no one be turned away for food.

Mrs. Moller admitted there was some stress that the churches might not be able to provide enough food for all of the people in need.

God provides
"I like to say that God will provide," Father Isopo said.

God did. St. Luke's received an unexpected check for $1,000 for the food baskets; parishioners from Our Lady of Fatima Church donated Price Chopper gift cards; Our Lady of the Assumption parish donated two truckloads of food.

The St. Vincent de Paul Society from St. Luke's purchased gift certificates for meat so that food basket recipients could choose their own. A donation of toys was made by Toys for Tots and St. Helen's parish shared surplus items from their Giving Tree.

Both those on the giving and receiving ends of the project benefited, Father Isopo said.

"The volunteers were amazing," he stated. "They took ownership. Not only did we make a difference in the lives of those receiving, we made a difference in the volunteers' lives. The young people from the different churches were changed."

01/07/10 [[In-content Ad]]

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