Service/Outreach is the foundation of our mission at Christ Church. We have a very giving community who truly lives into our parish motto: “Bridging Love and Service.” A core group of 15 volunteers meets monthly and plans the outreach efforts of the church. Our parish deeply believes that the call to service goes beyond financial contributions. Our team provides many hands-on opportunities for parishioners to heed their spiritual call to help others. Some activities are held right at church and others involve traveling across the bridge to meet the needs of our struggling brothers and sisters where they live. We connect with our Day School on service opportunities whenever possible. Most importantly, we have fun! Our service is joyful and engages all ages and abilities.

We are active in our diocese and partner with other Episcopal churches in outreach activities. We have a close relationship with St. Mark’s in City Heights, a very small church in a low-income neighborhood that serves the homeless and low-income families, and St. Luke’s in North Park that ministers to a large refugee population. Our church began a diocesan-wide Service and Justice Coalition several years ago that still meets quarterly and brings together outreach coordinators from churches and organizations throughout our diocese to share ideas and collaborate.

Our favorite Christ Church outreach events include:

  • A spaghetti dinner “food-raiser” to collect nonperishable foods to stock St. Mark’s Neighborhood Pantry
  • Serving hot meals twice a month at a safe lot for people living in their cars
  • Packing “Blessings in a Bag” to keep in our cars so we can pass a nonperishable lunch to folks on street corners asking for help
  • An annual Mexican fiesta to raise funds for Vida Joven, an orphanage in nearby Tijuana, Mexico
  • Providing breakfast monthly when St. Mark’s offers hot showers to homeless neighbors
  • A pie social to raise funds for refugee kids attending our diocesan summer camp
  • A backpack drive to send low-income kids off to school with everything they need to start the year right
  • A Thanksgiving food drive that supports several churches in our diocese
  • A holiday toy drive to benefit preschoolers in Head Start programs run by Episcopal Community Services