Ministry Teams

With the support of the Ministry of Outreach, Service and Mission, FCCB members are invited to organize around issues that concern them. Anyone can form a Ministry Team which can be composed of a few or many people. The teams may organize specific activities, provide educational opportunities for the congregation and community, or advocate for action in a variety of ways.

The Cellar Thrift Shop

Located downstairs at the church on Dana at the corner of Channing Way, the Cellar Thrift Shop was started in the Fall of 1987 with several purposes in mind: 1) to provide a means of revenue for outreach and inreach projects, 2) to enable church and community members to have a convenient and reliable resource for recycling personal and household items, 3) to provide a volunteer opportunity for women from the church, which in turn has enriched the sense of community within that group, and has also connected the church to the wider neighborhood community through the large customer base. Since the inception of the Cellar, over $600,000 has been raised, with the distribution formula as follows: 50% to FCCB’s Outreach Ministry for local projects, 40% to FCCB projects, and 10% as a tithe to the church operating budget. This averages out to a profit of approximately $30,000–$35,000 per year. Contacts: Jerri Ricca & Barbara Addicott.

Kitchen Community Ministry Team

Continuing for a fifth year, this Ministry Team has provided over 75 lunches and suppers to the youth served by the Chaplaincy to the Homeless, now served by YEAH (Youth Emergency Assistance Hostel) in Berkeley. Negotiations are ongoing, particularly with the city, to provide a year-round shelter for youth; many, as foster home youth, have no adults in their lives. Ministry team members have found that as we give, we also receive; there is a reciprocity which is nourishing to the spirit: to care and to know that others care. Many FCCB members long to participate in direct service to others, and to build community among members at the same time. The Kitchen Community Ministry is important, not only to those we seek to serve and to know, but to the outreach—beyond a simple check—into the community. It is characterized by an intergenerational team, a repeated effort (rather than a one-time service) and continuous learning by all who share together in preparing and serving. Contact: Judy Norberg.

Farmer’s Market

Ruth Perry and Dan Apra organized the Farmers Market in 1984. Church members bring food and flowers from their gardens which we are then sold during fellowship time at church. All the money raised is donated to the Berkeley Food Pantry. Other items are donated by Starbucks and other bakeries. This project works both to alleviate hunger and encourage good stewardship of food and other natural resources. Contact: Mitsie McKenna.

TEARS

The purpose of TEARS is to inform the congregation about torture of US detainees, to develop and express the congregations views in speaking out against torture. The team also works on the goals and projects of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture at the local level. Contact: Louise Specht.

Find out more about this team’s activities on the TEARS newspage.

Climate Action Ministry Team

We are called to be good stewards of the Earth. Global warming caused by our activities is threatening the future of the world. Our consumption affects all people and living things. Within our community, we can work to increase awareness of our personal “carbon footprint” and reduce our impact on global warming. We will advocate for the governmental actions that are necessary to solve this problem and promote programs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In community, we can accomplish more. One of the goals of the group is to engage the congregation in the Carbon Challenge and get 50 households to commit to reducing their carbon footprint over the course of 2007. Contact: Tim Specht.

Find out more about the Carbon Challenge on the Climate Action newspage.

Diversity in Community Ministry Team

This newly-formed ministry team gathers monthly to discuss issues of diversity, inclusivity, and hospitality in the context of FCCB and the larger United Church of Christ denomination. We seek to discern how to respond to the UCC’s pronouncement for all UCC churches to become “multicultural and multiracial.” We recognize that despite much progress in our denomination and beyond, racism, discrimination and prejudice are still realities in regard to race, sexuality, religion, class, age, and ability. We seek to provide a space for open conversation about these challenging issues and offer resources for FCCB and our greater community. Contact: Jenny Veninga.

Download “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” by Peggy McIntosh.

Read the 1993 UCC Pronouncement for a Multi-Cultural and Multi-Racial Church

Common Hope, Guatemala

The purpose of this ministry team is to provide support to children and families in Guatemala for education and healthcare through the organization Common Hope. Three people (Mary Haake, Nick and Annis Kukulan) went to Guatelmala in April 2006. We were supported and felt held up by the congregation not only with the commissioning and blessings, but by hundreds of pounds of donated supplies for the people affiliated with Common Hope (such as school supplies, sundries, clothes and monetary donations). Contact: Annis Kukulan.

India Ministry Team

This team provides aid and assistance to our partners in India and to raise awareness of Indian civilization and culture within the congregation. In particular we work to support the United Theological College in Bangalore. Contact: Alice Clark.

Berkeley Organizing Churches for Action

The purpose of BOCA is to work for systemic change on issues in Berkeley, California and the US with 13 other congregations in Berkeley and congregations across the US connected through PICO (Pacific Institute for Community Organizing). FCCB is a founding member of BOCA. Contact: Jane Stahlhut.

Rebuilding Together

Rebuilding Together is a non-profit agency that provides free safety repairs to homes of low-income seniors and/or disabled persons. For the past 7 or 8 years (except 2006) we have worked with the staff at Rebuilding Together to plan a house repair project in which members and friends of FCCB take part. We have made financial contributions to sponsor a house (thanks to the Outreach Ministry), provided skilled contractors to supervise the work, recruited volunteers to serve as the homeowner liaison and donated many hours of labor done by skilled and unskilled volunteers. Contacts: Jonell Lucas, Moe Wright, & Jim McVay.

Puente Ministry (Pescadero)

Puente (“Men Alone”) is an agency in Pescadero on the San Mateo County Coast to provide support and community to young men from Mexico, primarily Oaxaca, who come to work in the ranches and farms in this isolated part of the county. Started by the Pescadero Community UCC Church, Puente is a 501.c.3 award-winning agency recognized for its innovation and commitment to an underserved population is this rural agricultural community. The team collects financial contributions, needed supplies such as food, clothing and bicycles through our Fifth Sunday Donation, and is involved in this unique bilingual ministry (visits, youth work program, advocacy). Bicycles (adult, mountain) are always needed as they are the primary form of transportation for the coastal workers. Please notify FCCB to donate a bicycle. Contact: Judith Norberg.

Immigration/Sanctuary Ministry Team

Immigration has become a burning issue in our community, state and country. Most of the current administration’s policies have been geared towards increased border enforcement and deportation of undocumented people. Currently there estimated to be 12 million undocumented people in the United States. Without legal status, they are subject to exploitation, hazardous working conditions, and inhumane treatment. The New Sanctuary Movement, a resurgence of a faith based response to undocumented people that began in the 1980’s, aims to protect a small group of the undocumented population. It’s goal is to advocate for systemic change to regularize the status of undocumented workers in the US, halt deportations that split up families, enforce all labor laws justly, and change the trade policies that have crippled Mexican and Latin American economies. Churches are invited to join this movement and consider providing support, shelter, and safe haven to families who may be split up because of deportation. This ministry team is helping FCCB to study and prayerfully discern its participation in the New Sanctuary Movement. Three other Berkeley churches are engaging in the same process in hopes of working together to share resources. Contact: Ileana Dorn or Claudia Bubeck.

GED Tutoring for YEAH

The Tutoring for YEAH ministry will offer GED tutoring to some of Berkeley’s homeless youth in a cooperative ministry with YEAH personnel beginning in November 2007. We envision a ministry team that would include tutors, hosts and eventually job training opportunities to assist homeless youth in developing life skills that includes working for their GED or high school diploma. Tutors are recruited from the congregation who are able to tutor in one or more areas of the GED test (math, writing, science, reading, and social studies) two or three hours a week. Contact: Joanne Lagerstrom.

Global Community Ministry Team

The Global Community Ministry Team embraces all the loving and caring trips abroad made by our members, who desire to share community with our brothers and sisters of other cultures and circumstances. We are interested in furthering such trips together by members of our church and their friends and fellow witnesses. We encourage a sense of spiritual intentionality when you travel. Bring back stories to share of your experiences and of people far away, so that our congregtion may increasingly become globally aware and committed to building a better world. Contact: Alice Clark.

Criminal Justice Ministry Team

More info to come. Contact: Dorothy Streutker.

South Africa Ministry Team

Responding to its mission to promote awareness of poverty and HIV/AIDS in South Africa, the ministry works with loveLife, a widely-respected, nationwide HIV/AIDS prevention campaign founded and led by a South African physician, David Harrison, M.D. As a graduate student in Berkeley, Harrison worshipped at FCCB. Church members, inspired by his spiritually-based compassion, came together to help respond to a pandemic that has claimed one in five adults. As a start they are funding the higher education of a campaign volunteer and future leader of the effort, Queen Monamudi. Contact: Freddie Bunge.

Find out more about this team’s activities on the South Africa Ministry Team newspage.