Living our Values
We endeavor to live our values outside of our worship services by combining local and international offerings of our time and talents. The focus changes over the years, but the intention and commitment remains the same.
Local Projects
Newark Homeless Outreach
Over eight years ago the UCG started to support the Newark Homeless Outreach. This program is a street outreach entirely operated by volunteers.
Every Saturday without fail they setup at the corner of Buena Vista and East Main St. from 10 to noon. The program serves a hot meal, drinks, fruit, desserts, etc. An average of 110 people are served each week.
Narcan and drug testing strips are available to assist people who may still be using substances. They try to keep people alive until they are ready to seek recovery. Personal hygiene is provided. Warm clothing, shoes, boots are given out when needed. The program also assists individuals obtain out of state birth certificates. A health clinic is conducted four times a year. Guests can get tested for Hepatitis A and C, and STDs. Vaccinations are offer to guests. Other health providers are on location to help people connect with services. Dog and cat food is given to guests with pets.
UCG helps fund this program through donations.
The Unsheltered
Licking County has a significant Homeless population, predominantly in Newark, but also in other towns. A number of local agencies have regular support programs for people living without a residence, but it's rarely enough.
Coalition of Care
We support this faith-based organization which provides emergency assistance to approximately 1,300 people in need in Licking County every year.
Collaborative Care
We also support sister churches with the same values and mission. We bring goods and funds to support Holy Trinity Lutheran Church’s Outreach Program and we contribute to St. Luke’s Episcopal Church’s food pantry.
For many years before the COVID Pandemic we provided lunches on the square in Newark once a month with sandwiches made after our Sunday church service. Our focus on the needs of people in our community has developed with the increased attention to those who are unsheltered described above.
We were the first church to march in the Columbus Pride Parade and together we built a Habitat House in Newark in the 1990s. Creative projects such as banners, t-shirts, films, music writing and performance, have helped us connect to our neighbors throughout the years.
We recently received a “Thriving in a 21st Century Church Post-Pandemic World” grant from the American Baptist Churches of the Rochester/Genesee Region. This generous fund is the seed for our renewed discernment for our future. We recently sent our Pastor Alissia and the grant steering committee to a workshop as we began the process.
International Projects
Nicaragua
The United Church of Granville has long and deep connections to Nicaragua, most of which has been through the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America, now called Bautistas por la Paz. George Williamson, our pastor from 1981-2004 was a co-founder of this organization.
Gustavo Parajon was a student from Nicaragua who attended Denison and was our student pastor for a time. He became a physician and went back to Nicaragua to serve his country, as did his son. With the BPFNA, we purchased and filled a new school bus with medical and art supplies to deliver to the Universidad Polytechnica de Nicaragua in 1991, that 5 of our members drove down from Granville to Managua. We also supported a maternity hospital with supplies from the bus and some of us stayed for two months building, interviewing, speaking, etc.
In 2003 we became involved in Rancho Ebenezer, an experimental farm in the north of Nicaragua. For 19 years we send teams of helpers to teach and learn with local farmers and residents. We worked with local schools, taught sewing, fixed electrical elements, painted buildings, farmed worms, all “Junta la Gente” (with the people there). Many of our congregation, from young to old, have been involved in these projects.The relationships continue, even though the travel has been curtailed due to political changes. We also developed a relationship with woman pastors in Cuba, where some of us, through the BPFNA, attended an ordination of a local woman pastor in the 1990s.
Palestine
Recently our attention has been focused on Palestine, where continuing devastation has become the focus of the BPFNA and our congregation. We presented the film “Where Olive Trees Weep” (directed by Zaya Benazzo and Maurizio Benazzo) as an educational component to our programming in the fall of 2024 before we sent our Pastor Alissia to witness the conditions on the ground in the West Bank. She came home to motivate us to action. Some images from this trip are seen below. In addition to emotional and financial support, we now sell Palestinian crafts and goods at our church to provide makers with income during this continued time of oppression. In the past we have joined with the Fellowship of Reconciliation on witnessing tours of Israel-Palestine.
These are a few international ways we keep getting into “Good Trouble” (per John Lewis).
