Outreach
Trustees of Trinity Church and the church community have embraced the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals (http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/) wholeheartedly, and we are tasked with keeping those goals in mind for our outreach efforts. Trinity’s outreach efforts touch many corners of the world. Our three recipients, chosen at years end, change annually and include state, national and international humanitarian organizations. Listed below are the chosen organizations.
2025 Outreach
The Outreach Committee knew early on this year, that we were in for a rough ride. We watched in horror as masked men in unmarked vehicles pulled up and snatched people off our streets without warning or identification. We followed the undeniable devastation and loss of innocent lives in Gaza with images we won’t soon forget and we learned what the loss of food security looks like and the toll all of it has on our neighbors near and far. Our hearts were weighed down and drawn once again to those living in and through crisis situations and carrying heavy burdens.
The outreach committee extends our heartfelt thanks to the Trustees for the continued increase in funding for outreach, allowing us to live more fully into our call to mission outside our church walls. With our donations, go our fervent prayers for the light of God’s love to be deeply felt by those receiving them.
York Community Service Association Food Pantry.
The good work of YCSA in town is known to most of us in the Trinity family. In years past, we have collected harvest from our gardens and food items for donation to YCSA’s Food Pantry. We have filled backpacks with school supplies for local school children whose families live with low wealth and collected much needed gas cards when families were struggling to make ends meet during COVID.
This year in particular, the season of need started very early in the year. We watched as basic food prices rose as did the numbers of those needing the assistance of YCSA’s Food Pantry, especially our older adults. The numbers continued to grow each month. Added to the increased need, the government shutdown, the fear of losing funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the certain knowledge of cuts and loss of eligibility just around the corner for many, jeopardized access and food security for many of our York residents. YCSA’s Food Pantry continues to be committed to filling that gap. Fresh produce, butter, eggs, cheese, cottage cheese, yogurt, milk and other dairy products, along with bread, meat and shelf stable items make up just a handful of what is available at the panty. Often during pantry days, due to the unpredictable number of new folks arriving during pantry hours, additional runs to the market are needed to restock these fresh items so all have access. While the food pantry receives weekly donations from Hannaford supermarket, as do all the pantries across the State of Maine, in addition to food donations from the community, the pantry continues to purchase more on a weekly basis to meet the incredible need here in York. YCSA understands what a tremendous impact easy access can have on health, including dental health. It’s heartbreaking to think of fresh food as luxury items but for many here in York, they simply are. An open door and the welcoming faces once inside the pantry, help ease the fears.
Our support will help provide a continued increase in the quality of life for our neighbors.
Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project
www.ilapmaine.org.
As Maine’s only state-wide immigration legal services organization, Immigration Legal Advocacy Project advances justice and equity for immigrants and their families through direct legal services, community legal education and systemic advocacy. ILAP directly engages more than 3,000 people each year and reach many more through advocacy efforts. ILAP operates full-time offices in Portland and Lewiston and has a regular presence across the state through their “Rural Maine Project.”
With ILAP, people with low incomes can get the immigration legal help they need to find safety from violence and persecution, keep their families together, and advance towards economic security. Whether through an in-depth one-time consultation or full legal representation in complex multi-year cases, ILAP ensures that immigrant community members receive expert legal guidance and fair treatment under the law. And where laws and policies are unjust, ILAP works to change them.
Through their Direct Legal Services, Education & Outreach, and Systemic Advocacy, ILAP helps Maine’s immigrant communities navigate the complex and increasingly unjust immigration system we have now while working with the community to re-imagine a better immigration system for generations to come.
Our support will help continue the much needed legal support for our immigrant neighbors.
American Friends of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem
Al-Ahli Arab Hospital www.afedj.org
Al-Ahli Arab Hospital (Ahli) in Gaza City, operated by the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, stands as a critical lifeline in the midst of an overwhelming crisis. The hospital is a beacon of hope and healing in one of the world’s most troubled areas. Al-Ahli Hospital serves everyone regardless of religion, ethnicity or ability to pay. Even before the current conflict, Gazans were struggling under extreme conditions—scarce clean water, soaring unemployment (over 80%), and limited electricity.
“Al-Ahli Hospital now is the only working hospital in the north of Gaza. We received more than 400-500 patients daily in a small outpatient emergency room, where all the junior doctors are taking care of those patients. Some of those patients were injured from the war or badly wounded, and we cannot take care of them. They are treated on the floor. The ICU, which we have is just three beds only, and we don’t have the specialists to take care of such type of injuries. Most of the doctors and the staff left for the south of Gaza, and we are running the hospital with the minimal staff who can take care of hundreds and hundreds of patients. Our needs are great. We need a lot of supply, we need a lot of equipment, we need a lot of extra people to take care of those casualties.-”Dr Maher Ayyad, Director, Al-Ahli Hospital. Al-Ahli Hospital’s former Director, Suhaila Tarazi, once told American Friends of the Episcopal Diocese of Jeruselum, “there are no winners in war”
Exemplifying what it means to live the Gospel, Al-Ahli is a sacred sanctuary, a beacon of hope and a pillar of the community. Al-Ahli is deeply respected throughout Gaza for the compassion, attention, and care they offer to Gaza’s most vulnerable. American Friends of The Episcopal Diocese 0f Jerusalem is one of the few charities that sends 100% of designated donations directly to the institution.
Our support helps to continue the commitment of the AFEDJ shine the light of Christ into areas of darkness, offering hope to those otherwise living in despair.
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