Posts Tagged ‘Outreach’

Showing Our Pride

Posted on: June 20th, 2024 by Trillium Lutheran Church

On Wednesday, June 19th, Trillium members and friends from the neighbourhood gathered on the front yard to take part in the pride painting of the steps. It’s become an annual celebration, a way for the church to welcome the 2SLGBTQIA+ community.

Timelapse of the 2023 painting of the steps.

The event successfully raised funds in support of OK2BME, an organization that provides essential support services to the 2SLGBTQIA+ community in the Kitchener-Waterloo area. This organization was selected by Trillium’s youth group, which pledged to match donations with a grant from the Renewal Fund aimed at assisting organizations in serving the broader community.

Children painting rainbow colours on the front steps at Trillium.

Welcoming the 2SLGBTQIA+ community has been a priority for Trillium. The youth and confirmation classes of the Trillium have played a large part in leading these efforts, writing the Welcome Statement back in 2022:

"We embrace all those who have ever felt excluded by the Church because of age, race, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, ability, economic circumstance, or family status.

Whether you are two-spirited, gay, straight, queer, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, cisgender, intersex, questioning, gender fluid, asexual, pansexual or ally, whatever your country of origin or ancestry; whether you are a believer, a doubter or a seeker, in Christ's love, we welcome you.
By the power of the Holy Spirit, may we co-conspire with those within and beyond our community to usher in God's kingdom of justice and peace."

Read the full welcome statement.

Thank you to all the volunteers who helped make this happen! Check out the full album of photos from the event on our Facebook page.

Food4Kids Lenten Project

Posted on: April 5th, 2024 by Trillium Lutheran Church

Thanks to your generosity, Trillium collected 136 cans of soup during Lent in support of Food4Kids Waterloo Region which receives, packages, and distributes 1,000 food packages weekly through donations, and volunteers drive the food to schools and homes.

St. John’s Nursery School also helped to collect over 30 cans of soup and will be delivering the soup to Food4Kids later this week.

St. Mark’s Place Grand Opening

Posted on: March 19th, 2024 by Trillium Lutheran Church

St. Mark’s Place held a well-attended open house on Thursday, March 7 for donors and supporters of the Indwell project to transform the church into affordable and supportive housing for those experiencing homelessness in the Kitchener-Waterloo area. The event featured speeches by key partners in the project, a ribbon-cutting ceremony, cake to celebrate and public tours of the renovated spaces.

Trillium has been hard at work to help welcome the new residents to their new homes. Back in November, 84 quilts were delivered to the Indwell staff at St. Mark’s Place as part of the “43 Quilts in 43 Days” project led by the Quilting group at Trillium.

A special mention to the 11 churches who responded to Trillium’s call for quilts, some from over 2 hours away. Due to their generosity, Trillium almost doubled the original goal of quilts. This meant that each resident who arrived at St. Mark’s Place not only got a quilt but could choose which one they would like for their room.

Photo by Pastor Ed

43 Hygiene Kits and 2 Pantry Kits were also assembled by Trillium members and delivered as welcome gifts to the residents, in addition to the quilts. The Trillium Knitting Circle also partnered with another knitting group from the neighbourhood to send 49 knitted hats to St. Mark’s Place this past February.

Photos by Pastor Elina

An enormous thank you to Pastor Elina and Marlene Lennox for their leadership in this process, along with staff, volunteers, youth, friends and neighbours, who gave their time and talents weekly to help ensure the residents feel welcome and supported by their community. See St. Mark’s Place featured on 100 Huntley Street below:

Interested in helping in our outreach activities? We are currently collecting gently used books and games for the St. Mark’s Place common room. There will be a bin set out each Sunday or you can
drop off items to Monica in the office at Trillium during the week.

Also, consider joining our Knitting Circle or Quilting Group…no experience required!

The Knitting Circle meets every Thursday at 9:30 a.m. in the Parlour.

The Quilting Group meets on Mondays at 9:00 a.m. in the Coach House.

All are welcome!