St. James Parish is one of the participants in the Manchester Area Council of Churches Seasonal Sharing program.  We typically ‘adopt’ 50 families from the Manchester area who are in need of a little extra help during the holiday season.  What do we do for these families?

Thanksgiving - For Thanksgiving we will provide each family with everything needed to prepare a Thanksgiving meal plus a week’s worth of groceries.  Everything provided is in accordance to the family’s size and dietary restrictions.  How can you help?  We purchase all the food necessary with the funds from our annual November collection.  All this food needs to be sorted and then packaged for each family.  On the Friday night before Thanksgiving we sort all the non-perishable food items, starting at 7:00 in the lower church.  On Saturday morning the perishable food items will be sorted, starting at 9:30.  If you would like to help with the sorting please come at the mentioned times.  Delivery of the dinners & groceries will begin at 10:30.  We are always in need of drivers!  You would be paired up with someone (unless you come with your own partner) and given the directions to the homes you would be delivering to.

Christmas - For Christmas each of these families will be provided with everything needed to prepare a Christmas dinner.  We also give each family member a gift.  For this program we ask parishioners to sign up for a family in order to provide the dinner fixings.  Parishioners are also asked to provide the gifts.  The weekend after Thanksgiving we put up our Christmas tree complete with “gift” ornaments.  Each ornament will be designated for a member of one of the families, with any information about that person that we have been given.  At the same time you will be able to sign up to provide a dinner for a family (family size & dietary restrictions, if any, will be given).  We typically make our Christmas deliveries on the Saturday before Christmas.  We always need drivers for these deliveries.

Easter – Our Easter activities have varied from year to year.  In the past we have done such things as collect Easter Baskets for the children from our adopted Christmas families, prepare & serve an Easter meal at the town Soup Kitchen and provide baskets and plants to convalescent patients.  We are always looking for new ideas for things to do during the Easter season.

You will be hear more about these programs as the holidays approach.  As you can see, there are a number of ways that you can participate and each will make a difference in someone’s life this holiday season.  Please watch for more details in the bulletin and be sure to check our bulletin board at the side entrance.

If you have any questions, please contact our Season Sharing Coordinator, Pat Brannick via e-mail.
Coordinator: Pat BrannickContact by e-mail

Last updated:18 Nov 2004
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