Ministries Offered Through Human Concerns
To participate in any of these ministries, please fill out the Ministry Interest Form on the right side of the screen.
To learn more about our ministries click on any of the following links or scroll down the page.
"Where there is no vision, the people perish” - Proverbs 29:18
The following area in our Human Concern Ministry provides parishioners with the opportunity to be servant leaders as we serve those in our community.
Human Concerns Committee – A group of parishioners create a vision knowing the experience of the parish and calls the community to growth in the faith. They host events and provide opportunities that promote education and spirituality in the social mission of the church, and set policy and budget for our ministries. We need committee members willing to attend meetings (around 4 - 6 a year) and provide between 1/2 and 3 hours of additional committee work between meetings. It is a fulfilling mission and a service that our parish sorely needs.
The church attempts to influence public policy in defense of human dignity and the interests of the faith community.
Virginia Catholic Conference
The VCC is the public policy arm of the bishops of Virginia. They have created an e-mail advocacy network for parishioners, Catholic-school parents, and others interested in legislative advocacy especially for Catholic schools, defense of marriage and pro-life issues.Please go to www.vacatholic.org to learn more and to sign up.
Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy
Each faith community has unique concerns, but broad public policy consensus brings together diverse faith communities to make a common witness around common concerns. The Interfaith Center is structured to represent the moral voice of the faith community on behalf of the politically weak and marginalized creating a voice for the voiceless. Please go to www.virginiainterfaithcenter.org to learn more and to sign up.
“Charity in truth, to which Jesus Christ bore witness by his earthly life and especially by his death and resurrection, is the principal driving force behind the authentic development of every person and of all humanity.” Pope Benedict XVI
CARITAS
“Congregations Around Richmond Involved to Assure Shelter” is a non-profit organization of more than 100 faith congregations in the Richmond area that provide shelter for the homeless. St. Bridget parish annually hosts groups of men or women during a week during the winter. We provide a place to sleep, hot meals and other services such as showers and laundry. There are numerous ways to help. Parishioners may serve as an overnight host, provide food, or hospitality to our guests. Please look for signs and announcements in the bulletin or through parish email.
Catholic Charities HELP Program
HELP Program is a partnership with local churches providing food, financial assistance, and credit counseling to persons in need. This program is staffed by volunteers from local congregations and the community. Volunteers are needed 2 to 3 hours per week in time slots that can be tailored to meet your personal schedule as follows:
- Answer incoming calls. Most are from potential clients seeking assistance or clients following up on the status of their application.
- Assist in entering completed applications into the data bank and to help with filing.
- Food Pantry Volunteer - Unpack/organize food donations, Distribute food items to households, Utilizes basic computer/data entry skills, Input demographic data into database, Rotate food stock in pantry, Maintain a clean and organized food pantry
The Coal Pit Learning Center
Preschool is offered free to at-risk children in the Glen Allen and Lakeside areas. Meals and transportation are provided, and afternoon daycare service is provided for $2/hour. Opportunities to serve include:
- Lunch Servers: Cook/serve a lunch (nuggets, mini pizzas, sandwiches, fish sticks and fruits or vegetables) from 10:30 - 11:30 a.m. We have the food and oven, or you can bring your own food.
- Tutors: Help our preschool kids or our afternoon K-3rd grade kids with homework.
- Light Office Duties: Type thank you letters or other correspondence and filing.
- Teacher Assistant: Read a book or share a passion of yours with our kids!
Cross Over Ministry
Provides health care, promotes wellness, and connects the talents and resources of the community with people in need in the name of Jesus.
- Everyone in the medical field is needed from physicians, nurses and dentists to pharmacists and medical students. St. Bridget Church helps to staff a clinic generally on a Saturday several times a year.
- Administrative support and Spanish translators are needed for Saturday clinics.
Door Ministry
Prepares lunch at St. Peter Catholic Church for the downtown Richmond needy. The number of folks being fed has increased 10%. Without volunteers it is a cold world.
- We need lunch workers help cook, serve and clean 10:00 a.m. -1:00 p.m. on the fourth Tuesday of each month.
- Lunch captains coordinate the lunch workers with reminder calls and making lunch worker assignments. They also call the church coordinator before the fourth Tuesday to make sure the food needed for the lunch menu is on site (average time commitment of four hours/month).
Habitat for Humanity of Metro Richmond
Volunteers build low income housing locally. Through Apostles Build we team up with 11 other congregations to build a home. Volunteers are need for a building crew of 10 — skilled and non-skilled volunteers needed (time commitment 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. on a Thursday, a Friday, or a Saturday)
HAITI
St. Bridget Parish, in partnership with the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart, has established a twinning relationship with the village of Carissade in Haiti focused on education. .
Parishioners may sponsor a child for $150 and provide one year of elementary education including a daily free lunch which is often the only meal of the day for many of our children.
Housing Famlies First (Formerly Hilliard House)
Assists homeless women with children to build their capacity to live productively within the community. Hilliard House addresses the problems of domestic violence, low educational attainment, lack of job skills and mental health issues related to severe childhood traumas. The following opportunities each last about two hours:
- Leading/sponsoring a group activity for children in crafts, recreation, or tutoring
- Leading life skills sessions for adults – job readiness, financial education, parenting
- Front desk receptionist – greeting residents and guests, answering phones, small clerical duties
Liberation Family Services (Formerly Hull STreet)
Hull Street Community Shelter is a transitional shelter housing approximately 20 veterans. Supportive services are offered to assist these adults in their successful transition from shelter and street life into independent, self-sufficient living in the community.
- Two or more chairpersons to coordinate cooking and the delivery schedule (commitment is for an hour or two every few months)
- Preparing or transporting food and visiting with the residents during the evening on the second Thursday of each month (hour or two every few months).
- Buying the food and dropping it off at St. Bridget
Neighbor to Neighbor Network
Developed in 2009 in response to the fiscal crisis to help parishioners in need, the network supports women facing problem pregnancies and helps people in our community in financial crisis.
Salvation Army
This ministry, which is currently comprised of three teams, provides food for homeless adults. Each team meets four times per year on the first Tuesday of the month. We welcome all those interested in serving on a team and/or adding their name to our substitute list. Donating a few hours throughout the year greatly touches the lives of many.
- One volunteer picks up the food at BJ’s
- Four volunteers cook and package Sloppy Joes (9:00-11:00 a.m.)
- One volunteer delivers the meals to Salvation Army (12:30 p.m.)
“The Church forcefully maintains this link between life ethics and social ethics, fully aware that “a society lacks solid foundations when, on the one hand, it asserts values such as the dignity of the person, justice and peace, but then, on the other hand, radically acts to the contrary by allowing or tolerating a variety of ways in which human life is devalued and violated, especially where it is weak or marginalized.” Pope John Paul II
Saint Bridget Respect Life Committee Page: Click Here
The East End Pregnancy Test and Support Center
Provides pregnancy tests, peer counseling, parenting classes for women and men, material resources, post-abortion recovery groups, social service referrals, and adoption information. Half of all abortions in the state occur in Richmond. The goal of the center is to reduce the number of abortions in Richmond by 10% each year for the next 5 years. There is no other life affirming facility in this part of town. Please visit http://www.eastendpreg.org/ for more information. Volunteers are needed for the following roles:
- Client Advocates
- Prayer Partners
- Administrative Support
- Small Group Leaders
- Committee Workers
- Church Liaison
- Activities Coordinator
Jail Ministry
The time commitment for this ministry can be whatever you care to commit because the ministry is multi-faceted and is well suited to different God given talents. Examples include:
- Facilitate a bible study with inmates for2 to 3 hours a month
- Assist inmates in writing letters and correspondence and upholding the human dignity of the inmate
Pregnancy Resource Center
This ministry aims at the root causes of problem pregnancies through the Pregnancy Resource Center. The PRC provides compassionate care to women and men unprepared for pregnancy by offering resources and practical assistance for life-affirming choices. This ministry provides education, counseling and assistance to women with unplanned or crisis pregnancies. This ministry works to promote the pro-life message. Please visithttp://www.prcrichmond.org/ for more information.
- Attend the Pregnancy Resource Center training in the spring or fall and minister to learn about assisting clients who are experiencing an unplanned pregnancy
- Coordinate events that support the PRC at our church such as diaper drives, baby showers, car washes for life, and baby bottle campaigns (fill bottles with change)
St. Francis Home
Initiated by Bishop Sullivan and the people of the Diocese of Richmond to provide high-quality residential and assisted living care and services for older adults of limited financial means in a home-like environment where independence, dignity, and self-worth are nurtured. Please visit http://www.saintfrancishome.com/ for more information.
- We need volunteers to drive residents to medical appointments
- We need volunteers to assist with special activities
- You may visit with a resident that has few or no visitors; youth and children are especially welcome
Virginia Society for Human Life
Promotes the right to life in Virginia through education, legislation and political action.
Volunteer for the Virginia Society for Human Life by helping in the office (telephone, data entry, mailings, preparing education materials, etc.) or helping staff pro-life booths at exhibits promoting pro-life messages. Please visit http://www.vshl.org/home.html for more information.
Saint Bridget Respect Life Committee
The mission of the Saint Bridget Respect Life Committee is to promote a broader and deeper commitment within our parish for the respect for human life from conception to death, based on the teachings of the Catholic Church. Our goals are to educate and inform our parishioners on all aspects of the sanctity of life, and to coordinate opportunities for parishioners, both youth and adult, to participate in respect life initiatives within the parish and in the community. Our mission, actions, and information are grounded in the tenets of the Catholic Church, for “from the first moment of his existence, a human being must be recognized as having the rights of a person – among which is the inviolable right of every innocent being to life.” CCC 2270.
For more information, please contact the chairman of the Respect Life Committee, Mike Kozak, CKoz654@aol.com.
“It is above all a question of interdependence, sensed as a system determining relationships in the contemporary world, in its economic, cultural, political and religious elements, and accepted as a moral category. When interdependence becomes recognized in this way, the correlative response as a moral and social attitude, as a "virtue," is solidarity. This then is not a feeling of vague compassion or shallow distress at the misfortunes of so many people, both near and far. On the contrary, it is a firm and persevering determination to commit oneself to the common good; that is to say to the good of all and of each individual, because we are all really responsible for all. This determination is based on the solid conviction that what is hindering full development is that desire for profit and that thirst for power already mentioned. These attitudes and "structures of sin" are only conquered - presupposing the help of divine grace - by a diametrically opposed attitude: a commitment to the good of one's neighbor with the readiness, in the gospel sense, to "lose oneself" for the sake of the other instead of exploiting him, and to "serve him" instead of oppressing him for one's own advantage” Pope John Paul II
Fair Trade Sales
Every fourth weekend of each month after Masses we offer for sale in the Parish Commons an assortment of fair trade coffee and tea. Profits from purchases help fellow parishioners in need while helping the farmers in third world countries make a better living.
- Volunteers are needed to sell coffee and tea after each weekend Mass - 15 to 30 minutes/month.
- One volunteer is needed that is willing to keep track of stock, set up for the sales, and decide what to order and when - 2 hours/month.
Micah Initiative
“And what does the Lord require of us, but to do justice, to love mercy, And to walk humbly with our God? – Micah 6:8
St. Bridget Parish has partnered with Blackwell Elementary School in Richmond.
We provide volunteers as classroom assistants, tutors in math and reading, help with an In-House TV Communication program, and assistan in the library and the art department. We also have started an after-school Multiplication Marathon Program, using students from Benedictine and St. Gertrude High Schools as tutors. You can volunteer weekly or on a one-time basis. Our volunteers really do make a difference, and they love doing it! Please join our group of volunteer mentors at Blackwell Elementary
“He went around all of Galilee, teaching in their synagogues,proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and curing every disease and illness among the people.”
Matthew 4:23
BeFriender Ministry
There are many people in our faith community who need a BeFriender. Maybe it is a parishioner who is ill, someone who is grieving a loss of someone close, a single parent struggling with raising children, a person living with a chronic illness, or a new mom wanting to share her joy. BeFrienders provide pastoral care for people in all kinds of life transitions. They are trained volunteers who extend the care of our faith community. BeFrienders listen with compassion, accept people as they are, respect another's spiritual journey, and most of all embody God’s caring presence in complete confidentiality. We are in short supply of men for this ministry.
Please send an email to Paul Amrhein, Director of Human Concerns, if you would like a call from a BeFriender to assist you through one of my life’s transitions, or if you would like more information about becoming a BeFriender.
Funeral Ministry
One of the corporal works of mercy is to bury the dead. We need parish volunteers to help prepare for and during our funeral Liturgies.
Volunteer activities include:
Parish Nurse
This Ministry strives to be an active and positive part of the St. Bridget faith community through wellness education, referrals to community health care resources and support services. This program is not designed to be a substitute for regular medical care through a healthcare provider nor "hands on" nursing care. Membership is open to healthcare professionals.
For more information call Lucy Casey, RN at (804) 282-9511 ext. 503.
Members of the ministry meet on an as needed basis.
Visiting the Sick and Home Bound
Volunteers take communion, pray or just visit with those parishioners who are sick, in nursing homes or who are homebound. This is a very rewarding ministry to bring the Word of God and the Eucharist to our parishioners that are unable to come to church.
Bring the Eucharist to the sick and visit once or twice a month or more.