Social Ministry into the Local Community
To learn more about ministries offered by Grace Church, contact the Church Office. If you don't find what you're looking for here, be sure to search through the multiple Outreach opportunities offered throughout the Diocese.
Cub Scout Pack 246
Since the early 1940s Grace Church has served as the sponsoring organization and meeting place for Cub Scout Pack 246. Cub Scouts enjoy a variety of character building activities from sports and fitness to camping and nature studies to games, friendship, and fun, religious awareness and community service projects. Grace Church serves as the chartered sponsoring organization, and the Rector as the chartered organization representative for Pack 246. The boys do projects on behalf of Grace Church, including leaf raking, collecting canned goods for the outreach programs and preparing items for the homeless ministry. Please see the Pack 246 website for more information on a terrific scouting program. www.cspack246.org
Episcopal Center for Children
The Episcopal Center for Children provides education and support services for emotionally handicapped children. The Center is located in Washington, D.C., at 5901 Utah Avenue, NW.
Grace Episcopal Day School is an outreach ministry of Grace Church that each year touches the lives of over 250 families with a variety of religious backgrounds in the greater Washington area. The school provides a challenging environment for a diverse student body in nursery school through grade 6. Central to the schools’ philosophy is a relaxed, loving atmosphere in which children of all races, colors, and national or ethnic origin are given opportunities to learn, share, and work together in small classes. Throughout its years of growth and development, Grace Episcopal Day School has remained firmly in the Episcopal school tradition of academic excellence and devotion to the potential of each child. A classic elementary education emphasizes the mastery of basic skills in language arts, math, science, and social studies. Under the oversight of the Rector and the Vestry, the school is governed by an independent board, with the majority of members coming from Grace or other Episcopal parishes in this diocese. Please contact Carol Franek at 301.949.5860, ext 11.
HELP of Silver Spring
Parishioners of Grace bring canned foods to specially designated boxes in the narthex of the church. These foods are taken to the Woodside Methodist Food Pantry, where volunteers from this ecumenical organization of churches and synagogues provide short-term emergency assistance to our community’s economically disadvantaged.
The Grace Church Homeless Ministry meets on the first Saturday of each month throughout the year, at which time food is prepared and taken to the homeless of Washington, DC.
Ministries United Silver Spring/Takoma Park (MUSST)
MUSST is a cooperative ecumenical organization that serves low-income persons as a referral agency, furnishes cash assistance to those who face eviction or service cutoffs, or helps those who cannot pay for medicine.
Samaritan Ministry of Greater Washington (SMGW)
Grace Church has recently become a Partner Parish with Samaritan Ministry of Greater Washington (SMGW). SMGW is a community partnership bringing together homeless people and others in need in the Greater Washington area with support and volunteers from Episcopal and other churches in a joint effort to improve the lives of all.
SMGW uses a number of innovative approaches in helping people develop life goals and become self-sustaining. It offers carefully planned social services, employment services, resources to program participants taking strides to obtain their goals, a Residential Program that includes a two-year transitional housing program for families who are coming out of homeless situations, and also provides HIV/AIDS Support.
The Senior Connection
Grace parishioners, along with other volunteers, provide assistance to Silver Spring seniors with their needs through transportation for medical appointments, shopping, friendly visit, telephone calls, etc.
Shepherd’s Table
The Shepherd's Table is a soup kitchen located in Silver Spring. Every second Saturday during the year, eight to ten Grace Church volunteers prepare and serve dinner to the homeless and disadvantaged people of our area.
Steering Committee–Region 4
The Steering Committee of Region 4 meets between annual assemblies, at the call of the convener, to relay information from the Bishop and Council, for the exchange of information and to sponsor special projects.