Violet Little and Schaunel Steinnagel, pastors of the Welcome Church in Philadelphia, are excited and thankful that the Welcome Church has been chosen to receive a 2014 Thank Offering grant for its Welcome Table ministry.
The Welcome Church, a congregation in development in the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), is a church without walls, primarily including people who have experienced homelessness in Center City, Philadelphia. While the Welcome Church is not specifically a feeding program, all of the ministries of the Welcome Church tend to involve the sharing of food, food that is provided by both housed and houseless persons, for all who are gathered. The Welcome Table is a thread of hospitality that runs through everything that the Welcome Church does.
The Welcome Church has two salaried pastors, founding pastor Violet Little (ELCA) and associate pastor Schaunel Steinnagel, Presbytery of Philadelphia (PC(USA)). The Welcome Church is extremely ecumenical; people share the traditions from which they come. A volunteer clergy team includes Church of God in Christ, Episcopal, and Seventh Day Adventist helpmates. All are welcome to join us in the coming together of the Welcome Church!
Gatherings include
- Worship and coffee hour the final Sunday of the month, outside at Logan Circle, 3 pm; coffee hour hosted by partner youth groups and congregations
- Worship and continued fellowship each second Sunday of the month, inside Suburban Station at 3 pm
- Teatime Mondays at Arch Street United Methodist Church from 1 to 2:30 pm, with home-baked cookies, butlered by homeless Welcome Church leaders
- Bible study, Communion and knitting-as-spiritual-practice on Tuesdays at Lutheran Church of the Holy Communion (21st and Chestnut, Philadelphia) from 12 to 4 pm; includes a table with snacks and whatever participants might bring
- The occasional women's group meeting
Contact Schaunel Steinnagel, rvschaunel@aol.com, if you'd like to learn more about the Welcome Church.
To learn more about the Thank Offering of Presbyterian Women, go to www.presbyterianwomen.org/thank.
