...a welcoming spiritual community

Social Action at North Parish

We strive to continue our historical role of being catalysts for progressive change in our local communities. Through active personal involvement we advocate for social justice in our local communities, our nation and our world. We do this in the context of the Unitarian Universalist principles and from the perspective of our place in the intricate web of life.

Partner Church

Contact: Pam Amarilian

A connection with the Unitarian Church in Marosvarsahey, Transylvania.

Partner Church page.

Amelia Reeve Social Action Awards

Contact: the Social Action Committee.

Each year, North Parish awards young people from the greater North Andover community for their outstanding social action acomplishments.

Meals for Bread and Roses

Contact: Keith Wentzel to help at North Parish, or Bob Lanzoni at Bread and Roses, 978-681-8768 to help at the kitchen.

Bread and Roses, celebrating 20 years this year, is a soup kitchen located in Lawrence at 58 Newbury St. Dinner is served family style 5 nights a week to all who enter.

At North Parish: One Saturday each month from 2 pm until 4 pm in the church kitchen join together to cook.

At Bread and Roses Soup kitchen: Help serve bread and greet guests. Contact Bob Lanzoni at Bread and Roses, 978-681-8768.

Caring Team Ministry

Contact: Lora Stewart, Loretta Middleton, Lee Bluemel

We are here to help members of the North Parish community with their emergency or short-term needs. Please contact us for help with transportation, emergency babysitting, errands or if a greeting card from the church is appropriate.

Call Lianne Cristaldi if you or someone you know would like to be mentioned in the Steeple Talk “Among Us” column.

Two levels of involvement are possible: to serve as a member of the coordinating team (some training required) or to be on a list of volunteers willing to provide food, rides, etc for those in need.

Fair Trade Coffee Project

Contact: Senior Youth Group

We participate in the UUSC Fair Trade program by selling Fair Trade Coffee products.

"The UUSC Coffee Project promotes the use of fairly traded products and receives a small percentage of the proceeds to provide grants for human rights initiatives in coffee-growing countries." (from the Fair Trade page on the UUSC website.)

Merrimack Valley Project

Contact: Ed Warnshuis

As a proud member of MVP, we join with over 30 congregations, unions and community groups actively working toward creating better jobs/conditions and more affordable housing in the Valley. MVP is a coalition of churches, community groups and unions. They successfully brought a fair transportation bill for temporary workers through the State House; current projects concern affordable housing.

Partakers Prison Ministry

Contact: Edwina Goodhue

Partakers, Inc. is an organization that helps prisoners get college educations along with other restorative programs that link prisoners and free citizens.

A group of North Parish members interested in facilitating prison reform have a subcommittee of Partakers, Inc, . The subcommittee has made a commitment to support Jerry Carter's efforts to earn a bachelor's degree from Boston University while incarcerated at Norfolk State Prison. This involves providing moral, educational, and emotional support to him while he undertakes this task, an opportunity available to few prisoners in the United States.

Provide moral, educational, and emotional support to a prisoner who is gaining a bachelor's degree while incarcerated. Visitors work in pairs to cover a once monthly visit, as well as corresponding by letter.

Help a prisoner get a college education Partakers is a unique program in Massachusetts that creates a partnership with prisoners getting a degree through Boston University with groups from churches and elsewhere, who provide encouragement “from the outside”. Members of the group write letters and/or sign up for a visit once or twice a year.

When: visits made in pairs once a month; ongoing correspondence

People's Pantry

Contact: Cari Marchese, Coordinator Office@northparish.org or 978-687-7948.

Join North Parish and other volunteers in giving emergency food to those in need.

• Donate food throughout the week.
• Help distribute food in the Parish Hall on alternate Tuesday mornings
• Help pick up and deliver food at other hours.

Alternate Tuesdays, 9:30-11 a.m at Old Center Hall, 3 Great Pond Road.

Download current schedule (pdf)

We continue to serve very large numbers of families. That means we use lots of food and constantly have the need to replenish. Please donate something like: salad dressings, beans, canned chicken (like tuna), instant mashed potatoes, soups are some suggestions. These may be left in the parish hall near former pantry location during regular church office hours. We thank you for your support of our effort to help those in our little corner of the world who live with food insecurity.

Stand and Deliver MCAS Mentoring

Contact: Ed Warnshuis, 978-975-5905, Ext. 384, or visit www.mcasmentors.org

Tutoring program for students taking the MCAS program. Join approximately 35 other North Parish members in making a difference in the life of an 8^th or 9^th grade Lawrence student.

Be a mentor and make a difference in the life of a Lawrence student. Mentors are paired with a student to tutor them for the MCAS exam; they meet once a week in the Lawrence Library or other agreed upon public location. Study materials provided.

When: Once a week for an hour

Greater Lawrence Habitat for Humanity

Contact: Social Action Committee

Greater Lawrence Habitat for Humanity has built 41 homes in Lawrence, Methuen and Haverhill, which are built with volunteer labor and sold at material cost to local families in need of decent affordable housing. Five more homes are currently in progress.

Guest at Your Table

Guest at Your Table

Ethiopian Child Sponsorship

Children in the fifth grade RE class and the Social Action Committee jointly sponsor two Ethiopian children through Wide Horizons for Children, an adoption organization in Waltham that has been an important part of the lives of several members of our congregation.  In this country that has been devastated by war, famine, drought and the plague of AIDS, millions of children have been orphaned.

Through exchanging letters with the children, the children in RE are learning about the life of a child whose experiences are very different from their own, but with whom they share some of the same joys and dreams.  They are also learning more about Ethiopia, and its vital place in the history of religion and of evolution.  In addition to the money that we have already sent, we have collected $400 to be used on behalf of orphans in Ethiopia, plus what the 5^th graders made with their recent bake sale.  If you would like more information, or if your family is interested in sponsoring an orphan on your own, please contact Cara Marshall, caramarshall@comcast.net, 978-685-8816, or you can directly contact Suchitra Mumford of Wide Horizons for Children at smumford@whfc.org, 781-419-0340 or visit the Wide Horizons Ethiopia Sponsorship website

Thrift Shop

Contact: Cari Marchese, Manager

Donate goods to and and shop at the Thrift Shop.

Address: 172 Sutton St., in the historic Scholfield Mill, North Andover.
Phone: 978 689 9520

Hours: Open Tuesday - Friday 10am - 4pm and
Saturday 9am - noon

Started by North Parish in 1955, we have become a fixture in the community and still offer loads of good deals in clothing, books, jewelry and small household items. Volunte-run, all profits are donated to scholarships and community programs and organizations.

Donations of small amounts of clean, good quality items accepted during regular shop hours (Tues - Fri, 10-4, Sat 10-1);   larger quantities by arrangement.

The Thrift Shop closes for summer break during July and August.

Lazarus House

Contact: Nancy Makowski, nangarden@aol.com or 978-688-9875

Contribute specific school supplies to children in need

February 29, 2004 - The building at 48 Holly Street has former office space that has been vacated with administration staff relocated. This left room for a Homework Room, a Family Room and a small room in between where a staff member will be on hand for supervision and supplies will be closeted and monitored. This area is in the process of being renovated by volunteers. As they are all volunteer workers the wheels of progress move slowly but they do turn! The walls and bookshelves have been painted. The desks, tables and chairs are being donated by a hotel that is updating their furniture. New flooring is being sought. We have one business who is being contacted in hopes of providing the flooring. We need the flooring before we can go forward and actually set up the room.

Members of the North Parish have been generous in response to this need. Hundreds of children’s books have been donated. We also have a wall map, globe and assorted pens, markers and pencils, children’s Spanish to English Dictionary, and Atlas. We have found many ways to fill the need. Children and adults parted with treasures outgrown and donated many books. Matt Krzywicki and Walter Washburn, see picture, (Matt on left, Walter on right) is having bake sales at Pike school to raise funds. Jan Peters, the regional sales director of Discovery Toys from Andover (see picture below) has partnered with Nancy Makowski to supply educational books and tactile toys at cost. Jan is a friend of Nancy’s and while not a member is a friend of the North Parish. Many have called to make monetary donations or are waiting to fill a specific need as the room takes shape.

The current needs list is as follows:

• Computer with disk drive.
• Printer
• Paperboard for projects
• Educational magazines
• Backpacks for books
• Notebooks
• Pens
• Markers
• Paper
• Rulers
• Simple calculators, very basic
• Educational toys

Welcoming Congregation

North Parish is a Welcoming Congregation, consistent with the guidelines of the Unitarian Universalist Association. We actively welcome lesbian, gay. bisexual, transgender, and intersex people as full participants in the life of the church. For more information, see our Welcoming Congregation page, or contact our Interweave chapter.