Lay Volunteer Opportunities
This month's "Seeds" focuses on voluntary service programs. Each one here is open to all Christians regardless of denominational affiliation. Educational and age requirements for these programs vary. The programs cover living expenses and pay a small stipend (with the exception of the Discipleship Year and some of Eastern Mennonite Missions' programs, which may require some personal fund raising).
These programs offer volunteer positions including advocacy, teaching, community organizing and development, and work with the homeless, mentally ill, elderly, children, refugees, prisoners, and persons with AIDS.
The Discipleship Year
The Discipleship Year invites women and men to participate in a yearlong residential program of theological education and service steeped in the collective resources and experiences available through various Church of the Saviour ministries.
For 30 years the ecumenical Church of the Saviour has worked in inner-city Washington, D.C., creating a variety of active community ministries. The Discipleship Year represents a creative partnership between the church's Servant Leadership School and Jubilee Ministries, where each disciple will serve in one of eight distinct non-profit agencies that address the needs of the inner-city poor.
The Discipleship Year begins in early September and extends through mid-August. For more information contact The Servant Leadership School, 1640 Columbia Road NW, Washington, DC 20009; (202) 328-7312.
Urban Servant Corps
The Urban Servant Corps is a Lutheran volunteer program involved in ministries serving inner-city Denver. The USC works in cooperation with community agencies, churches, and individuals in the city as channels of God's love and concern. USC volunteers bring a variety of gifts to the larger community, balancing direct service programs addressing immediate needs with the networking and advocacy work of long-term social change.
Volunteers live together in central Denver, promoting mutual growth in faith and ministry through their vocations and their community living arrangement.
For more information, contact the Urban Servant Corps, 1660 Ogden St., Denver, CO 80218; (303) 894-0076.
Marianist Volunteers
The Marianist Voluntary Service Communities Program is for Christian men and women seeking to serve disadvantaged people in an urban setting. Volunteers make a one- or two-year commitment to live simply in community with several other volunteers and to serve with an agency working with poor and disadvantaged people.
For information contact Laura Libertore or Sister Margaret Hohman, S.C.N., at MVSC, P.O. Box 9224, Wright Bros. Branch, Dayton, OH 45409; (513) 229-4630.
Lutheran Volunteers
The Lutheran Volunteer Corps is a ministry of Luther Place Memorial Church in Washington, D.C. Lutheran Volunteers commit to work for justice and to live simply in intentional Christian community. Volunteers serve for one year, beginning in August, in full-time positions with agencies located in seven cities in the East and Midwest.
If you would like to receive an application or additional information, write or call Tisa Wenger, LVC, 1226 Vermont Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20005; (202) 387-3222.
Mennonite Volunteers
There are several volunteer programs associated with the Mennonite Church that offer positions in social work, health care, community development, and agricultural and technical organizations. Applicants should be active members of a Christian church, hold principles of nonviolence, and have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
The Mennonite Central Committee has volunteer positions available in North America and in more than 50 other countries. Domestic positions are for a two-year term, international positions are for three years. Both are open to individuals and married couples with or without children. For more information contact MCC, (717) 859-1151.
Volunteer positions are also available through the Mennonite Board of Missions for people with skills in serving marginalized and oppressed people. For most positions a commitment of one to two years is required, with some short-term assignments also available. The MBM volunteer program offers placements in the Southeastern, Southern, and Western regions of the United States. Most volunteers live together in community during their term. For an application or further information, contact Dave Paulovich, (219) 294-7523.
Eastern Mennonite Missions offers four volunteer tracks that vary in length of term, focus, and participants. EMM's Summer Training Action Team is a two-month program for high school students that includes one month of intensive discipleship training and one month of international outreach work. Participants are required to cover their own expenses.
EMM offers a Voluntary Service program for those willing to commit to one to two years of community development work in the United States. Volunteers live together in household during their term. EMM's Youth Evangelism Service offers discipleship training and opportunities to partner with congregations overseas during their programs of seven to 11 months. For those with ministry experience, EMM offers the School of Witness, a three-month program of intensive training followed by six months of supervised intership. Participants pay their own expenses.
For more information on any of EMM's volunteer programs, contact Discipleship Ministry, (717) 898-2251.
Mercy Corps
Mercy Corps is an association of lay members who live together in Christian community, enriching their personal and communal prayer life and developing spiritually and professionally. They perform the spiritual and corporal works of mercy in the spirit of Catherine McAuley, founder of the Sisters of Mercy.
Volunteers are placed throughout the United States for one year of service, with the option to renew at the year's end. Knowledge of Spanish is helpful for some mission sites.
The application deadline for Mercy Corps is June 30, 1994. A personal interview is requested if possible. For more information contact Sister Kathleen Lyons, R.S.M., at Mercy Corps, Gwynedd-Mercy College, Gwynedd Valley, PA 19437; (215) 641-5535.
Sojourners
For information on the Sojourners Internship Program, please visit our website: www.sojo.net.
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