Hope Lutheran Church Hosts St. Patrick's Dinner

Event benefits Kids Against Hunger on Saturday, March 9, 2013, 6 p.m.

10 Easter Sunday Services in St. Charles

"St. Charles Patch" rounds up ten local Easter Sunday Services.

Are you looking for a local church family to celebrate Easter with this year? We’ve got you covered with this comprehensive listing of area church services for Easter morning. Did we miss your church? Share your Easter Sunday service information with the community in the comments section, below.

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Faith Matters

Innovative Ministry Serves Community, Coffee and Fair Trade Goods

Four churches come together to create "third place" for fellowship and faith at The Bridge.

The Bridge is community, coffee house and fair trade market combined in a corner location in New Town, St. Charles.  I would describe it as a place to tangibly live out faith values and principles while living out your life. Over dinner out with their spouses, the Rev. Stephanie Doeschot,  a minister of the Reformed Church in America (RCA) and the Rev. Jim Erdman, a minister of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), shared their separate visions of a new outreach ministry: both spoke of starting a collaborative ministry located in New Town.   The Bridge started as a small kiosk selling fair trade products, such as coffee and artisan handicrafts. Fairly traded goods support new markets, favorable working conditions, and fair …

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Angel Food Ministries Cancels September Delivery

Sudden closure of national nonprofit means local families will be without an inexpensive source of food.

Angel Food Ministries [AFM] stopped taking food orders for September. The organization's website has a short message regarding the cancelation of the food distribution for September. A few years ago, at a gathering of St. Charles clergy and laity, I heard a presentation on AFM. Since then, I have noticed the blue and white AFM banners appearing monthly at churches in the city.  I wanted to find out what impact this cutoff in low-cost food supply would have on St. Charles residents. Started in 1994, AFM is a nonprofit organization based in Georgia that purchased food in volume from suppliers at discounts. The basic system worked like this: each month, AFM prepared a menu from inventory of food, packaged or frozen, it was able to purchase. …

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Faith Matters

What's Happening at Hope Lutheran Church?

Hope Lutheran Church just added a fourth worship service. What is going on there that's bringing the people in?

Hope Lutheran Church just added a fourth worship service on Sunday: service times are now 8 a.m., 9:30 a.m., 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. Hope is a church of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). At a time when many mainline churches report a decline in membership, Hope Lutheran Church is growing. After 20 new members join in September, the active membership will be almost 600. Six years ago, there were roughly 400 to 440 members. I wanted to know what was going on at Hope Church that was bringing people to its worship, ministries and missions. Sue Easley, Hope's administrative assistant, mentioned a series of classes offered during Lent on “holy hospitality.” She said that they learned better ways of meeting and greeting people. “We …

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