You can make a difference
We are all empowered by the Spirit to make change. Even more so, as a community.
Compassion Teams: As we are called, we join together to support our neighbors, take care of our planet, and act for justice in our communities. Let us know if you’d like to help.
Mission Teams: We love to see people follow their passion and organize to bring their dreams to fruition. We affirm them as mission teams and set them loose to inspire and lead the congregations. Many of them are on this site in various places, but to see a full list visit here.
Leaders: Kristen Snow
How do we think Jesus wants us to faithfully dwell within our bioregion? In response to the infinite love God has for us and Her extensive Creation, and for the passion, love, and deep responsibility we feel for the earth we formed this Compassion Team to foment Watershed Discipleship, Environmental Justice, Simple Living, and Fossil Fuel Addiction Recovery within and outside the Circle of Hope network.
Team Leader: Kristen Snow
Further details here.
Leaders: Bethany Stewart, Andrew Yang, Kris Eden
We believe that anti-racism is at the heart of the gospel. We strive to help our church community become an “anti-racist, diverse community that represents the new humanity,” and to connect members of our community to how the Spirit of God is moving in tearing down white supremacy, both in ourselves and the structures around us, and to insist on the value of Black life through community support, protest action, events, celebrations, and informative content.
CMBBLM Blog here.
Further details here.
Leaders: Art Bucher
To create a network of peacemakers who are activated to grow in faith and express the gospel of peace. We want to foment reconciliation here in Philadelphia and around the world.
Further details here.
Leaders: Martha Grace
Circle Thrift seeks to bring hope to the challenges of 21st century urban life: We strive to accomplish this by sharing God’s love, providing inexpensive clothing, creating jobs, building community and relationships, and providing funds to help support our partners.
Further details here.
Main website here.
Leaders: Marguerite McDonald
DAT offers a practical solution to the slavery of consumer debt by building trust, sharing burdens (both literally and figuratively), and providing capital to eliminate consumer debt in our community. The Debt Annihilation Team fosters freedom, simplicity, and recovery through accountable partnership, coaching, and collaborative debt payment.
Further details here.
Leaders: Jonny Rashid
The Development without Displacement team is a new coalition that is forming based on the success of the the Take Back Vacant Land Campaign.
Further details here.
Leaders: Mary Fox
The Foster Care Compassion team will help adults wanting to become Foster parents. The team hopes to support and provide guidance needed to complete the process of becoming a Foster parent.
Further details here.
Leaders: Liz Martin
A free opportunity to swap used (or unused!) baby and kids clothes, toys, baby gear, books, and maternity clothes with other families in the community. People can pick up what their child(ren) need and pass along what’s no longer needed.
Further details here.
Leaders: Julius Rivera
Friends of Hagert Playground supports the long time efforts of Melissa and Julius Rivera who have been doing inspiring (and hard) work in the neighborhood for many years. The Rivera’s are focused on revitalizing and renovating the playground across the street from their house so that children in the neighborhood have a safe place to play and learn. They regularly offer local opportunities to serve and help work and design in a process that includes tons of neighbors beyond the church.
Further details here.
Leaders: Brooke Hoffman
We’re committed to connecting Penn Treaty School with the local community (including individuals, businesses, and faith communities), and the community with Penn Treaty School; connecting alumni with current students; connecting parents with the school, and the school with parents; connecting students with volunteer opportunities outside of the school; connecting teachers, students, and families to resources.
Further details here.
Leaders: Megan Rosenbach
For the Love of Childs has a broad mission to partner with staff, students, and parents from W.G Childs Elementary, which is located at 16th and Wharton.
Further details here.
Leaders: Nadia Schafer
The Opioid Crisis Compassion team seeks to address the opioid epidemic by educating and equipping our community and church body and responding to areas of need that we see.
Further details here.
Leaders: Mary Ward-Bucher
We hope to address issues of the border and immigration using a Christ-centered approach (Matthew 25:35) and provide a space for Philadelphia organizations who are already working in this area.
Further details here.
Leaders: Amanda Fury
Our mission is to resurrect dead or forgotten space in the city and make it life-giving to its neighborhood through intensive vegetable (and some fruit) gardening that is educational, reuses trash materials that litter our streets, provides food for neighborhood families, and simply makes things more beautiful.
Further details here.
Leaders: Gwyneth White
We make quilts for MCC’s efforts around the world. We want to create something beautiful and meaningful for people when they need it most. We also want to involve the larger Circle of Hope community as much as possible with an annual “quilt-tie” where people who have no idea how to sew/quilt can just show up and tie knots in a bunch of quilts that the team has made throughout the year.
Further details here.
Leaders: Caz Tod Pearson, Ra Mendoza
The Simple Way seeks to cultivate a neighborhood and a world where all belong and thrive together by encouraging people to come alive in their gifts and purpose, building beloved community across all dividing lines, and to advocate for justice.
Further details here.
Leaders: Ben White
We are connecting neighbors, who are having difficulty getting basic items (food, toiletries, etc), to neighbors who can help meet those needs. Circle of Hope Church is partnering with SJMA to support Pennsauken residents.
Further details here.
Circle Pride is a mission team at Circle of Hope made up of queer folks and allies. Our goal is to connect with the LGBTQ+ community in Philadelphia in order to both grow the church in its inclusion of marginalized people, and to be an evident and queer-affirming presence in Philadelphia. We want to provide an inviting space for LGBTQ+ people who seek to explore their spirituality while also feeling fully affirmed and accepted in their identities. Sign up for our Circle Pride listserv.
The purpose of our prayer team will be to strengthen the prayer life of Circle of Hope as we seek to embody Christ in this region. It addresses the need for spiritual growth and development of those connected to our work, and our need to relate to God upon whom we depend for success in our efforts.