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Justice Ministry Team
The Justice Ministry Team is sent into St. Thomas More Parish to serve each individual as Christ himself, specifically:
- to pass on our heritage of Catholic social teaching;
- to foster diversity and racial harmony among all God’s people; and
- to raise awareness of unjust systems in society through programs, education, and action.
We are also sent into the community at large to serve each individual as Christ himself, specifically:
- to share our faith with other cultures and walks of life;
- to aid the marginalized in our society;
- to work for changes in the systems which perpetuate injustices in our society; and
- to preserve and promote quality of life from conception to natural death through programs, sharing of material resources, education, and actions.
(For more information on Peace and Justice Ministries and activities in our Diocese, please log onto http://www.diocese-kcsj.org/peaceandjustice/.)
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Community Outreach
The following are some of the community outreach ministries with which St. Thomas More Parishioners are intimately involved
Bishop Sullivan Center: Bishop Sullivan Center is located at 6435 Truman Road, KC, MO 64126. Tom Turner is the Director and may be contacted at 231-0984. Their mission is to help provide low-income families with the basic necessities of life and to help move them toward self-sufficiency. It is also to educate others about the realities of poverty.
Bishop Sullivan Center is a very busy place as it serves the many needs of the less fortunate in the surrounding neighborhood, often stretching even beyond its boundaries. Besides offering emergency assistance, they offer a full job assistance program, work with car loans for the working poor, teach computer classes, tutor children, and much more.
Catholic Worker House: Join Brother Louis in preparing and serving meals to the homeless on the 1st Saturday of each month. Food is provided and the main dish prepared by staff. Your help is needed for side dish preparation and table set-up. Contact Tom Purcell, 941-8273.
Central City Grants and Parish Based Ministry: Members of the Justice Ministry Team meet annually to discern the recipients of other monies to needy parishes and organizations in the Kansas City area. Contact David Butel, 942-2492 x210 or dbutel@stmkc.com
Community LINC: Works hands-on with motivated homeless families to reintegrate them into productive lives. Opportunities to help include one-on-one mentoring, helping with children‘s tutoring, preparing an apartment for a new family, or one-time opportunities as they arise. Benefits include an appreciation of the effort the motivated poor make in their daily lives, an opportunity to share in their accomplishments as they change their lives, and a gratitude for our many blessings. Contact Frank Janner, 942-9621.
Families who apply to the Community LINC program receive budget counseling, tutoring for the children, and advocacy. Community LINC has also broadened to developing Cleaning a la Carte, a cleaning service operated and provided by its clients and "YAP," a student-run business making dog treats, etc. These help the clients develop even further self-sufficiency by taking part in their own business.
Find out more about Community LINC by checking out their website at www.communitylinc.org.
Guatemala Action Group: Works to foster awareness of the needs and values of our sister parish, San Andres Itzapa in Guatemala. Our goal is for both parishes to grow and benefit from our shared journeys of faith and to promote awareness and understanding of the Guatemalan people and their culture. We aim to support their progress toward a better education for their children and more medical care for their community. We hope to assist with their special needs. We strive to grow spiritually and intellectually through our intercultural exchanges with the people of San Andres by becoming more in touch with their simple way of life, tremendous faith in God, and appreciation of people. Typically parishioners travel there each summer to meet, break bread together, pray together, build stoves, and generally just to "be" with our sister parish members. For more information, contact Janet Woulfe, 525-4480, or the staff contact David Butel listed below.
Holy Family Catholic Worker House: Catholic Worker House is located at 912 East 31st Street and strives to be a "school of radical Christianity, an invitation to know, through experience, the Gospel Jesus, who chose to become like, be with and for the poor" and strives to embody Christ's message of love through service.
St. Thomas More serves a meal on the first Saturday of each month. Four or five people are needed from 4:00 to 7:30 PM. You will prepare the food and get the tables ready. Approximately 70 to 150 people are served. It is an excellent opportunity to serve the poor and homeless of Kansas City. This is a good place for a family to do something together for the poor.
Respect Life Group: Addresses issues that represent all the various aspects of the church’s "seamless garment" of pro-life advocacy. Contact Ann Verhulst, 763-5247, or Isabel Hopfinger, 943-1631.
ReStart Homeless Shelter: ReStart provides time, space, and resources in a supportive environment for homeless persons seeking to move toward independent living. They are located at 918 E. 9th St. ReStart provides temporary shelter to individual adults as well as to families and has both boys' and girls' teen runaway programs. Rotating families from STM Parish prepare and serve a light meal of sandwiches, fruits, cookies, chips and milk for approximately 100 homeless one Friday evening per month. If interested in serving at 9th & Harrison or cooking and delivering, please call Michelle Heaphy, 941-3371.
Seton Center Action Group: Coordinates the many programs (Christmas baskets, monthly food drives, summer camp, Back-to-School Drive, etc.) and projects through which STM parishioners help the less fortunate of our city who are clients of Seton Center. Contact Christine Pettus, 942-5749. If you are interested in helping in any of Seton's programs listed above or with the Seton Center Action Group at STM, call Sr. Mary Ann at Seton, 816/231-3955 or contact David Butel (see below for contact information.)
Seton Center was named after St. Elizabeth Seton, the first American-born saint, known for her social work. She founded a religious community, a school for poor children that was the beginning of the Catholic parochial school system in the United States.
Seton Center is a social service agency located at 23rd and Benton in the central area of Kansas City, MO. Seton Center was founded in October 1969 by Sr. Mathilde, a Daughter of Charity, to reach out to the homebound elderly and needy families in the neighborhood. There were two areas of service: 1) programs for the elderly such as meals and providing recreational activities and 2) an emergency food pantry for the families in need. Since its very beginning thirty years ago, STM parishioners have been continuously supportive of Seton's work with the poor to improve their lives.
Seton Center ministries:
Food Pantry - The food pantry provides emergency food to an average of 500 individuals each month. The 1st Sunday of every month the Seton Action Group has a food collection in the back of the church plus two special food drives. Food donations for the special food drives are brought to the school auditorium. Volunteers sort and pack the food, teenagers divide rice and beans into one-lb. bags. Volunteers stock shelves in the pantry and bag food for the needy.
Thrift Shop - The Thrift shop serves neighborhood families. It is open three days a week. The shop is operated by volunteers. They also sort and size the clothes. STM furnishes some of the clothes.
Christmas Baskets - A month before Christmas the Seton Action Group puts an insert with a list of food and gifts needed for the baskets in the church bulletin. The donations are brought to the school auditorium. Volunteers' work is the same as when we have a special food drive. Last year, 550 families received a Christmas basket from Seton.
Senior Buddies and Nursing Home Programs - Twice a week the Senior Buddies come to Seton Center for a meal and to socialize. They especially enjoy their 3rd Tuesday lunch served by STM volunteers. In the afternoon they participate in a variety of activities such as: crafts, games, sing-a-long, trips to the mall, ball games, etc. Nursing home residents are brought to Seton twice a week for recreation.
Adult Day Care - Seton's Adult Day Care provides assistance to families caring for an impaired adult who cannot by left alone during the day and yet who does not require 24-hour nursing care in an institution.
"Back-to-School Giveaway" - seton Action Group organizes the project. The donations of school supplies and "gently-used" clothes are brought in the auditorium the 1st week in August. Volunteers sort and size the clothes and pack them. Last year, volunteers worked four days at Seton distributing clothes and supplies to 332 children.
Summer Camp - Seton Action Group puts an ad in the bulletin to raise funds to send children from the Seton neighborhood to summer camp. We give the children a before-summer-camp party at Seton. Volunteers help with games and lunch.
Seton Center Alternative School - The school provides at-risk youth with an individualized education program. Volunteer tutors are needed.
Medical Clinic - Seton Center Family and Health Services provides a variety of services for poor families. It includes a dental and medical component, a wellness program, and a counseling unit.
Twinning: St. Louis Parish, 5930 Swope Parkway: Builds awareness and develops rapport with our sister parish while challenging us to recognize and welcome Christ in everyone regardless of race, color, creed or economic status; to celebrate and respect diversity in all parish activities, particularly the liturgy. Contact Frank Bednar, 943-0719.
St. Thomas More and St. Louis Parish members all worship together on several occasions through the year. In addition, the two parishes come together often to serve the needs of the community surrounding St. Louis Parish. St. Louis Parish has a Senior Center, a Food Pantry and Clothes Closet, and a youth center called the Upper Room. St. Thomas More parishioners:
- organize the Swope Park 5K Challenge in the fall to benefit the Senior Center
- assist with the Upper Room fundraiser in the fall
- help provide Christmas food and gifts for the Food Pantry
- enjoy several meals together including the St. Louis Steak Fry and the St. Thomas-St. Louis Jazz & Barbeque Fest in the early summer
- tutor children in the Upper Room program
- make gifts on special occasions for the seniors
- assist in the Food Pantry
- supply donations as possible
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On The Web
Here are some internet resources you might be interested in.
Community Linc www.communitylinc.org
Peace and Justice Ministries and activities in our Diocese http://www.diocese-kcsj.org/peaceandjustice/
Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns - www.maryknollogc.org
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops - www.usccb.org
Bread for the World - www.bread.org
Pax Christi - www.paxchristiusa.org
Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis Office of Social Justice www.osjspm.org
Justice Ministry Team Contact
David Butel 942-2492 x210
dbutel@stmkc.com
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