Welcome Ministry
From San Francisco Homeless Resource
Address:
1751 Sacramento St.
(corner of Van Ness)
San Francisco, CA 94109
415-776-5552 Ext. 310
Fax: 415-776-2809
http://www.welcomeministry.org/main/
Rev. Megan Rohrer, Director, megan@welcomeministry.org
The Welcome Ministry helps homeless people, one by one, renew their lives and become self-sustaining people. We operate the Welcome Center, where volunteers and one staff member provide a sanctuary and offer lunch, hospitality and assistance to homeless neighbors every Tuesday afternoon. The ministry also offers a twice-monthly Wednesday evening outreach program, a twice-monthly Saturday community dinner and individual counseling three days a week. Through these programs, we build relationships of caring and trust with individual guests. When individuals are ready to improve their lives, we help them gain access to health care, drug and alcohol detoxification treatment, rehabilitation, shelter and employment. The result is self-sustaining individuals who are able to feed themselves both physically and spiritually.
Mission: The Welcome Ministry seeks to provide a faithful response to homelessness and to improve the quality of life for homeless people by providing: hospitality; food; and referrals for housing, health care and drug and alcohol treatment.
Purpose: The Welcome Ministry is comprised of ten churches / faith-based organizations: Old First Presbyterian Church; Temenos Catholic Worker; First Congregational Church, First Church of Christ, Scientist; First Unitarian Universalist Church; the Faithful Fools street ministry; Sts. Mary and Martha Lutheran Church; Ebeneezer Lutheran Church; Christ Church Lutheran; St. Francis Lutheran and St. Luke’s Episcopal Church. Together, members of the Welcome Ministry have developed a multi-faceted response to homelessness in our neighborhood, based on the following principles: • All people, regardless of their economic condition or residential status, are children of God and equally deserving of respect, friendship, compassion and care; • God commands us to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. Our neighbors include residents, merchants, other religious communities and homeless people in our neighborhood; • We are called to seek harmony among all neighbors as well as dignity for all; • It is our Christian responsibility to help the poor and those most in need, which include our homeless neighbors; • It is our Christian responsibility to open the doors of our church to all God’s people and enthusiastically embrace all seekers, regardless of socioeconomic status.
