We are proud to be an urban congregation that reaches out into our community and the world. We work with the ONE Northside to address issues such as youth homelessness, hate crimes, and affordable housing. Our members volunteer at a variety of organizations throughout the city. About ten percent of our offerings support local ministries in Chicago, as well as the worldwide charitable efforts of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
Holy Trinity partners with these organizations by providing financial support and/or volunteers:
RefugeeOne
On a daily basis, refugees and immigrants are quietly making progress throughout the Chicago region. There are over 11 million refugees in the world. Each has experienced the terror of war and suffered immeasurable losses- loved ones, home, job, security and a sense of hope for the future. Uprooted and torn from the communities that sustained them, they are haunted by their past and bewildered by their future. their lives are forever changed. Everyday, RefugeeOne is involved in welcoming people to Chicago who are fleeing destruction and despair. An affiliate of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, RefugeeOne's services address the social, emotional and material needs of refugees and immigrants.
Each summer Holy Trinity sponsors a refugee family by providing household goods and financial assistance. We also meet the family at the airport and accompany them to their new home.
Watch as Holy Trinity members help welcome a refugee family with the help of RefugeeOne. Story by ABC7 Chicago (2011).
The Lakeview Pantry
This food pantry serves persons in need in the west Lakeview community. Volunteers are needed to work at the pantry, conduct food drives, and distribute food to the pantry. Please place canned goods or other non-perishable food in the narthex, and it will be taken to the pantry. We also urge members to contribute generously to the ELCA World Hunger Appeal.
The Crib
LakeView Lutheran Church partners with The Night Ministry to provide overnight space for youth ages 18 to 24, which allows them to have a warm, safe place to sleep during the winter (January—April). The space, which is called "The Crib", is located in the basement of LVLC. Holy Trinity volunteers here by serving meals once a month. Check out the Team Trinity site for dates.
The Night Ministry
This ecumenical effort serves the nighttime community in Chicago. Founded in 1976, the Night Ministry offers friendship and a caring ear to society's lonely and abandoned, and brings its message to diverse communities of Chicago. The Night Ministry provides volunteer opportunities at their Open Door shelter for youth, and on their Outreach Health Ministry bus. Holy Trinity volunteers periodically spend an evening with the bus and provide refreshments and hospitality to the people of the nighttime streets.
Christian Peacemaker Teams
Partnering with nonviolent movements around the world, CPT seeks to embody an inclusive, ecumenical and diverse community of God's love. We believe we can transform war and occupation, our own lives, and the wider Christian world through: the nonviolent power of God’s truth; partnership with local peacemakers; bold action. CPT places teams at the invitation of local peacemaking communities that are confronting situations of lethal conflict. These teams seek to follow God's Spirit as it works through local peacemakers who risk injury and death by waging nonviolent direct action to confront systems of violence and oppression. CPT understands violence to be rooted in systemic structures of oppression. We are committed to undoing oppressions, starting within our own lives and in the practices of our organization. CPT enlists the whole Church in an organized, nonviolent alternative to war.
Reconciling Works
Formerly Lutherans Concerned, Reconciling Works advocates for the full inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Lutherans in all aspects of the life of their Church and congregations. We provide a place of comfort and safety. We reach out to teach that Christ's message, the Gospel, is for everyone equally. We call for the blessing of committed and covenanted same-gender relationships, and for the ordination of those called to minister.
ONE Northside
A community organization resulting from the merger of Lakeview Action Coalition (LAC) and Organization of the Northeast (ONE). Together, ONE and LAC have a history of nearly 60 years of powerful and effective community organizing. ONE Northside organizes people from over 100 institutions, as well as individual community residents, from Rogers Park, Edgewater, Uptown, Ravenswood, North Center, Lake View, and Lincoln Park. Organizing Neighborhoods for Equality: Northside is a mixed-income, multi-ethnic, intergenerational organization that unites our diverse communities. We build collective power to eliminate injustice through bold and innovative community organizing. We accomplish this through developing grassroots leaders and acting together to effect change. We envision a diverse, united North Side of Chicago acting powerfully for our shared values of racial, social, and economic justice in communities where everyone has the opportunity to thrive.
PAWS Chicago
Since PAWS Chicago’s founding in 1997, the number of homeless dogs and cats killed annually has dropped more than 50 percent. PAWS Chicago is working to build a No Kill Chicago—a city where pets are no longer destroyed just because they are homeless. PAWS Chicago will find new homes for more than 4,500 homeless pets in 2012 through the state-of-the-art Adoption & Humane Center in Lincoln Park. The cageless Adoption Center provides homeless pets with the care and dignity they deserve while welcoming adopters, providing them with guidance in selecting their new pet and continued support for life. Team Trinity members volunteer at PAWS by socializing homeless dogs and cats.
Holy Family Ministries
In partnership with Chicago's low-income communities, Holy Family Ministries provides safe havens where children and adults learn, grow spiritually, find hope, and broaden life skills. Holy Family’s mission is to nurture the healthy social, academic, physical, and spiritual development of Chicago children and youth. Equipped with intellectual curiosity, competitive academic skills, confidence, health and faith, the children in Holy Family’s care will thrive socially and academically. Holy Family School alumni will access top-performing high schools and the colleges of their choice. As adults, they will make positive contributions in their communities, churches, and families.
Arise Chicago
Arise Chicago, formerly Chicago Interfaith Committee on Worker Issues, was founded in 1991. With knowledge that the basic tenents of all faith traditions support the rights of wokers, Arise Chicago organizes the religious community to bring about just resolutions to workplace injustice. When workers wish to form a union, they are often met with intimidation and harassment. Arise Chicago organizes religious leaders through its Faith and Labor Solidarity program to support workers seeking unionization. Launched in 2002, Arise Chicago's Workers' Center is a member-based community resource for workers, both immigrant and native born, to learn about their rights and join fellow workers to organize to improve workplace conditions. The Worker Center has partnered with over 2,100 workers to recover over $4.6 million in stolen wages and compensation.
Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago
The Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, a seminary of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), forms visionary leaders to bear witness to the good news of Jesus Christ. LSTC graduates are grounded in the Lutheran tradition and informed by ecumenical and interfaith relationships. They are able to respond to the diversity and changing dynamics of contemporary life. They knowledgeably interpret the Scriptures and the ecumenical traditions of the church; witness to the reconciling Word of God through their lives and their ministries of service, teaching, preaching, administering the sacraments and inviting people to the Christian faith. They care for God’s people and God’s creation, revitalizing the church as it seeks to transform the world.
