Service is an important part of our commitment to be “boldly incarnational” in the world. A partial list of our service activities appears below. Just as all are welcome at our Sunday services, all are welcome to participate.
Amnesty Int’l Write for Rights
Folder Drive With The Simple Way
Needlework Guild of America (NGA)
St. Genesius’s Day Celebration
St. Michael’s Day Celebrations
St. Philip’s Care of Creation Fest
St. Philip’s Sock Drive for the Homeless
Amnesty Int’l Write for Rights
Every December, parishioners and friends of St. Philip’s participate in Write for Rights, an Amnesty Int’l initiative designed to let political prisoners – and the governments holding them – know they are not forgotten. Over the course of an afternoon at St. Philip’s, we write hundreds of letters and cards to prisoners of conscience and their captors. Contact Liz Oliver at lizfieldingo@yahoo.com for more information.
Code Blue
The Code Blue Project for Central Bucks is an outgrowth of the Coalition to Shelter and Support the Homeless (CSSH), an alliance of faith-based and community-service organizations. It provides shelter for homeless adults on the coldest winter nights.
Host churches provide space for shelter, kitchen facilities for meal preparation, storage of Code Blue supplies, and an onsite coordinator. Host church sites have included Trinity Episcopal Church Buckingham, Doylestown Presbyterian Church and St. Paul's Lutheran Church Doylestown.
St. Philip’s provides financial support and donated supplies, and church volunteers help move Code Blue supplies between host churches, out of storage in the fall and into storage in the spring. We are always in need of volunteers as well as SUVs, vans and trucks to support this mission.
Community Peacemeal
Volunteers from St. Philip’s can frequently be found cooking up something delicious in support of Community Peacemeal. Learn more about Community Peacemeal.
Folder Drive With The Simple Way
Since 2016, in partnership with our friends at The Simple Way, members of St. Philip’s have collected thousands of two-pocket folders and composition-style notebooks for schoolkids in the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia, where The Simple Way is headquartered. The Simple Way is a nonprofit organization and community that describes itself as “a web of subversive friends conspiring to spread the vision of ‘Loving God, Loving People, and Following Jesus’ in our neighborhoods and in our world.”
“Free the Girls” Bra Drive
Every year, St. Philip’s holds a “Free the Girls” bra drive, collecting many hundreds of new and gently used bras to benefit sex-trafficking survivors. Learn more about our bra drive.
In-Church Food Collection
For more than a decade now, demand for necessities by people in our community who are food insecure has outstripped the ability of local service organizations to provide them. In response, St. Philip’s parishioners collect non-perishable food items and other essentials each week to distribute to food banks such as the Bucks County Housing Group and the Food Pantry at St. John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church in Lambertville, N.J.
A regularly updated list of most-needed items is posted on the bulletin board in the back of the church. To help, contact Jamie Hagan at jamie_hagan@yahoo.com or simply bring non-perishable items to St. Philip’s and leave them in the basket behind the altar.
Meal-Packing Events
Our patron, St. Philip, is associated with the miracle of the loaves and fishes. So it’s fitting that many of our outreach efforts involve food and sharing from our abundance. Each year St. Philip’s parishioners take part in various meal-packing events organized by the United Way and other service organizations.
Needlework Guild of America (NGA)
For more than 60 years, the Needlework Guild at St. Philip’s has been helping people in our community secure clean, warm clothing and other necessities. In recent years, we’ve been able to gather hundreds of new or gently used items, including winter coats for children, blankets, and men’s and women’s clothing, which in turn have been distributed by NGA to local agencies such as the Salvation Army. St. Philip’s is joined in this effort by Doylestown United Methodist Church and Thompson Memorial Presbyterian Church, also of Doylestown.
Each November, we hope to increase from past years the number of winter “Coats for Kids” we collect. Contact Penny Barnes at scottb51148@comcast.net to donate or otherwise help out.
Pastoral Care
Are you homebound following an illness or surgery? Do you wish you could come to services at St. Philip’s but you no longer drive? Do you need help getting to and from a medical appointment or treatment and friends and family are unable to take you?
Volunteers from St. Philip’s provide home-cooked meals, transportation and other pastoral care services to church members and others in need. For more information, contact Lupe Summers at jcslas1982@comcast.net.
St. Genesius’s Day Celebration
St. Philip’s has a special affinity for the arts, performing and otherwise. We also have our share of lawyers and converts. So it seemed fitting that we celebrate the Feast of St. Genesius, the 3rd-century comedian whose on-stage conversion has made him the patron saint of actors, lawyers and converts. Join us every August for our St. Genesius event. You need not be an actor, lawyer or convert to attend.
St. Michael’s Day Celebration
St. Michael, whose Feast Day is September 29th, is the patron saint of police officers and firefighters. Since 2016, St. Philip’s has celebrated a mass in late September to honor these very special people, attracting a large contingent of New Hope’s Finest and Bravest (along with some large red trucks). As with all of our regular and special masses, all are welcome.
St. Philip’s Blessing Box
The St. Philip’s Blessing Box is a micro food larder located on the church grounds. Learn more.
St. Philip’s Care of Creation Fest
In October 2019 St. Philip’s inaugurated the first annual St. Philip’s Care of Creation Fest. The annual event celebrates nature and educates community members in ways they can become better stewards of the environment. Learn more about the event.
St. Philip’s Diaper Drive
For the past several years, two of our parishioners have driven to Mexico with a carload of diapers, baby wipes, powdered milk and other necessities bought with donations from other parishioners, family and friends. These goods are then distributed weekly, benefiting dozens of children and elderly people in the Puerto Vallarta area. To donate, participate or learn more, contact Lupe Summers at jcslas1982@comcast.net.
St. Philip’s Sock Drive for the Homeless
Every Christmas, St. Philip’s collects new socks to benefit homeless people in our community. Learn more about our sock drive.