Community of Congregations

Please visit our new website. If the page does not forward automatically in a few seconds, please click on this link or go to www.communityofcongregations.org

Oak Park - River Forest
Community of Congregations

The Community of Congregations is an interfaith organization serving the greater Oak Park - River Forest, Illinois area. We support PADS [Public Action to Deliver Shelter], the Cluster Tutoring Program, the annual Crop Walk, the Walk-in-Ministry, the Oak Park/River Forest Food pantry, and the Holiday Food and Gift Basket program, under a grant provided by Youth Services of Oak Park and River Forest Townships. In addition to these ministries we sponsor a variety of programs including the community's annual Interfaith Thanksgiving Service, one of the oldest such programs in the Chicagoland area.

NEW FEATURE:

Download the latest newsletter in .pdf by clicking on Common Call.
See the pdf archive at by clicking on ARCHIVE

Community Meeting

Community meetings and programs are held in October, January, March and May.

Upcoming Events

You can download a copy of the Senior Housing Expo Poster by clicking here. .
Visit the new Walk-In-Ministry web-site.
Visit the West Suburban Pads website

A Community of Congregations Thanksgiving Service
Visit the Community of Congregations Photo Album
If you have digital pictures of Community of Congregations events you would like to share, let us know.
Photos of our Annual Dinner are now on line.

The following materials are available online:

A complete copy of the program for the 2006 Thanksgiving Service, including most of the prayers and readings, is available for download in .pdf format. [Download Many Voices Program ]

Message delivered by Rev. Young-Mee Park, Pastor, First United Methodist Church of Oak park at the CofC Thanksgiving Service, 2005.
The President's Annual Report, January, 2005.
Directions prayer, offered annually by Fr. Thomas Dore at our Thanksgiving Service.
The President's Annual Report, January 2003.
Homily delivered by Rev. Bobbi Wells Harglerode, Thanksgiving, 2000.

Sacred Space - Architecture and Liturgy

The Community of Congregations has initiated an ongoing series of programs designed to explore the richness of our architectural and liturgical heritages. Each Community Meeting is proceeded at 7:00 p.m. with an introduction to architectural features or liturgy of the host congregation.

Community Meetings

Community Meetings are held regularly throughout the year. In addition to the Sacred Space program and reports relating to the various ministries sponsored by the Community of Congregations, representatives of community congregations with active ministries and community service programs are invited to make presentations.

The public is invited to participate.

A time is also provided for participants to ask questions, and share traditions and stories from their own faith traditions in order to strengthen and deepen our sense of community.

If you have issues you would like to see raised or a program you would like to present please contact a member of the executive committee.

OPRF Food Pantry Website Launched and New Evening Shift Added

The Oak Park River Forest Food Pantry has recently added an evening shift to its current hours. The Pantry is open now on every Saturday from 9am-12pm, the 1st Wednesday of the month from 7-8:30pm and the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays of the month from 3-5:30pm.

The work of the Pantry has never been more important. In these times of reduced government aid, more families are increasingly vulnerable.

There are many ways you can assist this vital community service. Please see the Pantry's new website at www.oprffoodpantry.org

Ministry Contact Information:

Food Pantry -- www.oprffoodpantry.org
Holiday Food and Gift Basket Program --http://www.oprffoodpantry.org/affiliations/holidayfood.html
The Holiday Food and Gift Basket (HFGB) program provides gifts and food certificates to lower income families, seniors, and singles in the Oak Park and River Forest communities. In 2007, we were able to provide assistance at the holidays to 891 families.
PADS -- Write contactus @ westsuburbanpads.org.
Note: when writing to the above addresses omit the spaces in the addresses, which cut down automatic spamming.

Oak Park - River Forest Congregations On-line:

If your congregation is online and is not listed here, please send a note with the link to Leonard Grossman

Legacy Partners of Oak Park and River Forest is a consortium of more than forty Oak Park and River Forest nonprofit organizations who ask you to consider planned giving through your will or through a gift that endows.
For more information about the Oak Park-River Forest Community visit The Oak Park Tourist.
You can find a list of Oak Park-River Forest religious organizations and places of worship, including addresses and phone numbers in the Wednesday Journal's Answerbook.
A collection of Volunteer Web pages from the Oak Park area can be found on a special page at The Oak Park Tourist.

President, Rev. Harriette Cross, Cornerstone United Methodist Church
Vice President
Secretary
Treasurer, Valerie Lester, Oak Park Friends Meeting
Immediate Past President Rev. Lowell Eckberg, First United Methodist Church

Members at Large:

Harriette Robinet and McLouis Robinet, St. Edmund Parish;
Dr. Bradford Wainer, Oak Park Temple

Administrative Secretary, Jane Wood woodnflute@comcast.net
Mailing address P.O. Box 3365, Oak Park, IL 60303-3365

Called by our spiritual experience to be a Tent of Meeting, we affirm and honor the diverse ways in which the One we call God leads and blesses all peoples and brings us together. This common insight leads us to value a "harmony of respect and individuality" in persons and religious traditions. From this vantage point, we hope to foster community among communities, to speak with a common moral voice in our own community, and to sponsor events and activities which affirm the worth and dignity of all whom God has created.
-Vision statement adopted by the Community of Congregations, May, 1996.

Enjoy brilliant images of scenes from Genesis: The Gropper Windows Dove Icon

Messages sent to this address will be forwarded ot the organization. e-mail.

The image used as the left border of this page is the "Window of Creation" from the Gropper Windows at West Suburban Temple Har Zion in River Forest. Used with permission. Digital Image Copyright West Suburban Temple.

This Interfaith WebRing site is
maintained by Leonard Grossman.

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Interfaith WebRing?

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This page created and maintained by Leonard Grossman who has his own wholly unrelated pages
Updated: 6/22/2010

Please visit our new website. If the page does not forward automatically in a few seconds, please click on this link or go to www.communityofcongregations.org

Oak Park - River ForestCommunity of Congregations

Community Meeting

Upcoming Events

A Community of Congregations Thanksgiving Service