The long established CARE Committee (Congregations Actively Reaching Everyone) provides several services to members of our congregation.  The group provides receptions following funeral and memorial services, house-sitting during receptions, if needed, rides to medical appointments, meals following surgery, hospitalization or illness if needed, sitting with the sick, and baby sitters in emergency situations. 

If you are interested in this ministry, contact the church office at (757) 229-1771.

The Faith Community Connection Keeps Our WUMC Family Connected

When the Coronavirus Pandemic forced our Bishop to close Methodist churches throughout Virginia in March, Betsy Harrison, our Church Council Chair, began weekly meetings of an executive team of the council she named “The New Way Committee.” One of the primary goals of this team was to find ways to keep members of our church connected during this unprecedented crisis. In rapid order, two sub-committees were formed to address this goal. The first committee worked to increase electronic communication to our church family by gathering missing email addresses for members. A second committee established a new initiative to ensure church members receive regular phone contact called the “Faith Community Connection”.

By early June, The Faith Community Connection Committee worked with council and church leaders to develop a list of more than eighty church members who indicated they would like a monthly personal call from another caring church member. In addition, the committee has secured thirty church member volunteers to make these monthly calls. The committee then partnered each member with a volunteer caller. Last week the volunteer callers participated in a Zoom meeting with committee members and our Associate Pastor, Meghan Roth Clayton, to launch this program. Volunteers have already begun reaching out to their Faith Community Partners.

This initiative will help our Williamsburg United Methodist Church continue to build a sense of community and belongingness in a time when face-to-face contact between church members is very limited. The relationships that will be forged between volunteer callers and the church members they call will underscore the love and care that we have for one another in our church community.

If you would like to join the Faith Community Connection as either a member or a volunteer, or would just like more information, please contact the church office (757) 229-1771.

There is a segment of our congregation that we do not see in our sanctuary Sunday after Sunday.  These are the people who, due to failing health or age, must remain at home.  This group includes former choir members, ministers, Sunday School teachers, United Methodist Women leaders, United Methodist Men founders to name a few.  Our ministry of the Good Shepherd includes groups of workers with the purpose of remembering and ministering to these members.

Visitors are asked to establish a relationship with their assigned homebound person and visit as often as is comfortable for both.  Once a month is suggested.  Visitors are asked to call to the attention of the ministers and/or the coordinator any problems and concerns relating to the church, or requests of the “friend at home.”   Flower arrangements made from the altar flowers are usually available to be taken to members in the hospital or to “friends at home” by 10:30 a.m. on Mondays.  

If you are interested in this ministry, contact

Rev. Meghan Roth Clayton at (757) 229-1771 Ext 357 or mclayton@williamsburgumc.org.