Pilgrim Congregational Church in Warren has donated $1200 from its Lenten benevolence for the purchase of study Bibles at the Market Street Mission locations in Morristown and Asbury Park. Chaplain Greg Cole, the Resident Director of the Asbury Park Market Street Mission (also called the Jersey Shore Rescue Mission) attended a worship service in June where Rev. Virginia Scott, minister at Pilgrim Church, presented him with the check for the Bibles. These study Bibles are given to the men in the Mission’s rehabilitation programs in both Morristown and Asbury Park.
The Market Street Mission ministers to the needy people in Morristown and the Jersey shore areas. The Mission meets their physical needs with food, shelter, clothing, and other necessities, and their emotional and spiritual needs with guidance and life change programs. Their main concern is meeting the critical needs of homeless and disadvantaged men, women and children through their emergency services program. They provide tens of thousands of meals and nights of lodging each year. Programs that help men recover from alcohol and drug addiction are designed to offer a “hand-up” rather than a “hand-out.” The Mission’s 8 to 12 month residential treatment program includes daily work at the Thrift Store, Bible study, a daily chapel service, group and individual counseling, AA/NA meetings, and computer assisted and classroom instruction. The website is www.jerseyshorerescue.org for the Asbury Park location and www.marketstreet.org for the Morristown location.
The Congregational denomination came to America with the Pilgrims on the Mayflower. Strong tenants of the faith are in education and in the belief in the individual’s freedom to worship God according to his or her own conscience. The Congregational churches are responsible for establishing and sustaining many prominent colleges, including Harvard, Yale, Amherst, Bowdoin, Carlton, Grinell, Dartmouth, Mount Holyoke, Oberlin, Pacific, Pomona, Smith and Wellesley, among many others. Further information about Pilgrim Congregational Church may be found at www.pilgrimcongregationalchurch.org.

Many school church in our area go hungry on the weekends when they are not in school to receive cafeteria prepared luncheons.  To help hungry children to have enough food when they are not in school, the Somerset County Food Bank has instituted a program where nourishing food is slipped into children’s backpacks at school so that they will have enought to eat on Saturdays and Sundays.  Pilgrim Church supports this program by collecting necessary food items for the kids.  Kathy Petricone, chair of Pilgrim Church’s Outreach Committee, and her husband Joe are pictured here as they get ready to deliver our collected canned goods to the Somerset County Food Bank.