Christmas Message from John Edgerton

Dear Church,

You might not have known it, but you just gave away well over a hundred thousand dollars. No, you didn’t accidentally drop a rare coin into a bell-ringer’s bucket. Just by being a part of Old South Church, you gave with great generosity and joy during the past month. You gave away $166,262 to be precise: 

• $21,485 to The Palestine Children’s Relief Fund, helping provide medical care to the most vulnerable people in the world, children living in an active war zone. 
• $20,000 to Justice 4 Housing in 2023 and 2024. J4H does outstanding work at the intersection of housing access and criminal justice.
• $20,000 to common cathedral, a long-standing grantee ministering on the Boston Common each week.
• $30,000 to New Roots AME from our newly established City Mission Fund. New Roots is a church doing amazing, tender work in Dorchester.
• $12,000 to Legacy Lives On, giving them the Duane Day Award for their important restorative justice work.
• $3,277 to the Boston Higher Ed Resource Center, giving them the Christenson Award. Boston HERC is a nonprofit supporting BPS students to thrive academically and reach college. 
• $20,000 to Mattapan Food and Fitness Coalition, an org doing great food access work in Mattapan. 
• $20,000 to Father’s Uplift, the country's first mental health and substance abuse treatment facility for fathers and families.
• $10,000 to IFSI-USA from Micah Mission Fund - they are at the forefront of the migration/housing crisis in the Boston area, particularly for the Haitian community. This gift will enable them to flexibly support those that need it. 
• $1,500 from our Micah Mission Fund to purchase gift cards for those who volunteered this year with Faith Leaders for Housing Justice in weekly clean-ups at Mass and Cass as part of their year-end celebration event.
• $5,000 to Women's Lunch Place and $5,000 to Rosie's Place from Micah Mission Fund. Both orgs are long-standing friends of Old South Church doing critical work for women and families experiencing homelessness. 
• $2,000 to Victory Programs from Micah Mission Fund to support their critical substance abuse recovery work throughout the area
• $1,000 for CJP Israel Relief Fund 
• 70 coats collected as part of our coat drive

I'm proud of you, Old South Church, for living into the generosity of this season. Generosity is a part of the Christmas spirit. Christmas is when it is easiest to find joy in giving—whether it is a hand-knit sweater, a plate of cookies, or tens of thousands of dollars given by your church. Christmas is also a time of community, when we remember God is with us (emphasis on the “us”). Together, we  are blessed with the presence of God. And together, we can turn right around and be a blessing for the world. 

All of the good in the world that we are doing - every bit of it - flows from your generosity. The contributions you've made throughout the year are the very funds fueling addiction recovery services. The few bills discreetly placed in the Sunday basket are the very dollars helping keep families in their homes. The bequests given to the church in honor of Duane Day and Bob Christenson are the very dollars helping young people thrive and returning citizens to chart a new course in life. 

Thank you for all the good you do in the world, sometimes without even knowing it.

Merry Christmas,

Rev. John Edgerton

Senior Minister
Old South Church in Boston