Features of the Month
Read our featured items of the month.
Dr. Morris Smith To Retire
United Churches of Lycoming County’s “Shepherd of the Streets”, the Rev. J. Morris Smith, Th.D. has submitted notification of his pending retirement as head of the program that has brought help and assistance to hundreds of needy in the county, effective August 28, 2020. The Shepherd Program is the imaginative creation of the United Churches of Lycoming County that has successfully functioned over the past thirty-two years. Many miracles have been seen as those who come in feeling stressed and hopeless, find a listening ear and assistance in finding ways to get to medical appointments or obtain a needed prescription. New programs have been implemented and many have come to faith in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ through the spiritual counseling they find when they come into this office.
Rev. Gwen Bernstine, Executive Director of United Churches, said that the program will continue to operate under new leadership. This ministry meets the personal, emotional and spiritual needs of homeless, hungry, unemployed and troubled individuals in Lycoming County. She noted that while the overarching goal of the Shepherd of the Streets program has not changed, the primary focus of the program at this time is to help people with their health concerns.
In acknowledging Dr. Smith’s resignation, the United Churches’ and Shepherd of the Streets’ Executive Committees noted the tremendous impact he, as the Shepherd, has had on the needs of the population in crisis in our county. Dr. Smith has served the program well for twenty years! His dedication to the underserved has been honored in many places throughout the community including by receiving the Sr. Vincent Humanitarian Award, the […]
Dare To Love Your Neighbor
Racism is still a problem – right here in Lycoming County as well as throughout our wonderful country. It is all too easy to look in the mirror and think, I’m not the problem It is all too easy to look at someone over there and say that they are the problem. But the truth is we are all the problem and we all must be part of the answer. We must all stand up and say that racism must stop – right here with you and me. That means we must be part of the solution – not must today but every day. Not just for the summer, but every day of our lives.
Twenty nine years ago, when I began this job as executive director at United Churches of Lycoming County, the Ku Klux Klan wanted to hold a public gathering in Williamsport then too. It happens periodically and each time it does, we at United Churches, dust off the original resolution that for us seems to state our feelings well.
Whereas all people are created equal by God,
And Whereas that equality was affirmed by the mission and ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ,
And Whereas our daily activities enable us to strengthen our community so that it offers peace, justice and dignity for all people.
And Whereas racism is a moral evil which divides the human family by denying the innate dignity and God given
rights of every person and is therefore a betrayal of the most essential values of our religious heritage,
And Whereas racism invades and devastates social structures and through them is perpetuated and transmitted to new generations,
Therefore be it resolved that the Board of Directors of the United Churches of Lycoming County has adopted this statement of unity at the April 18, 1991 meeting.
Be it further resolved that we repudiated any organization whose actions promote division and unrest in our community, and is grounded upon the false and destructive tenets that claim that some people are inherently superior or inferior […]