“Take to the altar of God and bring that into the community and help our neighbor.”
Those have been the words that the members of Christ Episcopal Church in Bordentown City have gone by since the Rev. Matthew Tucker began his tenure at the parish in 2008.
Tucker and members of Christ Church continued their focus on giving back to the local community and Burlington County last weekend by donating items to organizations they have been involved with over the past few years.
The church supported Newborns in Need, the Burlington County Animal Shelter and Soles4Souls on Jan. 16.
Working with the First United Methodist Church in Mount Holly, the church donated diapers, clothing and other items that can be given out to women for their newborns.
Another organization that the church has been working with over the last few years has been Soles4Souls, a non-profit that donates shoes and clothes to people in need around the world. The church donated shoes to some of the storage units that Soles4Souls has in Burlington County as part of its outreach to the community.
As for the Burlington County Animal Shelter, the church donated bundles of dog food. Tucker said the donations to the shelter were the continuation of the church’s fight to support local animals in need through the Saint Mary’s Food Pantry at the First Presbyterian Church.
Since coming to Bordentown, Tucker said his focus for Christ Church has been to help the local community in any way possible. He believes that focus has led to more members of the church and the Bordentown community donating their time and items to the church for those in need.
“When people donate to Christ Church, they know it’s going to people in need in the community and it may be going to someone that they have a relationship with,” Tucker said.
Giving back and helping the community has meant more than ever these days because of the coronavirus pandemic. Tucker said the church has tried to meet the needs of those in need in any way they can find them during these tough times.
Christ Church has collected around 3,000 masks for frontline workers. The church has also continued its work with HomeFront of Trenton to provide meals for the homeless and families in need around the Bordentown community.
This past weekend, the church gave out 90 meals to people located in motels on routes 130 and 206. Tucker said the church provides around 90-120 meals to the initiative each month.
It was back in November that Christ Church teamed up with Kiwanis Club of Bordentown, the Consolidated Fire Association and four other churches for a Thanksgiving dinner outreach to provide meals for families in need. The initiative turned out 540 Thanksgiving meals.
Tucker said he has definitely seen an “uptick” in people around the Bordentown community working together during the pandemic.
“When COVID-19 hit, everything shifted quickly with what you could do with the restrictions,” Tucker said. “Churches and organizations want to work together to help give back to the community.”