Director of the Foggy Bottom Food Pantry – Volunteer Leadership Opportunity  (posted October 5, 2021)

The Foggy Bottom Food Pantry is an established mission of The United Church that has been successfully operating for over 40 years.  The founding director who led this important initiative during the past decades has announced his intention to retire at the end of the year and we are now looking for a successor. 

The Food Pantry is financially stable with significant reserves and donations continuing to come in from donors inside and outside the church including from agencies in the Food Pantry’s immediate neighborhood. Over 20 volunteers support the mission, mostly joining in on the twice a month Saturday morning food distributions, but also assisting in securing food, managing the web page, organizing volunteers, and maintaining contact with relevant organizations in such as the Capital Area Food Bank.  Clients must be DC residents in need with income below the poverty level.  Clients are welcome to come and receive bags of food twice a month outside the church’s 20th street entrance. Over the summer 2021, we served between 40-70 family units per month. 

The pandemic caused us to shut down operations for nine months and has forced us to start over in building clientele awareness. Operations are once again running smoothly reflecting continued need for these services. Although we have sufficient numbers of volunteers who are willing and able to keep us staffed for our Saturday distributions, we now need new leadership to administer the program on a long term basis. 

The position requires a commitment to work about 10-15 hours per week including Saturday mornings twice a month. A car or access to a car is needed to procure food and supplies and relevant work and leadership experience is needed. The position is currently performed on a volunteer basis but a modest compensation will be considered. The leader of the Food Pantry must represent the values and mission of The United Church. The United Church comprises the United Church of Christ and the Methodist Church and is close to the German protestant church, EKD. The leader of the Food Pantry reports to the Council of The United Church or to a designated committee. 

Expressions of interest or written applications can be directed to the Reverend Bill Federici at revfederici.tuc@gmail.com or the Reverend Katja Albrecht at revalbrecht.tuc@gmail.com with copy to George Madill at gbmfcf@verizon.net by October 31, 2021.

Further information about the Foggy Bottom Food Pantry can be found at http://theunitedchurch.org under Outreach and on Facebook at @foggybottomfoodpantry. 

October 26, 2020

This week, Rev. Albrecht and her husband, Rev. Eberle, are supplying the Morning Meditations for the German Public Radio in the Brandenburg Region. They were asked for this contribution because people are very interested in hearing about church life in the US Capitol - and their take of the atmosphere in the week before the Presidential Election.

Today's meditation by Rev. Albrecht focusses on the history of the church, founded as Concordia church in 1833.

If you click the following link, you can find the meditation online!

https://rundfunkdienst.ekbo.de/radio/worte-auf-den-weg-rbb-brandenburg.html

Celebrating the 30th Anniversary

of the Peaceful Revolution in Germany

Oct. 13, 2019

The Church was packed on this special occasion when all four German Congregations in the DC Area held a joint ecumenical service commemorating the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989. The United Church proudly hosted this special event - welcoming the German Embassador to the United States, Dr. Emily Haber, the Children's Choir of the Dresden Philharmonics and the Strathmore Children's Chorus, and many guests from the German community and beyond.

Pfarrer Dr. Martin Eberle (German Lutheran Church) preached and Pfarrerin Katja Albrecht (The United Church) interviewed a contemporary witness of the events of the year 1989 in Rostock, East Germany. The reception was a good opportunity to get to know each other better and plan more joint activities.

Eine gut gefüllte Vereinigte Kirche, wunderbare Klänge von der Orgel und vom Kinderchor der Philharmonie Dresden und dem Strathmore Childrens‘ Chorus, ein Grußwort der Botschafterin der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Dr. Emily Haber, sowie die Predigt von Pfr. Dr. Martin Eberle und der Bericht eines Zeitzeugen über die Ereignisse von Frühjahr bis Herbst 1989 in Rostock haben den ökumenischen Gottesdienst am 13. Oktober zu einem stimmigen und bestärkenden Erlebnis werden lassen.
Der anschließende Empfang bot die Möglichkeit, sich im Kreis der vielen Beteiligten austauschen und Pläne für weitere gemeinsame Projekte zu schmieden.