A group of faith communities in Orange have come together to form a collaborative dedicated to improving the lives of people in Orange and the greater New Haven area.
Calling itself the Congregations of Orange Collaborative, the organization consists of congregations that represent a diversity of faith traditions. The current membership includes Church of the Good Shepard Episcopal Church; Congregation Or Shalom; Orange Congregational Church; St Barbara Greek Orthodox Church; Temple Emanuel; Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church; and St Joseph of Arimathea American National Catholic Church.
The collaborative has reached out to other faith communities and welcomes all that wish to participate.
Nancy Kline of Congregation Or Shalom, one of the organizers of the group, said, “All faith communities have the desire to put their faith in action and do so through many wonderful initiatives. We thought it would be so much more effective to unite our communities and use that common desire to create a more powerful group with more people, skills and resources that could do so much more for those in need than individual congregations could do on their own.”
The COC’s vision statement says that the interfaith group will encourage participating congregations to engage in social action projects that help people in need and strengthen relationships between the members.
The first activity of the COC is a food drive on Dec. 5 to benefit Orange FOOD 2 KIDS, a program operated by the Orange Parks and Recreation Department that collects single-serve packaged foods that require no preparation or water-only preparation, and distributes nutritious snacks and simple meal choices to children living with food insecurity.
The event will be a contact-free “pop-the-trunk” collection at the High Plains Community Center from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. High Plains Community Center is located at 525 Orange Center Rd.
For further information about the COC and the food drive, contact Nancy Kline at nancykline@gmail.com or 203-915-7799.