An Urban Pilgrimage to San Francisco

Did you know that Welcome provides opportunities for individuals and groups to participate in an Urban Pilgrimage to San Francisco? Welcome's collaboration with SF CARES, makes it possible for Urban Pilgrimage participants to serve at diverse ministries that work with the homeless and hungry throughout San Francisco.      

Pastor Jamie Michaels, the campus pastor for the Wesley Foundation at the University of Merced, recently brought a group of students to attended meals hosted by Welcome.  They served the hungry in the Castro/Duboce Triangle in partnership with St. Francis Lutheran Church and in the Polk Gultch neighborhood in partnership with Old First Presbyterian Church and Faithful Fools.  They also participated in the Night Ministry's Open Cathedral in the Civic Center and St. Paulus Lutheran’s Friendship Banquet in the Western Addition.

After the Urban Pilgrimage, Pastor Jamie noted that the intersections of poverty and the high number of LGBTQ individuals who are being served at Welcome’s programs at Old First and St. Francis surprised students who “really touched by the relationships the volunteers had with those they serve with the poor and homeless.  This is not something we are accustomed to where we are from.”

“Another thing the students were really surprised by, because they come from really conservative church backgrounds, is that the people who were on the frontlines and doing the work of feeding the poor and hungry here in San Francisco, are the same people who are condemned by their home churches.  So the same people, who were thrown out of their churches because they are gay, were actually doing the hard work for the poor and homeless here.”

What would your faith community learn if they joined Welcome for an Urban Pilgrimage?  If you want to learn more, contact sfcares@welcomeministry.org.