Ways to Give

Gifts made by cash, check, or credit card are the most common and simplest for many. Tax-deductible in the year in which it is made, your cash gift will be put to work immediately for the Second Century Campaign. You may make your gift through any of the following ways:

The first floor plan begins the transformation of our building to reflect who we are as a community. As soon as you enter the door you are in an open and welcoming corridor with a front office to greet guests right as they enter. If you are familiar with our current layout, this is where the sacristy door is today. This space will be open and welcoming, with a view straight through to the beautiful Neilson Lawn at Smith College.

As you enter the new construction area, a staircase and elevator occupy the space of the current back porch. This item was #1 on the parish survey of need, providing access with dignity to all of our spaces and events.

The Bayne Parlor is expanding to include the back offices, creating a grand parlor for gatherings and feeding our Manna guests. A space added at the back of the parlors is the new kitchen. It is centrally located to support activities throughout the building. Think new, safe, clean, and yummy.

Finally, on the back lawn, you see the social hall, an exciting multi-purpose space, named for St. John’s member and donor Ruth Barton. This open and flexible hall will support a wide variety of activities including meetings, dinners, talks, lectures, music performances, receptions, and parish activities.

The sanctuary’s Second Century work has been all but completed with the restoration and painting done in the fall of 2015. One final improvement still in to be completed is the addition of a handicap accessible restroom and small janitor closet in the narthex.

The second floor

On this floor we have leveled the floor across the entire space. This gives us an open spacious entry space to the offices and the classrooms. The offices on this level are Cat's, bookkeeping, and Christian Education.  Two restrooms and a hospitality area are snuggled into the corridor area.

The two middle classrooms have had the center wall removed and are combined into a larger grand classroom / meeting room. This provides open access to the fire escape for anyone on this floor.

Lower Level

Example Seating Arrangements possible in the Ruth Barton Hall

We are a church family, seeking to love and care for our community and the world. We are an inclusive church family, accepting all regardless of sex, age, class, race, sexual orientation, physical or  economic limitations. We are mission-oriented and serve our community through feeding, sheltering, and supporting those who are in need. We also provide a musical venue for the Northampton community.

HOSPITALITY FOR ALL
Over our front door is inscribed: Given to Hospitality, and we seek to live this out to the fullest. We host a wide range of community programs. For example, the twelve step programs that meet in our parish house include: AA, OA, Al-Anon, and CODA. A woman battered by her alcohol dependent husband shared that for her the parlor at St. John’s was a “cozy and safe place.” She finds  respite in the biweekly Al-Anon meetings at the church. The Gay Men’s Chorus practices every week at the same time as a Boy Scout troop of adult mentally challenged scouts meets in another space. Even exercise goes on with a twice a week Boot Camp class in the undercroft. St. John’s founded the Northampton soup kitchen, MANNA, and every Monday serves as many as 200 meals to all comers. We also founded and continue to be involved in the Cot Shelter Program for the homeless, and the Survival Center that provides meals and clothing to those in need. In addition to the weekly groups, we host two huge “Midnight Breakfasts” for Smith College students during fall and spring exam periods respectively, at which we feed in excess of 500 students each time. During the week the church is unlocked and bears a sign that says “open for prayer.” We are the only church in Northampton to do so, and passersby as well as parishioners are free to enter for quiet and contemplation when they wish. One member of a twelve step program makes a point of stopping in the church before the meeting as a way of helping keep his difficult commitment to “one day at a time.” St. John’s also birthed the Cathedral in the Night, a weekly interdenominational street service Sunday evenings in downtown Northampton followed by a meal for all comers.

MUSIC
We also host community musical events. Every year before Christmas St. John’s welcomes a standing room only audience for the Messiah sing-along which besides being a musical delight, collects money and canned food for the Survival Center; and we are the venue for an evening of entertainment that is part of the alcohol-free Northampton First Night on New Year’s Eve. During the year a number of concerts are held in our sanctuary. For example the end of the year choral concerts for the University of Massachusetts students are held here; the new singing group Illuminati, as well as established groups like the Pioneer Valley Cappella and Novi Cantori have all sung in St. John’s during the last year. In the spring of 2014 the Oxford University choir from Somerville College performed at St. John’s. We continue a strong tradition since the importance of music at St. John’s was set at its foundation when in 1826 the very first action of the new parish was to institute a “Committee to Supervise the Music.” The choirs were made up of men and boys in the early days; they sang two services each Sunday and the boys were paid 50 cents a week (later raised to the palatial sum of $1 a week.)The current organ is one of the best -- if not the best -- in the Valley. It is a 28 register George S. Hutchings c. 1893, expanded and electrified in 1909 by Ernest M. Skinner. Over the years it has been kept up to date and improved, notably in 1990 when a new console was acquired from the Harris Organ Company. This makes the church a popular location for organ recitals. Today the music at St. John’s is eclectic. On Sundays through the school year the choir of women and men sings traditional church anthems under the direction of Grant Moss, a Smith College Department of Music faculty member. During the summer the style changes as a group of ad hoc singers backed by guitars, flute, and sometimes piano, sing more popular songs. Once a month we hold a Taize service at which the singing is all chant. Thus, one of the ways in which St. John’s contributes to the wider community is through its musical program.

ACCEPTANCE OF SEXUAL ORIENTATION
St. John’s is a community in which gender and sexual orientation are non issues. We have a woman priest and half the staff are gay. We proudly fly the rainbow flag outside our front door and feature its colors on our banner and on our website. Our priest celebrates same-sex unions. Each year we send a lively delegation to march in Northampton’s Gay Pride Parade. A teenager in our youth program noted recently the two female names of another teen’s parents, and then proclaimed happily that at St. John’s this was “ just fine.” St. John’s is a church which long ago shed the mantel of the aloof Episcopal congregation set in its conservative ways. It is a church which has gone further than many -- if not most -- of the mainstream Protestant parishes as it leads for social justice in the community. Its comfortable inclusion of same-sex folk has been a model for the community and continues to offer full rights and respect to all who use our premises.

PLANT LIMITATIONS
St. John’s church and parish house were built by the donation of George Bliss, a wealthy 19th century philanthropist. The days of such open-handedness are past, and yet our commitment to serve the community is stronger than ever. We are hampered by the limitations of our plant from offering full accessibility to all comers. The sanctuary and offices are available to the handicapped but the second floor and undercroft are only served by long stairs. Recently we held a brunch in the undercroft: one lady was carried downstairs and another, attempting the long stairs on her own, fell down, luckily without major damage. When twelve step programs meet in the undercroft, there are always a few people who can’t join them because of the stairs. When we hosted a lecture by a Smith visiting art history professor in the undercroft, people were turned away if they needed an elevator. The MANNA feeding program luncheon is inaccessible to the handicapped. We would like to increase our offerings by hosting another weekly meal, which we can manage once there is an elevator to haul supplies downstairs. The volunteer staff can’t manage the stairs more than once a week. And on and on goes the list of ways in which we are failing to live up to our proud promise of Given to Hospitality. St. John’s needs an elevator.