Serving God and others is the lifeblood of so much that happens at Bon Air Presbyterian Church. Through local and global partnership, our church provides opportunity to promote justice and to meet the real needs of our community and the world.
Church and Society Ministry Team
Highlighted Volunteer Opportunities
An Outreach Program for Incarcerated Youth
BAPC has worked with incarcerated youth at Bon Air Juvenile Correctional Center for over 20 years. Volunteers throw bi-monthly birthday parties and a Christmas party with food, games and songs. Contact Martha Singdahlson to volunteer.
Peace Study/Action Group
Peace Study/Action Group
The Peacemaking/Study Group seeks to study and promote paths to peace in our church, our community and our world. Contact Deborah Houghton to get involved.
“Caring for Creation” by Recycling
Four teams at BAPC volunteer to pickup the church recycling to help improve our environment. Our church sextant also helps by saving cardboard and other items. Volunteers take the recycling home to add to their home recycling since the county does not provide recycling pickup at the church. Contact John Rupp to volunteer.
RISC (Richmonders Involved to Strengthen Our Communities) RISC is an interracial, interfaith, nonpartisan organization which brings congregations together to build the power to meet God’s call to ‘do justice’. Topics for 2022 include Affordable Housing and Gun Violence. Click here for more information and to get involved!.
Current Projects
Fairly Traded Coffee and Chocolate – These products are sold the first Sunday of each month through the Presbyterian Coffee Project. Equal Exchange seeks to balance the inequities found in the conventional coffee trade.
Faith Community Trialogue is a unique series that brings together the Christian, Muslim and Jewish faiths to promote interfaith dialogue. The aim of the dialogue is a deepening mutual understanding and appreciation between the three Abrahamic religious communities.
Open Trunk Food Drive – on the first Saturday of each month, in the church parking lot, we will be collecting non-perishable food for a local community food bank. We have been alternating between delivering the donations to the Bainbridge Community Center Food Pantry and the Chesterfield County Food Bank, each of which have had large increases in the number of families asking for help. Help us to continue supporting this vital mission to serve those in our area who are experiencing food insecurity.
Gateway Homes – Gateway Homes is a residential treatment facility designed for people with depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia. A model program, at Gateway Homes, when residents are prepared, they will move from the Supportive Living Center to Gateway’s Supported Living Apartments, which offers on-campus apartment living. BAPC provides support by “adopting” an apartment and donating linens, as well as other items such as small furniture pieces, bedding, curtains, and kitchen cleaning supplies.
Continue to remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.
Hebrews 13:3
Assisting Families of Inmates (AFOI) makes a world of difference to the families of those incarcerated. BAPC supports this vital connection for families through benevolences. AFOI helps families to visit their loved ones by assisting with scheduling and transportation. New this past year, AFOI has expanded the technology options for families so that they can visit loved ones through video visitation at locations around Virginia with their own devices at home.
Micah Initiative – Volunteers from BAPC are participating at Southampton Elementary School through the Micah Initiative. Micah is an association of faith communities partnering with Richmond Public Schools.
Seasonal Ministries
Prison Fellowship Angel Tree is a program that connects parents in prison with their children through the delivery of Christmas gifts. Church volunteers choose a child and purchase new gifts, wrap them, and return them to the church for delivery to the children.
CROP Hunger Walk – In November the middle and the high school youth participate in the Crop Walk, a ministry of Church World Service, by raising funds to end hunger in the community and around the world.
Thanksgiving Mitten Turkey – Coordinated by the middle and high school youth, the Thanksgiving Mitten Turkey is a visible project to collect mittens, hats and scarves for the Chesterfield Christmas Mother and to share warmth to those in need.
Souper Bowl of Caring is an outreach project where the youth of BAPC join with other groups and organizations around the country to make a positive impact by collecting money and food donations on Super Bowl weekend.
Salvation Army Christmas Stockings – Stockings are filled with small gifts for a chosen age group and collected at the church. The stockings are distributed by the Salvation Army.
First Sunday Mission Opportunities
5¢-A-Meal Contributions – These contributions support ministries to hungry people, locally and throughout the Mid-Atlantic, through the Presbytery of the James. A designated basket is located in the back of the sanctuary or contributions can be delivered to the church office.