The Hanover Area Council of Churches is an alliance of local churches working together under the Biblical charge to be One Body and One Spirit and has been serving the Greater Hanover community since 1968.  Together our 27 congregations are able to serve the Hanover community through our 12 ministry programs, programs as diversified as the needs of the people we serve.  We are almost 1000 volunteers strong; the Council has a place for all the gifts of the Spirit.  St. Jacob's (Stone) United Church of Christ officiallly joined the Hanover Area Council of Churches on August 26, 2002.

Clothing Bank
Since its inception in 1969 we have served thousands of families by recycling and distributing used clothing with lots of life left; certified clients receive free clothes on Tuesday mornings and the community is welcome to buy clothes on Thursdays and at the monthly rummage sale on the first Saturday of each month, 9-12 Noon. Donations of clean, serviceable clothing are accepted seven days a week from 8:30 AM - 1:00 PM.

Faith at Work
Faith at Work volunteers work from the Council Office on Tuesday mornings or from their homes sewing, quilting, knitting, crocheting, or making small wooden toys.  Each handcrafted item is filled with love and serves a special medical need within the community.

Meals on Wheels (MOW)
Approximately 45 hot noonday meals are delivered to homebound clients daily Monday through Friday on four different routes.  The MOW 'runner' is often the only daily human contact our clients, mostly elderly shut-ins, have.

Provide-A-Lunch (PAL)
PAL provides a hot, nutritious home-cooked lunch 7 days a week, served from 11:30 AM until 12:45 PM.  The meals are lovingly prepared by kitchen crews from the participating churches and served to a daily average of 165 people.  Members from Stone Church help serve lunch every 5th Sunday.

Public Worship
The Council plans community worship services, including hymn sings, Christian Unity Service, a Good Friday service, Resurrection Celebration, Baccalaureate Service, Thanksgiving Service, and a Christmas Walking Tour of Churches.  These services give us a chance to praise God together with one heart and one voice.

Cold Weather Emergency Shelter
Opened in December 2001, the emergency shelter provides a warm place to sleep for those men, women, and children who would otherwise have to spend a night outside. Guests are welcomed from 6-9 PM, every evening from November 1 to March 31 when the temperature dips below 32 degrees.

Other Ministries
In addition, the Council conducts or partners in the following ministry programs:

• Compeer - Partners volunteers with mentally challenged
• CROP Walk - Organized annually to raise money for food and relief supplies worldside; 25% remains in Hanover area
• Radio Broadcast - Broadcast church services taped by local churches
• State Park Chaplaincy - Helps secure claplain for state park summer ministry program
• Stolte Scholarship Fund - Assists in distributing memorial scholarships to students preparing for full-time church-related vocation
• Turning Point - A collaboration of community-based agencies seeking permanent solutions for the area's homeless through transitional housing.

Hanover Area Council of Churches
136 Carlisle Street
Hanover PA 17331
717-633-6353
Open daily for meals from 11:30 AM - 12:45 PM
Open daily for donations from 8:30 AM - 1:00 PM

Members Churches include:

All Saints Episcopal; Annunciation BVM; Black Rock Church of the Brethren; Emmanual United Church of Christ; Faith Community of the Brethren Home; First United Methodist; Grace United Church of Christ; Grace United Methodist; Hanover Church of the Brethren; Lohr's Memorial United Methodist; Mount Carmel Lutheran; St. Bartholomew United Church ELCA; St. David Evangelical Lutheran, St. David United Church of Christ; St. Joseph Catholic; St. Mark Lutheran; St. Matthew Lutheran; St. Paul Dubs Lutheran; St. Paul Dubs United Church of Christ; St. Paul Evangelical Lutheran; St. Paul Lutheran (Hanover); St. Paul Lutheran (Mcsherrystown); St. Vincent dePaul Catholic; Trinity Church of the Nazarene; Trinity Lutheran; Trinity United Church of Christ; Zion (Shaffer's) United Lutheran.

Updated April 2004:

“Faith at Work”

In October 2003, we began our 7th year as part of the Hanover Area Council of Churches.  When we started, we numbered about 10-15 members who came on Tuesdays to work.  We now have only 5 regular volunteers.  This faithful little group does all the organizing of our outreach, including the cutting out and preparation of projects for our at-home sewers.  Volunteers gather materials for at-home knitters and other home projects and pick up and deliver the finished items.  We have 49 at-home volunteers who sew, knit, crochet, or do special projects.  One at-home volunteer makes hats for women with cancer.  Another makes baby gowns for the Bereavement Program at Hanover Hospital Maternity Department.  Many at-home volunteers sew bib and burp pad sets, walker bags, wheelchair bags, adult bibs, and beautiful little hat and tube sock sets for newborn infants at Hanover Hospital.  This past summer, a group of 4H youth from Lineboro, MD, sewed adult bibs.

Volunteers provide the Hanover Hospital with 50 sets of hats and tube socks each month from September to May and 50 sets of bibs and burp pads each month from May to September.  Ready and waiting for delivery in December are 50 hat and tube sock sets in beautiful Christmas colors and 50 bib and burp pads in the Christmas colors and winter prints.  These are for babies born during December.  Volunteers have also made 12 small flannel gowns for babies in the isolates.  If you see a wheelchair at Hanover Hospital with a white bag on it to carry the patient’s chart, you will know that “Faith at Work” has been there.  Volunteers have made 75 white bags for the Hanover Hospital chairs.

In October 2003, volunteers delivered 50 bed pads to the Visiting Nurse Association.  We are in need of additional volunteers to get these pads prepared for the at-home sewers.  This is an easy project and needs to be done at the Council building.  We would love to have your help with the bed pads.

In September and October 2003, volunteers sent Tender Care Pregnancy Center a large assortment of hand knitted items for toddlers.  Delivered in September 2003 were 14 hats, 20 sets of hat and tube socks, 6 afghans, and 20 sets of the bib and burp pads.  The October 2003 delivery included 5 toddler sweater sets including hats and mittens, 1 sweater with a hood, 5 knitted hat and sweater sets, 2 sweaters with mittens, 12 knitted hats with mittens, 8 sweaters with hats, and 1 afghan.

Volunteers also plan to make a trip to the Pleasant Acres York County Nursing Home in December 2004 to deliver over 100 each of adult bibs, wheelchair bags, and walker bags to be given to the residents for Christmas.  These items are very colorful and sturdy.  They were made from drapery material that was donated to from a local businesses.

I wish to thank all of the volunteers who support “Faith at Work” for a job well done and to encourage anyone who can give us an hour or more on Tuesdays from 9 AM until 12 noon to come and join us.  God has blessed us with so much and it is a real blessing to see others enjoy items that we have helped make.

Please remember we could use your help to make bed pads for the Visiting Nurse Association.  No experience is necessary, only love for your neighbors and community.

Betty Rae Coney
Chairperson of “Faith at Work”