You have a place at Pilgrim.
We want for you to feel involved and grounded in a place of personal belonging and faith.
We invite you to join our beloved community, to share yourself, be held, be challenged, and to hold and challenge others.
The movers and shakers of Auxiliary!
How do you want others to come to know you?
Depending on what’s going on for us and in the wider world, we have special events to celebrate and care for each other. Recent events included drag bingo to get excited for Pride and a St. Patrick’s Day contra dance.
Not everyone is an extrovert, but that doesn’t mean we don’t like good conversations. The women’s and Christmount retreats are spaces where Pilgrims and friends set aside time and space to be together thoughtfully. Previously we’ve held a “Randomized Coffee Trial” where we have one-on-one coffee dates for folks wanting to just meet up with new people and talk without distractions. And there’s always coffee fellowship after worship service too.
Pilgrims meet for Pub Theology, the first and third Mondays at a local bar. People have been gathering in pubs and public spaces for ages. For many of us, the pub can be a safe, open space to express doubts and questions, learn from others, and meet people of different backgrounds.
Do you have a hobby you’d like to share with others? We’d love to help you find members in our congregation who are into that too. Within our congregation folks have bonded over all sorts of things from singing in the choir, to games, to hiking, to art, and crafts.
Pilgrim seeks to respond to the needs of the congregation as we change. We’ve had caretaker support groups in the past, and are currently investigating becoming a dementia inclusive church. We host organizations supporting everyone in the midst of grief, through a shared ministry called Growing through Grief. We endeavor to listen and respond.
Where are you in your life?
Within Pilgrim we have outings for folks in many different walks and stages of life.
Youth 12 to 18 are invited to go on outings about once a month, for faith building and fellowship. These have included local explorations of escape rooms to mission trips done in collaboration with other churches.
Our “young” adults group meets about once a month in different spots all over Durham for the purpose of supporting each other and enjoying friendship. We’ve gone on all sorts of adventures from getting drinks to tubing and camping together.
Due to a recent resurgence of young families in our congregation, we are building our parent group and parent support networks once again. Recent events included a parent’s night out where free babysitting was provided by the church. We also have parent meet-ups planned during fall 2019.
aux-il-ia-ry | adjective | providing supplementary or additional help and support
Pilgrim Auxiliary embodies its definition. We cheerfully support and encourage our community, often in behind-the-scenes ways. Auxiliary is a warm circle of spirited, diversely gifted Pilgrims who welcome all in learning and serving together. We are affiliated with women’s groups from the larger Eastern North Carolina Association and UCC Southern Conference. Membership is open to all church members and church friends, female or otherwise! Our theme for our meetings and activities in 2019 is “Mind-Body-Spirit.” Join us on the first Monday after the first Sunday of each month, September through May, at 10:30 AM.
What do you care about?
Pilgrim is a place to bring your passion as a person who wants to be a force of healing in the world. As we face issues such as climate change, institutionalized racism and injustice towards immigrants, homophobia and transphobia, chronic hunger and homelessness, it can make sense to fall into despair and isolation. Pilgrim works to be a place to draw us out of hopelessness and into healing action, joy, hope, and connection.
Many Pilgrims express their desire to push against the injustice facing the Latinx community by participating as tutors in Bilingual Exchange, meeting weekly to tutor youth. Folks in this program tend to build authentic relationships and want to keep doing it. Being a Spanish speaker is not required. We are also a part of NC Sanctuary Coalition, which looks to support people living in sanctuary within North Carolina.
We also have special committees that come up based on particular events or passions within the congregation. Current examples include our wellness committee and pride committee. We’ve also had “mustard seed groups” in the past focusing on certain issues such as becoming a greener church. Our tai chi series as well as new solar panels are examples of the kind of work resulting from our diverse committees.
The groups and events listed here do not cover all of the community building opportunities at Pilgrim, but give you a sense of what is available. If you have a passion you want to share, or a need that you don’t see being addressed, talk to us! Following the passion of the congregation leads us as we create and evolve our fellowship and ministries. It is part of who we are. We are all on a journey and we can help each other grow.