Two ways to bring hope to a family

Are you feeling down about the state of the world? Here are two ways you can bring hope to a family.

Hundreds of social service agencies refer people who are recently homeless, veterans, survivors of domestic violence, low income, immigrants, victims of disaster, or are coping with illness or disability to Household Goods. Last year they furnished over 3000 homes including the home of our newest refugee family. Watch this video to see inside this amazing operation.

Join a team of Shepherds Jan. 24 or 28 12:45-4:00 doing a variety of tasks at Household Goods. Volunteers must be 14 years or older. Click here for the link to sign up.

Donate to our Linens and Lamps Drive. We are collecting towels, sheets and blankets in excellent condition and lamps with shades until January 28.

2025 Mission Outreach Accomplishments

The Church of the Good Shepherd has had another wonderful year of showing what Faith in Action looks like.

Thank you to everyone who has supported our Mission Outreach programs this year. The list below is the outcome of all of your generous giving this fall.

Our 7-week food drive delivered 623 pounds of food to Loaves and Fishes and the Acton Food Pantry!

Along with other members of the partnership, we have supported our refugee families during particularly difficult months in several ways: providing Target gift cards so our new family could get needed furnishings and winter clothing. Together with First Parish of Stow and Acton we were able to give them cards worth $1000.

We purchased Market Basket cards to help our new family weather the halt in SNAP benefits while St. Anne’s in Lincoln did the same for the Rohingya households.

This week we delivered baskets of Christmas cheer to all three households, chock full of all kinds of fruits, homemade cookies and candy.

We far exceeded our goal to help finance the food that the mothers at Esperanza Academy prepare each year for their Christmas celebration. We will deliver these funds and the chocolate fountain to the school this week.

To finish out the year, the Fair Trade Craft Sale this Sunday and next will support scholarships for our Salvadoran students.

And every week during these months a contingent of devoted Shepherds has represented our community at the Burlington ICE protests no matter the weather.

We can proudly say our church has been busy doing good work!

We are full of gratitude for the many ways that you have all opened your hearts.

Fair trade craft sale

Beautiful, Unique, Affordable, Fair Trade Handmade Crafts on Sale

Sunday, Dec. 14, 11:00-3:30
Sunday, Dec. 21. 11:00-3:30

The purchase of these Fair Trade items benefit the artisans who made them – Mayan Hands collaborates with 15 artisan groups in the rural Guatemalan highlands, representing about 200 skilled craftswomen; UPAVIM’s member cooperative, located in a “Red Zone” of Guatemala City plagued by gang and violence, is comprised of more than 70 women working as seamstresses and making handicrafts.

Proceeds from the sale benefit a scholarship fund for students in the Church of the Good Shepherd sister community of El Ocotillo, a small village in the mountains of El Salvador – the sale does not benefit the church.

These Fair Trade items are affordable as they haven’t yet been subject to higher tariffs that are likely to be imposed due to changes to the CAFTA-DR regulations.

The lovely handmade creations reflect ancestral techniques, artisan craftswomanship, and heirloom quality in new, updated designs for the modern market. Come shop for exquisite:

• Baskets

• Ornaments

• Wooden crafts

• Ceramics

• Jewelry

• Textiles

• Scarves, Bags, Purses

• Children’s novelties

These items will be available for purchase at The Church of the Good Shepherd, 164 Newrown Rd., Acton, MA.

Download the flyer.

Food drive is a success

Thank you to everyone who contributed food, funds or time to the food drive. And thank you to the leaders of this drive for your incredible flexibility.

As the weeks of collecting food extended into a time of suspended SNAP benefits, we found out that the Acton Food Pantry was full and could not accept more goods until after Thanksgiving. How wonderful to hear that local communities had filled their shelves!

Loaves and Fishes, the food pantry at Devens, had lots of room and was able to take everything on Sunday as planned. It was 582.1 pounds of food - an amount that impressed the pantry staff!

This is what FAITH looks like

A growing team of Good Shepherd parishioners is bearing witness at peaceful protests at the ICE building in Burlington. This unsigned building at 1000 District Ave, behind the Burlington Mall, is the primary Field Office for New England which means it is the center for Removal and Enforcement Operations.

At 7:00 AM on Tuesday, September 16, a group from Good Shepherd joined hundreds of others from across the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts in support of Blanca, a Honduran refugee and Salem parishioner. Blanca was ordered to the ICE office for the second time in a month where she faced the risk of being detained on the spot or given a 2-week notice to self-deport. She is one of thousands of rule-following immigrants who have been kidnapped by ICE or are at risk of detention and deportation.

The rally for Blanca was organized by Episcopal City Missions along with other human rights organizations. It was in addition to the Wednesday rallies that have been going on for more than 20 consecutive weeks and have grown to 600 people. By peacefully rallying we were able to accompany Blanca, demonstrate moral and political solidarity, and make it much harder for federal agents to detain or deport her without cause.

This video, taken by Rev. Ellie, documents Blanca walking on crutches into her hearing surrounded by Bishop Julia, her rector, her attorney, as well as political and community leaders. In a powerful embrace of emotional support, the crowd sang and prayed her into the building, and rejoiced when she came out later with good news: Blanca may remain in the US for a year and can resume her path to permanent citizenship.

It matters when we show up in the name of faith.

Massachusetts Episcopalians rally behind immigrant church member before ICE appointment

El Ocotillo celebrates our sister relationship

On Saturday, July 12th, 2025, a day we expected to be in the village, the community of El Ocotillo gathered for an Acción de Gracias por Hermanamiento which means Thanksgiving for our Sister Relationship. Many people were in attendance, including our scholarship students. The village sent a letter to us which is translated here:

Dear sister community of the Good Shepherd in solidarity,

Please receive a fraternal and warm greeting from the Leadership committee and the scholarship students of Ocotillo. With much affection, we wish to express to you how profoundly sorry we are that you have not been able to visit us as previously envisioned. We understand that current circumstances, in the United States with the deportations as well as in El Salvador with the current regime, are not favorable for your visit. 

       Nevertheless, we remain firm in the hope that a time when we can be together will come again soon. With faith in God, we believe that there will be better times ahead. He gives us the strength to forge ahead, even in the midst of difficulties, and we trust that his will, will reunite us again soon. 

       In the meantime, we want you to know that we hold you present in our prayers and in our hearts. We close with the living hope that you will soon return to Ocotillo. Here we await you with open arms and hearts, full of joy for that day, that with the help of God, will come soon.

With affection and hope, 

The leadership committee and scholarship students of Ocotillo

To view pictures of the gathering click here.

To read about why our trip this summer was cancelled, click here.

Cristosal flees El Salvador

Good Shepherd has a long standing relationship with Cristosal, a human rights organization founded in 2000 by two Episcopal bishops in New York and El Salvador, to address democratic and civil rights concerns following the civil war. It has evolved to become the largest human rights organization in the country and is respected worldwide.  We have participated in courses through Cristosal's Global School three times, including one that was created in collaboration with the El Ocotillo community. Our longtime friend Jeanne Rikkers, the past director of the Global School, and Noah Bullock, the Executive Director, have visited Good Shepherd many times, most recently in November 2024. 

On July 18th we received a letter from Cristosal that begins with this statement:

After 25 years in El Salvador, Cristosal has been forced to suspend operations in El Salvador in response to escalating attacks on human rights defenders, the authoritarian Foreign Agents Law, and the collapse of judicial independence. Our work now continues from our Guatemala and Honduras offices.You can read The New York Times' reporting on this here and in many other news outlets. 

On July 23 Noah (who is now in Guatemala with the remaining staff) and Ricardo González, an expert on the effects of exile, participated in a conversation on Field Notes about the larger issue of exile as a form of political violence that has a domino effect far beyond the displaced individuals. You can access this profoundly interesting interview here. 

Cristosal is raising funds to cover the expenses of its displaced staff. If you would like to donate to this worthwhile cause, please send a check to COGS with "Cristosal" in the memo line. We will forward any donations to them with a letter of solidarity.

Please keep all of the Cristosal staff in your prayers as they navigate this  traumatic experience.

Our Rise Against Hunger meals have shipped!

The 10,000 meals we packaged on May 4th are headed to The Democratic Republic of Congo. Located in the center of Africa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)  is the second largest country in Africa, with the fourth largest population. Despite its many natural resources, corruption and weak institutions have delayed the country’s development. Child malnutrition is widespread, and most of the population lives in conditions of moderate to serious food insecurity. The Global Hunger Index,  which assesses food insecurity based on indicators that measure undernourishment and undernutrition, categorizes the DRC as having an “alarming” level of hunger.
To read more about how RAH meets the standards of the United Nations sustainable development goals, click here.

Increased repression in El Salvador puts our scholarship program at risk

On May 11, 2025 Rafael Pupo and Barb Magee from the El Salvador Committee had a lengthy Zoom meeting with the Fundahmer staff in San Salvador, Wendy, José, and the Executive Director, Javier, at their request. They needed to make us aware of the deteriorating situation in El Salvador and the effect it could have on our scholarship program with the youth of El Ocotillo.

In the month of May there was a serious ratcheting up of abuses of power and repressive legislation intended to silence any dissent against the Bukele government.

Continued and accelerated repression of the free press.

Seven journalists working for the now exiled news organization El Faro had to flee the country recently when they learned arrest warrants had been issued against them. Their “crimes” have been to document and expose the secret agreements Bukele made with the gangs to ensure his rise to absolute power. Despite the very real danger, many of these journalists have continued to report on the abuses of power justified under the “state of exception,” the Salvadoran version of Marshall Law. Declared in 2022 to fight gangs, it has now been extended to include anyone who questions government policy.

Jailing of human rights and judicial aid advocates

Internationally recognized civil rights attorney, Ruth Lopez, has been arrested and charged with embezzlement dating back 10 years and with no details provided. Ruth was currently serving as Director of Anti-Corruption and Justice at Cristosal, an organization we know well and have supported for years. Ruth is the most well-known of several human rights workers who have been arrested.

Redistribution of farmlands

According to this excellent explanation in The Guardian: Following the 12 year civil war, in the early 90s, “land redistribution was promised as a key step toward peace and social justice, a process that led to the formation of hundreds of rural cooperatives.” Recently, “megaprojects, extractivism, real estate and tourism developments, and agribusiness are all driving a new wave of dispossession. About 11,000 families are in extreme vulnerability.” These families often face legal uncertainty and sudden eviction notices, backed by the presence of police or private security.

When the farmers being evicted organized a peaceful protest to appeal to President Bukele, they were met by violent police action and the arrest of their leaders including their pastor and a civil rights attorney. So far, the area around El Ocotillo has not been impacted.

Foreign Agents Law

This is the greatest threat to our long-standing scholarship program and the reason that Fundahmer urgently reached out to us. The new Foreign Agents Law goes into effect in less than 90 days. It requires any organization (e.g. Fundahmer, Cristosal) receiving funds from outside the country to re-register with the interior ministry and pay a 30% tax on all such donations. The authorities can impose fines and revoke legal status of non-compliant organizations. This is another page out of the totalitarian playbook. Similar measures have been used in Putin’s Russia, Nicaragua and other authoritarian regimes. Bukele will use this to pressure, control, or remove any NGO which dares to speak against his policies. The legislative language is purposely vague, giving the government more power to easily weaponize it.

Our friends at Fundahmer are courageous and determined to move forward as long as they can despite any personal risks they and their families may face. They have explained that the 30% tax on donations will not go into effect until September 7, so the balance of this year’s scholarship funds, which we always send in June or July, should not be affected. Fundahmer will try to use a provision of the legislation to submit a letter requesting exemption from this regulation, but the outcome of that will be completely in the hands of the government.

For now, they ask for our prayers, and they expressed how much our solidarity means to them and to our brothers and sisters in El Ocotillo.