OUR PROGRAMS
At Chaplains On The Way, we meet individuals—where they are—to listen, offer companionship (the antidote to loneliness) to a community of people who have lost so much and now seek grounding and accompaniment in this crisis. In a spirit of openness, our community welcomes people of all faiths and those who do not identify with any religion.
PROGRAM SCHEDULE
All are welcome to join any of our programs
October - May
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Monday - Friday
7:30 am - 10:30 am
First Parish Waltham
50 Church St, Waltham
June- September
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Daily Breakfast Program
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Tuesday - Thursday
7:30 am - 10:30 am
First Parish Waltham
50 Church St, Waltham
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Wednesdays
The Gazebo on the Common
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SIGNATURE PROGRAMS
BREAKFAST PROGRAM
Starting in 2020, and throughout the pandemic, Chaplains on the Way partnered with First Parish in Waltham to provide hot coffee, home-cooked meals, a warm space to rest, and clean bathrooms for people experiencing homelessness. This program arose to meet a critical need for unhoused people to have a warm place to go a during a time of great uncertainty. Chaplains On The Way continues with this commitment, serving over 10,000 hot meals each year with an average of providing for 50 unhoused people per day.
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Our winters are long and cold, yet unhoused people in Waltham have limited access to daytime shelter. Even those sleeping in the shelters must leave by 7:45 am each morning. The Breakfast Program provides shelter from the cold, a place to rest, clean bathrooms, and for some, their only meal of the day. The Breakfast Program also allows us to offer more chaplaincy services and more support to people seeking access to key resources.
SPIRITUAL PRACTICES & COMPANIONSHIP
Our chaplains can support people in a one-to-one way, privately and confidentially, through conversation and presence. The focus is integrated well-being: mind, body, and spirit. Topics may be practical (What steps could I take to reconcile with my family?) or traditionally religious (Everything’s going wrong — is God punishing me?) or more open-ended (Why do things like loneliness or homelessness exist? Where do I belong? What are my values? Can I forgive myself for messing up? How do I live my best life? And how do I prepare to die?). No topic is too small or too big for chaplaincy, as long as it relates to a person’s integrated well-being. (And again, since modern chaplaincy is interfaith/nonsectarian, you are the one deciding what well-being looks like, for you, on your own terms.)
Chaplains can also support whole communities, by offering interfaith services, grief groups, memorials, and other programs, alongside vital material things like healthy meals or safe spaces to gather.
WEDNESDAY INTERFAITH SERVICE
Chaplains also supports whole communities, by offering interfaith services, grief groups, memorials, and other programs, alongside vital material things like healthy meals and safe spaces to gather.
Chaplains on the Way meets every Wednesday (First Parish, Waltham during the winter months and on Waltham Common from June-September) for breakfast, coffee, company, and an interfaith service. Our weekly interfaith service is open to all, regardless of faith or no faith affiliation, and includes elements of different spiritual practices. The service includes elements of various faiths through guided meditation, scripture reading and discussion, and song.
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There is no requirement (or pressure) to participate in the service in order to receive breakfast, coffee, and company at the common.
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MEMORIAL SERVICES
Chaplains On The Way offers memorial services for people in our community who have passed away. We also hold general memorial services to help community members grieve the personal losses in their own lives. Holding memorials is part of COTW's mission to provide spiritual support to those experiencing homelessness. All too often, members of the unhoused community are not able to attend family funerals or not given a service after they have passed. Because so many people who live in homelessness are isolated from their families and communities, our memorial services are an important space for people in our programs to come together, grieve our loss, and celebrate the life and goodness of the person who has passed.
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