North Prospect Union Church, led by church member and ordained minister, The Rev. Jed Mannis, in cooperation with other churches in Harvard and Porter Squares, is a founding congregation for an Outdoor Church in Cambridge, modeled on the Common Cathedral in Boston

The Outdoor Church/Cambridge

The Outdoor Church/Cambridge is a ministry to homeless men and women in the Harvard and Porter Square areas. The core of our mission is the outdoor prayer service held at 9:00 AM in Porter Square and 1:00 PM on the Cambridge Common every Sunday, regardless of season or weather. We join people who are homeless and housed in ecumenical worship and pastoral care. Following the service, our lay and ordained ministers carry sandwiches, pastry, coffee, juice and socks around the squares, where a meal and communion are offered. In addition, we offer an outdoor Compline service following the meal served to homeless men and women at Christ Church every Thursday night.

The Outdoor Church is supported by the member churches of the Harvard Square Clergy Association. It is modeled on Ecclesia Ministries’ Common Cathedral, an outdoor church for homeless men and women in Boston that has met for more than seven years each Sunday afternoon on the Boston Common. Like Common Cathedral, the Outdoor Church includes sheltered as well as unsheltered people and provides both material and spiritual support for a population desperately in need of assistance.

We are non-denominational, using an accessible but recognizable liturgy that is based on Common Cathedral’s liturgy. Our address is Christ Church Cambridge, 0 Garden Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts (617 876 0200, theoutdoorchurch@rcn.com)

The Rev. Pat Zifcak, Jedediah Mannis and Janis Roihl staff the Outdoor Church. The Rev. Robert Tobin, Scott Campbell and Michael Povey have presided at our services from time to time. Youth groups from a number of area churches have attended our services and helped us in the Square.

In addition to prayer and other pastoral services, Jed provides pro bono legal services to homeless men and women both outdoors in Harvard Square and at shelters in the Cambridge area. We hope to include a nurse in our church who will provide nursing care to all our members both on the Common and in the Square.

Including the people with whom Jed works, we now reach about forty to fifty people each month. We are excited about our future. In the early summer, we expect to extend our pastoral ministry to Porter Square and to more actively engage our member churches in our ministry.

Sunday at 9:00 AM:
Worship in Porter Square near the T station

Sunday at 1:00 PM:
Worship on the Cambridge Common, near the Civil War monument

Thursday at 7:00 PM:
Worship in front of Christ Church Cambridge, after the evening meal

First Monday of each month at 8:00 PM:
Legal clinic at University Lutheran Church, 66 Winthrop Street (near Harvard Square), Cambridge

Third Monday of each month at 8:00 PM:
Legal clinic at CASPAR, 240 Albany Street (MIT Campus) Cambridge