St Malachi Legal Fees/Ministries
Donation protected
For over 150 years, St. Malachi Church, a Catholic parish on the near west side of the city of Cleveland, has been providing food, clothing and addiction recovery to those in need. The parish lives by a simple, but powerful, mission statement: We are a Eucharistic People, United in Prayer, Welcoming to All and Serving the Poor.
One of the flagship parish events is the St. Malachi Run, which takes place at the church and the surrounding neighborhood each March. Given the urgent need for St. Malachi to support its ministries, several representatives of the parish met earlier this year with the race operator, Hermes Road Racing, to discuss ways to generate more revenue from a race that attracts over 4,000 runners. Following those conversations, St. Malachi decided to meet with other race companies to operate the 2018 race.
After the first meeting with Hermes in February 2017, Hermes asserted that it owned the trademark over the name “St. Malachi Run.” Faced with that legal assertion, and seeking guidance on the legal merits of the claim, St. Malachi engaged an attorney, who advised the parish that St. Malachi owned the name to its run despite Hermes’s claim. Without warning, Hermes then filed a federal lawsuit against St. Malachi, which remains pending.
While the church’s attorney has donated his time and trademark expertise on a pro bono basis, St. Malachi will begin to incur legal fees to defend itself if Hermes does not drop its lawsuit. Against this backdrop, we ask humbly for your support, with any donations to this Go Fund Me account being used directly for legal fees. If any funds are not needed for legal fees, then they will be applied to our ministries.
St Malachi pledges accountability for all donations received through this Go Fund Me account. We will report exactly how we spend any donations we receive.
God bless you for considering our request to support our parish in its legal battle and ministries. We have been moved by the outpouring of support for the church and we ask you to pray for a peaceful and quick resolution to this lawsuit, and to come out and join in on the fun and festivities of our 2018 race!
Below is a link to our website and a description of our ministries is below in case you want to learn more about who we are and what we do:
http://www.stmalachi.org/
Outreach ministries of St. Malachi Church:
Backdoor Ministry: serves food daily, 8:30AM-3:00PM Monday-Saturday; 8:30-1PM Sundays & holidays. The backdoor ministry began in the 1970s informally when hungry people began knocking at the backdoor of the rectory asking for something to eat. The church has never kept statistics about how many people are served because anyone who is hungry is welcome. The number varies, but can vary from five or six dozen people to the low hundreds in a single day.
Monday Night Meal: serves a meal every Monday night at 6PM in the parish hall and serves food to the residents at the nearby CMHA High Rise. Since the late 1960s Monday Night Meal is part of a network of hot meals sponsored by several of the Churches of Shared Ministry to provide meals every night of the work week at a church; St. Malachi's meal was Monday night. Main dishes are prepared by a network of volunteer cooks and volunteers prepare the other items for a nutritious meal, serve and clean-up. Seconds are almost always served and usually more than 325 meals are provided in a given week.
Clothing Distribution Ministry: done in conjunction with Malachi Center, an independent, nonprofit social service organization originally established by St. Malachi to serve neighborhood needs. Church volunteers distribute seasonal, donated clothing weekly; Malachi Center has a monthly "family clothing" distribution day. Clothing is also distributed at other times on an at-need basis.
The Metanoia Project: St. Malachi Church hosts the Metanoia Project, a seasonal overnight hospitality center for people in need during the winter months, from mid-November to mid-April to welcome, feed, and provide programming for those who need a safe space during the winter. The Metanoia Project is open on weekends and Mondays and on "bad-weather nights" (on an emergency basis). A major program is Courage to Change which enables participants to receive the support, understanding and skills they need to meet the life-challenges they are facing and move out of homelessness.
Saturday Morning Breakfast: St. Malachi hosts a breakfast every Saturday morning at 8:30 in the parish hall. The breakfast is prepared and served by a men's group from Bay Presbyterian Church.
Malachi Center Programs: the St. Malachi school building hosts many of the programs of Malachi Center during the year, including the After-School Program, Family Nights, and the Summer Program. These programs are staffed and operated by Malachi Center but hosted both at the Malachi Center building and in the parish school building.
Recovery Programs: St. Malachi hosts at least 5 12-Step meetings each week in the school building. In addition, for about 40 years, the church offers the Samaritan Ministry Addiction Awareness workshop, a full-day education program on the problem of addiction, its causes and effects, and the recovery process each spring and fall.
Related Malachi Ministries: the following ministries were begun at St. Malachi over the years by dedicated clergy, staff, parishioners and friends to meet needs of the population on the near West Side of Cleveland. These ministries became independent as they grew and flourished:
St. Malachi Center Malachi Center is a community and family resource center serving the Near West Side of Cleveland since 1985. The Center strives to empower individuals to overcome the challenges they face through educational support, social programs, and direct service.
Malachi House. A home for the dying poor and those who have no one able to care for them at the end of their life.
Urban Community School Urban Community School provides primarily low-income children from Cleveland's near west side with an individualized, innovative and challenging education. Founded and sponsored by the Ursuline Sisters of Cleveland, UCS is an ecumenical school in the Catholic tradition.
One of the flagship parish events is the St. Malachi Run, which takes place at the church and the surrounding neighborhood each March. Given the urgent need for St. Malachi to support its ministries, several representatives of the parish met earlier this year with the race operator, Hermes Road Racing, to discuss ways to generate more revenue from a race that attracts over 4,000 runners. Following those conversations, St. Malachi decided to meet with other race companies to operate the 2018 race.
After the first meeting with Hermes in February 2017, Hermes asserted that it owned the trademark over the name “St. Malachi Run.” Faced with that legal assertion, and seeking guidance on the legal merits of the claim, St. Malachi engaged an attorney, who advised the parish that St. Malachi owned the name to its run despite Hermes’s claim. Without warning, Hermes then filed a federal lawsuit against St. Malachi, which remains pending.
While the church’s attorney has donated his time and trademark expertise on a pro bono basis, St. Malachi will begin to incur legal fees to defend itself if Hermes does not drop its lawsuit. Against this backdrop, we ask humbly for your support, with any donations to this Go Fund Me account being used directly for legal fees. If any funds are not needed for legal fees, then they will be applied to our ministries.
St Malachi pledges accountability for all donations received through this Go Fund Me account. We will report exactly how we spend any donations we receive.
God bless you for considering our request to support our parish in its legal battle and ministries. We have been moved by the outpouring of support for the church and we ask you to pray for a peaceful and quick resolution to this lawsuit, and to come out and join in on the fun and festivities of our 2018 race!
Below is a link to our website and a description of our ministries is below in case you want to learn more about who we are and what we do:
http://www.stmalachi.org/
Outreach ministries of St. Malachi Church:
Backdoor Ministry: serves food daily, 8:30AM-3:00PM Monday-Saturday; 8:30-1PM Sundays & holidays. The backdoor ministry began in the 1970s informally when hungry people began knocking at the backdoor of the rectory asking for something to eat. The church has never kept statistics about how many people are served because anyone who is hungry is welcome. The number varies, but can vary from five or six dozen people to the low hundreds in a single day.
Monday Night Meal: serves a meal every Monday night at 6PM in the parish hall and serves food to the residents at the nearby CMHA High Rise. Since the late 1960s Monday Night Meal is part of a network of hot meals sponsored by several of the Churches of Shared Ministry to provide meals every night of the work week at a church; St. Malachi's meal was Monday night. Main dishes are prepared by a network of volunteer cooks and volunteers prepare the other items for a nutritious meal, serve and clean-up. Seconds are almost always served and usually more than 325 meals are provided in a given week.
Clothing Distribution Ministry: done in conjunction with Malachi Center, an independent, nonprofit social service organization originally established by St. Malachi to serve neighborhood needs. Church volunteers distribute seasonal, donated clothing weekly; Malachi Center has a monthly "family clothing" distribution day. Clothing is also distributed at other times on an at-need basis.
The Metanoia Project: St. Malachi Church hosts the Metanoia Project, a seasonal overnight hospitality center for people in need during the winter months, from mid-November to mid-April to welcome, feed, and provide programming for those who need a safe space during the winter. The Metanoia Project is open on weekends and Mondays and on "bad-weather nights" (on an emergency basis). A major program is Courage to Change which enables participants to receive the support, understanding and skills they need to meet the life-challenges they are facing and move out of homelessness.
Saturday Morning Breakfast: St. Malachi hosts a breakfast every Saturday morning at 8:30 in the parish hall. The breakfast is prepared and served by a men's group from Bay Presbyterian Church.
Malachi Center Programs: the St. Malachi school building hosts many of the programs of Malachi Center during the year, including the After-School Program, Family Nights, and the Summer Program. These programs are staffed and operated by Malachi Center but hosted both at the Malachi Center building and in the parish school building.
Recovery Programs: St. Malachi hosts at least 5 12-Step meetings each week in the school building. In addition, for about 40 years, the church offers the Samaritan Ministry Addiction Awareness workshop, a full-day education program on the problem of addiction, its causes and effects, and the recovery process each spring and fall.
Related Malachi Ministries: the following ministries were begun at St. Malachi over the years by dedicated clergy, staff, parishioners and friends to meet needs of the population on the near West Side of Cleveland. These ministries became independent as they grew and flourished:
St. Malachi Center Malachi Center is a community and family resource center serving the Near West Side of Cleveland since 1985. The Center strives to empower individuals to overcome the challenges they face through educational support, social programs, and direct service.
Malachi House. A home for the dying poor and those who have no one able to care for them at the end of their life.
Urban Community School Urban Community School provides primarily low-income children from Cleveland's near west side with an individualized, innovative and challenging education. Founded and sponsored by the Ursuline Sisters of Cleveland, UCS is an ecumenical school in the Catholic tradition.
Organizer and beneficiary
Sharon Lowe-Chapman
Organizer
Cleveland, OH
Jeanette Shemo
Beneficiary