St Luke’s Episcopal Church in Jamestown has utilized its space in a multitude of ways to help local community organizations continue their services amid COVID-19. Pictured is a Census training in August. Submitted photo

The Rev. Luke Fodor knows that it will still be some time before the halls of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Jamestown will be filled with worshippers.

But, while COVID-19 has prevented big services, the congregation’s pastor will not let it prohibit it from being of service.

“We’ve wanted to find ways to continue to be of service,” he said.

In the days since the pandemic really began to show its teeth, Fodor said that the church has opened its doors to those who are uniquely in need of meeting space.

“These are a number of organizations who might not normally need space to meet but do right now,” he said, citing the Jamestown Community Learning Council, a non-profit aimed to aid the educational community in the area, as one example.

“They help families in need and they are helping make parents into educators right now with everybody home,” said Fodor.”They’re dispersed throughout the school districts and really have no place to meet as a staff, but they can’t gather in the schools so they asked if they could meet here.”

The JCLC meets a couple of times a month using the recently renovated undercroft.

“That allows them to be face-to-face so they can be supportive of essential workers and families,” Fodor noted.

The organization has been grateful for the space.

“Due to the pandemic, our agency could no longer hold monthly staff meetings in our office space and properly socially distance,” Krista Camarata, executive director, said. “We have had plenty of room at St. Luke’s to distance ourselves and maintain safety precautions while holding smaller meetings each month.”

Fodor also donated the proceeds from the church’s thrift store — $1,000 in total — to help the organization purchase books for the families that are served.

“Our home visitors give out books each month to children so this was a wonderful surprise,” she said.

The JCLC is not the only organization to have benefited from St. Luke’s. Chautauqua County’s Human Services department has also utilized the space.

“They’ve had supervised visitations here,” he said. “The Christmas season is when kids are looking to connect with families, but court ordered separations are still in effect. How do you see your child during this time? Over Zoom doesn’t really cut it and there really have not been many places to meet. We opened our doors to them.”

With an eye on safety, Fodor is just grateful for the opportunity to continue to serve the greater community.

“We want to use our resources if we can and make them available in the community,” he said. “That’s what our job is supposed to be as people of faith.”