CANARYVILLE — At the Union Avenue United Methodist Church, the ambition for community service greatly outnumbers the size of its congregation, currently hovering around 15.
But the 139-year-old neighborhood institution, popular for its longstanding weekly food pantry program, is struggling to stay afloat.
"The water is right up to here, brother," said Ray Carey, the church's longtime caretaker, laying his index finger across the bridge of his nose. "It's gotten to the point where we can't pay our bills anymore. It's just overwhelming. The bills keep coming."
Now, a group of neighborhood bikers is hoping to raise enough money to rescue the church from the cusp of extinction with the "Help Ray Save the M.E." party, featuring kegs of beer, food vendors, chance raffles and more. The "M.E." is a nickname bestowed to the church during its Methodist-Episcopalian days.
"They've done everything in the world for the neighborhood. It's about time the neighborhood does a little something for them," said Tommy Jones, director of the Canaryville Veterans Riders Association, a biker group comprised of U.S. military veterans.
The party takes place 2-8 p.m. July 19 along 43rd Place, between Union and Emerald Avenue, where the bikers hang out in Jones' garage. Admission is $20 and includes tap beer and food. Kids eat free.
From their vantage point, the bikers watch hundreds of people streaming into the church at 4356 S. Union Ave. each Wednesday for the food pantry, where volunteers help dole out the food to about 140 families.
The food, totaling several thousand pounds each week, is supplied weekly by the Greater Chicago Food Depository. Carey, 67, delivers boxes to shut-ins, the elderly and the sick.
"I watch Ray run with his own vehicle 15 to 20 times a day to the people who can't get there. He just keeps giving and giving," said Jones, 46, a Canaryville cement mason.
The church, built with philanthropic help from the Swift & Co. meatpacking empire that began in the nearby Union Stock Yards, was once a magnet for area kids, a place to play darts, shoot pool and bowl in the downstairs alley.
Though modest, the upstairs parish — with its Johnson & Son organ that instrument historians say may rank among the city’s oldest — survived with a small but loyal congregation.
But the building eventually fell into disrepair, the pews began to empty and the state-grants for youth programs have all dried up.
Now, the maroon-brick building survives with a few sources of funding: a $2,000-some annual stipend from YouthWorks, a nationwide ministry program that sends young people to help out, plus a patchwork of random donations from the community.
It's not nearly enough to pay the bills, Carey said, particularly after a brutal winter when heating and other utility costs skyrocketed. They've let those bills lapse.
"It was just so cold and it lasted so long," Carey said.
Tithing from the parishioners is virtually nonexistent — just two or three parishioners in the working-class neighborhood are able to give regularly.
And recruiting new parishioners the the Methodist church in the predominantly Irish-Catholic neighborhood can be a challenge.
The Rev. Annie Gonzalez, the church's pastor since 2010, said "size doesn't matter."
"For me, it's a great place. I see God at work all the time, and people are so committed and so faithful. I'm sorry to quote you Scripture, that's what I do, but the word says that if we have faith the size of a mustard seed we can move mountains," she said.
Carey, a lifelong Canaryville resident who was married at the church, said the church is surviving on that sort of faith and little else.
"I think the Big Guy is going to step in because I think he likes what we're doing here. I feel that somehow, some way we'll stay open," he said.
For more information on the party, see the event's Facebook page.
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