Justice & Witness Index (from our old site)
JUSTICE AND WITNESS, MISSION AND ACTION
The United Church of Christ is a justice-loving, peacemaking, open and affirming church, long an activist church, full of concerned Christians who take action in response to suffering and need. On this page, we will post news and opportunities for action and ministry that relate to the many concerns we share as people of the Spirit. Please let us know if there are links or text you would like to add to these Justice and Witness / Mission and Action / Peacemaking pages!
ECUMENICAL ADVOCACY NETWORK ON THE PHILIPPINESPLEASE SIGN THIS URGENT REQUEST CONCERNING HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN THE PHILIPPINES
January, 2009 • Your help is urgently needed to support conditions and restrictions on a Foreign Military Aid Package for the Philippines that is coming before Congress in only a few weeks. Here, you will find a Letter of Concern that is addressed to all members of the US House of Representatives and the US Senate that asks our representatives help keep the pressure on the Philippine government concerning extrajudicial killings and other human rights violations against civil society groups in the Philippines. With the support from you and many others, The Ecumenical Advocacy Network was able to obtain over 300 signatures on a Letter of Concern in 2007, which urged attaching Human Rights conditions and funding restrictions to US military aid to the Philippines. We were able to get human rights restrictions in the bill for Fiscal Year (FY) 2008. While deaths and disappearances have been reduced, the original conditions that were in the military aid package for FY 2008 were not met by the Philippine government. With the arrival of the new administration in Washington, we have a new opportunity to obtain implementation of the original conditions and additional restrictions on military aid. In the weeks and months ahead, we will be conducting a campaign to accomplish those goals. The first step is to send the Letter of Concern to the House and Senate membership, and we need your help in getting signatures. Following that, we will be focusing our efforts on members of House and Senate Appropriations Committees and their subcommittees, and we will need help in contacting key members of those committees at critical times in the process of writing and passage the FY 2010 bill. Can you help us with this first step in getting the signatures of faith leaders, civic organizations, educators, academicians, writers, labor leaders, and human rights advocates? Signers do not need to have organizational support, as they can sign and include their affiliations for identification purposes. Please send names of signatories to office@ncncucc.org by Wednesday., February 4, 2009. Thank you again for your dedication and commitment.
EVENTS, STATEMENTS, PUBLICITYRELIGIOUS VOICES AGAINST PROPOSITION 8
SACRED CONVERSATIONS ON RACE SPIN, SPIRIT AND SOUNDBYTES ON RACE, WRIGHT AND POLITICS
On Sunday, May 18, many pastors across the UCC offered sermons on race in hopes of beginning a sacred conversation, a dialogue that is needed in our pews, our homes and the hallways of power across our country. After May 18, congregations are encouraged to develop a months-long process in order to set aside the necessary time and attention needed to structure a sacred conversation about race.
Mission Statement To learn more about the NCNC Justice & Witness Board, check out our Brochure. (Please feel free to download, print and distribute!)
Assisting congregations seeking funding for justice and witness programs JUSTICE AND WITNESS GRANT PRINCIPLES
Is your congregation interested in starting a program in your community to deal with health care for the poor? Or to raise up issues of economic justice? Hunger action? Disparities in education? Peace education or environmental justice or underemployment? …here are the guidelines you need to apply to the NCNCUCC Justice and Witness Ministries for a grant.
The UCC’s Annual Justice & Witness All-Church OfferingNeighbors in Need - offering information
In a time of war…WE ARE PEACEMAKERS NCNC WAR AWARENESS
Iraqi and Afghani families, even more than our own, are grieving and fearful. We in the United Church of Christ are peacemakers. What do we do, as war becomes an everyday reality? How do we keep from becoming numb and oblivious? Reaffirming the NCNCUCC as a Just Peace Church - Position Statement of our Annual Meeting, May, 2003. UCC Justice and Witness Ministries Endorses National Peace Campaign Wage Peace Campaign - Check out the American Friends Service Committee’s peace pages. While you’re there, be sure to view the AFSC’s excellentWage Peace Movie, Eyes Wide Open (A short, 2 minute movie to see, and a petition to sign: "Tell the President and the Congress: Bring the troops home now.")
OPPORTUNITY FOR MINISTRY EMERGENCY RELIEF & DISASTER RESPONSE
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Whenever disaster strikes, many of our churches respond immediately with extra financial gifts through the Northern California Nevada Conference United Church of Christ. Our gifts are routed quickly through the UCC’s Wider Church Ministries, One Great Hour of Sharing and/or Church World Service, all of which are on alert and ready to send help immediately wherever and whenever there is a crisis. Every dollar goes directly for emergency relief.|
UCC Disaster Response HURRICANE RELIEF IS ONGOING
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OCTOBER 2007 UPDATE - Our United Church of Christ had a goal of raising $3 million from members and congregations to support long-term hurricane relief, recovery and rehabilitation. So far, over 6 million dollars has been raised!
Over but not Forgotten
EARTH STEWARDS CONFERENCE, OCTOBER 28, 2006
Over 70 people gathered at the First Congregational Church of Sonoma, UCC for the Northern California Nevada Conference’s Earth Steward’s gathering held on October 28th.
The Conference is over, but there’s lots of work yet to do! Check out the pictures and a report, "From ‘Cheater Economics’ to ‘Eco-Economy’" by Veda Lewis. (On the Sonoma UCC website)
Go to Earth Stewards web pages
Communities of Compassion Confronting Genocide
DEAR SUDAN,
Tim Nonn, member of our Petaluma United Church of Christ, had a wake-up call in 2004 - something HAD to be done to stop the genocide in Darfur, Sudan.
From the website: "It began in Petaluma, California as ‘Dear Sudan, Love Petaluma,’ a local interfaith campaign to support humanitarian relief in the Darfur region of Sudan. The goal: raise enough money to feed 55,000 refugees for one day—equal to the population of Petaluma. Since each Sudanese refugee requires only 16 cents per day for food provided through a program supported by Church World Service, the goal was $8,800.
"The ‘Dear Sudan, Love Petaluma,’ campaign surpassed this goal, raising over $10,000 in 2004! These funds were sent directly to Church World Service, meaning that 65,000 displaced Sudanese have food for one more day…(continued on the Dear Sudan, website, "How did it start?")
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Please help with the Crisis in Sudan:
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Tim Nonn and Petaluma UCC got it started. Others are joining in. Here’s info from Rev. Laura Barnes about what they are doing in the Danville UCC: "Tim has continued to inspire so many of us to get (and stay) involved with these issues in Sudan. We are now connected to a Sudanese family who live in SF. They literally escaped Sudan and survived in a Ugandan refugee camp for years. They have just recently been reunited as a family. They came to worship with us at DCC on June 4, 2006, all 11 of them, and we got to meet with them, eat lunch together and hear their stories. I have a list of things that the family needs to survive their transition here in the Bay Area. "I have been so very personally touched by their stories, their courage and their faith, that I want to offer them as much support as possible." Laura |
Proclaim Liberty Throughout the Land
Jubilee Congregations
- NCNCUCC introductory letter - BECOMING A JUBILEE CHURCH
- 2004 NCNCUCC POSITION STATEMENT - DECLARING THE NCNC/UCC TO BE A JUBILEE CONFERENCE
- Northern California Nevada Conference UCC Jubilee congregations
- NCNC Contact information
- Click here to go to the JubileeUSA website. "Jubilee Congregations seeks to grow the voice and moral presence of faith communities in the struggle to break the chains of debt in the developing world…."
Clergy For Fairness
CLERGY GROUP OPPOSES CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT
Clergy for Fairness is an ad-hoc coalition of clergy and religious leaders from a number of religious backgrounds. They have united their efforts to oppose passage of the Federal Marriage Amendment out of a deep desire to preserve religious liberty and to oppose writing discrimination into the Constitution.
They have established a website - http://clergyforfairness.org/ - to organize clergy members and religious leaders who strongly oppose any attempt to write discrimination into the United States Constitution. Despite the fact that similar legislation failed in both the House and Senate in the last Congress, the Federal Marriage Amendment (also known as the so-called “Marriage Protection Amendment”) has been reintroduced. More than 100 national organizations oppose this extreme amendment to the Constitution, including many national religious groups.
If you are a clergy member or religious leader, go to http://clergyforfairness.org/ to join the fight to stand up for individual rights and religious liberty. Add your name to the growing list of Americans who oppose writing discrimination into our Constitution. In addition, read the joint letter from national denominations and religious groups opposing the Federal Marriage Amendment. As of May 23, 2006, 1,618 clergy members and religious leaders have signed the Open Letter to the U.S. Senate.
33rd Anniversary of Roe v. Wade
"PRO-CHOICE" "PRO-LIFE" "ROE v. WADE"
by Mary Susan Gast, Conference Minister
As a society we have never passed legislation to require fathers or mothers, brothers or sisters to donate bone marrow or a kidney to a family member, even if such a donation is the only action that will keep the needy person alive. We do not intrude, although lives are at stake. Instead, we assume that the potential donor will weigh the action and make a responsible choice. And we offer support no matter what the decision. Not so, though, when the “donation” is 9 months during which… (more)
"Madonna and Child" courtesy of Keith A. Rosko
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