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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 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, PUBLICITY
SACRED CONVERSATIONS ON RACE 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 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 Offering
In
a time of war...WE ARE PEACEMAKERS 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 excellent Wage 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
During an emergency, make
checks payable to NCNCUCC, and mark it
clearly on the memo line for the crisis
to which you are responding. Send your
check to:
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) Communities
of Compassion Confronting Genocide
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?")
Proclaim
Liberty Throughout the Land
Clergy
For Fairness
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 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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[Home] [Who We Are] [Churches] [Worship and Prayer] this page last updated on January 23, 2009 5:10 PM |
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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.
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! 
