My name is Bill Lyons and I am the faith leader for the United Church of Christ in the Southwest – Arizona, New Mexico and El Paso, Texas. I am here today because the Bible has much to say about how people treat parentless children. None of what the Bible says includes caging or criminalizing them. The Bible calls us to CARE for children – all children – especially parentless children. Care, not cages! Care, not detention! Care, not family separation. Care! Family separation and child detention traumatizes children rather than caring for them. It must stop.
This is what caring for kids looks like:
Read MoreInterfaith Power & Light, United Church of Christ, and United Methodist Women are working on a campaign to support the Clean Car Standards. This effort is focusing on the Ford Motor Co. and some details are in this article along with a link to the petition (where there is a sign up button for individuals and a sign up button for clergy and faith organization leaders).
We’ve got one week to get as many additional signers as possible. Feel free to send this along to other state-based faith organizations for high level clergy and (faith) organizational leader sign-on.
We’re working with Michigan Interfaith Power & Light to deliver the petition to Ford later in September, so we need all sign-ons by Sept. 20th.
Read Moreby Trish Herron, St. Paul's UCC
Saturday the 25th of August, St. Paul’s was represented by four people interested in finding out how justice for immigrants in New Mexico was faring.
Read MoreThursday, September 20, 2018, 6:30 – 8:30 PM MST
Church of the Beatitudes, Nelson Hall
555 West Glendale Avenue, Phoenix, AZ 85021
This session examines religious intolerance and how people of faith can resist intolerance in a constructive way. Sponsored by Arizona Faith Network Theological Dialogue Commission and Next Steps Subcommittee, this session will include an open dialogue where we will discuss the reasons why we so often demonize others, the ways our faith traditions contribute to or challenge intolerance, and whether or not there are limits to tolerance. Participants will be asked to commit to adopting one or more actions to resist intolerance in their daily lives.
Read MoreOn a steamy morning in the Arizona sunshine, more than 50 people of faith walked in the footsteps of migrants who traversed the Sonoran Desert in search of a better life. The UCC's Faithful Witness at the Border participants braved 100 degree temperatures on a hike of more than a mile to mark a journey that sometimes ends in death.
Read MoreA brave woman and mother from Central America shared her family's story with a group of migrant justice advocates from several Conferences and Churches across the the United Church of Christ over dinner last week. The conversation with almost 100 people, brought together by the Southwest Conference's Faithful Witness at the Border, took place over a shared meal at the host church, Good Shepherd United Church of Christ, Sahuarita, Ariz.
Read MoreImage credits: Martha Phillips, Rebecca Dickinson, Rev. Traci Blackmon, Rev. Bekah Krevens, Rev. Kelley Dick, and Rev. Jay Deskins
Do you have photos for this gallery? Submit them to Wende!
Read MoreOver one hundred church people from a mix of denominations, from all over the country - clergy and lay people gathered at the Good Shepherd UCC and on both sides of the border. This Witness at the Border program is a response to the separation of migrant and asylum seeker families, and the public outcry for action to support these families, to stop the separations at the border, and place pressure on our elected officials to stop the violence perpetrated on this vulnerable population by our US immigration policies and practices.
Read MoreFirst Church UCC is partnering with The Islamic Speakers Bureau of Arizona for the 7th Annual Multi-faith Food Drive to support two small food banks, the Cultural Cup Food Bank and Extended Hands Food Bank.
Read MoreA service of communion on the Mexico side of the United States Border Wall on Tuesday, August 28, underscored the stark realities of current U.S. immigration policies and border militarization for more than 80 people of several faith traditions participating in the United Church of Christ’s Faithful Witness at the Border. Hours following that sacred vigil, a time of witness, with a demonstration at the U.S. Border Patrol Offices in Nogales, Ariz., as participants prayed for the detained children, their parents, border patrol agents and issued a moral demand — that families be reunited.
Read MoreMore than 100 people from seven Conferences in the United Church of Christ, joined by members of three ecumenical partner Churches, are converging on the border town of Sahuarita, Ariz., for several days of study and service around immigrant justice.
The Rev. Bill Lyons, Conference Minister of the Southwest Conference UCC, the Rev. Randy Mayer, pastor of the host church, Good Shepherd UCC, and a half dozen members of the National Staff welcomed a majority of the participants during a Sunday evening supper August 26, to talk through understandings of Border/Immigration Ministries, review current U.S. immigration policy, and to share an itinerary that includes a trip to Nogales, Sonora, Mex., a communion service at the Border Wall, and a walk along migrant trails in the desert.
Read MoreSanctuary
A new play by Milta Ortiz, directed by Marc David Pinate
Presented site specifically at Southside Presbyterian Church
317 W 23rd Street, Tucson, AZ 85713
September 6-23, 2018
Based on real people and events, Sanctuary chronicles the Tucson birth of the 1980s Sanctuary Movement.
Read MoreThe FAQs for A Week of Faithful Witness at the Border have moved to a separate post. If you’re attending the event, be sure to check back often so you don’t miss any updates.
Read MoreSaturday, September 8, 2018, 9 a.m. – 1 p.m.
Bridge & 8th Street, and Dolores Huerta Gateway Park
The weekend before San Francisco’s Global Climate Action Summit, the Peoples Climate Movement will lead a national mobilization for climate, jobs, and justice.
Read MoreMany people have asked us, “What can we do beyond giving money?”
Join the Southwest Conference August 26 – 30 for a week of faithful witness at the border.
Read MoreOne of the best predictors of success in life is education. It’s true in the United States; it’s true pretty much everywhere around the world. That’s why for the past fifteen years members of The Good Shepherd UCC in Sahuarita, Arizona have been investing in the education of young people in Guatemala.
Read MoreRev. Talitha Arnold has been asked to be a presenter for an expert panel on the “Role of Faith Communities with Persons with Serious Mental Illnesses,” in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, September 12.
Read MoreThe past twelve months have been very challenging for communities served by the UCC Disaster Ministries. Hurricanes. Floods. Fires. Tornados. Some suggest that due to climate change and other factors this is the “new norm”. The danger in that thinking is to become complacent. Our Disaster Ministries staff and volunteers have not been complacent but actively engaged in our communities. Below are some updates from California to the Virgin Islands. On behalf of our whole Disaster Ministries Team across the country I encourage you and your congregation to consider supporting our efforts (in fact, making them your efforts as well) in one or more of the following ways.
Read MoreThe Southwest Conference was one of the amici in this case.
Three weeks ago, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the so-called Sanctuary Cities Executive Order unconstitutional. The Court found that federal funding could be withheld only with congressional authorization, and that the Executive Branch may not refuse to disperse federal grants without congressional authorization. Such a withholding would violate the constitutional separation of powers.
Read MoreShepherd of the Hills is excited to announce their new partnership with Arizona State University Project Humanities, and host what they hope to be the first of many conversations.
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