Faith In Action
Sign a Faith Letter to the Biden Administration: Urge the administration to set the FY 2022 Refugee Admissions Goal at 200,000 by signing this letter. Faith leaders and individual people of faith, sign here. Faith organizations, sign here.
The United States refugee resettlement infrastructure was decimated over the past four years and is in urgent need of investment and restoration.
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Tell Congress: Support the Philippine Human Rights Act
As people of faith in the US, we urge members of the US Congress to end all assistance to the Philippine military and the Philippine National Police, to pass the Philippine Human Rights Act, and to hold hearings in the Senate Foreign Relations and House Foreign Affairs Committees to assess what impact continued support for the Duterte Administration has on the people of the Philippines.
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from Arizona Faith Network:
The Arizona Faith Network is excited to invite you to join us for our 2021 Annual Meeting. We will gather virtually to pray, connect, and redefine justice together through the lenses of hope, healing, and humanity. Reserve your spot or sign up to be a sponsor today!
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Neighbors in Need (NIN) is a special mission offering of the United Church of Christ that supports ministries of justice and compassion throughout the United States. This year, special consideration will be given to projects focusing on serving our immigrant neighbors and communities.
Most UCC congregations will receive the NIN offering on October 3, 2021 as part of their World Communion Sunday observance.
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Everywhere, natural disasters are on the increase as Earth’s climate warms. UCC Disaster Ministries is looking for churches that will declare themselves “ready and willing” to respond.
Read MoreAs a justice-seeking people, we cannot remain silent while state laws transform us into a map of “haves and have-nots” with regard to access to reproductive health services. Protecting access to the full range of reproductive health care for all – including safe, legal abortion – is an imperative rooted in our deeply-held faith beliefs in social justice, moral agency, and religious liberty for all. Please contact your member of Congress to support passage of the Women’s Health Protection Act so any person is able to make their own medical decisions based on their values and with the consultation of their medical team, and without barriers imposed by economic status, employment status, or zip code.
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The United Church of Christ Mental Health Network has compiled some videos from Rev. Dr. Rachael Keefe, their board member and vice-chair, along with other resources for suicide prevention awareness. The UCC MHN hopes and prays that you will find the resources useful and helpful as we continue to navigate our current way of life with COVID-19. September is National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month.
Click here to access the web page with these valuable resources.
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Wednesday, October 13, 10 am AZ/11 am NM&EP
One of the best resources of the environmental justice movement today is its own history. Leading scholars in the field of environmental justice have described the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit as one of the most significant events in the movement's history. It was an event hosted and organized by the UCC’s Commission for Racial Justice. In 1991, this summit literally re-defined the word “environment."
Read MoreNew Mexico folks: Barb received this letter last week from Sr. Joan Brown, Executive Director of New Mexico Interfaith Power and Light and offers it for your consideration. Pass it on to anyone in your congregations that might be interested. View the letter here. To add your name, please send your name, faith affiliation or position and city to joan@nm-ipl.org.
Read MoreThe United Church of Christ Global H.O.P.E. team is pleased to share their inaugural e-news with information and resources from across the team.
Read their first newsletter here.
Read MoreThis isn’t the first severe storm this year and we can be reasonably sure it won’t be the last.
What’s the best way to help now? Send money. UCC Disaster Response and Recovery Minister Lesli Remaly said of Hurricane Ida, “For a storm this size, money makes good sense as we know long-term recovery and rebuilding will be necessary.”
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As a response to the emergency needs of both Hurricane Ida victims and Afghanistan refugees, Arizona Faith Network has published a page of Disaster Response and Refugee Aid Resources on the AFN website. Most of the links are to programs of faith partners, both local and national, and if you have others they should include, please email them to contactus@azfaithnetwork.org.
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As a denomination committed to welcoming the stranger and loving our neighbors, the United Church of Christ and its congregations are once again under a special call, in this case to welcome Afghan SIVs and to advocate for them and other Afghan refugees.
This toolkit is offered to help congregations discern their particular call at this critical time.
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The UCC’s next Creation Justice Webinar will feature one of the leading voices in environmentalism over recent decades: James Gustave Speth.
Even if you can’t make the scheduled time of 1 pm ET on Wednesday, September 8th, still sign-up, and we will send you a recording.
Read More“What if this was the moment we made America a safe home for all refugees? What if we turned America into a place where refugees were not banned or detained or caged at the border, but welcomed with support and solidarity? What if we began to reckon with the impact of our nation's actions globally -- and chose consistent repair? Imagine America as a place that sees no stranger. It would be nothing less than revolutionary. “
How to take action:
Read MoreStop six bills from becoming law...your signature is needed
Perhaps you’ve heard that there are efforts underway to delay and potentially stop six controversial bills from becoming law, all passed by the Arizona State Legislature this past session.
Six petitions are circulating, but time is short. In order to successfully refer each of six referendums to the 2022 ballot, giving voters the right to decide if Arizona enacts a 2.5 percent flat tax, implements the already voter-approved Prop 208, and blocks further voter restrictions in our state, circulators need to turn in 150,000 valid signatures for each petition by Sept. 28.
Here’s where you come in!
Read MoreThis seven-week course aims to shed new light on old truths. It begins September 6, hosted by Ministers for Racial, Social, and Economic Justice and United Black Christians.
Read MoreMondays (bi-weekly) September 13 - December 6, 6:30 - 8:00 p.m. via Zoom
Join people of faith as we study Isabel Wilkerson's masterful portrait of an unseen racial justice phenomenon in America. "Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents" is an eye-opening story of people and history, and a reexamination of what lies under the surface of ordinary lives and of American life today.
She tells us stories about real people, how America today and throughout its history has been shaped by a hidden caste system—a rigid hierarchy of human rankings.
As the United States withdraws from Afghanistan, tens of thousands of at-risk Afghans are in imminent danger, as attacks from the Taliban on Afghan nationals have increased and violence against Afghan women and children is at an all-time high. Action must be taken now to ensure the United States evacuates vulnerable Afghans for as long as it takes, create safe pathways out of Afghanistan toward protection, and evacuate all all at-risk Afghans to U.S. territory.
Here are the top ways to take action TODAY.
Read MoreWe call on our policy makers to own our failure to draw this conflict to an end sooner, and we urge them to invest in peace-building, humanitarian support, diplomatic engagement, and expansion of access to the U.S. resettlement program to provide refuge for Afghans fleeing violence and persecution.
We invite you to join us in these action steps.
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