Mind, Body, Spirit: Linking Lives for Health and Wholeness
The Faith Community Nurse Health Ministry Newsletter

Please pass along to your faith community / parish nurse.

The United Church of Christ has long supported the work of the International Criminal Court, as reflected in our 2005 General Synod resolution. Our support for the ICC is a reflection of our faith values that calls us to defend the most vulnerable, uphold human rights, and build a world in which peace and justice are intertwined (Psalm 85:10) in the vision of Just Peace.

At a time in which human rights and international institutions are under attack, we must speak out to affirm such values and institutions, asserting with clarity our commitment to building a Just World for All.

More than 65 million people, nearly one third of the U.S. population, are family caregivers that provide unpaid care for a loved one. On Thursday, October 18, Duet: Partners In Health & Aging will host the 3rd annual Family Caregiver Symposium—an event meant to equip, empower and celebrate family caregivers. The event will take place from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at First Christian Church of Phoenix, 6750 North 7th Avenue in Phoenix and costs $20 for family caregivers and $40 for professionals.

As people of faith we know that the face of God is in every refugee, asylum-seeker and sojourner in our midst, and we must make sure that our Members of Congress do everything they can to hold the Administration accountable for meeting the 45,000 refugee admissions goal for 2018 and urge the Administration to commit to resettling at least 75,000 refugees in fiscal year 2019.

Peace events, Widening the Welcome, International Day of Peace, Our Faith Our Vote, Neighbors in Need, and more.

Rev. Sandi Britton invites all to attend this free event. Be sure to stop by the Valley Hope Treatment Centers booth; she is the chaplain to the Outpatient Treatment Center of Valley Hope in Tempe, Arizona.

Arizona Faith Network is now recruiting for a permanent executive director.

Interested persons should submit their cover letter, resume/curriculum vitae and three references to the address indicated by 4 p.m. on Monday October 1, 2018.

Interfaith 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.

by 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.

Thursday, 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.

On 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.

A 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.

Image 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!

Over 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.

First 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.

A 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.