Winchester’s Parish of the Epiphany receives social justice award

From Massachusetts-

Every month for the past two years, members of Winchester’s Parish of the Epiphany, along with other faith groups, have gathered at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center in Boston and Burlington to pray, sing, and hold signs of support for the detainees. From inside the building, the detainees pressed signs against the windows, saying “thank you” and “we love you,” acknowledging parishioners’ presence.

But the social justice work of the Parish of the Epiphany isn’t limited to immigration; neither is it new -- the Winchester church has been active in social justice work since the 1960s.

In June, the parish’s long commitment to social justice was recognized with an award from the Episcopal City Mission, a faith-based organization that works with local groups on social and economic justice projects. The award, called the M. Thomas Shaw Award for Social and Economic Justice, pays tribute to the legacy and justice work of Rev. Thomas Shaw, a former bishop of the Diocese of Massachusetts who died in 2014 of cancer. The previous recipients of the award are the Church of the Holy Spirit in Mattapan, Diocese of Massachusetts Creation Care, Boston Warm Day Centers, and Grace Episcopal Church in Medford.

More here-

https://winchester.wickedlocal.com/news/20190906/winchesters-parish-of-epiphany-receives-social-justice-award

Bishop Michael Curry Talks Faith, Love and Social Justice

From D.C.-

The first thing one notices about Bishop Michael B. Curry is his smile and laugh. That smile and easy laugh welcomed everyone to a conversation at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture about his new book, “The Power of Love: Sermons, Reflections, and Wisdom to Uplift and Inspire.”

The setting was a conversation with Michel Martin, host of NPR’s “All Things Considered.” The book contains the full sermon Curry preached at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle (now the Duke and Duchess of Sussex). Two billion people watched that wedding. The sermon gave Curry global presence beyond the Episcopal Church in America. The book also has four of his favorite sermons on the themes of love and social justice.

Curry has a lot of titles with the Episcopal Church. He is the 27th presiding bishop and primate of the Episcopal Church. Additionally, Curry holds the titles chief pastor, president and chief executive officer and chair of the Executive Council of The Episcopal Church.

More here-

https://washingtoninformer.com/bishop-michael-curry-talks-faith-love-and-social-justice/

The royal wedding made Episcopal Bishop Michael Curry a superstar. Can the religious left translate that into political change?

From The Washington Post-

Jane Dealy was one of 1,000 progressive Christians standing in front of the White House Thursday night, all holding tiny candles and saying “Jesus” in unison in the direction of America’s seat of power. Dealy had wanted for weeks to attend the vigil, but only felt confident to say yes last weekend, when she heard a certain wedding sermon.

Along with the rest of the world, Dealy heard the sermon Episcopal Bishop Michael Curry gave at the royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, a passionate, positive, Jesus-filled homily about love as a healing balm for the world.

“That was it!” Dealy, 78, beamed from the White House plaza, after the vigil, “I said, ‘I’m going down there!’ ” Her primary concern is the prejudice stirred up in the United States in the last couple years, “and Bishop Curry can change people’s hearts. He’s done more for Christianity [with the wedding sermon] than anyone I can remember.”

More here-

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2018/05/25/the-royal-wedding-made-episcopal-bishop-michael-curry-a-superstar-can-the-religious-left-translate-that-into-political-change/?utm_term=.64a76c4379d7

Biblical Responsibility for the Poor: Individual or Communal?

From Huffington-

In response to criticisms of new tax regulations passed by Congress, conservative writer and radio host Erick Erickson wrote on Twitter: “The Bible teaches it is an individual responsibility to help the poor. Shame on those who’d pass off their personal obligation to the government.” In other words, Erickson, like many other conservatives, believes that the Bible rejects government programs to help alleviate poverty. As Jack Jenkins has shown, over the past half-century prominent conservative evangelical Christians adopted free-market economic principles as a core principle of their faith. This new free-market fundamentalism has fast become a central tenet of the Republican party.

Unfortunately for them, it’s a sentiment that God has promised to judge harshly (Exod 22:21-27). One of the Bible’s most pervasive and defining claims is that the community is responsible for the welfare of all who reside in it—particularly the poor and vulnerable. The Bible’s idea of justice doesn’t ignore individual responsibility. It goes far beyond it.

More here-

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/biblical-responsibility-for-the-poor-individual-or_us_5a24ef7de4b0545e64bf94c2

Evangelical pastor who has promoted social justice steps down from leading megachurch

From Christian Century-

Megachurch pastor Joel Hunter, who tried to lead evangelicals toward more moderate positions on issues such as climate change and immigration, is stepping down as leader of Northland, in Florida.

In a public letter he said that God was calling him to “a new season of ministry outside the four walls of the church.”

He has led Northland for more than 30 years, during which time it grew from 200 to 15,000 members. For the past two decades, Hunter urged his fellow evangelicals to make common cause with other faith communities on issues on which they could agree, such as human trafficking, homelessness, hunger, and prison reform.

“He is true to evangelical core values and at the same time rethinks responses based upon a changing world,” said Steven Engel, rabbi of the Congregation of Reform Judaism in Orlando. 

More here-

https://www.christiancentury.org/article/evangelical-pastor-who-has-promoted-social-justice-steps-down

Social Justice Is a Christian Tradition — Not a Liberal Agenda

From Sojourners-

Many Christians are wary of participating in social justice because of a deep-rooted fear of being labeled “liberal,” “progressive,” or “secular.” They don’t want to be associated with “secular” movements, and are uncomfortable delving into issues that go beyond their cultural comfort zones.

But the Bible tells us that Jesus cared deeply about the social causes around him.

Instead of saying all lives matter, Jesus said, “Samaritan lives matter.”
Instead of saying all lives matter, Jesus said, “Children’s lives matter.”
Instead of saying all lives matter, Jesus said, “Gentile lives matter.”
Instead of saying all lives matter, Jesus said, “Jewish lives matter.”
Instead of saying all lives matter, Jesus said, “Women’s lives matter.”
Instead of saying all lives matter, Jesus said, “Lepers’ lives matter.”

Even though Jesus loves everyone, even to the point of dying for their sins, he went out of his way to intentionally help specific groups of people — the alienated, mistreated, and those facing injustice.

More here-

https://sojo.net/articles/social-justice-christian-tradition-not-liberal-agenda

Episcopal diocese 'Not Only With Our Lips' urges voting, advocacy, evaluation of politicans

From Western Massachusetts-

The Episcopal Diocese of Western Massachusetts has issued a document urging its members and others to vote, advocate for equality and justice, and evaluate political candidates and policies against those values.

"The gap between rich and power has never been greater," the document states. It adds, "Now more than ever the world needs an effective Christian social witness."

More here-

http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2014/09/episcopal_diocese.html

Ministry puts pastor face-to-face with 21st century slaves

From Iowa (written by an Episcopal priest)

Human trafficking sounds like something that happens in third world countries to nameless, poverty-stricken foreigners, but the truth of it is human trafficking happens right here in the Quad-City area, every day.

My ministry puts me in Quad-City places where I’ve met many women who tell me they’ve been bought and sold.

Here are two real stories from women I met in our community.

The first I’ll call Karen. She was born is Asia and was brought to this country by promises of a job as a maid or seamstress. Once here, she learned quickly that she would have no say in her life. Karen was raped repeatedly and taught that she was damaged goods and could not go home. Worse, she was told there was no one in the U.S. who cared or wanted to help. She had been sold four or five times by the time I met her and learned her story.

Her eyes always looked past me, making sure her handler wouldn’t catch her speaking with a priest. Her slaver made her have sex for money with any man or woman who would pay. Her slaver had bought her and her debts from another man. For her to earn her freedom, she had to pay off that debt.
More here-


http://qctimes.com/news/opinion/editorial/columnists/guest/ministry-puts-pastor-face-to-face-with-st-century-slaves/article_d3e27ad4-5b97-11e2-9eac-0019bb2963f4.html

Archbishop of Cape Town leads 1000 in procession of witness

From ENS-

Archbishop of Cape Town Thabo Makgoba on Nov. 25 led one thousand people in a Procession of Witness to kick-start South Africa’s 16 Days of Activism for no violence against women and children.

Through joining the act of public witness — from Keizersgracht Square to St. Georges Cathedral, Cape Town — Makgoba underlined his backing for the annual, government-supported campaign.
The international theme for 2012 is From Peace in the Home to Peace in the World: Let’s Challenge Militarism and End Violence Against Women. Makgoba is firmly committed to increasing awareness of abuse and to developing effective support for victims and survivors of abuse, according to a press release from HOPE Africa, the social development department of the Anglican Diocese of Cape Town.

Makgoba invited men, women and young people, representatives of business, government, NGOs, religious leaders and members of the media to join him in the procession of witness. “The Anglican Church of Southern Africa recognizes that not all men are abusers, and therefore warmly invites these men to stand up and be counted, and to join in sending a strong message to abusers out there, saying ‘Not in our name,’” the press release said.

More here-

http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/ens/2012/11/26/archbishop-of-cape-town-leads-1000-in-procession-of-witness/

Clerics sometimes break the law in the pursuit of justice

From ENS-

The Rev. Jack Stanton is a veteran of civil rights and Vietnam War demonstrations. But he went one step further in May when he volunteered to be arrested during a protest on behalf of casino workers fired for union organizing in Hallandale Beach, Florida.

Other clergy, including Episcopalians, also marched in the demonstration. “I took the extra step of volunteering to be arrested because I thought it would call more attention to what we were doing, and it proved to be so,” said Stanton, 75, priest associate at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Miami. He was arrested along with the Rev. Richard Aguilar, another priest in the Diocese of Southwest Florida who since has left parish ministry to work as a union organizer. “We were a photo op.”

More here-

http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/ens/2012/09/17/clerics-sometimes-break-the-law-in-the-pursuit-of-justice/

Church’s New Rector Sees Social Justice as His Spiritual Mission

From California-

“This is it,” the Rev. Dan Justin told me over the phone. “I’m here for as long as they’ll have me.”

Father Dan invited me to film him vesting for the Sunday service. He joked about sliding his monastic alb over his hairless pate.

Taking the pulpit for the first time at St. Michael & All Angels last Sunday, the rector seemed serene and confident. His new congregation opened the service with a procession in his honor, featuring representatives from every church ministry, from vestry to choir to solar outreach.

Justin comes relatively late in life to the Episcopal priesthood. Now 39, he spent 15 years in a career in higher education recruitment before he “discerned a call to the ministry” and put it to his church’s discernment committee.

“A priest is raised up by his community,” he explained, “people recognizing that call with you.”

After obtaining a Master of Divinity degree at the southern California campus of San Francisco Theological Seminary, Justin was sponsored for ordination by All Saints’ Episcopal Church in Beverly Hills, then completed his Ministry Study Year at St. John’s Cathedral in Los Angeles where he was ordained in 2009.

More here-

http://shermanoaks.patch.com/articles/the-reverend-f-c-daniel-justin-celebrates-his-first-holy-eucharist-at-st-michael-all-angels-episcopal-church#video-9066174

St. Mark's Cathedral to Occupy Seattle: No room in the parking lot

From Seattle-

St. Mark's Cathedral, while professing its love for social justice, has denied a request by Occupy Seattle to pitch tents as "offices" in the cathedral's parking lot, a few blocks north of the movement's recent Seattle Central Community College encampment.

The pre-Christmas no-room-in-the-parking-lot decision was made by St. Mark's governing Vestry, which has in the past allowed the Tent City homeless encampment to pitch multiple tents in the lot of the Episcopal cathedral.

"The heart of the cathedral community is in social justice, but legal and financial constraints made it unrealistic for us to approve the request," said the Rev. Canon Rebecca McClain, senior priest on the cathedral staff.

Coast-to-coast actions by churches show that the nimbus of the Occupy movement is wearing thin.

Trinity Church, the wealthy Episcopal congregation in New York's lower Manhattan, has fed and clothed Occupy Wall Street protesters -- but has refused to let them camp on a church-owned gravel lot. Several demonstrators were arrested there last weekend after scaling a chain-link fence onto the lot.

More here-

http://www.seattlepi.com/local/connelly/article/St-Mark-s-Cathedral-to-Occupy-Seattle-No-room-2418633.php

On Capitol Hill and beyond: Bear witness to the poor and vulnerable

From Bonnie Anderson via ENS-

I went to Capitol Hill to talk with legislators last week, and came away with the first two lines of William Cowper's famous hymn running through my mind: "God moves in a mysterious way; His wonders to perform."

The Episcopal Church's Office of Government Relations scheduled seven meetings for me with legislators and legislative staff. I wanted to talk about poverty and women's issues, but found that all that the legislators and their staffs wanted to talk about was the 2012 federal budget. As it turned out, however, our interests were one and the same; many of the programs that affect the most vulnerable Americans -- the poor, women, children, and the elderly -- are encompassed in approximately $3 trillion worth of cuts that the House of Representatives proposes to make over the next 10 years in programs that help low-income individuals and their families.

In February, the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church passed a resolution that "urges all Episcopalians in the United States to engage in advocacy for a responsible federal budget that expresses the shared moral priorities of the nation." After my visits on Capitol Hill, I am more committed to this work than ever, and hope you will consider joining me. We have a significant moral priority as Episcopalians, as Christians, to bear witness on behalf of the poor, the vulnerable and the marginalized. The baptismal promise to strive for justice and peace among all people makes the choice between cutting programs for the poor and elderly or raising taxes an easy one.

More here-

http://www.episcopalchurch.org/80050_128385_ENG_HTM.htm

Prayer vigils send message to Netanyahu: 'Lift the ban on Bishop Dawani'

From ENS-

Episcopalians in Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles held silent prayer vigils in protest of Israeli treatment of Palestinians on May 24, the day Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed a joint session of Congress about the peace process.

They sought to send a message about the Israeli government's policies towards Palestinians in general and specifically the refusal to grant Anglican Bishop Suheil Dawani a permit to reside in Jerusalem. As bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, Dawani, a Palestinian Christian, oversees congregations and institutions in Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the Palestinian Territories.

"He [Netanyahu] passed by us. I don't know if he paid attention to our signs or not" on his way to the Capitol, said the Rev. Susan Burns, rector of the Church of the Redeemer in Bethesda, Maryland, in the Diocese of Washington, D.C.

More here-

http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79425_128466_ENG_HTM.htm

A Prophet Against the Empire

Book Review from The American Spectator-

Almost every article about Duke University ethicist Stanley Hauerwas references Time magazine's having named him America's "best theologian" in 2001. So it's natural that Hauerwas starts his own memoir with it, slightly tongue in cheek. He may not be America's "best" theologian, but he certainly is among its most influential.

A Methodist who now attends a "peace" oriented Episcopal church, Hauerwas is the chief popularizer of the growing neo-Anabaptist movement among today's Protestants and Evangelicals. He is the premier disciple of the late Mennonite theologian John Howard Yoder, who reinterpreted the Cross of Jesus Christ into primarily a rejection of all violence. If Yoder was the architect of the modern neo-Anabaptist surge, Hauerwas is its most effective evangelist. In surely a divine irony, Hauerwas was acclaimed by Time just in time for 9-11, which enhanced his rejection of all military force, no matter the provocation, not to mention nearly all things pertaining to the American "empire."

More here-

http://spectator.org/archives/2011/04/05/a-prophet-against-the-empire

Clergy join to fight housing law repeal

From Boston-

Christian, Jewish, and Muslim clergy gathered yesterday at Trinity Church in Copley Square to urge Massachusetts residents to vote no on Question 2, which would repeal the state’s affordable housing law.

They said overturning the law, known as Chapter 40B, would make it harder to build homes for senior citizens, working families, and others in need of affordable housing.

They also released a petition with more than 200 names of area clergy who oppose the ballot question.

Ellen Feingold, treasurer of the Campaign to Protect the Affordable Housing Law, said there is a long list of seniors waiting for affordable housing, some of whom have waited up to six years.

“Imagine telling an 80-year-old who says she needs affordable housing that she may have to wait as much as six years,’’ Feingold said. “It is unconscionable.’’

The 41-year-old law has long been controversial because it allows developers to bypass certain local zoning laws if municipalities lack sufficient affordable housing, which the law defines as at least 10 percent of local housing stock.

More here-

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/10/13/clergy_join_to_fight_housing_law_repeal/