UMCOR AND ONE GREAT HOUR OF SHARING

Today's post is for UMCOR and One Great Hour, which is March 15. As usual, copy the text, format it for narrow margins and two columns. Using two copies, copy back-to-back, then half vertically.

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One Great Hour of Sharing

Sunday, March 15, 2015

When disaster strikes around the globe, the United Methodist Committee on Relief, UMCOR, is prepared to act. So don’t be fooled by the word “committee.”

Since 1940, when UMCOR’s forerunner was established to meet the needs of those suffering overseas at the onset of World War II, we’ve continued to respond to those in desperate need—today throughout more than eighty countries around the world.

The response of UMCOR isn’t something “they” do, it’s something “we” do.

When You Give, You Equip Christ’s Body to Serve in His Name. That’s because your generous giving to One Great Hour of Sharing is what allows UMCOR to act as the arms and legs of Christ’s church, moving toward the most vulnerable in their darkest days. Convinced that all people have God-given worth and dignity—without regard to race, religion or gender—together we are assisting those impacted by crisis or chronic need.

Because you give, the United Methodist Church’s compassionate response to human suffering continues today:

• When tornadoes ripped through Oklahoma, we responded;
• When children in Zimbabwe lost parents to AIDS, we responded;
• When a massive tsunami devastated lives in Japan, we responded;
• And when the next mass crisis occurs, we will be prepared to respond…

UMCOR will be able to offer aid in Jesus’ name to those who suffer because United Methodists give through One Great Hour of Sharing.  In fact, it’s your generous giving that allows us to respond when disaster strikes.

Not “they.”

WE.

Ensure the United Methodist Church

Can Keep Helping

Will you continue to give to One Great Hour of Sharing? Will you continue to meet the needs of the children, families and communities who’ve experienced devastation in the wake of disaster?

When we meet the needs of those who suffer we actually minister to Jesus, who said:

“I was hungry and you gave me food to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me.  I was naked and you gave me clothes to wear. I was sick and you took care of me. I was in prison and you visited me.” (Mt. 25:35-36, CEB)

As we respond, we recognize Jesus in those who are reeling in the wake of disaster. 

In September 1940, just a few months after General Conference approved the formation of the Methodist Committee for Overseas Relief (MCOR), the forerunner of the present-day UMCOR, Bishop Herbert Welch, who is credited with its founding, made the public case for faith-based relief agencies. While holding up the good work of secular agencies for war relief, he said, “There is, in this critical time, [a] need for church agencies of relief, to bear their part and make their distinctively Christian contribution to a suffering world.” That contribution was one of “mercy and reconstruction” among the affected civilian population, Welch wrote. It could make no distinction “of race, creed, or color” among those it sought to assist, and would “bear witness to Christ by serving all in the name of Christ.”  

See more at: http://www.umcmission.org/Learn-About-Us/News-and-Stories/2015/January/0113amustardseed#sthash.IuZokB3T.dpuf

RACIAL JUSTICE AND RESTORING RELATIONSHIPS

This post is a two-column, back-to-back piece advertising the bi-conference (CTC and NTC) Racial Justice event, "Sing-a-Rainbow," and the NTC UMW Day of Social Action, "Restoring Relationships: Reconciliation and Forgiveness."

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SING-A-RAINBOW

Racial Justice Event

Sponsored by Central Texas Conference

And North Texas Conference UMW

First UMC, Burleson

February 21, 2015

9:45 a.m. – 2:30 p.m.

Keynote Speaker

Janis Rosheuvel

Afternoon sessions on Domestic Violence

Darlene Alfred

Susan Torpy

Potluck lunch

Janis Rosheuvel is the Executive Secretary for Racial Justice at United Methodist Women in New York, and was formerly Executive Director of Families for Freedom, the immigrant defense network by and for immigrants facing and fighting deportation. 

She was born in Georgetown, Guyana. She has worked on international development and gender rights at the Tahirih Justice Center and Women for Women International. She also served as Africa Program Associate with Episcopal Relief and Development, collaborating with African partners on grassroots community development programs in primary health care, food security and post conflict rehabilitation.

She has a BA in International Studies from American University in Washington, DC, and an MA in Conflict Resolution from the University of Bradford in West Yorkshire, England.

You may register online at CTC UMW.

North Texas Conference

United Methodist Women

Day of Social Action

April 18, 2015

8:30 a.m. – 1 p.m.

Restoring Relationships

Reconciliation and Forgiveness

Highland Park UMC ~ 3300 Mockingbird, Dallas

Forgiveness ultimately frees us from the pain and prison of revenge and allows us to experience renewal

GUEST SPEAKERS

Rev. Alice Coder

Ordained UM minister and member of the North Texas Anti-Racism Team

Rev. Owen Ross

Founder and Pastor of Christ’s Foundry United Methodist Mission

8:30 AM          Registration begins

9 to 9:30          Devotional & Announcements

9:30 to 10:45   Focus Groups

·         Restorative Justice

·         Domestic Violence

·         Immigration Issues

·         Anti-Racism

11:00               Worship Service

12:00               Lunch (cost $10)

 Lunch Reservations by April 13

To Beth Weems Pirtle

at bethsigns@att.net

or call 972-243-7353

CHARTER FOR RACIAL JUSTICE

This piece is the text of the UMW Charter for Racial Justice prepared for a two-column, back-to-back document. Of course, the official copy is far better, but if you don't have them this would suffice. The Charters are available free from UMW Mission Resources

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A CHARTER FOR RACIAL JUSTICE

Updated by the Women’s Division of the General Board of Global Ministries of The United Methodist Church in 1978. Adopted by the 1980 General Conference of The United Methodist Church.

Because we believe

1. God is the creator of all people and all are God’s children in one family;

2. racism is a rejection of the teachings of Jesus Christ;

3. racism denies the redemption and reconciliation of Jesus Christ;

4. racism robs all human beings of their wholeness and is used as a justification for social, economic and political exploitation;

5. we must declare before God and before one another that we have sinned against our sisters and brothers of other races in thought, in word and in deed;

6. in our common humanity in creation all women and men are made in God’s image and all persons are equally valuable in the sight of God;

7. our strength lies in our racial and cultural diversity and that we must work toward a world in which each person’s value is respected and nurtured; and

8. our struggle for justice must be based on new attitudes, new understandings and new relationships and must be reflected in the laws, policies, structures and practices of both church and state;

we commit ourselves as individuals and as a community to follow Jesus Christ in word and in deed and to struggle for the rights and the self-determination of every person and group of persons. Therefore, as United Methodist Women in every place across the land …

We will

UNITE OUR EFFORTS with all groups in The United Methodist Church to:

1. Eliminate all forms of institutional racism in the total ministry of the church with special attention given to those institutions that we support, beginning with their employment policies, purchasing practices and availability of services and facilities.

 2. Create opportunities in local churches to deal honestly with the existing racist attitudes and social

distance between members, deepening the Christian commitment to be the church where all racial groups and economic classes come together.

3. Increase our efforts to recruit women of all races into the membership of United Methodist Women and provide leadership development opportunities without discrimination.

4. Create workshops and seminars in local churches to study, understand and appreciate the historical and cultural contributions of each race to the church and community.

5. Increase local churches’ awareness of the continuing needs for equal education, housing, employment and medical care for all members of the community and create opportunities to work for these things across racial lines.

6. Work for the development and implementation of national and international policies to protect the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of all people such as through support for the ratification of United Nations covenants on human rights.

7.Support and participate in the worldwide struggle for liberation in the church and community.

8. Support nomination and election processes that include all racial groups employing a quota system until the time that our voluntary performance makes such practice unnecessary.

Living the Charter

Racial justice is a biblical issue. Read Exodus 1:8-14. How were the Egyptians and the Israelites each “raced”? Who are the “Egyptians” and who are the “Israelites” in the United States today?

Racial justice is a leadership issue. Who are the leads in United Methodist Women? When and how are leadersip and power shared across lines of race, ethnicity, language and class? Make institutional changes that build relationships of mutuality rather than charity.

Racial justice is a community issue. Assess changes in your community, state and nation. Where are racial/ethnic tensions arising? Make standing up for racial justice a regular part of your spiritual practice.

Racial justice is a public policy issue. Learn about laws that limit the rights of immigrants, racial/ethnic minorities and the poor to public education, social services and jobs. Join with others to exercise your political power to ensure equal and basic rights for all..

"BLACK LIVES MATTER." (BLACK HISTORY MONTH)

The text of this blog was taken from the website of the UMC General Board of Church and Society. As usual, it was originally prepared as a two-column piece in 12-point type for 8/12x11" sheet with narrow margins.
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“Black lives matter.”– Gabe Horton

Gabe Horton is a student at Vanderbilt Divinity School in Nashville, Tenn., and a pastoral intern at Belle Meade United Methodist Church. I don’t know Mr. Horton’s ethnicity, but his thoughts seem worthy of consideration in light of recent events in the U.S., events carried out in the streets and in court rooms.

“The three words ‘black lives matter’ are disputed by the systems in U.S. society that continue to function as if black and brown lives do not, in fact, matter.

“When police violence is exercised dispro-portionately against people with darker skin, for instance, black lives do not seem to matter. When news organizations gloss over some colossal number of deaths incurred during a civil conflict in Africa, black lives do not seem to matter.

“When we send black people to prison at an unbelievably higher rate than white people, for equal or lesser crimes, our justice system says that black lives do not matter.

“When a lack of access to quality education disproportionately sends black and brown children on a pipeline to prison, our education system says that black lives do not matter.”

Blame is a wasted endeavor here, according to Horton. “The system is the way the system is, and we are all a part of it, through no fault of our own,” he asserts. “But like the alcoholic who is responsible for recovery but cannot be blamed for her disease, we are responsible for helping to heal a system we did not create.”

Horton says the same question is before those of us who profess faith as individuals, as congregations, as The United Methodist Church or whatever group with which you affiliate, including the Church universal: What are we going to do about it?

Horton points out that John Wesley famously asked three questions at his early conferences:

1. What shall we teach?
2. How shall we teach?
3. What shall we do?

“Today, we have the chance to affirm as a Church that black lives matter,” Horton emphasizes. “I do not discount the efforts of individual churchgoers and pastors today and during our history, but as the Church universal, we have all too often been on the wrong side.”

Horton proposes that something be done, as The United Methodist Church, as congre-gations, as Sunday School classes. He says lots of opportunities exist to join the prophet in asking, “Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?” (Isaiah 58:6).

“We can attend educational events sponsored by local organizers. We can visit those in prison and let their stories speak louder than statistics. We can get involved in the political issues that speak directly to the realities of injustice. We can learn how the gentrification that is renewing our cities also has the unintended effect of forcing people out of their communities.”

Our church is committed to the idea that the rights and privileges a society bestows upon or withholds from its inhabitants indicate the relative respect in which that society holds particular persons and groups of persons. We affirm all persons as equally valuable in the sight of God and therefore work toward societies in which each person’s value is recognized, maintained, and strengthened.

Restorative Justice asks:

Who has been hurt?

What are their needs?

Whose obligations are they?

2015 UMW Legislative Event Agenda

This piece is prepared for two columns, back-to-back. Copy the text, put it into narrow margins and two columns. ****************************************** 2015 United Methodist Women Legislative Agenda Almost 200 United Methodist Women from all over Texas gathered in Austin January 25-27. We studied, discussed and formulated positions on five of our most pressing issues. None of the issues are new, but all remain challenging. We prepared the following statement and hand-delivered a copy to every legislator at the Capitol. Healthy Texas We urge the Legislature to advance policies for affordable healthcare, including mental health and preventive health services, for the broadest possible number of Texans. This should include providing affordable insurance for working Texans, and expanding Medicaid and other existing low-income programs. We affirm our particular and historic concern for the health of women and children. We commend to lawmakers the role that social determinants, especially access to affordable, healthy food and family financial stability, play in health, and call on lawmakers to consider comprehensive health solutions. Quality Education The Legislature should affirm its constitutional obligation to provide high quality public education for the benefit of all children in our state. Critical legislative actions include restoring all cuts made in the last decade, providing state funding for enrollment growth, increasing teacher compensation to competitive levels, and providing full-day pre-kindergarten in all school districts. We strongly reaffirm our historic opposition to any movement toward allowing the flow of public money to private schools, including the establishment of any voucher programs. Living Water We urge lawmakers to prioritize our state’s water infrastructure investments around the primary principle of fair access to clean water for all Texans, and to take strong action to protect Texans from potential threats to the air, land and water that we rely on to live. We affirm the inherent worth of all creation and call on lawmakers to protect all of Texas’ natural resources. Humane Immigration We advocate for fair, humane policies toward immigrants in Texas, including access to necessary state permits (including drivers permits) and regulatory structures to live and work and be educated in our state. We insist that state officials respect the appropriate boundaries of federal and state responsibility concerning our national border security. Criminal Justice We call on legislators to guarantee fair treatment for all Texans caught up in the state’s criminal justice system, from arrest to re-entry. We have particular concerns about the grand jury process, and we urge lawmakers to lift restrictions on SNAP and other important benefits for former drug felons.

UMW TEXAS LEGISLATIVE EVENT 2015

This is another handout about the Legislative Event.... two-columns, back-to-back.

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UMW Legislative Event 2015

January 24-27

“I want to be like you.”

Scary words. Regardless of whether someone actually says that to us, we need to remember that we are likely to be examples... role models, if you will. At some time. someone may look to us for guidance. And scripture tells us we are to be examples and witnesses.

“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid. Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” Matt. 5:14-16

But we must be prepared. In line with being prepared, the UMW purpose says, among other things, that we are “to know God”….To know God we must study and pray. As we observe the world around us, we become aware of policies and laws that are not fair, that oppress the weakest among us. We study God’s word; then we study those social issues and problems and we learn ways to address them. Then, as John Wesley said, there is a burden in knowing, for knowing demands action. Therefore, we must witness!

Study and witness are what the Texas Legislative Event is all about. United Methodist Women from all over the State of Texas gather to be “inspired, informed and equipped” to share with our legislators our position on issues and then to share with our units in our local churches the information that we have learned.

In this one way, we are more nearly prepared to be examples.

United Methodist Women

Texas Legislative Event

January 24-27, 2015

Austin Holiday Inn-Midtown

Register online at

TexasImpact.org

Or

www.ctcumw.org

Check-in begins at noon Sunday, January 25^th.  The event formally begins at 1 p.m. with several workshops that won’t be repeated and that are building blocks for the rest of the presentations.

 As always,  the Event will be packed with expert policy presentations, practical advocacy training, conversations with top Texas lawmakers and religious leaders—and time at the state Capitol with a special tour.

Texas Impact, the organizing group, has made a video about the Texas Legislative Event. You may see it on YouTube.    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Jm-9ym55gQ&feature=youtu.be.

JANUARY OBSERVANCES: HUMAN TRAFFICKING & RELATIONS DAYS

This handout is again prepared for two columns, on a letter-size sheet of paper, back-to-back. Of course, it will work with one column, back-to-back, but it takes more paper, obviously! You may get more information on both topics from GBGM website. Free, downloadable resource, perfect for bulletin inserts, study discussions: Faith & Facts Card: Human Trafficking available at GBGM website. Follow UMC efforts in text-cloud; click on “human trafficking.”

Human Relations Day.org provides offering envelopes and aids for publicizing the observance.

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UNITED METHODIST WOMEN

Jan. 18--Human Relations Day

A symposium on the role of religion and faith-based organizations in international affairs will be held Wednesday, Jan. 21, at the UMW’s Church Center for the United Nations. Inaugural theme of the one-day event is “Human Dignity & Human Rights.”

The purpose of the symposium is to have frank discussions on the theory and practice of human dignity and human rights, with a view to formulating concrete proposals as a contribution to the work of faith-based groups and U.N. and multilateral organizations.

The symposium will focus on the intersections of human dignity, human rights and religion in international affairs, including freedom of religion or belief. It will offer a venue for faith-based groups and international organizations to explore ways of working together in addressing new and emerging challenges.

The symposium will attempt to discern on critical issues relevant to the life of humanity, such as sustainable development, freedom, peace and security.

Study of critical issues now close and real directs our attention to the refugee situation in the U.S. While The United Methodist Church does not engage in partisan politics, we stand with immigrant families and the sojourners in our midst. This is a biblical mandate and a reflection of God’s hospitality and love for all of us.

Our United Methodist congregations can help in this manifestation of human need. We can assist immigrant families with the cost of the legal processes. We can support and accompany immigrants through the legal process so they are treated fairly. We can educate our congregations and continue to welcome immigrants to our communities and churches.

UNITED METHODIST WOMEN

Jan. 11--Human Trafficking

Awareness Day

Human trafficking is a violation of human and civil rights that enslaves thousands of people across the globe.  The United States’ Trafficking Victims Protection Act defines “severe forms of trafficking in persons” as :

a. sex trafficking in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such an act has not attained 18 years of age; or

b. the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery.

In 2012, the International Labor Organization (ILO) estimated that there could be 20.9 million victims worldwide in what the State Department defines as human trafficking.  In 2011, only 42,291 victims of human trafficking were identified worldwide. The ILO also estimated that women and girls make up 55% of forced labor victims, and 98% of sex trafficking victims.

(Trafficking in Persons Report June 2012, U.S. Department of State)

As United Methodists, * we proclaim faith in the God of freedom and condemn slavery as wrong and incompatible with Christ’s teachings. * We recognize that we are called to follow Christ in proclaiming release to the captives and setting the oppressed free (Luke 4:16-19). * We affirm that each person is of equal value in the sight of God and will work to create communities in which each person’s value is recognized, maintained, and strengthened. * We affirm God’s abundant grace for everyone and strive to embody this grace toward all involved, both those trafficked and those who are trafficking.