St. Jude's Nets for Life Drive
More than 500 life saving anti-malaria nets have been purchased by St. Jude's parishioners in response to Brook Carpenteer's challenge to the parish community to learn about Nets for Life and buy nets for distribution to people in need in Tanzania. Thus far, just over half of the families in the St. Jude's community have contributed to this effort.
76th General Convention Episcopal Church USA
Social justice related resolutions were adopted at Convention in 2009 that request action by the National Church, Dioceses and Congregations.
They add to the body of existing legislation from the ECUSA and represent topics of concern for Episcopalians to consider for advocacy, outreach and volunteerism. To download a PDF of the social justice related resolutions adopted at convention click here.
Go to this link for a complete listing of resolutions considered during the 76th General Convention.
A history of all Convention resolutions for the years 1976 through 2006, is maintained by The Archives of the Episcopal Church. Select "Topic Search" to access summaries of church legislation for insight into the scope of concern around issues such as Poverty or the Middle East.
St. Jude's Social Justice Outreach Mission
Outreach sponsored activities often arise from a need perceived by an individual parishioner who, as a faithful disciple, is contributing time and talent in an area of service. To be Anglican is to practice communion locally, nationally and globally.
Saint Jude's efforts contribute to, and support, the World Mission Network, of the Diocese of El Camino Real. The Diocese has entered into a new three-way companion relationship with the Diocese of Western Tanganyika and the Diocese of Gloucester, England. It is a unique opportunity to embrace the diversity of the Anglican Communion -- to learn, share and grow together.
In March, Bishop Mary Grey-Reeves, of the Dioecese of El Camino Real traveled to Western Tanganyika to meet with her fellow bishops. An interesting perspective on the trip is a blog posting of Robin Denny from our diocese, who is serving as an agricultural missionary to the Episcopal Church in Southern Sudan and who joined Bishop Mary in Tanzania.
Over the decades, Saint Jude’s has focused on immigrant rights issues, support for the working poor and youth. This summer, middle school and high school aged youth from Saint Jude's will be part of Diocese of El Camino Real mission trips to Round Valley Indian Reservation at Covelo, California. Saint Jude's parishioners provide support weekly to Santa Maria Urban Ministries that serves poor families in downtown San Jose.
For Gender Equality in Tanzania
In July, on behalf of The Saint Jude’s parish community, the Social Justice Outreach Committee responded to an appeal from Bishop Mary and made a $600 donation to help the Diocese of El Caimino Real reach its goal for tuition and expense support that contributes to the efforts of women in Tanzania to gain the training to become leaders in the church.
Bishop Mary made a special request for donations in a message to clergy, saying in part, that this is assistance that not only helps individuals but is something we can do for the wider church.
From the outset of Bishop Mary’s reflections on World Mission and the Diocese of El Camino Real, she has focused on encouraging gender equity for the opportunity it represents to help remedy every aspect of the abject and dehumanizing conditions of extreme poverty.
Throughout Africa, the church has lagged behind in terms of women's leadership in part because women have not has access to the education to prepare them to become church leaders. For an insightful perspective on Christian women in African society, read this Anglican Communion News Service story on remarks by Kenya's Dr. Esther Mombo.
The Presidential Inaugural Prayer Service of Worship
The Presidential Inaugural Prayer Service of Worship was held at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., on January 21, 2009. Take time to view this, and savor the whole liturgy: its prayers, music and preaching.
The Washington Post reported that the Rev. Canon Carol L. Wade of the National Cathedral worked closely with Obama's inaugural committee and rewrote some of the responsive prayers from the Book of Common Prayer to highlight religious diversity more than in previous services. Also new to the service were prayers drawn in part from Washington's 1789 inauguration prayer service and Abraham Lincoln's 1865 inaugural address. That included the phrase "with malice toward none, with charity for all," which was said as part of the closing prayer by Katharine Jefferts-Schori, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church.
Bishop Gene Robinson's Invocation at the Inaugural Concert
On Sunday, January 19, Bishop Gene Robinson led the invocation at the Inaugural Concert at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. This link will take you to a YouTube video of his invocation before the hundreds of thousands on the National Mall, recorded by a member of the crowd. The millions around the country who watched the concert on cable did not hear Robinson's prayer because HBO edited his remarks from their broadcast of the program.
All parishioners are welcome to join the committee, or otherwise provide input to its considerations. You can also click here to send an email and share your ideas, or to be added to a distribution list to keep aware of Social Justice Outreach activities. To learn more about the programs Saint Jude's supports, access the
Volunteers & Outreach link at the top of this page.
The mission of the Social Justice Outreach Committee at Saint Jude's is to identify needs, build understanding, encourage volunteers and channel the hearts, minds, and spirit of Saint Jude’s congregation through communal advocacy, action and financial support for organizations that help those in need.
Considering the plight of Haitians
Following the devastation of tropical storm Hanna and hurricanes Gustav and Ike, that all hit Haiti in 2008, the Social justice Outreach Committee considered ways to help people pull their lives together and carry on. Through St. Dunstan’s Episcopal Church in Carmel Valley St. Jude's learned of an opportunity to help sustain a school lunch program in central Haiti that serves 850 with what for many is their primary sustenance of the day. The program is offered by St. Andre’s Episcopal School in Hinche, Haiti. On behalf of the parishioners of St. Jude's, the committee approved a $3,300 donation to the St. Andre lunch program, sufficient to run the program for one month.
Haiti is one of the most disadvantaged countries in the world, with 80% of its population living in poverty. Episcopal relief and Development reports that 60% of Haitians are undernourished and just 55% of children attend primary school and only 20% go on to secondary school. Most children in Haiti go hungry every day. Pulverized clay mixed with honey or oil serves a deterrent to the sensation of hunger for many people. Because of the extreme poverty, the physical repair of storm damage is less an issue that the maintenance of fragile institutions that address the fundamental human needs of this society.
Walin De Camps, the Episcopal priest who runs St. Andre’s said this in a late October email, the “feeding program at the school is one hundred times more important for now… due to the aftermath of the floods and hurricanes. Almost all of the vegetable gardens were devastated.” “But, only if you could see that, every day it is like a feeding miracle in Hinche; not only with the school kids, but mostly with many peoples from the town who line up and begg (sic) for food and sometimes it is sad and amazing to receive even some financially "big" people you would not expect who come and wait.
Many who hear about food in St Andre's come from the schools and churches. But what I have is not enough to give away to every body. I mention you all many times to the kids and staff. What you are doing for this project to stand is TREMENDOUS. May God bless you all.”
St. Andre’s school enrolls students from pre-kindergarten through high school. St. Dunstan's has supported the school since it began with some 30 students, 26 years ago. To help the local economy, much of the food is purchased locally.
St. Jude's support for St. Andre's School helps to directly address four of the eight Millennium Development Goals that are designed to end extreme poverty by 2015:
Additional St. Jude’s Support for Millennium Development Goals
For 2008, Millennium Development Goal-related support will account for more than 20% of St. Jude’s Outreach donations. In 2004, only two percent of St. Jude’s Outreach budget was being spent on activities relating to the Millennium Development Goals.
In the spring of 2008, the Social Justice Outreach Committee added support from Saint Jude’s to two small, but very interesting programs. Both are helping make progress toward the Millennium Development Goals, one through work with rural poor communities in Africa, and the other with a great mechanism on the Web for connecting people and solutions around the world.
Friends of African Village Libraries
The first of the new programs added in March is Friends of African Village Libraries, a network of individual volunteers and donors committed to long-term support for small community libraries in rural Africa. St. Jude's has donated $3,000 to support this exemplary, yet small program, that is making a profound difference in the lives of rural communities in Africa.
St. Jude's support for FAVL helps to directly address two of the eight Millennium Development Goals that are designed to end extreme poverty by 2015:
Built around the commitment and energy of two professors at Santa Clara University, since 2001, FAVL has established and continues to support nine libraries, five in Burkina Faso, two in Ghana, one in Tanzania, and one in Uganda.
FAVL is all about long-term commitments of support to ensure that libraries are not only established, but that they thrive. Village libraries are established if a donor is willing to make a long-term commitment to support a library. This is something that St. Jude’s has yet to do, but our parish could decide to take on the responsibility to bring a library to a village in the West African country of Burkina Faso. With only 22% of its adult population able to read and write, Burkina Faso has one of the lowest literacy rates in the world.
A simple building, or site, for the library is donated by the communities that will be served. Five thousand dollars then enables FAVL to help the village refurbish the building, hire a librarian and stock it with 1,000+ books suitable for pre-school through adults. Once launched operating expenses are typically $2,000 a year. The typical library has a reading room and office for the librarian.
Appropedia.org, the second program added in March, is an inspired effort to make Web technology a useful tool for addressing virtually all of the eight Millennium Development Goals. St. Jude’s donated $1,500 to help Appropedia develop partnerships to support significant growth in users over the coming year.
Appropedia uses Wiki technology on its Web site to allow anyone connecting with Appropedia.org to add, remove, or edit content. This empowers a new Web-based community to collaborate, share information, technology and ideas -- all with the objective of being more effective in finding solutions, reducing poverty and bettering the lives of people worldwide. Its promise is as a place for various people to contribute needed puzzle pieces for others to find and use to create and improve, scalable and adaptable solutions to problems in the world's poorest communities.
For more than a year, parishioner Curt Beckmann has been a founding volunteer at Appropedia, helping the site to grow and realize its potential. Approximately 80% of St. Jude’s Outreach donations are made in support of programs and services where St. Jude’s parishioners also volunteer their time and talent.
St. Jude's support for Appropedia favorably impacts all of the eight Millennium Development Goals, it helps to directly address two of the goals:
Learn More about the Programs St. Jude's Supports
To learn more about these, and any of the other programs that St. Jude’s parishioners support by volunteering, or through Outreach donations, go to the Volunteers & Outreach page. Virtually all of the programs St. Jude's supports rely on volunteers to achieve their mission. Follow links from our Volunteer & Outreach page to their Web sites to consider ways that you can become involved.
Considering Inhumane Treatment of the Undocumented
Leaders of the Episcopal Church are calling church members to stand with the suffering as the human cost of aggressive enforcement of existing immigration laws is mounting. With immigration reform stalled in Congress, Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori has called on "all people of faith to vehemently insist that migrants be protected from inhumane treatment."
Affected individuals and families are part of our greater community within the Diocese of El Camino Real, and those served by many of the programs St. Jude’s supports, including Santa Maria Urban Ministry.
St. Jude’s parishioners had an opportunity to learn more about this issue from guest speakers at the January Social Justice Outreach meeting. Pastor Anna Lange-Soto of El Buen Pastor Episcopal Church in Redwood City was the principal speaker. She provides compassionate support to those whose lives are being upended in the current environment due to two principal factors:
- Limited options for permanent residency
- Enforcement that lacks proportionality and humane treatment
Pastor Anna spoke of how the humanity that underlies the root causes of migration -- seeking a better life for children and families -- is often denied.
Parishioners also heard from Transitional Deacon Lawrence Robles, executive director of Santa Maria Urban Ministry, talk about how these issues spread fear and uncertainty within the community he serves. He spoke of families who have relied for years on a primary wage earner, and then loose that foundation, as jobs are lost and fear of discovery keeps them from building on their experience.
Both Pastor Anna and Deacon Lawrence talked about how the shadows in which undocumented people live are "getting darker," and how the lack of options and heightened enforcement is driving them into a “boxed canyon” that strips them of their humanity.
Personal Perspective
To give a personal perspective on the traumatic impact to families among us, Pastor Anna brought along 19 year-old Sughey Contreras from Menlo Park.
Sughey, her parents, and two of her siblings are undocumented. She has 3 other siblings who were born in the U.S.: 14- and 11-year old sisters, and a 6-year-old brother. Sughey and her older siblings were brought to the Bay Area from Mexico by her parents when she was two years old, her brother was three and her sister six months. She and her brother and sister have since grown up in the Bay Area, attending public schools, never living anywhere else. Sughey is now attending college and aspires to be a social worker. Her sister is a senior in high school. Her mother owns and operates a popular taqueri in San Leandro.
Sughey explained how her home was raided in the early morning on December 6 by Menlo Park police and Federal Agents. They were looking for her father who has been absent from the family for years. Sughey’s story speaks to the dehumanizing process of enforcement and questionable denial of rights.
Officers separated Sughey from her non-English speaking mother when they heard her try to explain to her mother the right to see a warrant, which had yet to be shown. Sughey was then arrested for being undocumented along with her mother and 2 siblings. That left her U.S.-citizen siblings, who were threatened with being split-up within foster care. But, other family stepped in to help keep the kids together.
It was a very cold December day, yet her brother wasn’t allowed to dress and was taken to jail in boxers and a thin undershirt. She explained that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement staff “didn’t treat us like real people” and that at first she hoped she was in the midst of a terrible dream. She was held in jail until December 10. Her mother wasn’t released on bail until Friday, January 11.
What happens next is uncertain. Her younger brother hasn’t understood what happened to his mother and worries that he will be taken away. Friends have been keeping her mother’s taqueri open. Legal expenses are already over $10,000.
Another point that Lawrence and Anna both made is that these events can be far reaching -- what happens to one family traumatizes others across the community. The circumstance of discovery leads to separation from work, family and friends, and the contribution they make to the community.
Steps being taken by the Episcopal Church
Pastor Anna also touched on the New Sanctuary Movement. Among those participating are the Episcopal cathedrals in Los Angeles, San Diego and Seattle. She explained that they are helping house and care for families of undocumented parents that include children who are American citizens.
Anna spoke of the unequivocal call from the National Episcopal Church to end an enforcement-only policy like that which has swept-up the Contreras family.
What is being sought by the Church is justice, mercy and proportionality - penalties that are proportional to the laws broken.
Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, on September 13, addressed the difficult circumstances, like those that Anna, Lawrence and Sughey described, in an open letter to all Episcopalians:
"I would urge our government, in the strongest terms, to cease these incursions into work places, homes and other venues where migrants gather until we have comprehensive immigration reform. This one-sided approach to addressing our immigration problems neglects the tenets of justice and compassion, which define us as Christians and as a church, which embraces the marginalized and the defenseless… It is long past time for our government to establish immigration policies which respect the rights and gifts of those among us, now living in fear, whose contributions to our communities and economy are so valued."
Theological Underpinnings
Episcopal Migration Ministries, part of the national church, points to the parable of the Good Samaritan as reminding us that neighbors are often unlike us and may come from communities and regions that are shunned or treated with disdain. "Yet, we are told to embrace an inclusive view of family and community in expressing our faith. In the parable, the provision of hospitality is more than a gesture - it is a willingness to see the hurt friend through to recovery, to make a difference in restoring hope to the suffering. We are admonished to create the time and space to extend help. The story of the Good Samaritan calls us to invest ourselves in the restoration and recovery of others regardless of circumstance. It is also a message against the racism and prejudice that can affect our attitude toward refugees and immigrants."
