This issue of MFSAVoices is jam-packed with resources and information. So much so that it won't all fit in your email message so be sure to click view entire message at the bottom of this email to view the entire issue. Our newsletters are designed to be used all month long. So take a quick glance and take note of important dates to add to your calendar but also come back in the following weeks to work your way through the action items.
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We continue to see the urgency of our work to make broad systemic change.Change that honors the dignity and worth of all people, puts people over money, and honors the earth and all her inhabitants. Since 1907, MFSA has been shining a light on injustice and organizing to change it.
You make our collective work possible by your witness for justice every day in your church, community, and Annual Conference. MFSA does not receive any financial support from the United Methodist Church's giving channels. 100% of our budget is funded through your membership dues and your generosity in giving.
The church has long been a place where justice is not only preached but lived out in times of political and social upheaval. However, with the arrival of a new administration intent on rolling back hard-won rights and freedoms, faith communities across the country are refusing to remain silent.
This new section of our newsletter is dedicated to sharing the ways churches are standing firm in their commitment to justice. We're excited to highlight actions and movements within faith communities that resist oppression, embody radical hospitality, and insist on a future where love, dignity, and equity prevail.
Whether through direct advocacy, sanctuary efforts, mutual aid, or prophetic witness, these faith communities remind us that another world is possible—and we are called to help create it. If your church is engaged in work that challenges injustice and fosters hope—especially through acts of subversion and resistance against oppressive policies—we want to hear from you.
Webinar Series: Beyond Borders- Centering Humanity in the Immigration Conversation Wednesday, April 2, 1 pm ET – Pablo Delgado: Open Arms Wednesday, April 9, 1 pm ET - Cindy Johnson: La Posada Providencia
Presented by Methodist Federation for Social Action (MFSA), the Order of the Deaconess and Home Missioners (DHM), and the United Methodist Volunteers in Mission (UMVIM)
Join us for the transformative webinar series, Beyond Borders: Centering Humanity in the Immigration Conversation—Stories, Struggles, and Solidarity
Through powerful storytelling, expert insights, and action-oriented discussions, we will deepen our collective understanding of immigration and migration justice. This series will equip us to advocate for just policies and practices. Don't miss this opportunity to engage, learn, and stand in solidarity.
Jeff Stewart is the Executive Director and Activist at the Immigration Worker Project. The Ohio Immigrant Worker Project (IWP) works with immigrant worker communities throughout Ohio, including helping them to build asylum cases for immigrant workers facing deportation.
Pablo Delgado is the Executive Director of Open Arms. Open Arms welcomes, accompanies, and partners with Latino immigrants in building a safe and sustainable life.
Deaconess Cindy Andrade Johnson is a humanitarian advocate who has worked with migrants. She lives with her husband, Mike Johnson, on the US/Mexican border in Brownsville, Texas. Her home Church is Travis Park United Methodist Church. Cindy is currently working as a consultant in the following areas: education, cultural competence, Migration, and Missiology
Chevron supports Israel's apartheid regime and its genocidal war against Palestinians while also bringing environmental destruction to countries around the world.
Chevron runs natural gas extraction and pipelines off the shore of Palestine/Israel. Israel depends heavily on fossil gas for electricity, and Chevron is the largest producer for Israel, illegally exploiting Palestinian natural resources. Chevron is also providing millions of dollars in tax revenues to Israel. A major economic partner of the state, Chevron is directly implicated in Israeli apartheid and the genocidal assault on Gaza over the last 16 months.
Learn how and why United Methodists and many others across diverse justice movements are answering the call to #BoycottChevron.
WMJM Webinar: Understanding and Responding to Christian Nationalism
Wednesday, April 2, from 6:30-8 pm Pacific Time
Presented by Western Methodist Justice Movement (WMJM)
In response to the pervasive presence of Christian Nationalism in our national life today, the Western Methodist Justice Movement is hosting a webinar, the second on this topic.
Christian Nationalism seeks to merge Christian and American identities, damaging both the Christian faith and America’s democracy. It implies that to be a good American, one must be a very particular kind of Christian. It comes up in many ways, often being used to justify extreme actions and policies in many different areas, including immigration, focused attacks on trans persons but also all LGBTQAI+ persons, restricting marriage, ending Diversity and Equity programs, gun control, and more.
Those who identify as Christians must be able to quickly and effectively be able to respond whenever and wherever Christian Nationalism rears its ugly head.
The webinar will be co-presented by Jerry Gale and Joy Pettigrew.
Jerry Gale first became aware of Christian nationalism on Jan. 6, 2021, after seeing footage of Christian symbols being carried by those who broke into the U.S. Capitol. Shortly after, he discovered the website Christians Against Christian Nationalism, an initiative of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty (BJC). In January 2024, he formed the Minnesota Christians Against Christian Nationalism group and shares his message throughout Minnesota. He is an active member of Hennepin Avenue United Methodist Church in Minneapolis.
Joy Pettigrew, Community Partnership Manager for BJC, will join the webinar to discuss the support and tools that BJC will provide to individuals who want to start a community organizing group. Joy is an effective movement builder. She is originally from Hong Kong and came to know the groups working against Christian Nationalism through her experiences working with Asian American Christians to activate in working for collective liberation and civic involvement.
As we navigate the realities of this new administration, justice-seeking congregations across the country are standing in solidarity with those targeted by oppressive policies. We've seen churches respond by incorporating the Candle of Peace, Hope, and Justice into their worship services, lifting up prayers and commitments to resist injustice.
Inspired by the Central Methodist Mission in Johannesburg, which lit a candle encircled in barbed wire during the struggle against apartheid, Rev. Dr. Donna Claycomb Sokol of Mount Vernon Place UMC in Washington, D.C., is one of the pastors who has reintroduced this practice. Rev. Andy Oliver of Allendale UMC in St. Petersburg, Florida, is another. Now, more than 50 congregations—including several MFSA-aligned churches—have joined this movement, lighting a candle each week and naming those suffering under policies of cruelty and exclusion.
Recently, churches have lit the candle: 🕯️ For migrants—asylum seekers facing deportation, undocumented families living in fear, and faith leaders offering sanctuary. 🕯️ For federal workers—those losing their jobs, living in uncertainty, or suffering retaliation for speaking out. 🕯️ For USAID—millions impacted by halted humanitarian aid, from hungry children to struggling farmers. 🕯️ For the National Institutes of Health—patients, researchers, and those dependent on lifesaving medical advancements. 🕯️ For the conflict in Ukraine—those enduring war, Russian dissidents, and leaders seeking true peace. 🕯️ For the judicial branch—judges facing threats, courts upholding the rule of law, and those caught in legal battles over justice. 🕯️ For institutions of higher education and students—scholars facing retaliation, lost funding, and threats to free expression.
Each time the candle is lit, congregations proclaim that the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has never overcome the light.
You can access the liturgy below. This document will be updated weekly, with liturgy uplifting a new group targeted by this administration.
In this moment, as faith communities, we must recommit to resisting evil, injustice, and oppression in all its forms. Together, we will continue to bear witness, proclaim justice, and keep the light shining.
Working Toward Justice by Rev. Luis F. Reyes-Rosario
Note: In June 2023, the Methodist Federation for Social Action (MFSA) Board of Directors established the Racial Audit Implementation Team to enact the recommendations from the comprehensive Racial Audit, aiming to transform MFSA into an anti-racist organization. Rev. Luis is a member of that team.
As we embrace the journey of dismantling racism within the Methodist Federation for Social Action, it is clear that we have a monumental task ahead—not just in our conversations as the Racial Audit Implementation Team, but in confronting the ways our institutions, even with good intentions, have upheld the practices of the majority culture.
For too long, the church has been silent and complicit in both subtle and overt forms of racism. People have left the church because it has boldly professed that all are created in the image of God (Genesis 1:27), yet remained silent in the face of injustice. We proclaim that there is no longer slave nor free (Galatians 3:28), yet we have been complacent in systems of oppression.
To go in the opposite direction requires us to acknowledge and address years of institutional racism. Throughout American history, the church and slavery joined forces to promote a system of hierarchy and dominance.
Economic, healthcare, criminal justice, education, housing, and banking systems were all designed to support slavery in the 17th century and continued these practices through the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. Our institutions were developed within these systems and, knowingly or not, perpetuate them.
Power, Privilege, and Capital
Power, in the context of community organizing, is the ability to act (Saul Alinsky), the strength required to bring about social, political, and economic change (Martin Luther King, Jr.), and something that concedes nothing without a demand (Frederick Douglass). This is what we should be working toward. However, our current reality is that power has become the ability to decide who has access to resources, to control the behavior of others, and to shape events to maintain existing systems of inequality.
Privilege is the unearned access to resources available to some people simply because of their social group membership. As anti-racism activist Peggy McIntosh describes it:
"Privilege exists when one group has something of value that is denied to others simply because of the groups they belong to, rather than because of anything they’ve done or failed to do. Access to privilege doesn’t determine one’s outcomes, but it is an asset that makes it more likely that whatever talent, ability, and aspirations a person with privilege has will result in something positive for them."
White privilege, specifically, is both unconsciously enjoyed and consciously perpetuated. It is deeply embedded in American life. It is both a weightless knapsack and a weapon.
Capital (Money) also plays a key role in systemic injustice. As Mahatma Gandhi said, “Poverty is the worst form of violence.”
In 2023, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services set the poverty guideline for a family of three at an annual income of $24,860, which equates to living on approximately $22.70 per person per day, including housing, food, clothing, utilities, etc. The basic necessities.
Despite overall economic growth, poverty rates remain disproportionately high among certain racial and ethnic groups. In 2023, the poverty rates were:
These disparities are deeply rooted in historical marginalization and systemic barriers to quality education, employment opportunities, and equitable healthcare.
The American Psychological Association notes that while non-Hispanic whites constitute the largest single group of Americans living in poverty, ethnic minority groups are disproportionately affected. These disparities are the result of historical marginalization and entrenched barriers to education and economic opportunities.
The Work Ahead
As we implement the Racial Audit, we must recognize that changing organizational behavior requires deep, collective repentance. If we want to be a relevant organization in a diverse society, this change is not just an aspiration—it is a necessity. The work before us may not be the change we originally envisioned, but it is the change required of us.
As Dr. King reminded us, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." We cannot move forward in faith without addressing the harm done and committing ourselves fully to the work of justice.
True justice demands not just words but action. It means confronting our privileges, re-examining how we wield power, and using our resources to uplift those who have been marginalized. It requires that we—individually and collectively—choose the harder path of transformation rather than the easier path of complacency.
Call Your Representatives and Demand Accountability
We are reminded that respect for the office does not mean silence in the face of harm. Our democracy is under threat, and our most vulnerable communities are at risk. Now is the time to speak up—call your representatives and demand accountability.
We've noticed many of our friends and partners making the move to this platform, and we're thrilled to join the conversation there. Stay connected with us for updates, advocacy, and conversations that matter.
The House has passed the reauthorization of The Fredrick Douglas Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act. Now the Senate needs to do the same. Let them know to pass this vital legislation.
We must continue to protect people seeking asylum. With anti-immigrant sentiment still high among part of the country it is vital we ensure our laws protect those coming here to escape dangerous situations.
