| |  | | | Dear Justice-Seeker, 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. Gmail users—move us to your primary inbox - On your phone? Click the 3 dots at the top right corner, click "Move to" then "Primary"
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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. | | | | | |  | Stories of Hope and Resistance 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. Here are some stories of hope and resistance: | | | | | | | |  | The "Gazafication" of the West Bank Israel is bringing to the West Bank its horrific disdain
for human lives and international law in the Gaza War. Wednesday, 9 July 2025 1:00 pm ET, 10:00 am PT / 6:00 pm GMT / 8:00 pm Palestine Rampant ethnic cleansing, terrifying rise in state-sanctioned violence, tens of thousands made homeless and entire communities disappeared... We are NOT speaking of Gaza, that is the WEST BANK today. With genocidal horrors continuing in Gaza, and the recent violent exchange between Israel and Iran, it is too easy for the world to overlook the extraordinary crimes Israel has been committing in the West Bank. Military attacks on refugee camps, destruction of entire villages, vigilante settlers terrorizing Palestinian towns, extreme restriction of movement, mass arrests, prisoners tortured, almost 1000 Palestinians killed in 2025 including hundreds of children, and 29 communities completely uprooted - all this is being done by Israel with impunity and with little notice from the world. This, while Israel also sets new records for the expansion of illegal settlement homes. Israel is betting that these crimes will not shock the world, not compared to the atrocities it is committing in Gaza. But the millions of Palestinian children and adults in the West Bank must not be abandoned by the world. Our eyes see and our hearts are with the Palestinians of the West Bank too. On Wednesday, July 9, 2025, we will spotlight their current reality in this UMKR-MFSA webinar. Carol Garwood, co-chair of UMKR's Steering Committee, has visited the region four times in the last year. She brings considerable firsthand experience to moderating this webinar, in a discussion with two on-the-ground expert witnesses. Usama Nicola is an experienced Palestinian activist in the West Bank, where he serves as the Citizens Diplomacy Project Coordinator at Wi’am Conflict Transformation Center in Bethlehem. Budour Hassan is Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa researcher, investigating and reporting human rights violations in Palestine/Israel. She co-authored Amnesty's landmark report “You feel like you are subhuman:” Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza." Join us to find out from these on-the-scene experts what is happening in the West Bank, now at threat of massive ethnic cleansing. SPEAKERS Usama Nicola is a Palestinian civil society activist, serving as the Citizens Diplomacy Project Coordinator at Wi’am: The Palestinian Conflict Transformation Center. He is an experienced spokesperson and guide and and frequent online presenter on current events in Palestine. Usama has helped thousands gain a better understanding of Palestine/Israel and the struggles of Palestine's "living stones," the indigenous people of this land. Budour Hassan is a Palestinian feminist, writer, and researcher. A blind journalist born in Israel and based in Jerusalem, she has found her calling in bringing to light untold stories of her homeland. Today she is Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa researcher, investigating and documenting human rights violations in Palestine/Israel. She co-authored Amnesty's landmark report in December 2024: “You feel like you are subhuman”: Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. | | | | | | | |  | New MFSA T-Shirt "We Believe" T-Shirt Design We just launched a new t-shirt design. Boldly affirm your faith-rooted commitment to justice. Featuring core convictions from our movement, this shirt lifts up the truths we live by. | | | | | | | |  | Racial Audit Implementation Team Update Reflecting on Repentance by Ian Carlos Urriola Note: In June 2023, the Methodist Federation for Social Action (MFSA) Board of Directors established the Racial Audit Implementation Team to carry forward the recommendations from the comprehensive Racial Audit. This work represents our deep commitment to becoming an anti-racist organization. Rev. Anna Swygert is a member of that team, and this reflection is part of our collective journey to name, confront, and transform the white dominant culture within MFSA. It emerges from ongoing conversations centered on six key themes/patterns of white supremacy identified within our organization. These are the entrenched patterns we are actively working to disrupt as we move toward the liberation and equity we seek. We are sharing these reflections and insights publicly with our movement because accountability, transparency, and shared learning are essential to dismantling white supremacy. We know that transformation does not happen in isolation. By sharing our process, struggles, and growth, we hope to invite our broader community into this work with us—offering tools, solidarity, and space for mutual reflection as we continue building a more just and faithful movement. Much of this reflection builds off the work of Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg’s On Repentance and Repair: Making Amends in an Unapologetic World (Beacon Press, 2022). For a more in-depth understanding of a holistic approach to repentance at the individual, interpersonal, and institutional level, go to your local library and check out Rabbi Ruttenberg’s text or order it for yourself at your local independent bookstore. Rabbi Ruttenberg also offers her scholarship on a weekly basis through her Substack, Life is a Sacred Text at lifeisasacredtext.com “The time has now come!” he said to the people. “Creator’s good road is right in front of you. It is time to return to the right ways of thinking and doing! Put your trust in this good story I am bringing you.” (War Cub Tells the Good Story 1:15, First Nations Version: An Indigenous Translation of the New Testament) These are the first words spoken by Jesus in Mark’s Gospel. Other English translations of this proclamation render it, “The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God has come near; repent and believe in the good news.” Before Jesus says anything else, he calls for the people to repent. The MFSA Anti-Racist Audit Implementation Team has spent considerable time exploring what repentance, as an organization and institution, can and ought to look like as we seek to guide MFSA toward... | | | | | | | | | |  | Lighting the Candle of Peace, Hope, and Justice 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. | | | | | | | |  | 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. | | | | | | | |  | MFSA is now on Bluesky 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. Connect with us @mfsavoices.org | | | | | | | |  | | | | | | | | | | | | |  | | | | | | | | | Contact Us Methodist Federation for Social Action
996 Maine Ave SW #307
Washington, District of Columbia 20024
(202) 240-2546
bridget@mfsaweb.org | | | | | | | |
