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Dear Justice-Seeker, Our church was built on social holiness and personal piety. Yet, it just voted to prioritize policing our personal lives over working for justice. The implications of this decision are huge:
The denomination is throwing away its work for racial justice!
The denomination is throwing away its work for gender equality!
The denomination is throwing away its work for economic justice!
The denomination is throwing away its work for environmental justice!
The denomination is throwing away its work for peace, poverty, and people's rights!
I am not willing to let this happen. I have seen many of you voice your anger and disappointment and have seen a general outcry to dissent the rulings. From the looks of it, you aren't willing to back down either. In the past eight months leading up to this General Conference, MFSA worked for justice by: -
Hiring a new executive director (me!) -
Moving our national headquarters from DC to Detroit to reflect our commitment to grassroots organizing -
Launching our new website (www.mfsaweb.org) -
Working with coalitions to organize and strategize for the 2019 General Conference which was achieved through countless hours of meetings on strategy, infrastructure to support and implement that strategy. This included: -
Serving as the fiscal sponsor of the Love Your Neighbor Coalition which essentially means we are responsible for all the administration for running two nonprofits -
Sharing what was happening at General Conference - on social media, through emails, and through a text group that had over 800 people receiving real-time interpretation of what was happening on the floor -
Providing worship resources to our members and congregations for use during and after General Conference
It has been an intense eight months. Imagine what we can do if we had more resources and more capacity! We could: -
Expand our organizing for the 2020 General Conference -
Be a more powerful voice of conscience in imagining what the United Methodist Church, or its successors, will be in the future, and advocating for more voices to be present at the table(s). -
Speak as people of faith who are grounded in God's love, care, and compassion for all people, and train more people to do the same -
Empower organizing in areas without regional offices and help build their capacity to form new regional offices, so fewer progressives feel alone! -
Resource our regional offices and their leadership and offer training and support, to continue to bring intersectionality to many spaces -
Expand our justice-seeking congregation program -
Participate in more coalition building work in the church, across the US, and around the world, advocating for whoever isn't being heard -
Expand the progressive justice-seeking movement of Jesus followers, to transform the world!
We all want a future that is very different from our current reality. Now is the time to act. If you have never given please give. To our faithful donors, we would not have been able to accomplish what we have this past eight months without you. Thank you for your faithful witness. If you are able, please consider giving an additional gift. We can't do this work alone. Will you stand with us?
Seeking Justice Together, | |
Bridget Cabrera
Executive Director | |
