truth & justice

T&J Edition 5: Pressing Towards Justice

Dear Union Community,

Yesterday, Renée and James B led us in a time of reflection around Matthew 7:28-8:4, and sent us into small groups to discuss what stood out to us in these passages. The part of the scripture that initially stood out to me (Nichelle) was the first two verses:

"When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazing at his teaching, because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law." Matthew 7:28-29

As I have reflected on this over the last day, I am struck that Jesus did not have the earthly credentials that would have given him the same status or "authority" as the teachers of the law. Those that typically would assert their authority, the teachers of the law, in this passage seem to be seen as a bit phony by the people when compared to the love, and compassion, and actions that Jesus conveyed in alignment with the words that he spoke. My interpretation here is that Jesus spoke with authority because he was authentic: his words, heart, and actions were completely aligned. And by contrast, the teachers of the law spoke of ideas and laws, yet their heart and actions did not match up and so the crowd was able to see that disparity, which undermined the message of God. 

How do we, as the church and specifically Union, respond in this time of social reckoning and change and pandemic? How do we emulate Jesus, rather than the teachers of the law that seem to miss the mark? The second half of the passage seems to show us how. Jesus met the man on the margins, the man with leprosy who was ostracized from the community. Jesus listened to him, acted in his best interest, and attended to his spiritual and physical and social conditions. Just as Christ did, may we do the same!

For a predominantly white community, there is a lot to reckon with, as many of us are learning for the first time or are deepening our awareness of the depth of racism in our country. Be strong in your discomfort, lean in to the questions. This is the work of the Gospel that Christ called us to in Luke 4:

"The Spirit of the Lord is on me, 

because he has anointed me

to proclaim the good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners

and recovery of sight for the blind,

to set the oppressed free,

to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."

Listen and believe the stories and lives of our black and brown brothers and sisters. Learn about white privilege and how to be anti-racist. And find ways, each day, to be an ally for those in our country that are marginalized and ostracized. May our words, heart, and actions be aligned as Jesus shows us how.

Below are some ways that you can start, or continue, this work in your life. Please reach out to this community if you have questions, need resources, or just want to talk. We are in the beginning phases of trying to find ways that we can facilitate more conversation around these topics, more information will be coming soon. 

Pressing towards justice.

LEARN

  • What does "Defund the Police" mean? Watch this video produced by the LA TimesPick a book, article, podcast, or video from this list of resources to better understand the history of what is happening in our country

  • Watch Michelle Lang's "A Chat with White Folks" (Michelle came to Union a couple years ago, she directed "The Guitar Section: A sound check on justice"). This is an opportunity to listen to the deep pain of the black community. It is long, so watch in parts!

  • Join Kitchen Table Conversations on Tuesday evenings @7:30PM to discuss Indigenous Rights and Environmental Justice, and how this intersects with racism for the Black community.

ADVOCATE

  • This City of Seattle Action Guide is a very thorough and dynamic document that provides detailed information about advocating for various issues including police reform & response to protestors being met with excessive force in Seattle. This document includes scripts and contact information, organizations to support, petitions, donations, etc.

  • Spend some time with it, get familiar with the issues, and contact your local officials so your voice is heard.

  • Call and write local, state, and national elected officials in support of the 10 demands outlined by Seattle's youth at the Seattle Children's March 

ACT

  • If you are interested in a time of prayer devoted to these issues, please contact Renée for more details. 

  • Join the virtual Poor People's Campaign Protest on June 20

  • Volunteer with FEEST - purchase and deliver groceries for families in the Seattle/White Center/Burien/Rainier Beach neighborhoods

  • Volunteer at Calvary the Hill during the protests - be a loving presence in the midst of the unrest. Contact Melissa Schoch to learn more about this opportunity and sign up for a shift on the Doodle Poll.

  • Donate to Northwest Harvest. Their shelves are quite empty as the pandemic persists and our nation's economic system continues to leave many families without jobs, homes, and reliable access to food.

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Truth & Justice Studio MISSION STATEMENT :: Truth & Justice creates space to educate and mobilize people by lifting up marginalized voices as catalyst for social change. We are a community within Union Church in Seattle, WA. 

T&J Edition 4: Ways to Address Injustice During COVID-19

Hello T&J Community,

In light of the news about the death and unjust handling of the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, our hearts are burdened. It is unfathomable to think that a young man can be gunned down while going for a jog, yet this is as much a reality in 2020 as it would have been in 1920. The belief that life is valuable is not a shared foundation in our country, a country that at its foundation was built on the belief that white bodies are more valuable than black or brown bodies. So we lament and grieve with the Arbery family. We also ask that you would take the time to assess how you can best respond to this tragedy: through learning about our country's history of white supremacy, advocating for justice to be brought in this case, and acting in solidarity with our brothers and sisters who live in fear for the simple fact that they have black and brown skin.

Below, there are different links that can take you to articles and action items for learning, advocating and acting. Not all of the material is directly related to Ahmaud Arbery, but rather the larger systems of injustice that are evident in our country. 

LEARN

ADVOCATE

  • Demand justice for Ahmaud Arbery. Visit #RunWithMaud to sign the petition and make calls to elected officials to demand that hate crime charges be brought, and that an independent special council would be selected for this case.

  • Advocate with the Native American community to receive federal funding needed to meet economic, health, and social concerns related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Read this article as a place to start.

  • Release individuals being held in jail awaiting trial. Northwest Community Bail Fund is asking you to contact your city, state and county executives to support our call for the immediate release of all pre-trial non-violent detainees from all King County and WA state detention facilities, a halt to new arrests and bookings and wealth based detention, and the release of other vulnerable jailed neighbors based on health risk.

    • Governor Jay Inslee: 360-902-4111/email
      County Executive Dow Constantine: (206) 263-9600/ email
      Seattle City Attorney Dan Satterberg: 206-477-1200/ email 
      Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkin: 206-684-4000/ email
      SPD Chief Carmen Best: 206-625-5011/ email

      For information on contacting State legislators, click here.
      For Pierce County Executive Bruce Dammeier click here.
      For Snohomish County Executive Dave Somers email

      What to say:
      Hi, my name is _____, and I am a Washington resident who is concerned about the impact of Coronavirus on people who are detained.  We are calling for the immediate release of all non-violent pretrial detainees as well as detainees with at-risk health conditions.  We further call for a moratorium on new arrests, bookings and cash bail for all crimes that do not have immediate impact on public safety. Public safety includes those we choose to lock up in close quarters.
      Can we count on you to prevent detained people from dying during this pandemic by taking these actions?

ACT

  • Join Union in attending the Poor People’s Campaign March on June 20, 2020 in a virtual march that will be the largest digital and social media gathering of poor and low-wealth people, moral and religious leaders, advocates, and people of conscience in the nation's history. A global pandemic is exposing even more the already existing crisis of systemic racism, poverty, ecological devastation, the war economy and militarism, and the distorted moral narrative of religious nationalism. On June 20, the 140 million poor and low-income people across the nation will be heard!  

  • Make an extra meal for families at Compass House, or unite with a friend or another family and make 40 sack lunches that can be distributed to Immanuel Community Services, Lake Union Village, or Street Youth Ministries. Contact Adrienne if you would like to serve in this way.

  • Look at the list of other ways to engage that is attached to this email!

Thank you, friends! The only way to get through this is to stick together.

With love and gratitude.

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Truth & Justice Studio MISSION STATEMENT :: Truth & Justice creates space to educate and mobilize people by lifting up marginalized voices as catalyst for social change. We are a community within Union Church in Seattle, WA. 

T&J Edition 3: Support Choose 180

Hello T&J Community,

We hope this email finds you well, isolating at home to keep our community safe from COVID-19.

As the length of time the "Stay Home Stay Healthy" initiative persists, the economic impact is felt broadly across America. Businesses are closing, there is a historic record high unemployment rate, and those in our community that often feel stretched in the best of times are completely depleted. Information is starting to come out about the racial disparities that are emerging due to COVID-19 ("Outcry over racial data grows as virus slams black Americans"). 

What can we do? 

Please see the suggestions the were sent out previously as ways to stay engaged. They are attached to this email in PDF form. Feel free to share them widely with family and friends! Let's use whatever platforms we may have to alert our communities that there are many in our city and country that are being decimated by this virus, but physically and economically. 

One additional way to engage is to support CHOOSE 180, our dear friends in the Seattle/Burien community that are serving these very populations. Emily Westlake reached out  a week ago, and had this to say:

"CHOOSE 180 is doing ok! We're fortunate to have the supporters we have, so far we haven't had to lay anyone off. Restructuring our diversion workshop programming, otherwise just trying to meet people's most urgent needs first. The group Moms Demand reached out to us about a week ago to ask us what we need, and the team said highest priority is gift cards/money for groceries, utilities, car payments etc. So they've been either sending those or sending donations restricted to gift cards, that has been really helpful. I am concerned that with the recession, peoples needs in our community are growing while financial support is going to be a bit more difficult."

If you can support CHOOSE 180, or donate gift cards to the youth and families they serve, PLEASE DO! Go here to donate, and in the What inspired your gift today? box, please notate "Gift is for gift cards for participants."

Or feel free to send a check to CHOOSE 180, 1416 SW 151st Street, Burien, WA 98166.

Thank you, friends! The only way to get through this is to stick together.

With love and gratitude.

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Truth & Justice Studio MISSION STATEMENT :: Truth & Justice creates space to educate and mobilize people by lifting up marginalized voices as catalyst for social change. We are a community within Union Church in Seattle, WA. 

T&J Edition 2: More Pandemic Ways to Engage

Dear T&J Community,

There were a few additions submitted by our community members, with ways that we could continue to remain active and support our community during this pandemic.

As far as a way to gather together and continue these conversations, we wanted to reach out and see if there is interest from this community to have a monthly Zoom call/meeting? Unfortunately, Sayuko, Megan, and Nichelle, who typically organize the T&J events, are feeling quite maxed out with having our kids at home, trying to homeschool, and work at the same time, but we wanted to see if there were some of you in the community that might be interested in taking this on? Perhaps a book club (some ideas: "I Bring the Voices of My People" by Chanequa Walker-Barnes, or "The Very Good Gospel" by Lisa Sharon Harper, or "The Cross and the Lynching Tree" by James H. Cone)? Or some other format? If you feel like you would be interested in taking this on, we'd be quite supportive in helping arrange the Zoom meeting and participating as well. Please just respond to this email with your idea, and we'll help make it happen. 

Please continue to be well! 

Blessings to you all during this time of isolation.

T&J Edition 1: Ways to Engage During COVID-19

Dear T&J Community,

What a crazy and unprecedented time. We are all experiencing this together, even though we are social distancing and in our own silos. While you are at home, wondering how you can help in the community, here are a list of ideas. Places to donate, ways to advocate, and opportunities to volunteer. 

If you have any other ideas, please send them our way, and we can share with this group.

Blessings of safety and health for you all.

  • Donate to local agencies that are supporting communities in need by providing food, shelter, and services

    • Food Lifeline

    • WA-BLOC "Feed the Beach" - feeding students lunch during the COVID-19 shutdown

    • Rainier Valley Foodbank

    • Support ANY Foodbank - a list is here

    • Support Shelters - Noel House 

    • The YMCA is providing childcare to first-responders, increasing their Hunger Initiatives across the region, hosting blood drives, and continuing to care for teens and young adults in their home program

  • Donate blood - if you are healthy, there is a shortage of blood supply

  • Support your local businesses & restaurants, particularly those that are POC-owned - buy gift cards, make donations

  • Call your US representatives today and demand they pass the #FamiliesFirst coronavirus bill. It contains: 

- Free testing

- 14 days paid sick leave

- 3 months paid family leave

- Expanded unemployment insurance & food security

- Medicaid funds

Lives are on the line. (202) 224-3121

  • Advocate for those being held in jail awaiting trial: 

Northwest Community Bail Fund is asking you to contact your city, state and county executives to support our call for:

  • The immediate release of all pre-trial non-violent detainees from all King County and WA state detention facilities.

  • A halt to new arrests and bookings and wealth based detention.

  • Release of other vulnerable jailed neighbors based on health risk.

Who to contact:
Governor Jay Inslee: 360-902-4111/email
County Executive Dow Constantine: (206) 263-9600/ email
Seattle City Attorney Dan Satterberg: 206-477-1200/ email 
Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkin: 206-684-4000/ email
SPD Chief Carmen Best: 206-625-5011/ email

For information on contacting State legislators, click here.
For Pierce County Executive Bruce Dammeier click here.
For Snohomish County Executive Dave Somers email

What to say:
Hi, my name is _____, and I am a Washington resident who is concerned about the impact of Coronavirus on people who are detained.  We are calling for the immediate release of all non-violent pretrial detainees as well as detainees with at-risk health conditions.  We further call for a moratorium on new arrests, bookings and cash bail for all crimes that do not have immediate impact on public safety. Public safety includes those we choose to lock up in close quarters.
Can we count on you to prevent detained people from dying during this pandemic by taking these actions?


--
Truth & Justice StudioMISSION STATEMENT :: Truth & Justice creates space to educate and mobilize people by lifting up marginalized voices as catalyst for social change. We are a community within Union Church in Seattle, WA. 

Truth & Justice 2019 Advent series | 25 Steps Toward Justice

25 Steps Toward Justice

Learn, reflect, pray, act, and be transformed.

Exploring issues of injustice—and their toxic effect on our world—can be uncomfortable. But we believe that God Emmanuel, who sends us as his agents into the world, will accompany us with his boundless grace, reminding us that we "belong to God and the Spirit in us is far stronger than anything in the world." (1 John 4:4)

Image 12-28-19 at 1.34 PM.jpg

Day 26: PRAY

Teach Me to Listen

Teach me to listen, O God,
To those nearest me,
My family, my friends, my co-workers.

Help me to be aware
That no matter what words I hear,
The message is,
“Accept the person I am. Listen to me.”

Teach me to listen, my caring God,
To those far from me –
The whisper of the hopeless,
The plea of the forgotten,
The cry of the anguished.

Teach me to listen, O God my Mother,
To myself.
Help me to be less afraid
To trust the voice inside –
In the deepest part of me.

Teach me to listen, Holy Spirit,
For your voice –
In busyness and in boredom,
In certainty and doubt,
In noise and in silence.

Teach me, Lord, to listen.

Amen.

-Prayer of John Veltri SJ 

REFLECT

Take a moment to reflect on the past 25 days. Talk with someone or write about what parts of this advent journey have left an impression on you. Looking back, what stands out to you? What did you struggle with? Did anything prompt you to explore or research in more depth? Did you feel moved to get involved in anything or take action in a certain way?


Here is a list of the 25 Steps Towards Justice 2019. 

1) A Blessing of Hope

2) Quality of Mercy 

3) "Biased" 

4) Representation and Beyond 

5) Diversity vs. Equity

6) “Undoing Racism” 

7) Decolonizing our theology 

8) The Thrill of Hope in a Weary World

9) “This Land” The History of Native Lands

10) Living on Duwamish Land

11) “The Lord loves the homeless”

12) Death by Gentrification

13) Poverty, Income Disparity, and Immigration

14)  “Fishers of Men” ICE Tactics

16) Time to listen: Recentering History

17) “A Great Cloud of Witnesses” 

18) Courageous and Costly Living

19) Why We Can’t Wait 

20) Reparations 

21) Asian Misrepresentation in Media 

22) Letter Writing: Throwing Breadcrumbs at Mountains

23) Climate change 

24) The “Cultural Genocide” of Uyghur Muslims 

25) Keeping Watch Over Bethlehem

26) Prayer: Teach me to listen

Thank you so much for participating! Any feedback is welcome and appreciated. (Email truthandjustice.union@gmail.com.)

 “Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other.” -Romans 12:10 

UPCOMING EVENTS

Jan 11, 2020: World Relief Volunteer Orientation 9am @World Relief (Kent)  Free
Jan 20, 2020: MLK Prayer Breakfast 7am @The Sheraton
Jan 24, 2020: Power with not Power Over: Accountability in Action for White Women All Day @2100 Building (Mt. Baker) $150-$300
Jan 30, 2020: The True Cost (film) 6:30pm @Mt. Baker Community Club  Free

Jan 15 - Mar 4, 2020  Kitchen Table Conversations | Unpacking Indigenous Issues Wednesdays, 6:30-8 PM @ Kakáo (415 Westlake)
A space to examine settler-Indigenous relations in our region, engage with literary and expressive arts created by Indigenous peoples, and learn how to become an ally of Indigenous rights. Discussion topics include: Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women #MMIW, Contemporary Native Arts, Duwamish Land and Land Acknowledgement. 
Facilitated by Lydia Heberling, instructor of American Indian and Indigenous Studies at University of Washington. Email Adrienne for more info/sign up.

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