Change.org Petition; Stop The Broadcast of Pro-Putin "Channel One" in US

Stop The Broadcast of Pro-Putin "Channel One" in US

Vlada Briks started this petition, and it now has 3,656 signatures

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Mission accomplished! All major cable providers  -- Comcast/Xfinity, Optimum and later Spectrum -- stopped airing and selling Moscow-owned TV channels by March 5, 2022, of which Channel One was the worst example of Putin’s propaganda machine. Our petition gathered 1,270+ signatures and has been a powerful voice, along with others, that put real pressure on decision-makers at these cable companies. Thank you all who participated!   *** Channel One is the second largest state TV channel in Russia that systematically disseminates blatant lies and propaganda about Ukraine and its current news coverage fully justifies the invasion of Ukraine. Many Russian-speaking immigrants from the former Soviet Union subscribed to this channel either intentionally or because it’s part of a larger package.  This TV station is poison to the brain. It spreads lies and hatred among Russian-speaking community and even within families. Banning this TV station is a direct blow to the pro-Kremlin propaganda, which fogs people’s brains and stops them from seeking the truth.

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Introducing Presbyterians for Abolition

Introducing Presbys for Abolition Since the racial uprisings in 2020, Presbyterian Peace Fellowship has been in deep learning and re-organizing of our commitment to anti-racism practice. One fruit of this season has been the emergence of a group called Presbyterians for Abolition. Will you join us for this launch event? Together, we are committed to the following values: Abolish, not reform. A fundamental belief of this group is that the prison industrial complex (policing, courts, jails and prisons, etc.) and its many tendrils in our society are beyond reform. They must be dismantled and we must seek to build new experiments in community safety and care. Follow the voices of people most directly impacted by the Prison Industrial Complex, including people currently and formerly incarcerated, Black queer femmes, and others who are at the intersection of multiple forms of oppression. They have the clearest vision of how to create a world where everyone has what they need to thrive. “Nothing about us without us.”  We are committed to being accountable in our actions to organizers and leaders who have lived experience of incarceration and oppression at the hands of the prison industrial complex.  Move resources out of predominantly white institutions like the PCUSA and into the hands of BIPOC leaders of the abolition movement. Our first public event will be focused on that last commitment! We will gather online for an hour of art and story as we lift up the voices of those most impacted by our criminal punishment system and dream of a world built instead on community care, grace and accountability, and systems that support and heal. During the hour we’ll hear testimony from people who are on the frontlines. We invite you to give in solidarity with those who are directly supporting people who are incarcerated and who hold an abolitionist commitment. We will raise $10,000 to be split among three organizations. REGISTER Abolition and gun violence This week we as we lift up and grieve the loss of the 21 people who died in Uvalde, TX, as we still reel from the violence of Buffalo which was so explicitly racist. The reality is all this violence is connected to white supremacy and the carceral state we live within. A commitment to anti-racism practice and abolition is a part of our commitment to ending gun violence. May the memory of those lost be a blessing. Presbyterian Peace Fellowship 845-786-6743 | presbypeacefellowship.org Instagram | Facebook | Twitter

Change.org Petition: Children need us to keep them safe - PLEASE REMOVE GUNS FROM OUR STREETS

19 young children and 2 teachers died in the deadliest school shooting in Texas history. Zora, a middle schooler, thinks enough is enough. “Nobody should have to wake up, feeling afraid as they ride their bus or carpool, maybe even walk to school, looking back at their parents, hoping this isn’t the last time you’ll see them,” she says. Zora started a petition calling on Biden to push for nationwide gun control laws. Add your name to support Zora’s push for safety in schools. PLEASE REMOVE GUNS FROM OUR STREETS 3,309 have signed Vasupradha Raghav-Vasudevan’s petition. Let’s get to 5,000!

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STOP GUN VIOLENCE. TAKE GUNS AWAY FROM CHILDREN. GUNS ARE NOT CANDIES. Why do we need guns in house-holds anyway? What is the use for weapons in day-to-day affairs? PREVENT THE KILLINGS. We are not politicians. We are not high-ranking officials. We are nothing high up any hierarchy. This is not about us. This is an EARNEST APPEAL FROM YOUNG MOTHERS of a community in TX FOR the well-being of ALL THE CHILDREN OF THE UNITED STATES.  Our hearts go out to ALL THE FAMILIES of Uvalde, Texas. We cannot even begin to fathom the amount of despair, anguish and hurt they must all be feeling right now .  Why should we BE ANXIOUS TO SEND CHILDREN to school? Why should we BE AFRAID TO SHOP at grocery stores? Why should we BE SCARED TO STEP OUT of our HOMES? IS THIS FREEDOM? 200 years after our golden INDEPENDENCE, all of us are in HIDING. NO OTHER COUNTRY IN THE WORLD IS SPIRALING INTO THIS MADNESS. DO NOT MAKE THIS POLITICAL. JUST TAKE THE DREADED GUNS AWAY. SAVE LIVES. SAVE HUMANITY. WE IMPLORE YOU TO LET OUR CHILDREN GROW, “LIVE” AND THRIVE IN PEACE. A NORMAL LIFE. ON BEHALF OF ALL THE PARENTS WHO UTTERLY FEAR THE FUTURE OF THIS COUNTRY, REPRESENTING - THE WOODLANDS MOMS  Photo Credit : Houston Chronicle

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GreenFaith - Join 9 June call on Faiths 4 Climate Justice week of action

"We are facing a code red for humanity. The alarm bells are deafening, and the evidence is irrefutable: greenhouse‑gas emissions from fossil-fuel burning and deforestation are choking our planet and putting billions of people at immediate risk.” -UN Secretary-General António Guterres The Earth and all people are sacred–and both are at risk. We're inviting you to join the launch call to plan Faiths 4 Climate Justice - a global, multi-faith mobilization week from 2-9 October to help defend our planet. Join us! Call #1: June 9 8am New York / 1pm London / 3pm Nairobi (Americas, Europe, Africa) *This call will have live translation in German, French, and Swahili. CLICK HERE TO RSVP FOR CALL #1 Call #2: June 9 / 10 June 9 @ 5pm California June 10 @ 7am Jakarta / 10am Sydney (Asia, Australia, Western Americas) *This call will have live translation in Spanish and Bahasa Indonesia. CLICK HERE TO RSVP FOR CALL #2 Last year, we organized over 500 grassroots actions across 43 countries. People of diverse religions rose from their pews, prayer rugs, and meditation cushions worldwide. We went to government offices and financial institutions, calling for change. Now, it's time to gear up again. We're organizing Faiths 4 Climate Justice to take place less than a month before this year's G20 and COP27 meetings. These two governmental meetings bring together leaders worldwide to make decisions and formal agreements that impact us all, from the economy and trade to climate change. We want to send a loud message before leaders from every country gather to decide the fate of our planet. It's time to start planning now. History is clear: transformational change happens when large numbers of people mobilize peacefully and persistently. People of faith have always been key players in these social movements. Let's honor this history and protect the sacredness of our planet and its people. In faith and solidarity, rev. abby mohaupt

WCC NEWS: Act on food crisis now, urges WHO special envoy at WCC-led meeting

The world faces a global crisis on food exacerbated and brought to the fore by the war in Ukraine, but humanity can and must take remedial steps in economic and climate justice, a World Council of Churches-led meeting has heard. Families are given a safe place to stay in a shelter run by the Episcopal Church in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, as hurricane Iota arrived in the country in November 2020. Photo: Sean Hawkey/WCC 27 May 2022 Dr David Nabarro, special envoy of the World Health Organization on COVID-19, urged the church and civil society leaders to act now in the briefing with participants from different parts of the world, particularly Africa. After an introduction by Dr Manoj Kurian, coordinator of the WCC-Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance, Nabarro cautioned, "that we don't look back on 2022 as the year where there was a crisis of civilization, because building on the pandemic, humanity we just could not find a way to promote equity, the realization of rights, and the wellbeing of not just people, but our beautiful planet." "So, we can offer it to future generations as a place of hope and growth," said Nabarro. The WHO envoy said he became aware in the middle of last year, "listening to many ministers of agriculture, coming together at a meeting in Rome in July, just one after the other saying it's not working, climate change, COVID-19 and conflict are making the food security of our peoples really disturbing." Trade systems not working Nabarro cited global trade systems not working, countries dependent on imports because of the COVID-19 crisis, and unable to get what they need. He said, "Farmers, because of climate change and COVID-19, particularly smallholder farmers and fishers, cannot produce what they need." Marianne Ejdersten, WCC director of Communication, outlined the current trigger of a crisis. "The world faces a food crisis triggered by war in a major breadbasket area of the world, making many other places face acute hunger, but the planet faced a food crunch before the war in Ukraine started," said Ejdersten. "A new global crisis is emerging from the war in Ukraine, with the potential to cause millions of people to go hungry, push food prices higher and spark unrest far from the conflict zone," Ejdersten said. She highlighted that 811 million people go to bed hungry every night. "Together. Russia and Ukraine account for more than a quarter of the global wheat supplies exporting to countries including Egypt, Lebanon, Turkey, Yemen, and Somalia, among many other countries," said Ejdersten. "These are the most vulnerable populations in the world." Sofía Monsalve Suárez,  secretary-general of FIAN International, the international human rights organization for the right to food and nutrition, said it is essential to look at when the crisis started. "We have been in crisis since 2007, if you want if you remember the first big food crisis that we had, at that time," said Monsalve Suárez. "And it’s the structural drivers of this food crisis, for instance, the inequality in terms of controlling land and natural resources, the inequalities in terms of tax justice, the issue of debt, has been mentioned." Dismantling capacity The FIAN leader accused the World Bank and many international financial institutions of convincing countries and forcing them to dismantle their national capacity to produce food, store food and have public food programmes for distribution for schools and the like. "Therefore, they were told it is better to rely on the global market. But now, since COVID-19, we have seen that these global food supply chains are extremely vulnerable to these eruptions, because of climate conditions, or because of geopolitical and war issues, as we see now," said Monsalve Suárez. Dr Thorsten Göbel, director of Programmes for the ACT Alliance,  spoke on the global impact of the crisis on humanitarian responses and where hunger is strongly felt. "We've heard or seen from ACT members that this has been particularly the case in conflict-ridden countries, like the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Afghanistan or Syria," said Göbel. Mervyn Abrahams of the Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice and  Dignity Group spoke on the national situation in South Africa. "We have seen food prices spike since the beginning of COVID-19. And that has continued. So yes, the Russia-Ukraine conflict has sharpened the spike. But the issue around increasing food prices has been with us for quite a while," said Abrahams. He noted that food availability is not a problem in South Africa, an exporter and that prices outstripping earnings are hitting the most vulnerable communities. Impact on children However, he said, "We have seen, in South Africa, it was reported that 199 children under the age of five in our public hospital system have died as a direct result of malnutrition in only the first two months of this year." Prof. Dr Esther Mombo of the theology department at St Paul's University in Limuru, Kenya. And yet the Kenyan theologian reminded that "the story of Jesus feeding 5,000 people has some lessons for us as we face the hunger crisis in different parts of the world." She said, "There is enough food to feed everybody in the world. When Jesus saw a crowd of people, he told his disciples to give them food. When we provide food to the hungry, we are not doing them a favour, but acting as expected of us by God, as God's people through Jesus Christ." WCC webinar video: Briefing on Global Crisis on Food and the crisis response See more

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 352 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 580 million Christians in over 120 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic Church. The WCC acting general secretary is Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca, from the Orthodox Church in Romania.  Media contact: +41 79 507 6363; www.oikoumene.org/press Our visiting address is: World Council of Churches 150 route de Ferney Geneve 2 1211 Switzerland

Today in the Mission Yearbook - $50 and a challenge

Witness, Share and Evangelize: Today in the Mission Yearbook - $50 and a challenge: A reverse offering is given to bless others May 27, 2022 Worshipers at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Lincoln,Neb., were treated to a re...

Change.org Petition: Honor Alana - Let Alana Williams parents walk the stage at graduation!

17-year-old Alana was tragically killed in a car accident last month, right before her high school graduation. According to petition starter Emelly, their principal promised Alana’s family that they would be able to receive her diploma in her honor. Unfortunately, the principal is not following through on this promise. Emelly is urging Washington High School to let Alana’s parents walk at graduation in her honor. Add your name to show your support. Let Alana Williams parents walk the stage at graduation! 6,792 have signed Emelly Salazar’s petition. Let’s get to 7,500!

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Alana Williams,17, a student at Washington High School who was tragically killed in a car accident on April 10th,2022. She was supposed to graduate this upcoming Sunday and her parents were promised by Principal Judy Marcus that they will be able to receive her diploma in her honor. With the graduation coming up, Marcus has made it rudely clear that she will not follow through with her promise. Please help us make it possible for her name to be mentioned and for her parents to walk the stage. No parents should have to suffer the loss of a child and then have their hopes of seeing her graduate be taken away.  Please sign this petition so we can make a change and let our voices be heard: -Getting Alanas name mentioned at graduation  -Let Alana’s parents walk the stage -Get Principal Judy Marcus fired

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At Change.org, we believe in the voice of everyday people. Is there something that you want to change? Start a petition today