Acts & Abolition: The Spirit Is Moving Inbox

‌ Acts & Abolition: The Spirit Is Moving I hope you were with us earlier this month when we entered the season of Pentecost with a worship service focused on Acts & Abolition. (The recording of that service is available on PPF’s YouTube channel.) The Spirit is alive and moving in our midst this summer, and Pentecost at PPF presents multiple opportunities to engage, learn, organize, and act for justice and peace. This late-June note lifts up two opportunities to learn, engage, and support this work right now. First, you're invited to a virtual open house sponsored by Presbyterians for Abolition in partnership with SURJ Faith (Show Up for Racial Justice). Join us for a conversation with the Rev. Anne Dunlap focusing on faithful ways of keeping our communities safe. The open house is on Zoom, Thursday, July 13, at 5:00 p.m. Pacific / 8:00 p.m. Eastern. Here's the link to register. The PFA open house dovetails beautifully with PPF’s Pentecost campaign. The campaign this year celebrates our long history of support for conscientious objectors. I hope you’ve seen the letter from Marilyn White and the Peace Church working group, and the testimony of contemporary COs rolling out on PPF’s social media spaces. Here's Abigail Pugh's story on our Facebook page. “What’s the connection between prison abolition and conscientious objection, and what has any of that to do with safe church plans?” Excellent question! The two are deeply entwined because both present-day abolition and conscientious objection to war invite us to imagine a world in which human thriving is made possible through the abolition of systems of violence and oppression, and the building up of communities of mutual aid, conflict resolution, justice, and restoration. PPF was founded 79 years ago to support conscientious objectors during World War II. We have supported COs and advocated on their behalf for almost 80 years. PPF's Peace Church working group works with congregations encouraging their commitment to peace, and supports individuals engaging the process of formally declaring their objection to war. Ensuring safety in local communities without resort to violence is at the heart of these intersecting movements for justice and peace. Safe church is part of safe community. Indeed, it can spark efforts to move beyond reliance on police. Moving beyond reliance on the false security of armed agents of the state is core to both the abolition of the prison-industrial complex and the abolition of the military-industrial complex. Join us on July 13 for PFA’s open house, and deepen your engagement with the work of imagining a nonviolent future. Here’s the link to register for the open house: https://bit.ly/pfaopenhouse Here’s the link to support PPF’s Pentecost campaign sharing the stories of conscientious objectors and PPF's 80 years of supporting them: https://bit.ly/23pentecost There are so many ways to join us in the work these days, so look for PPF at Wild Goose in North Carolina next month. Follow us on social media. Join a Guns-to-Gardens action circle. You can find information on all of this and more on our web site. Thank you for all that you do to abolish systems of violence and to build up a more just and peaceful world. Peace, David Ensign Interim executive director