Gun Violence Prevention Oct. News

Presbyterian Peace Fellowship Gun Violence Prevention News for Congregations Oct. 2024 Welcome to new readers! Election 2024 The Peace Presbyterian Peace Fellowship does not support or oppose candidates. But we encourage you to get involved in the election to prevent gun violence. See New Action Below! Check HERE to learn if you are registered to vote for Nov. 5. Check HERE to learn about the Trump/Vance Campaign. Check HERE to learn about the Harris/Walz Campaign. Check HERE to learn about Gun Sense candidates for every state. New Non-Partisan Election Action: Faithfully Calling for Gun Safety Faith-based volunteers are making phone calls from their homes every Monday until the election. Using a laptop and a phone, these calls are made by people of faith to people of faith. They're not made on behalf of any candidate or campaign committee. Instead, we're calling voters in Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin and asking them to consider the issue of gun violence prevention as they vote up and down the ballot. See dates, leaders and registration link below. Mon. Oct. 7 at 7-9 pm EDT, 6-8 pm CDT, etc Join other citizens in making calls with Rev. Sharon Risher. Her mother and cousins were shot and killed in the Mother Emanuel AME Church shooting in Charleston, SC. Rev. Risher is an ordained pastor, gun violence prevention advocate and author of For Such a Time as This: Hope and Forgiveness after the Charleston Massacre. Rev. Risher will speak with volunteers during the event. Oct 7. Mon. Oct. 14 at 7-9 pm EDT, 6-8 pm CDT, etc Join in hearing from and making calls with Sharmaine Brown. Her son, Jared Brown, was shot and killed by a stray bullet two weeks before his 24th birthday. Sharmaine launched Jared’s Heart of Success in the aftermath, which aims to teach youth how to avoid violence. She is also a spokesperson for Everytown for Gun Violence.  Sign Up for Monday Eve Calls HERE Sign Up for Day or Weekend Calls HERE Please hold in prayer a large and exciting Guns to Gardens day for Kansas City, MO on Oct. 12. Learn about it HERE. Plan now for National Guns to Gardens Days Dec. 2-15 to remember the Sandy Hook school shooting and all victims of gun violence. If you have a safe surrender event planned for any date, please let us know HERE. NEWS Hurricane News: RAWtools South in the Asheville, NC area was hit hard by flooding from Hurricane Helene. Guns to Gardens leaders Scotty Utz and Stan Wilson and their families are OK. Scotty reports that they have a long road to recovery. Contribute to RAWtools South HERE. Many congregations are working together to help the states impacted. Contribute for long-term recovery work by Presbyterian Disaster Assistance HERE. Guns and the Border Oct. 17 at 3 pm PT/6 pm ET Our friends at BorderLinks in Tucson, AZ invite you to a Zoom event with anthropologist Ieva Jusionyte, whose latest book is Exit Wounds: How America’s Guns Fuel Violence Across the Border.  Jusionyte’s work not only demands that we consider the devastating transnational implications of American gun laws, but also flips the script on typical popular and media narratives about the too-porous Mexico-US border, focusing on how the north-to-south movement of arms imperils communities on both sides. The conversation will be held in English, with Spanish interpretation. BorderLinks Pláticas Series - Conversations with Activists, Artists & Authors Register HERE www.borderlinks.org/events Meeting ID: 868 8590 2119 Passcode: 897208 The Presbyterian Decade to End Gun Violence offers grants for action projects. Congratulations to those who have received grants! Be very specific about your project in your application. Apply HERE. T-Shirts Guns to Gardens T-shirts and sweatshirts with the Guns to Gardens logo on the front and Isaiah 2:4 on the back. Order for your church volunteers for gun violence prevention events or as a gift. Order HERE Support PPF's Gun Violence Prevention Ministry We need support from churches, individuals and presbyteries to do this work. Gifts of all amounts are needed. Gifts are tax-deductible.  Give HERE or Mail checks to: "Presbyterian Peace Fellowship" att: Gun Violence Prevention 17 Cricketown Rd. Stony Point, NY 10980 Thank you. GIVE HERE! presbypeacefellowship.org/gun-violence-prevention  Rev. Margery Rossi, Coordinator margery@presbypeacefellowship.org Rev. Jan Orr-Harter, Editor gvp@presbypeacefellowship.org Presbyterian Peace Fellowship 845-786-6743 | presbypeacefellowship.org Instagram | Facebook | Twitter

Peace & Global Witness Update — Hurricane Helene Relief

Dear Friend, Grace and peace to you! We know your congregation cares deeply about those who are impacted by all forms of conflict, and you weep with those who suffer. Our world is conflicted right now as peace is threatened in the Middle East and as people suffer in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. This Sunday, World Communion Sunday, is a day when thousands of our PC(USA) congregations remind ourselves that we are part of a global community bound together in Christ Jesus, at the table with those who reside in a storm’s aftermath or where peace does not prevail. The Peace & Global Witness Offering, one of the Church’s four churchwide Special Offerings, helps congregations commit to the work of peace in mighty ways. In times such as these, we are reminded that peacemaking extends to places experiencing both natural and human-caused disasters. Many congregations have reached out to us wondering how they might continue the work of peacemaking through the Peace & Global Witness Offering while supporting Presbyterian Disaster Assistance recovery efforts. This Sunday, when you receive the Peace & Global Witness Offering, we invite you to consider designating the 25% you retain through the Peace & Global Witness Offering as an offering to support Presbyterian Disaster Assistance. All you need to do is use the link below or send a check to Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), P.O. Box 643700, Pittsburgh, PA 15264-3700. Remit Your Retained Portion to Presbyterian Disaster Assistance In Christ, Rev. Carl E. Horton Director, Presbyterian Peacemaking Program, Presbyterian Mission Agency Rev. Edwin Gonzalez-Castillo Director, Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, Presbyterian Mission Agency Rev. Wilson M. Kennedy Associate Director, Special Offerings & Appeals, Administrative Services Group Thank you for your generous support of Special Offerings. If you have any questions, reply to this email or call 800-728-7228, Ext. 5047.

WCC news: WCC joins youth-led global prayer to close Season of Creation 2024, call for climate action

On 4 October, the World Council of Churches (WCC) will join global faith leaders and youth in a prayer service to close the Season of Creation. Themed “To Hope and Act with Creation,” with a focus on the Fossil Fuel Phase-Out Initiative, this youth-led event calls on faith communities to unite in prayer and action to address the climate crisis. 2 September 2022, Karlsruhe, Germany: Climate protest at the 11th Assembly of the World Council of Churches, held in Karlsruhe, Germany from 31 August to 8 September, under the theme "Christ's Love Moves the World to Reconciliation and Unity." Photo: Gjermund Øystese/WCC 03 October 2024 The event will feature prayers, reflections, and poetry, including contributions from the WCC Youth Engagement representatives, Don Bosco Green Alliance, Presbyterian Church of East Africa, Climate YES South Africa, Green Anglicans, and A Rocha Lebanon. Youth leaders will share stories of hope and commitment to climate justice, inspiring collective actions to safeguard our planet. Rev. Dr Rima Nasrallah, an ordained minister in the Protestant Church in Beirut and a founding member of A Rocha Lebanon, will speak on the importance of faith communities in advocating for the vulnerable and acting in solidarity with creation. The event will also highlight the global push for the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, encouraging faith-based leadership in this movement. Dr Louk Andrianos, WCC consultant for Care for Creation, Sustainability, and Climate Justice, emphasized, “As communities of faith, we are called not only to pray but to act, especially for those most impacted by the ecological crisis: human and non-human suffering creation in every part of the Earth. As Apostle Paul said, in Romans 8:22, ’the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now,' because of humankind sin. Our collective prayers must turn into policies that protect our common home.” Follow the live streaming here  Register here if you need interpretation in Spanish, Portuguese, French, and Italian  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 general secretary is Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay from the Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa. 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

Webinar invite: Dismantling Christian Nationalism

In this election year, I’ve been alarmed to see examples of Christian nationalism on full display. This toxic ideology weaponizes our faith, distorting Christian language, symbols, and identity into tools for political manipulation and gain. How do we recognize this harmful belief system and — critically — help end it? I invite you to join me as I moderate an online conversation with several faith leaders who are deeply engaged in the movement against Christian nationalism as they share stories, strategies, and practical advice they’ve learned in this important work. In this conversation, we’ll explore the hopeful actions that can counter this deadly set of beliefs. Panelists will explain what Christian nationalism is (and isn’t), offer examples of actions to help end it, and articulate a path forward that neither stifles the participation of people of faith in public life nor threatens a vibrant, democratic, and just future for all. Our special guests for this conversation will be: Bishop William Barber II is president and senior lecturer of Repairers of the Breach, executive board member of the Christian Church Disciples of Christ, and a professor at Yale Divinity School where he is the founding director of the Center for Public Theology and Public Policy. He is also co-chair of the Poor People's Campaign: A National Call For Moral Revival, a Kettering Foundation senior fellow, and author of White Poverty: How Exposing Myths About Race and Class Can Reconstruct American Democracy.   Rev. Caleb E. Campbell is lead pastor at Desert Springs Bible Church in Phoenix, Ariz. His book, Disarming Leviathan: Loving Your Christian Nationalist Neighbor, equips Christians to minister to their Christian nationalist neighbors, explores the reasons so many people are attracted to it and provides a “field guide” for responding to American Christian nationalist talking points.   Rev. Pamela Cooper White, Ph. D. is emerita professor of psychology and religion and a former dean and vice president for academic affairs at Union Theological Seminary. Her most recent book, The Psychology of Christian Nationalism, was awarded the INDIE independent publishers’ 2022 gold medal for social and political science.   Adam Russell Taylor is president of Sojourners and author of A More Perfect Union: A New Vision for Building the Beloved Community. He is ordained in the American Baptist Church and the Progressive National Baptist Convention. He is a gifted preacher and lecturer, applying the biblical roots of justice to today’s most pressing concerns. You can register for this event and we will email you the details and an event reminder. We are looking forward to an informative and engaging conversation. In faith, Betsy Betsy Shirley Editor in chief, Sojourners

DONATE   SUBSCRIBE

Copyright © 2024 Sojourners, All rights reserved. Sojourners | 408 C St. NE | Washington, DC 20002 Email: sojourners@sojo.net | Tel.: 202.328.8842