Why You Should Wear Orange on Sunday

Wear Orange on Sunday Only God knows what's in our hearts... the rest of us need a background check.  Stand up and be counted among the 84% of voters who want background checks. Wear orange on Sunday, June 6 and post your photo to social media with the hashtag #PresbysWearOrange to stand for a future without gun violence. Your congregation can also use this Minute for Mission video from Rev. Deanna Hollas on Sunday.  Stop Line 3! June 5-8 Indigenous leaders have called upon faith leaders to join them June 5-8 as they continue their fight to #StopLine3, a pipeline being built by Enbridge through Anishinaabe treaty land and the Mississippi Headwaters. They are calling on people of faith to tell the world that the days of tar sands pipelines are over in a major, nonviolent uprising. Be part of this nonviolent resistance movement by amplifying the messages on social media June 5-8. Sign the petition and follow #StopLine3.  Hear from those delegation members on June 16 at 8:00pm ET about their experiences and how we can all support this ongoing effort to stop Line 3 in a shareback session. Register here. Colombia Coffee Hour June 25 Thank You For Your Support Join partners from Colombia on Friday, June 25 at 1:00pm EDT to hear updates about the situation there and ways we in the U.S. can support the voice of the people. Register here. Thank you to all who gave (or are still sending in a donation) to our Pentecost campaign. We are still counting up the donations are the mail comes up and will share the results of the campaign with you soon. Presbyterian Peace Fellowship 845-786-6743 | presbypeacefellowship.org Instagram | Facebook | Twitter

Presbyterian Peace Fellowship | 17 Cricketown Road, Stony Point, NY 10980

Your Line 3 Action Hour Toolkit!

On March 11, the GreenFaith International Network released 10 demands calling for an end to new fossil fuel and deforestation projects, policies to create green jobs, Indigenous rights, finance for universal clean energy access, and more.

Now, the time for action has arrived. We said no new fossil fuels, and we meant it!

Hold an Action Hour to stop the Line 3 oil pipeline in your faith or spiritual community by June 20.

This weekend, GreenFaith is sending a multi-faith team to Minnesota, answering the call of Indigenous leaders there to stand in opposition to Line 3, a massive pipeline being built on their treaty lands. This pipeline will pollute the climate, destroy habitat, and threaten drinking water. It is wrong.

Big projects like this don't get stopped without grassroots support. That's where you come in!

By exercising our moral power, we can pressure leaders to do what is right. In this case, we need an upsurge of people of faith around the nation supporting the actions on the ground by calling on President Biden to stop this project!

Please invite your faith community or your local interfaith group to hold an Action Hour where people call the White House and urge the President to take action and revoke the permits.

We've developed a toolkit with everything you need. Your Action Hour can be on-line or in-person. All you need is the toolkit and your group's willingness to take action .

You can support Indigenous communities and stop climate destruction. You can be part of a global community of care and resilience that we all long for. You can create change.

Together we have moral power and can transform the world!

Please download the toolkit, contact your people, and get started today!

Yours in faith and solidarity,

Rev. Amy Brooks

US Organizer

You can't erase history

Refusing to Erase the Tragedies of U.S. History Terrance M. McKinley This week, we marked the 100th anniversary of one of the most horrific moments in American history: On May 31, 1921, white mobs burned to the ground the Greenwood District in Tulsa, Okla., an area commonly known as Black Wall Street. White neighbors killed Black residents in what became known as the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. That story — and many other accounts of Black success and self-determination confronted by malice, terrorism, and destruction — are hidden in the corners of history’s closet by a dominant culture that prefers silence over truth-telling. The events that sparked violence on that day: A young man, Dick Rowland, was accused of assaulting a white woman, Sarah Page, in an elevator. Mobs of white Tulsa residents pursued and attacked residents of Greenwood, killing hundreds, impacting thousands, burning down homes and businesses, and destroying the entire district in what has been described as the “single worst incident of racial violence in American history.” Page later wrote a letter exonerating Rowland. What happened on that day 100 years ago is one tragedy; another is the way that we in the United States have covered up this history. Our nation lives with the enduring legacy, the continued racialized and systematized violence against people of color — a result of its failure to repair and recompense the descendants of the massacre. We are in a state of emergency. READ THE FULL ARTICLE Forward Share

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Our Latest Minnesota Churches Building Together in Year After Floyd's Murder (by Gina Ciliberto) In the aftermath, churches began organizing and rallying internally, ecumenically, and in the community broadly. Go Tell It on Chapel Hill (by Melissa Florer-Bixler) UNC’s tenure denial to Nikole Hannah-Jones is a battle for public memory. How Journalism Obscures State Violence (by Mitchell Atencio) If journalists care about the truth, we need to abandon passive language and the myth of 'objectivity.' The Complicated Nostalgia of Seeing My Evangelical Childhood on Film (by D.L. Mayfield) I sang along to Audio Adrenaline's “Big House,” then processed the toxic theology of my white evangelical upbringing.

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From the Magazine Why Is Jeff Bezos Targeting Public Libraries? (by Danny Duncan Collum) Amazon's challenge to big and dangerous thoughts.

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White People Talking to White People About Racism Join The Invitation podcast’s summer series, a reading of Reparations: A Christian Call for Repentance and Repair. Buy the book from a black-owned bookstore. Gather friends. Read, listen, discuss, pray, and discern action with pastors, activists, and scholars! Job openings at Sojourners! Do you, or someone you know, have a heart for social justice and are currently job searching? Sojourners has positions open in communications and fundraising that might be a great fit. See our listings for more details.

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WCC NEWS: WCC holds consultation in Democratic Republic of Congo on HIV risks and vulnerabilities among migrants

The World Council of churches (WCC) Ecumenical HIV and AIDS Initiatives and Advocacy program, in partnership with Pole Institute, hosted a UNAIDS-PEPFAR Faith Initiative consultation on HIV risks and vulnerabilities among migrants, displaced people and refugees in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo. Photo: Isis Minsongo 02 June 2021 The consultation brought together 30 participants including religious leaders from WCC member churches and other faith communities, as well as people living with HIV. Participants were able to strengthen their knowledge and response to HIV, sexual and gender-based violence, trauma, stigma and discrimination. They also learned about ways to raise awareness on HIV testing and access to treatment in conflict areas. Fr Gabriel Hangi, representing the vicar of the Catholic Church in Goma, said, “We are going to urge our churches to continue raising awareness and to invite people to accept themselves and to be free to be tested in order to know their serological status in order to better protect themselves and protect others.” Rev. Dr. Kahwa Njojo, bishop of the Anglican Church of Bunia and a former student of WCC Bossey Ecumenical Institute said, “Churches and religious leaders have realized that in unity we can do many things, and by being united we can achieve what was difficult to achieve when you were alone. So by being together we can manage to respond effectively to vulnerable people.” Isis Kangudie Mana, Central Africa regional coordinator of the WCC Ecumenical HIV and AIDS Initiatives and Advocacy program, said: “There is still work to be done on HIV, sexual and gender-based violence, stigma and discrimination within churches against the vulnerable. Continuing to raise awareness about HIV would encourage religious communities to have voluntary testing and access to treatment.” 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 350 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 550 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

Change.org - Art teacher suspended

A Texas middle school suspended an art teacher who oversaw the yearbook club—censoring her and her students. Their 2020-21 yearbook cover reflects events of the year—including messages of “Black Lives Matter” and “Love is Love.” But because of the backlash of a few community members, the art teacher was unduly punished. Now, Stephanie is taking a stand to protect students and teachers from disciplinary action over their freedom of expression. Petition to Cease the Unjust Censorship & Treatment of LISD Students & Educators 4,574 have signed Stephanie Mae’s petition. Let’s get to 5,000!

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On May 17th, 2021 a middle school in the Lewisville Independent School District published its yearbook encapsulating the 2020-2021 school year. The design of the yearbook was overseen by the art teacher and yearbook sponsor, Mrs. Kayla Mick, but artwork and content were decided upon by the students on the yearbook staff. The artwork chosen represents major events in our community and around the world including the documentation of racial inequality protests, COVID-19, the 2020 presidential election, and support of basic human rights. Yearbooks are time capsules, meant to snapshot the events of the time, which this work did. They are not endorsements or political statements but reflections of the time period. After the yearbook was published, some members of the community and many unconnected to LISD protested the design and demanded the resignation of both the principal and teacher. LISD chose to discipline Mrs. Mick by suspending her — forcing her to vacate her classroom, prohibiting her from interacting with students and parents, and missing the last week of school (including saying goodbye to her 8th-grade students and participating in end-of-the-year activities). The action taken by the district sends the wrong message to our students. Censorship in journalism simply because you disagree with the content is not only unacceptable, it’s dangerous. As decided in Tinker v. Des Moines: “Students and teachers do not shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate" We ask that the district take no further disciplinary action against Mrs. Mick or the Downing MS principal as well as ensure that our students’ right to free speech as afforded by the first amendment will not be infringed upon.

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Tell the Senate to Support the Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization Act of 2021!

On March 8th, Rep. Shelia Jackson Lee introduced H.R. 1620, the “Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization Act of 2021” (VAWA), in the House of Representatives with bipartisan support. This is critical legislation that “reauthorizes through FY2026 programs and activities under the Violence Against Women Act that seek to prevent and respond to domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence, and stalking.” The bill also “authorizes new programs, makes changes to federal firearms laws and establishes new protections to promote housing stability and economic security for victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence, and stalking.” VAWA reauthorization passed the House of Representatives on March 17th but has yet to be introduced in the Senate. The VAWA is historic legislation passed into law in 1994 to respond to domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence, and stalking. VAWA was last reauthorized in 2013. This authorization expired in 2018. Last Congress, the House passed a bipartisan reauthorization, but the Senate failed to take it up. The Senate must act and pass the Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization Act of 2021! Violence against women is a global public health crisis. According to the World Health Organization, 1 in 3 women worldwide experience physical or sexual violence by an intimate partner or sexual violence from a non-partner. In the United States, 1 in 4 women experiences physical or sexual violence by intimate partners. Additionally, more than 55 percent of female homicides in the U.S. are committed by intimate partners. During the COVID-19 pandemic, women have had increased exposure to abusive partners. In Puerto Rico, in a span of four weeks (from September 2020 to October 2020), 17 female homicides occurred. Gender-based violence in Puerto Rico is so prevalent that this past January, Puerto Rico’s governor, Pedro Pierluisi, issued a State of Emergency in response. We must fight back against this rampant violence and demand that the Senate pass the Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization Act of 2021! The 2021 Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization of 2021 will close the “boyfriend loophole” by expanding the definition of who is affected by existing gun prohibitions to include dating partners. It will grant tribal courts new authority to prosecute non-Indians for sex trafficking, sexual violence, and stalking. It also offers expanded protections for LGBTQIA+ domestic violence and sexual assault survivors. The 2013 VAWA reauthorization expanded a civil rights provision prohibiting discrimination based on race, color, religion, national origin, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, or disability in providing help. The 2021 reauthorization will create grants and services dedicated to supporting LGBTQIA+ domestic violence and sexual assault survivors.  This comes at a critical time as violence against trans people, particularly trans women, is steadily increasing. According to a 2015 survey, 47 percent of transgender people reported experiencing intimate partner violence and sexual assault. Fifty-three percent of Black transgender people reported experiencing intimate partner violence. These horrific acts of senseless violence must end. Violence against women is a disease that bleeds through the veins of our country. As people of faith, we must speak up and hold our nation’s leaders accountable for addressing this crisis! Contact Your Senator and Tell Them to Pass the Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization Act of 2021! Click the link below to log in and send your message: https://www.votervoice.net/BroadcastLinks/EUFVKMwtL556Xv_cv3lkUg