Faith leaders in Asheville are adding their voices to those outraged by the actions of NC legislators. Rev. Joe Hoffman, pastor of First Congregational United Church of Christ and an NC Council of Churches board member, is joining his colleagues as well as those from the non-profit community there for a press conference on Monday, May 20. Anyone interested in participating can contact him at revjoehof@uccasheville.org or on his cell at 828-777-8729.
In addition, he [...]
Continue reading Faith Leaders for a Just Society in Asheville
Thank you for joining the Partners in Health and Wholeness Book Club. You can officially sign-up here. Through it, we hope to engage people of faith in discussions over why our health matters. Our current choice of reading is from the free Saddleback Church Daniel Plan Curriculum. We are posting updates through the PHW Facebook page, but our PHW blog page has the discussion posts in full with responses from staff. Just look for the [...]
Continue reading PHW Book Club Discussion: The Daniel Plan, Session 5
Pediatrician and author Perri Klass has written a powerful essay on childhood poverty as a disease. She writes in part:
Toxic stress is the heavy hand of early poverty, scripting a child’s life not in the Horatio Alger scenario of determination and drive, but in the patterns of disappointment and deprivation that shape a life of limitations.
What Klass emphasizes, what many of us know, is that investing in our children is vital to their [...]
Continue reading Childhood Poverty is a Disease
As many of you already know, Rev. William Barber and the state NAACP are organizing weekly protests at the General Assembly, voicing opposition to the direction our state is being taken during this legislative session (that direction being backwards). These protests include, for those who choose to take part, nonviolent civil disobedience and arrest. In the last three weeks, nearly a hundred people have been arrested. The call has also been for supporters, people [...]
Continue reading Moral Mondays – Clergy Issued Special Invitation for May 20
I learned Tuesday morning of the passing of Bill Smith. I knew of Bill long before coming to the NC Council of Churches. He had been the state director of the Baptist Student Union before I came to work for the Baptist State Convention in 1978, but he was still remembered warmly by the progressive Baptists I had the most contact with. He was ahead of his time, leaving the Baptist denomination and becoming a [...]
Continue reading In Thanksgiving for the Life of Bill Smith
From Acts of Faith: Free Lectionary Resources for Prophetic Worship
Date: Proper 6 – June 16, 2013 Topic: Gender Equality Focus Text: Luke 7:36-8:3
From the pastoral reflection: “When I applied to divinity school thirty years ago, I was asked by my interviewer, “Why don’t you just be a good church member and serve the church that way?” That is, I was being advised to continue the traditional role of being a supportive woman to the men doing the “real work” of ministry. Ignoring that advice, I enrolled, and when I graduated and sought a call to ministry, the response was, “We don’t think our congregation is ready for a woman minister.” [...]
Continue reading Lectionary: Gender Equality (Proper 6)
The Rev. Joseph Brown, Sr. is Presiding Elder, African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. He is a former Council president and a past recipient of the Council’s Distinguished Service Award. Rev. Brown is based in Fayetteville.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 13:31 — 12.4MB)
Last week, members of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) joined allies and activists from across the state in protesting Reynolds American Inc.’s treatment of farmworkers. Last year, Reynolds earned $1.3 billion in profits, but the company has hesitated to take proactive steps in guaranteeing good housing and fair pay to the workers at the very heart of its supply chain. Here at the NC Council of Churches, we have long supported farmworkers’ rights to living wages and dignity on the job. No one should have to work in slave-like conditions to provide for their family. Corporations should take responsibility for their supply chains, and the people whose labor makes possible their profits. [...]
Continue reading Farmworkers Address Reynolds American: Do More to Protect Workers
Pathway to Peace Ministries, under the pastoral leadership of Rev. Cary Rodgers and located in Anson County, received a PHW mini-grant for their efforts to improve the health of their members and wider community. Pathway to Peace used the funds provided by PHW to purchase a plow and disk harrow to expand their church garden. Watch the above video to learn more about Pathway to Peace’s health-related efforts and to get tips on how [...]
Continue reading PHW Success Story – Pathway to Peace Ministries, Peachland
One thing that almost every congregation does is eat together. Coffee hour after worship, Wednesday dinners, pancake breakfasts—where there is a congregation, there is food. Over the past years, many congregations’ food ministries have inspired community gardens, in which people of faith are growing some of the food that they and their neighbors eat. Some congregations have started gardens for reasons including community outreach, hunger alleviation, and creation care.
It’s exciting that growing your own [...]
Continue reading Gardeners: Make the Climate Connection
Three people active with NCIPL are being honored with a 2013 Governor’s Volunteer Service Award: Penny Hooper of Morehead City, Carl Sigel of Raleigh, and Jean Larson of Asheville. Each recipient is more than deserving of the award, and we are delighted that they are being recognized. Read about their work with NCIPL here.
–Allison Reeves Jolley, Volunteer and Outreach Coordinator
North Carolina Interfaith Power & Light (NCIPL) is a program of the North Carolina Council [...]
Continue reading Three NCIPL Volunteers Receive Governor’s Award
Who said change is easy? Or that it can only come as a result of well-meaning adults’ efforts? Well, a youth group in New Orleans, called the “Rethinkers”, would beg to differ. They saw a problem (unhealthy foods served in school) and made a difference [...]
Continue reading Rethink What You Eat
Thank you for joining the Partners in Health and Wholeness Book Club. You can officially sign-up here. Through it, we hope to engage people of faith in discussions over why our health matters. Our current choice of reading is from the free Saddleback Church Daniel Plan Curriculum. We are posting updates through the PHW Facebook page, but our PHW blog page has the discussion posts in full with responses from staff. Just look for the [...]
Continue reading PHW Book Club Discussion: The Daniel Plan, Session 4
Everyone gets so hyped about attending conferences. You go there, you collect as many business cards as you can, you write down notes, quotes, and things to follow-up with. You instantly get empowered and invigorated with the amount of energy and ideas that flood your mind and new-found relationships. You struggle over which break-out session to attend, because all five of them are titled so well, and they are all happening at the same [...]
Continue reading Come to the Table Comes to Your Home
The North Carolina Utilities Commission issued an order on Friday challenging Duke Energy to back up its Integrated Resource Plan – its long-term business plan – with more facts. The order questioned whether Duke is overestimating the amount of electricity it must generate and whether it is adequately pursuing energy efficiency and renewable energy that would negate the need for Duke to continue raising rates on families and small businesses in North Carolina.
Greenpeace, NC [...]
Continue reading NCUC Challenges Duke Energy
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