Photo credit: Episcopal News Service We join with our Episcopal brothers and sisters in celebrating the election of the Rt. Rev. Michael Curry as their 27th Presiding Bishop. Those of us in North Carolina have benefited from Michael’s deep faith, his leadership, and his extraordinary skills as a preacher and advocate in his role as Bishop of the Diocese of North Carolina. We can only imagine all that he will accomplish for the larger church and will enjoy watching the rest of the world discover what we have come to know. Blessings…
Statement on the Supreme Court’s Same-Gender Marriage Decision
We celebrate today’s Supreme Court ruling with our gay brothers and sisters who wish to marry and have their marriages recognized nationwide, with denominations and congregations that have authorized and now are affirmed in continuing to perform same-gender marriages, and with the clergy who have sought to officiate these weddings as a matter of faith. At the same time, we recognize that this continues to be a difficult and complex issue for many people of faith. So we would reiterate that this ruling does not force people to change their…
Standin’ in the Need of Prayer
Raleigh’s Martin Street Baptist Church (historically African-American) and Pullen Memorial Baptist Church (historically white) have a partnership that has extended over more than two decades. It grew out of the personal friendship of former pastors David Forbes and Mahan Siler. Both of them, by the way, have been leaders in the Council over the years, with David preaching at this year’s Legislative Seminar. A call went out on Saturday from Nancy Petty, Pullen’s current pastor, for Pullen folk to go to services at Martin Street on Sunday as a way “to stand in…
Statement on the Supreme Court’s ACA Decision
The North Carolina Council of Churches celebrates today’s Supreme Court decision upholding the Affordable Care Act. For decades, the Council has supported universal health care, and while the current version of Obamacare does not reach that ultimate goal, it has proved to be a crucial step forward. We are grateful to the justices of the Supreme Court who have upheld the subsidy guaranteeing 6.4 million Americans — more than 450,000 in North Carolina — continued access to care. Meanwhile, some states, including our own, have chosen to fall even farther…
Congratulations to Harriette Thompson
Photo via Telesport.al In my decades in North Carolina, first with the NC Baptist State Convention and then with the NC Council of Churches, I’ve known and worked with lots of remarkable and newsworthy people. But probably nobody more so than Harriette Thompson. I came to know Harriette through her spouse, Sydnor Thompson, himself no slouch in the newsworthy department. Sydnor was one of the state’s leading attorneys and a judge on the Court of Appeals. He was also a leader in the NC Council of Churches over a period…
The Venue Is Important
Two events this month have reminded me of how fortunate the Council is to have congregations willing to host our events. The first was the Faith and Immigration Summit, held on a Saturday at Durham’s First Presbyterian Church. The church was easy to find, with plenty of free parking just outside. The sanctuary is beautiful and, in spite of how large the church facilities are, all of our program was held in the sanctuary and just a few steps away. Marilyn Hedgpeth, an associate pastor and the interim head of…
Welcome Jennifer Copeland as Executive Director
I’m exceptionally pleased to announce that the Rev. Dr. Jennifer Copeland has been named by the Council’s Governing Board to be the next Executive Director of the North Carolina Council of Churches. Jennifer has served as the United Methodist campus minister and executive director of the Wesley Fellowship at Duke University since 1999. (Pictured above, she’s on a spring break trip with students to Nome, Alaska. Jennifer is standing behind the orange sign.) A native of South Carolina, she earned BA, MDiv, and PhD degrees from Duke. Prior to coming…
Religious Freedom or Using Religion to Justify Discrimination?
Discussions in recent days of so-called religious freedom bills in Indiana, Arkansas, and now North Carolina raise issues – both legal and pastoral – which the NC Council of Churches has been addressing for many years. The legal context The first words of the Bill of Rights are the religious liberty clauses: “Congress shall make no law regarding the establishment of religion nor prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” The so-called Free Exercise Clause prohibits government from interfering in the practice of religion. But constitutional rights are not absolute. So, for…
Faith and Taxation
Lots of us will have our attention focused on taxes over the next couple of weeks. This focus provides a unique opportunity for faith communities to help North Carolinians make the connection between paying taxes and living out our values. Paying taxes allows us to invest in the Common Good and build a just economy that supports opportunity for everyone regardless of the circumstances into which they were born. Moreover, if people are taxed fairly so that each of us contributes according to our ability, it will help to ensure…
Affordable Care Act and Taxes
Any of you who have already done your tax return for 2014 have discovered new questions about your health insurance status. For many of us, it’s just a matter of checking a box on our 1040 forms stating that we have an acceptable form of health insurance (through an employer, Medicare, etc.) If, however, you enrolled in health insurance through the federal marketplace or were uninsured, there will be new tax forms to fill out, and you may owe a penalty for being uninsured. The penalty has been there as…
Gene Nichol Won’t Let Us Ignore Poverty
Gene Nichol was the recipient of the Council’s 2013 Faith Active in Public Life Award. (To see his keynote address at our 2013 Legislative Seminar, “It’s Better Not to Be Poor in North Carolina,” click here.) Gene’s upbringing and education in Catholic circles have led him to a special concern for the most vulnerable people in our midst. Gene is a law professor, former UNC Law dean, and the director of the Center for Poverty, Work, and Opportunity, an important part of the work of the UNC Law School. His…
Join us for HKonJ 2015
In these challenging days in North Carolina, there is nothing more important for people of faith who support progressive and prophetic public policies to do than to take part in the annual Historic Thousands on Jones Street (HKonJ) march and People’s Assembly. It happens this coming Saturday, Valentine’s Day, in Raleigh. Please do everything you can do to attend and bring others with you. People will gather near Memorial Auditorium (2 East South Street, for you GPS people) and Shaw University in downtown Raleigh at 9:00, with the march to…
Remembering Sydnor Thompson
We received word last week of the passing of Sydnor Thompson Jr. less than a month shy of his 91st birthday. There are few people who have a longer history or greater involvement with the NC Council of Churches. When Sydnor received the Council’s Distinguished Service Award in 2013, he noted that he had been around long enough to remember when Collins Kilburn came to work here and to have known Sam Wiley before him. Sydnor was an attorney of great influence, a local and appellate judge, and a leader…
Welcome Monica Motley as PHW Director
I am delighted to announce that we have hired Monica Motley as program director for Partners in Health and Wholeness. She started with us in January. Monica holds master’s degrees in education and public health from Virginia Tech and is finishing her dissertation for her PhD from Tech. In conjunction with her excellent academic work, she has done research on capacity and readiness factors in the ability of faith-based organizations to operate lifestyle-related chronic disease programs and has developed a toolkit to help faith-based organizations evaluate their needs and capacity…
Who Pays When It Comes to Taxes?
People who are poor pay a greater percentage of their income in taxes than do those who are wealthy. The NC Council of Churches joined many allied organizations two years ago in opposing changes to the state’s tax structure that made it more regressive by, among other things, eliminating higher income tax brackets for wealthier people. Now there’s a report out confirming the impact of those changes. The following is from Alexandra Forter Sirota with the NC Budget and Tax Center, part of the NC Justice Center: The latest Who…