The Council's 2018 Advent Reflection Guide is here. Click to download it for your personal meditation or use in a small group.

NC Council of Churches

Strength in Unity, Peace through Justice

Gun Violence

Worship Resources on Gun Violence
Worship Resources on Gun Violence
Sep 26, 2013
Chris Liu-Beers, Former Program Associate

Worship Resources on Gun Violence

Date: Proper 26 – Nov. 3, 2013
Topic: Gun Violence
Focus Text: Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4
What poverty of spirit causes Americans to so glorify their guns – in movies, on television, in video games, on the streets of our neighborhoods and in the halls of Congress? Where are the prophets who will condemn the religion of the second amendment which preaches a sacred right to own any and all kinds of firearms? Why are people of faith and conscience not protecting the sacred trust of children’s lives as vehemently as Congress protects the gun lobby? It is time for pastors, priests, rabbis, and imams to speak out against the blasphemy of gun violence.
Raleigh Report – February 1, 2013
Raleigh Report – February 1, 2013
Feb 4, 2013
Rose Gurkin, Former Program Associate for Administration

Raleigh Report – February 1, 2013

After a one-day organizational meeting in early January, the 2013 General Assembly convened in earnest last Wednesday. Bills introduced and advanced during these first two days give a taste of things to come. Note especially the bills affecting the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, weakening the benefits of unemployment insurance, and extending the presence of guns.

Preparing the Way: A Social Justice Study for Lent (free download)
Preparing the Way: A Social Justice Study for Lent (free download)
Feb 1, 2013
Chris Liu-Beers, Former Program Associate

Preparing the Way: A Social Justice Study for Lent (free download)

Click here for a free download of our new 2013 social justice study for Lent: Preparing the Way. This simple 10-page document combines traditional Lenten themes and Bible passages with contemporary issues including hunger, care of creation, and immigration. We invite you to join us in this season of reflection and preparation.

Raleigh Report – June 1, 2012
Raleigh Report – June 1, 2012
Jun 1, 2012
Rose Gurkin, Former Program Associate for Administration

Raleigh Report – June 1, 2012

The General Assembly leadership is committed to having this short session truly be short, and there’s talk of adjourning by early July. In fact, an adjournment resolution was introduced yesterday with a target date of June 19. This session, which starts in May of even-numbered years, is primarily to tweak the second year of the budget adopted the year before. In addition, certain bills which were introduced last year (mostly ones which passed in one house) can be considered. For a new bill to be introduced this year, it must fit into one of a few specific categories, with most new bills having to do with budgetary matters or coming from a study commission which met during the interim. Finally, pending veto overrides are also thought by the House and Senate leadership to be eligible for consideration.


Also in this Raleigh Report: Guns in Church, Gambling, Death Penalty, Boards and Commissions and more.
Gun Control Advocates hold Memorial to Mark One-Year Anniversary of Ariz. Shooting
Gun Control Advocates hold Memorial to Mark One-Year Anniversary of Ariz. Shooting
Jan 14, 2012
Aleta Payne, Former Deputy Executive Director

Gun Control Advocates hold Memorial to Mark One-Year Anniversary of Ariz. Shooting

Raleigh News & Observer

A gathering on a hillside outside a church in West Raleigh late Sunday marked the one-year anniversary since a shooting in Tucson, Ariz., left a federal judge and five other people dead and 13 injured, including U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

Organizers used the occasion to highlight a shifting focus in what has been a decades-long effort to promote legislation aimed at limiting people’s access to guns.

Instead, there is a growing focus on using churches and other faith-based efforts to promote a change in how the American culture views guns, they said. It’s also an acknowledgement that work in legislatures across the country have been met with resistance to many anti-gun measures.

Raleigh Report – June 21, 2011
Raleigh Report – June 21, 2011
Jun 23, 2011
Rose Gurkin, Former Program Associate for Administration

Raleigh Report – June 21, 2011

The 2011 session of the General Assembly adjourned around midday on Saturday, June 18. Legislative leaders and the media are trumpeting the efficiency of the session and the fact that this is the earliest adjournment since 1973. But that is misleading since they aren’t really finished with their work. The adjournment resolution calls them back into a special session on July 13. At that time, they will take up the thorny issue of redistricting as well as controversial bills from the just-ended session which remain in conference committees and any bills vetoed by the Governor.
Raleigh Report – April 4, 2011
Raleigh Report – April 4, 2011
Apr 4, 2011
Rose Gurkin, Former Program Associate for Administration

Raleigh Report – April 4, 2011

The drumbeat of bad bills continues. Suffice it to say that it’s a tough year for those of us who have advocated for public policy decisions promoting social justice, protecting vulnerable people, and caring for God’s creation. We can’t respond to every bad idea or bad bill. On many of these issues, we feel like we are butting our heads against a wall. Our tendency may be to throw up our hands in despair.
Raleigh Report – March 7, 2011
Raleigh Report – March 7, 2011
Mar 17, 2011
Rose Gurkin, Former Program Associate for Administration

Raleigh Report – March 7, 2011

Governor Bev Perdue on Saturday vetoed H 2, the misnamed “Protect Health Care Freedom” bill. (It should be called the “Freedom to be Uninsured and Unable to Get Health Care” bill.) The bill was an attack on federal health care reform and purported to remove North Carolinians from the mandated purchase of health insurance, which is the basis of federal reform which will move millions of uninsured Americans into the ranks of the insured.
Proper 26, Year C
Proper 26, Year C
Oct 4, 2010
Chris Liu-Beers, Former Program Associate

Proper 26, Year C

The school year of 2006 began rather quietly as most school years do. But on August 30th, a boy with a gun walked into a high school in Hillsborough, NC, and the new school year was marked by violence.

Little did we know that this August 30th shooting at a North Carolina high school would be a harbinger of a national spate of school shootings. The young shooter in Hillsborough had a deadly plan and a number of guns; after killing his father he shot and wounded a student at a nearby high school.
Children and Gun Violence
Children and Gun Violence
Oct 28, 1998
North Carolina Council of Churches

Children and Gun Violence

Several times in the past decade, we have spoken out about the proliferation of guns and gun violence. In 1994, we noted why this is of concern to people of faith.

Gun violence, especially handgun violence, has increasingly become a cause for alarm in our nation and state. As Christians, we especially are disturbed. The way of Christ is a way of peace, reconciliation, forgiveness, and love for enemies. The spirit of Christ is sharply opposed to the spirit of violence and the instruments of violence. It is also opposed to the law of retaliation or responding to injury with injury. Christ rejected the use of violence in the pursuit of his mission, and when one of the disciples drew his sword in defense of Jesus, the Lord said, “Put your sword back into its place; for all who take the sword will perish by the sword” (Matthew 26:51-53).