Event

Crossleft Call Tuesday, September 9th at 8:30 P.M. Eastern time, that is 7:30 P.M. Central time, 6:30 P.M. Mountain time, and 5:30 P.M. Pacific time.

Dial 218-339-2500 extension 727705#

Proposed Agenda

1. Three New Featured Bloggers
2. A kind Christian method to deal with Featured Bloggers who no longer blog

What other issues do you have?

Please join the Haiti Solidarity Network of the Northeast and Pax Christi NJ as we host Fr. Michael Lapsley on Tuesday October 14th at 7:30 pm at St. Patrick's Theater, 509 Bramhall Ave, Jersey City, NJ.

In April 1990, while living in exile from South Africa, Fr. Michael Lapsley became a victim of the violence of apartheid when he received a letter bomb. He lost both his hands, an eye, and his eardrums were shattered.

After leaving the hospital he became an international advocate for reconciliation, forgiveness and restorative justice. In 1992 he returned to South Africa to found the Trauma Center for Victims of Violence and Torture in Cape Town.

His organization provided assistance to Bishop Desmond Tutu and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission which is credited with putting South Africa on a path toward healing. It serves as a model for other countries including Rwanda, Guatemala and Argentina.

He is now Director of the Institute for Healing of Memories, Cape Town, South Africa.

The Healing of Memories method began as an alternative form of providing support for victims and survivors of apartheid violence and is now seen as way to contribute to the healing journey of individuals, communities and nations.

Please join IRATE (the Interfaith Refugee Action Team - Elizabeth) and Pax Christi NJ at 1:30 pm on Sunday, October 12th as we march with the flags of the nation to honor our immigrant heritage and protest the treatment of immigrants held at the Elizabeth Detention Center. We will assemble on Progress Street, just off Dowd Avenue in Elizabeth and march two blocks to the Detention Center where we will hold a vigil to remember those who are being held inside and at similar facilities across the country.
Immigrants in detention include families, both undocumented and documented immigrants, many who have been in the US for years and are now facing exile. They include survivors of torture, asylum seekers and other vulnerable groups including pregnant women, and children. Individuals who are seriously ill are held without proper medication or care. Immigrants detained during this process are in non-criminal custody because being in violation of immigration laws is not a crime. It is a civil violation similar to a traffic ticket.

IRATE is an alliance of grassroots organizations whose members believe that the current U.S. policy of detaining immigrants in prison-like conditions is contrary to our tradition of welcoming refugees. Currently in New Jersey, the Bureau of Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) has some 300 people detained at the Elizabeth Detention Center and an unknown number of people in county jails throughout the state.

For more information on Pax Christi or the the vigil contact Kathy O’Leary 908-273-0751 kathy-wargo@comcast.net

For more information on immigration detention go to www.irateweb.org, www.detentionwatchnetwork.org or www.cliniclegal.org

There are moments in our life when we are presented with the opportunity to make a difference. We are given the chance to choose to take action or to stand idly by watching injustice. At such moments, Christians before us have chosen to invest the time, energy and financial resources necessary to take action. The abolitionists, the supporters of the Civil Rights movement, they have all in their own time been the prophetic ushers of a better world.

We are now, again, poised at such a moment. The issue which faces all of us today is the plight of the undocumented. The recent raids by ICE and the scandal surrounding the illegal oppression of the Postville workers- many of them undocumented migrants who were afraid to protest for fear of being deported- have reminded us that today we are presented with another struggle which as Christians we are obligated to face.

A couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to be on CNN representing CrossLeft.org and progressive Christianity. This was not a random interview on the street, but rather a studio interview for a live broadcast of American Morning (CNN's morning news show).

Crossleft Call Monday July 21st at 8:30 Eastern time, that is 7:30 Central time, 6:30 Mountain time, and 5:30 Pacific time.

Dial 218-339-2500 extension 727705#

Agenda to be developed and added. What issues do you want to deal with?

This morning in my church service, we had a wonderful moment in my pastor's sermon to honor those who have fallen in the current Iraq War. In each of our bulletins, we had the names of 6 Iraqi soldiers who had died in Iraq and we were to say their names out loud and offer a silent prayer for them and their families and loved ones. After we did that, we recited a common prayer from page 488 of the Book of Common Prayer. I thought it was a nice tribute, to make individuals out of statistics. Here are the soldiers that I prayed for this morning, and the prayer from the Book of Common Prayer.

Matthew M. Murchison, 21, Army Private 1st Class, August 4, 2007 Independence, Missouri

Dustin S. Wakeman, 25, Army Sergeant, August 4, 2007 Fort Worth, Texas

Joey D. Link, 29, Air Force Technical Sergeant, August 5, 2007 Portland, Tenessee

Justin R. Blackwell, 27, Army Specialist, August 5, 2007 Paris, Tennessee

Jeremy S. Bohannon, 18, Army Private, August 5, 2007 Bon Aqua, Tennessee

Charles E. Leonard Jr., 29, Army Specialist, August 5, 2007 Monroe, Louisiana

Pluralism Sunday
www.pluralismsunday.org

On Pentecost Sunday, May 11, 2008, churches around the world will celebrate their belief that other religions can be as good for others as Christianity is good for Christians. The event is organized by The Center for Progressive Christianity, www.tcpc.org, a network of about 370 churches nationwide. Its congregations have adopted a “Welcome Statement” that includes this affirmation: “By calling ourselves progressive, we mean we are Christians who recognize the faithfulness of other people who have other names for the way to God's realm, and acknowledge that their ways are true for them, as our ways are true for us." The event celebrates the conviction that Christians can grow closer to God through a deeper engagement with the world’s religions. Pluralism Sunday is co-sponsored by the Institute for Progressive Christianity.

Pentecost is the Christian celebration of the story in the book of Acts in which the early Christians in Jerusalem suddenly discovered that, through the Holy Spirit, they could understand each other even when they spoke in different languages. Pluralism Sunday celebrates the gifts that come from listening to the world’s many languages of faith.