Four panelists (a spiritual leader, an environmentalist, a scholar, and a student activist) will tell the story of how they each became eco-advocates and how 'Laudato si’ inspires and informs their life and work (the “story of me”).  Together they will discuss what difference Pope Francis’ encyclical makes for our lives and culture  (the “story of us”), and how listening to the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor is relevant to us today as our cities and our planet burn (the “story of now”).

We applaud the Senate for passing the Great American Outdoors Act. Fully funding the Land and Water Conservation Fund will protect our great public lands and help communities thrive and recover.

On June 6, the members of the National Guard helped with Ktizo UCC’s event with St. Mary’s Food Bank.

The Southwest Conference was able to work with SWC Disaster Coordinator Phil Shea to bring this about, in light of COVID-19 impacting volunteer availability.

Thanks, Phil, for making the connections.

So glad the ministry can continue!

Thank you, Dr. Warren H. Stewart, Sr. for this prophetic message and your gracious permission to share it with our conference.

Many faith leaders and communities have expressed a desire to engage in racial justice work in their communities but do not know where to begin. Join this brief informal conversation with diverse interfaith leadership of AFN's Racial Justice Initiative team. This conversation is design for faith leaders who are currently serving communities of faith.

The Mass Poor People's Assembly and Moral March on Washington Digital Gathering is this Saturday! We have been working with the Poor People's Campaign and over 200 organizations across the country to build momentum to ensure the message is heard: 'Somebody's been hurting our people, and it's gone on for far too long. And WE WON'T BE SILENT ANYMORE.'

The Church of the Heavenly Rest in partnership with Episcopal Divinity School at Union Theological Seminary invites you to a 3-day immersive experience to learn, pray, and act on issues of racism and racial justice.

This month’s issue of The Pollinator: A UCC environmental justice forum for the sharing of ideas and inspiration.

All are welcome to this class with First Church Phoenix UCC. Contact office@phoenixucc.org for the link to join.

An evening of Music and Storytelling in celebration of World Refugee Day, which is observed on June 20th. This free online event will be centered on the theme of Rebuilding Roots, an experience that our refugee and immigrant neighbors know well.

To register to watch the event or to sign up as a performer, go to rebuildingroots.eventbrite.com.

Our role as people of faith, and advocates is not just to mourn, although that is needed. We can pray and we can march. We can grieve and we can call on our elected officials to take action. There are specific and actionable steps that can be taken right now to disarm police, change their tactics, and hold those who violate the public trust accountable. 

We have some extremely exciting Hope House news to relay to you: the $336,000 grant funds have been released! For that to happen, the environmental review of the property had to be completed. That was done at the end of May. We started working on Hope House a year and a half ago, so this is thrilling news to all who have worked so hard to make this a reality in Sedona. We received the call yesterday afternoon that HUD had released the funds for Hope House, so we can now move forward with the next steps of the project.