The Sunday of Labor Day weekend is Labor Sunday, a day to lift up workers and celebrate their contributions. It is also a day to commit ourselves to improving jobs and our economy so that all workers have wages, benefits, and work hours that allow them to live in the fullness of life – which is God’s intention for each of us.

This year, Just Peace Sunday will focus on the theme “Wisdom Cries Out!” based on the lectionary passage, Proverbs 1:20-33. Worship, learning, and craft materials will be available online making connections between our witness as a Just Peace Church and our particular concern at this time for those migrants fleeing violence at our border. 

On Thursday, August 9, Arizona Faith Network will be represented on a panel to speak about DACA. The purpose for the event is to raise community awareness of the imminent legal threat to DACA.

United Church of Santa Fe has been involved in border ministries for a number of years. They are an Immigrant Welcoming Congregation, and have had youth and adult service trips to the border (often partnering with Good Shepherd) since 2000.

If you register to vote online, be sure it is through a trustworthy site, such as Rock the Vote. 

voter registration deadlines:

Arizona: July 30, 2018

New Mexico: October 9, 2018

Texas: October 9, 2018

From Rincon's newsletter:

I am excited to share news of the church mission trip the week of December 9th to Puerto Rico with our UCC mission partners there.  UCC Disaster Relief Ministries is seeking groups from UCC churches to help church partners in Puerto Rico in recovery efforts from the two major hurricanes that devastated Puerto Rico last year.

The dates are set for CRR's next service trip to Guatemala to help build homes for people who are living in extreme poverty. They will be there the week of February 11-15, 2019; travel dates are still to be determined.

The trip will be organized in conjunction with Constru Casa (“Construct a House”) which is a non-profit organization very similar to Habitat for Humanity except that they address the needs of people who are very poor.

The Women's and Men's Fellowship of the Sierra Vista Community United Church of Christ will be providing a luncheon for approximately 100 people at the Salvation Army Center.

A United Church of Christ sanctuary church offering immigrants refuge in the Arizona borderlands will soon be offering a place of hospitality, support and hope on the Mexican side of the border for people who find themselves deported from the United States.

The Shadow Rock UCC Sanctuary Action Team and the Rev. Ken Heintzelman, in an extension of the spirit and intent of their ministry of sanctuary in Phoenix, are in the process of establishing Hope Station Nogales, in Sonora, Mexico.

Jose Gonzales sent this thank you to everyone who donated to the trip he led to support children and families at the border. Taos UCC collected and donated $750.

Taos Immigration Allies are collecting donations again for another trip to the border to support refugee children and families. If you would like to donate for this next trip you can reach Jose at 575-779-6765 or jgonza37@unm.edu   

Conference Minister Rev. Bill Lyons signed a letter on behalf of the Southwest Conference supporting a designation to care for creation through a Wild and Scenic Designation of the Gila River area.

Mind, Body, Spirit: Linking Lives for Health and Wholeness

The Faith Community Nurse Health Ministry Newsletter

The Southwest Conference has signed on to this amicus brief described here by Zachary Kolodin of PATTERSON BELKNAP WEBB & TYLER LLP.

We call on faith leaders to sign on to a faith letter supporting refugee resettlement and opposing nomination of an anti-refugee extremist for a key position in the administration.

This summer, town hall meetings with your Congressional representative and U.S. Senator are another great opportunity to make your voice heard. They “take the temperature” of their constituents at these events, and it’s our chance to turn up the heat for them on global warming. 

The Town Hall Project has created a comprehensive and easy-to-use guide to town hall meetings happening around the country. To find a schedule of the ones nearest you, simply enter your zip code. You can also go to your Member’s website, join their email list, or call their office for event updates.

Getting to the Root of It: We’ve asked UCC advocates to help us unpack the complex justice issues that we’re working on. This month Sandy Sorensen, Director of our UCC Washington, DC Office, is discussing how advocates can work for change over the summer months.

My husband, Max Surjadinata, is in the middle of a six-month term as a Global Ministries Volunteer, serving on behalf of our United Church of Christ in Indonesia (the country of his birth).  He is teaching for a semester in a remote rural seminary in the small town of Lewa on the island of Sumba, where our mission partner is the Gereja Kristin Sumba (GKS) or Christian Church of Sumba.  Max teaches a course in liturgy and church music, as well as conversational English, and consults with students – he’s presently up to his ears, he says, in reading the final theses of students about to graduate, as well as reading and grading the papers of the students in his own course. 

​​​​​​​Sacred Conversations to End Racism (SC2ER) is a restorative justice journey created to move people beyond anti-racism conversations to active engagement intended to challenge people's thinking and behavior based on assumptions of privilege and superiority over non-European people. SC2ER provides new language, strategies, and realities that engage all the intersections of our lives to unmask, dismantle, and eradicate racism in America, including the Christian Church. SC2ER seeks to restore humanity, eliminate myths and stereotypes and engage in deep truth telling about the construction of whiteness and white skin superiority.