Faith In Action

About welcoming our new Afghan neighbors

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Greetings, SWC churches. Information and strategy recommendations are available from the UCC National Setting regarding welcoming and resettling our 55,600 new Afghan neighbors and the anticipated 30,000 addition neighbors who will enter the US by year’s end. This guidance mentions ways to participate in the resettlement effort and considerations regarding partners with whom you might decide to work. The SWC office is interfacing with the National Setting and our other ministry partners regarding this effort. To that end they’ve asked us to collect your questions, collate them, and pass them on.

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JPANet: A Faithful Reconciliation

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JPANet: A Faithful Reconciliation

The United Church of Christ Synod has been clear on the need to reorient our tax system to be more progressive, adequate, and equitable.

Join with us in asking your members of Congress to support these historic investments by passing the reconciliation bill to fulfill their moral responsibility to the nation. Now is the time to address the roots of our country's injustices, and to honor the sacred call to recognize the dignity and worth of our neighbor and creation.

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UCC Webinar—The UN Climate Conference through a Moral Lens

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UCC Webinar—The UN Climate Conference through a Moral Lens

In this webinar, we will hear from the following international climate policy specialists who will discuss the conference as it is happening: Kelly Stone from Action Aid, Chloe Noël from the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns, and Ruth Ivory-Moore from the Environment and Corporate Social Responsibility Program of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

Even if you can’t make the scheduled time of 1 pm ET on Wednesday, November 10th, still sign-up, and we will send you a recording. Register now!

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Centro de Esperanza Refugee Resource Center in Sonoyta, MX

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Centro de Esperanza Refugee Resource Center in Sonoyta, MX

It started as an idea that morphed into a vision that became a shining light.

As the “first tour” caravan of guests parked along the dusty road in front of the single-story building, exclamations of delight rose from the vehicles. The freshly painted sign written in big bold letters read Centro de Esperanza – one of the newest of many improvements to the facility – felt wonderful. The new migrant resource center in Sonoyta, Sonora was becoming a reality after years of caring, planning, working, negotiating, and serving!

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Partner in Service Thomas Smith

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Partner in Service Thomas Smith

Thomas Smith will soon become the United Church of Christ’s newest Partners in Service volunteer, serving in Sahuarita, Ariz., with The Good Shepherd UCC’s U.S.-Mexico border ministries.

Smith’s one-year, full-time assignment will be with migrants in desperate need, said Good Shepherd’s Lead Pastor, the Rev. Randy Mayer. For his part, Smith shared his excitement to work with a ministry that is “literally saving lives.”

The church’s Green Valley-Sahuarita Samaritans ministry works to “save lives and relieve suffering in the Arizona borderlands.” The ministry places food and water in the desert for migrants, searches the desert for migrants in distress, and helps operate on both sides of the border. Read more.

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Beatitudes' faith in action

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Beatitudes' faith in action

Over the past several years, Church of Beatitudes has brought lunch and music to the Justa Center in downtown Phoenix on Labor Day weekend. This year we could not do it due to Covid, so we did the next best thing! The church raised $1450.00 and presented those funds to Executive Director Wendy Johnson on September 26th.

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First Church Scholarship Fund continues to help Dreamers!

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First Church Scholarship Fund continues to help Dreamers!

On Monday, First Church Immigration Task Force members delivered tuition checks to three Maricopa Community Colleges on behalf of Dreamers attending five different Phoenix Union high schools. These checks cover the costs of dual credit classes for a unique group of PUHSD students who came to Arizona as young children with their undocumented parents. Because of Prop 300, passed in 2006 by Arizona voters, they are required to pay out-of-state tuition at community colleges and state universities in Arizona. The costs are prohibitive. While their American citizen classmates pay about $300 for a 3-credit community college class, Dreamers pay three times as much, or $1000.

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