[Yhjusticenet] United Action for Justice, Volume 3, Number 2

Tue Apr 25 16:09:19 EDT 2006

UNITED ACTION FOR JUSTICE NEWSLETTER - THE UNITED CHURCH OF CANADA
Volume 3, Number 2 - Spring 2006
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Dear friends,

United Action for Justice "springs" forward with this edition, calling your attention to a number of important initiatives and helpful resources. With a renewed sense of purpose, and with the knowledge that we are an Easter people, let us go forth, remembering the words of Oscar Romero, "Peace is the generous, tranquil contribution of all to the good of all."

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A Healing Journey for Us All: Right Relationship with First Nations Peoples
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The National Day of Healing and Reconciliation is a national initiative of Nechi Training, Research and Health Promotions Institute in Edmonton, Alberta, to promote healing and reconciliation among all races, creeds, and denominations now living in Canada. The United Church of Canada, with the healing ministry of Jesus Christ as our vision, enthusiastically supports this initiative.

A three-session study—A Healing Journey for Us All (available through UCRD)—has been designated to promote a focus on healing and reconciliation in the period between May 26 and June 21, which marks the National Aboriginal Day of Prayer. The resource contains stories, biblical passages, hymns, and prayers.

This is also a good opportunity to reflect on and commemorate the 20th Anniversary of the United Church Apology to First Nations Peoples.

Related Links:

» What Can Congregations Do in Response to the Legacy of Residential Schools?: www.united-church.ca/residentialschools/response.shtm
» United Church Mission Theme: Living in Right Relationship: www.united-church.ca/rightrelationship/
» A worship service: Celebrating First Nations Week: www.united-church.ca/aboriginal/

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Take Action: Stop the HIV/AIDS Crisis
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Write the prime minister and call for 100% debt cancellation for countries with high HIV rates.

By the end of 2005, 25 million people had died of AIDS, 40.3 million were living with HIV, and as estimated 14 million were orphaned. 

The depth of this tragedy presents an immense challenge to the international community. But we can choose to mobilize the political will and necessary resources to address the fundamental issues that contribute to the spread of AIDS. Providing medicine and doctors is not enough. To stop the crisis, we must also tackle the underlying issues, and transform the structures that contribute to the spread of AIDS.

Between May and August, leaders and policy makers will have three chances to respond to the gravity of the AIDS pandemic:

May 31 to June 2 the United Nations will hold a Special Session on HIV/AIDS in New York;

July 15-17 leaders of the world's most powerful countries, the G8, will meet in St. Petersburg;

August 13-19, 15, 000 people will gather in Toronto at the 16th International AIDS Conference.

Related Links:
» Write to the prime minister: www.united-church.ca/action/canada/060418.shtm
» Download an insert for your Sunday order of worship: www.united-church.ca/action/canada/060418.shtm

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Together In Toronto: Claiming an Open Spirit – July 27 to 30, 2006
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The anticipation is building! Together in Toronto: Claiming an Open Spirit will offer something for the whole person. It will be diverse and creative: we will claim an open Spirit as God's people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, allied, or in any way queer.

Meet queer Christians and allies from other traditions! This will be a unique opportunity to gather with Brethren & Mennonites and Lutherans from across North America as well as reconnect with your United Church of Canada colleagues. 

Programming for this conference is extensive and includes Open Spirit Forums (July 27), children and teen programming throughout, as well as dynamic, worshipful plenary sessions as our keynote speakers, Dr. MartinBrokenleg and Rev. Irene Monroe, explore the theme. A tri-perspective with Mennonite Anita Fast, United Church of Canada New Testament scholar Karen Williams, and Lutheran David Weiss will help us claim queer readings of scripture.

Get married! If you are in a partnered relationship and want to honour your relationship by getting married during Together in Toronto e-mail weddings at openspirit.ca for more information.

Enjoy great entertainment with Juno-nominated jazz performer Kenny Kirkwood, and the incisively witty spoken word artist Evalyn Parry.

For more information and to register and pay, visit www.openspirit.ca. Please note early-bird registration closes May 1

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Mission Theme Year 2: Living in Right Relationship with Creation
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Broaden your focus on water... Coming in May 2006, Mandate Magazine Mission Theme Special 

Edition: Living in Right Relation with Creation. Your congregation is invited to explore living in right relationship with creation through Bible study, theological reflection and worship material, Advent wreath readings on the four elements, children's worship and program material on water, youth challenging others to care for creation, and a story from Lesotho about diversion of the country's water.

Order your copy from United Church Resource Distribution at 1-800-288-7365, 416-253-5456 or ucrd at united-church.ca (product no. CH10208, $2.95 per issue or $2.50 for 10 or more).

Coming this fall, watch for next steps in the KAIROS: Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives water campaign!

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Migrant Justice: New Video and Consultation
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Borderless is a 25-minute documentary video that gives voice to the struggles and dreams of 

migrants living and working without status in Canada. Told in their own voices, the stories of Geraldo, an undocumented Costa Rican construction worker, and Angela, a second-generation Caribbean domestic worker, bring to life problems of labour exploitation and family separation caused by restrictive immigration policy. Viewers are introduced to an invisible workforce and invited to reflect on the hidden costs of sustaining our first-world economy. Directed by Gemini-nominated filmmaker Min Sook Lee, written by poet Dionne Brand, and narrated by dub poet d'bi young, Borderless is a production of KAIROS: Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives. 

A video screening, co-presented and co-sponsored by Mayworks and KAIROS: Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives will take place May 6, at 3 pm, at the Rogers Communication Centre, Room 204, 80 Gould Street, Toronto ($5-$10 sliding scale). 

Following the screening there will be a panel discussion, featuring Avvy Go, STATUS Campaign; Carlos Pimentel, Carpenters Union; Juan Sierra, Laborer's International Union of North America; Yolyn Valenzuela, Siklab-Ontario; and Sima Sahar Zerehi from No One Is Illegal; and moderated by Tanya Chute Molina, Program Coordinator, Refugees and Migration, KAIROS. Filmmaker Min Sook Lee will also be present. 

>From June 10-11, 2006, a National Migrant Justice Gathering: "Building Solidarity, Taking Action" will take place at York University in Toronto. Two events will be open to the public during the gathering on the Saturday evening and the following Sunday afternoon. More information will become available soon. 

Related Links:
» More on Refugees and Migration: www.kairoscanada.org/e/refugees/index.asp
» To order Borderless: www.united-church.ca/infopac/2006/april/pdf/jger_kairos.pdf

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Stop the Trade in Small Arms: Watch Spirit Connection and Take Action
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The United Church of Canada continues to work with Project Ploughshares in its call to work for the dignity, security, and well-being of people in gun-affected regions, through lobbying for effective small arms control.

On April 30, 2006 Spirit Connection, United Church Television will present the program "Taking Action: Small Arms." As concern around the increase in handgun violence across the country is grows, a United Church congregation works with the surrounding community to find ways to decrease youth violence. Also included is an interview about Project Ploughshares' initiative to rally Canadians to find ways to reduce violence worldwide and press for government control of small arms.

Before July 2006, when the UN meets to set a small arms agenda, the church has a unique opportunity to speak out about the suffering caused by small arms proliferation and misuse. 

Public pressure is essential to spur governments to act, and by so doing, to halt the humanitarian disaster being wreaked by small arms around the world.

Urge the Canadian government to commit to controlling small arms and to dealing with the underlying causes that make people take up arms by

	- write a letter to the Prime Minister by June calling for small arms control
	- meeting with your MP to lobby Parliament for stricter Canadian export controls and an international arms trade treaty
	- joining the Million Faces photo petition at www.controlarms.org

» Find out more about small arms control: www.united-church.ca/action/smallarms/050826.shtm
» Project Ploughshares website: www.ploughshares.ca/control/SALWPublic.htm
» Spirit Connection: www.united-church.ca/spirit/

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For more information on our work,see: www.united-church.ca/justice.
For suggestions on improving United Action for Justice, contact the editor, Scott Clarke at uaj at united-church.ca.

This newsletter is developed by:
	Justice, Global & Ecumenical Relations Unit
	The United Church of Canada
	3250 Bloor St. West, Suite 300
	Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M8X 2Y4

	Tel: 416.231.5931
	Voice Mail: 416.231.7680
	Fax: 416.231.3103
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United Action for Justice and the work of the General Council's Justice, Global and Ecumenical Relations Unit is made possible by your generous gifts to the United Church's Mission and Service Fund.

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