[Yhjusticenet] In This Issue: Apology 20th Anniversary Congregational Mailing, United Church Mission Theme 2007-2009, Stop the Trade in Small Arms

Thu Feb 2 11:07:06 EST 2006

UNITED ACTION FOR JUSTICE NEWSLETTER - THE UNITED CHURCH OF CANADA
Volume 3, Number 1 - Winter 2006
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Dear friends,

With the new year comes the latest edition of United Action for Justice. We look back at the devastating tsunami in Southeast Asia and invite you to check out how the United Church continues to be in solidarity with partners in the region. As we continue to mark the Decade to Overcome Violence, we are mindful of the situation in Darfur and ongoing efforts to stop the global trade in small arms. We anticipate 2006 as we mark the 20th anniversary of the Apology to First Nations Peoples and enter into a special Focus on Water during the Lenten season. And on the global ecumenical scene, the 9th Assembly of the World Council of Churches takes place in February. Let us begin this new year faithfully and renewed in our struggle for justice and peace.

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Apology 20th Anniversary Congregational Mailing
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A congregational mailing commemorating the 20th anniversary of the 1986 Apology to First Nations is coming in early March. Included in this package will be an invitation from the Moderator and a wide assortment of education and worship resources to help us live into just and right relationships with Aboriginal peoples. Included is information about the Healing Fund, the May 26 Day of Healing and Reconciliation, and the June 21 Aboriginal Day of Prayer.

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Take Action: Protest the Violence in Darfur 
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Partners in Sudan are urging The United Church of Canada and other global partners to pressure the Government of Sudan to stop the killings, violence, displacement of civilians, and destruction of land and property in Darfur. The United Nations reports that more than 180,000 people have died, almost 3.5 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance, 1.8 million are internally displaced, and 212,000 have fled to Chad as refugees. 

The United Church of Canada, working through its partner churches in Sudan, the Canadian Foodgrains Bank, and KAIROS: Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives, has made efforts to respond to this crisis through humanitarian assistance and advocacy.

Write to the Canadian government urging them to take action now.  For more information and a sample letter, check out the United Church website at:  www.united-church.ca/action/sudan

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Water in Focus: Celebrate World Water Day on March 22
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KAIROS: Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives invites you to celebrate the United Nations-declared World Water Day on March 22 by participating in a march in your community to your city, town, or municipal council to remind local decision makers that water is a shared public trust, not a commodity to be privatized. Ask municipalities to sign on to a Water Declaration (or if your municipality has already signed on, celebrate this and remind the council of the principles to which it committed itself). Walks are being organized in communities across Canada by local KAIROS groups. To find out whether a walk is being planned in your community or to organize your own, contact Sarah Stratton at KAIROS.

For more information, including a full kit of materials to help you plan your celebration and to find out whether your council has signed on the Water Declaration visit the KAIROS website at: www.kairoscanada.org/e/action/campaign

Learn more about the United Church's Water in Focus initiative at:  www.united-church.ca/waterfocus

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Call for Submissions: United Church Mission Theme 2007-2009
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Submissions for the June 2007-June 2009 Mission Theme are being requested by the Mission Theme Task Group, made up of elected members and General Council Office staff. Published in the May Edition of Mandate each year, mission theme studies provide congregations and groups with theological, worship, workshop, and intergenerational materials as well as local and global stories about a particular theme. Our current theme 2005-2007 focuses on right relations with Aboriginal peoples and right relations with creation. For more information, including a submission form and list of past mission themes, contact Christie Neufeldt at cneufeld at united-church.ca

The learn about the current Mission Theme (2005-2007): Living in Right Relationship, check out the United Church website at:  www.united-church.ca/rightrelationship

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World Council of Churches 9th General Assembly:  Stay Connected
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The 9th Assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC) will meet in Porto Alegre, Brazil, February 14-23, 2006, addressing the theme "God, in your grace, transform the world." The Assembly will be a time of encounter, prayer, celebration, and deliberation for thousands of Christian women and men from around the world. 

Justice themes at the Assembly include economic justice (receiving the report "Alternative Globalization Addressing People and Earth – AGAPE: A Call to Love and Action"); youth overcoming violence, and a recommitment to the Decade to Overcome Violence; religious plurality and Christian identity; and the contributions and challenges of churches in Latin America.

February 12, 2006, is WCC Assembly Sunday, an excellent opportunity to be in solidarity with this important work through public events, prayer and worship, education, and cultural programs.

You can follow the life and work of the Assembly as it happens via online news coverage, video summaries and live webcasts of the plenary sessions, access to important documents, and an e-news service open to the public from the WWC Assembly website:  www.wcc-assembly.info

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Stop the Trade in Small Arms:  Write the Prime Minister by July 2006
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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.

In 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 dealing with the underlying causes that make people take up arms by

* drafting a church resolution on small arms and sending it to the prime minister 
* meeting with members of parliment 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 on the United Church website:  www.united-church.ca/action/smallarms 

Or check out the Project Ploughshares website: www.ploughshares.ca

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Tsunami: One Year Later
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Since December 26, 2004, when an earthquake off the northern Indonesian island of Sumatra unleashed the tsunami, leaving as many as 230,000 dead and hundreds of thousands of people homeless in South and Southeast Asia, the United Church has been working with partners in the affected region to help rebuild damaged and destroyed communities. As we take stock of what has been achieved, there is much to celebrate.

A number of resources and updates are available to help members to continue their solidarity and connection to the work of our partners in the region. These can be found on the United Church website at: www.united-church.ca/response/tsunami

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Zimbabwe Update
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In autumn 2005, an ecumenical team sponsored by the World Council of Churches (WCC), and led by JGER Executive Minister Omega Bula, visited Zimbabwe "to express the concern, love and solidarity of churches around the world for the people and churches in Zimbabwe in the midst of their current crisis." The team, reflecting on the divisiveness within Zimbabwean society, offered several recommendations to the churches in support of their pastoral and prophetic witness.

To read the report from the WCC ecumenical team to Zimbabwe check out the United Church website at: www.united-church.ca/justice/news

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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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