Call to the General Assembly - March 14th

CALL TO THE MARCH
GENERAL ASSEMBLY

1:30 to 4:30 P.M. Sunday March 14, 2010
Christ the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church,1550 Meridian Avenue in
San Jose

THEME

Growing Inequality in the Silicon Valley
Where are "the disappeared"?

92,000 who lost their jobs? 
5,400 families who lost their homes?

 IS THE FAITH COMMUNITY RESPONDING?

 

Speakers

• Ken Yeager, President of the Board of Supervisors of Santa Clara County
• Kim Walesh, Chief Strategist, City of San Jose
• Rev. Rebecca Kuiken, Director, Interfaith Council on Economic Justice

Special Presentation: Making Prison Systems Justice Systems 

 Gerald F. Uelmen, Professor of Law, Santa Clara University, Former Dean of the Law School, Editor, Final report, California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice

 

Schedule:

1:30 Gathering and light lunch -introduction of staff

2:00  Ecumenical Worship Service
Leader: Rev. Dr. Eileen Altman, Associate Pastor, Palo Alto United Chrch of Christ

2:30  Symposium on "Growing Inequality and its disappeared victims of lost jobs, lost homes lost futures;   What is the vision for the Valley moving forward?

What is the role for communities of faith?

3:15       The Problem of the Prison Industrial-Complex: Proposals for prison and death penalty reform

4:00  New Council Working Groups: A progress report

• The Education funding crisis
• Prison Reform and released prisoner support services
• Affordable Housing
• Globalization and local Job development
• Health Care Reform
• Tax Policy
• Immigrant Rights

4:30       Call to the June Assembly and Annual Meeting

Your Council of churches is engaging the issues, developing innovative responses, and working with other faith and justice groups

It's Up to You to Save Health Care. Call Now!!

Join the Faithful Reform in Health Care national call-in campaign!  Contact your elected representatives in Washington DC to demand affordable, inclusive, accountable health care reform.   A bill offering a single payer system (HR 676) would eliminate the overhead and profit now taken out of your health insurance dollars (30%) and replace it with a system that will have enough clout to keep costs under control and cover everyone affordably.  Since this bill does not have a very good chance of passing, ask your representatives in DC to push for a STRONG public option (as in HR 3200)! 

Call today.  If our voices are not heard, the lobbyists from insurance companies and Big Pharmaceuticals will make sure any bill that passes protects their profits and does not control costs.

Click here to download a file with the phone number and a sample faith-inspired text which will make your call very easy!

To learn more visit Faithful Reform in Health Care's website.   

read more

Supporting Our Teens -- You Matter: We Care!

This section of our website is dedicated to offering resources to support the spiritual, mental, physical and emotional well-being of our teens with emphasis on faith and spiritual support opportunities along with community resources in the midpeninsula area.  If you have resources or events you wish to add to this page please email the information to diana@councilofchurches-scc.org.

Beginning with the August 31, 2009 forum, Supporting Our Teens: A Multifaith Community Support, faith communities are coming together to do our part to help build "a village" where every youth knows that You Matter: We Care!  We seek to support ALL TEENS, no strings attached, and regardless of your faith or spiritual background or interest.

read more

Death Penalty Curriculum Now Available

A new curriculum is now available for adults (or older youth) to study the issue of the death penalty in churches. It is designed so that opponents, proponents, and the undecided can listen to each other and grow from the experience. The curriculum includes adaptable lesson plans, a "reader" for class participants, and multi-media components.
read more

Resources for Torture Awareness

These films available for your use through our friends at Multifaith Voices for Peace & Justice:

• Primetime Torture (includes Tony Lagouranis, former U.S. Army Interrogator; Howard Gordan, Executive Director of "24" & Ken Robinson, Special Forces (ret.), 14 min., produced by Human Rights First; free)
• Ending U.S.-Sponsored Torture Forever (study for people of faith produced by National Religious Campaign Against Torture; $10 to purchase)
• Taxi to the Dark Side (2007 Academy Award Winner for Best Documentary Feature investigating the torture and killing of an innocent Afghani taxi driver; 106 min.; $15 to purchase)
• Ghosts of Abu Ghraib (HBO documentary by Rory Kennedy with interviews of perpetrators, witnesses and victims examining and contextualizing the abuses; 78 min.; $15 to purchase)
• Sr. Dianna Ortiz, an Ursuline nun, human rights advocate and torture survivor, reads from her book, The Blindfold's Eye: My Journey from Torture to Truth, at the Christian Peace Witness worship in Washington, D.C. on April 29, 2009.  Click here to watch on youtube.

read more