Bulletin Insert from PFADP
Bulletin Insert from PFADP
Our friends at People of Faith Against the Death Penalty have provided a bulletin insert for churches interested in helping work to repeal the death penalty. PFADP, which began as a […]
By Aleta Payne, Former Deputy Executive Director
by Aleta Payne, Former Deputy Executive Director
By Aleta Payne, Former Deputy Executive Director
by Aleta Payne, Former Deputy Executive Director
If you are interested in attending, but have not pre-registered, you may call our office at 919-828-6501 on Tuesday, April 9 until 5:00 p.m. Gene Nichol, Director of the Center […]
By Rose Gurkin, Former Program Associate for Administration
by Rose Gurkin, Former Program Associate for Administration
By George Reed, Former Executive Director
by George Reed, Former Executive Director
By Aleta Payne, Former Deputy Executive Director
by Aleta Payne, Former Deputy Executive Director
By George Reed, Former Executive Director
by George Reed, Former Executive Director
By Aleta Payne, Former Deputy Executive Director
by Aleta Payne, Former Deputy Executive Director
By Aleta Payne, Former Deputy Executive Director
by Aleta Payne, Former Deputy Executive Director
By George Reed, Former Executive Director
by George Reed, Former Executive Director
By George Reed, Former Executive Director
by George Reed, Former Executive Director
Recently, I heard a powerful message from the Rev. William Barber. Many Council folks know him. He’s the President of the NC NAACP and pastor of the Greenleaf Christian Church (Disciple of Christ) in Goldsboro. The power of his message was not in fiery delivery. It was a low-key conversation with a group of fifty or so progressive leaders, sitting in a circle in the chapel of University United Methodist Church in Chapel Hill. The power was in the profound thoughts he expressed and in the clear rightness of his words.
By Tim Hetzel, Former Duke Divinity School Intern
by Tim Hetzel, Former Duke Divinity School Intern
By Aleta Payne, Former Deputy Executive Director
by Aleta Payne, Former Deputy Executive Director
The General Assembly on Monday overrode Governor Perdue’s vetoes of three bills. By doing so they gutted the Racial Justice Act, revised the budget for 2012-13, and moved ahead with fracking. The outcome was not in doubt in the Senate. In fact, several Senate Democrats had excused absences and didn’t even show up for the votes. The drama was in the House.
By Aleta Payne, Former Deputy Executive Director
The News & Observer
Death penalty opponents and advocates of the state’s Racial Justice Act have embarked on an intense petition drive, letter-writing and email campaign, targeting five Democrats in the state House of Representatives.The goal is to persuade the representatives to sustain the governor’s Thursday veto of the legislature’s overhaul of the Racial Justice Act.
By Aleta Payne, Former Deputy Executive Director
by Aleta Payne, Former Deputy Executive Director
By Aleta Payne, Former Deputy Executive Director
by Aleta Payne, Former Deputy Executive Director
By Aleta Payne, Former Deputy Executive Director
by Aleta Payne, Former Deputy Executive Director
By North Carolina Council of Churches
by North Carolina Council of Churches
Statement Affirming the Principles of Concern for the Poor and the Vulnerable as Made More Visible by the “Occupy” and Other Movements Approved June 5, 2012 by the Governing Board […]
By Aleta Payne, Former Deputy Executive Director
by Aleta Payne, Former Deputy Executive Director
By Aleta Payne, Former Deputy Executive Director
by Aleta Payne, Former Deputy Executive Director
The Spring 2012 Church Council Bulletin includes photographs from the Council’s recent Critical Issues Seminar, an update on items of interest in the General Assembly’s short session, a statement on the passage of Amendment One, the Council’s spring appeal, and more.
By Aleta Payne, Former Deputy Executive Director
by Aleta Payne, Former Deputy Executive Director
By Aleta Payne, Former Deputy Executive Director
by Aleta Payne, Former Deputy Executive Director
By Aleta Payne, Former Deputy Executive Director
By Aleta Payne, Former Deputy Executive Director
By Aleta Payne, Former Deputy Executive Director
by Aleta Payne, Former Deputy Executive Director
By Aleta Payne, Former Deputy Executive Director
by Aleta Payne, Former Deputy Executive Director
By Willona Stallings, Former Program Coordinator – Partners in Health & Wholeness
by Willona Stallings, Former Program Coordinator – Partners in Health & Wholeness
By Aleta Payne, Former Deputy Executive Director
by Aleta Payne, Former Deputy Executive Director
By Aleta Payne, Former Deputy Executive Director
by Aleta Payne, Former Deputy Executive Director
On April 6, state religious leaders and activists will remember Jesus Christ’s suffering and death and the suffering and death of immigrants coming to this country in an “Economic Justice Way of the Cross.” The North Carolina Council of Churches is a co-sponsor of the event which takes place from noon to 2 p.m. at the N.C. State Capitol.
The Good Friday commemoration of Jesus’ suffering and death will be linked with the need for justice, immigration reform, a change in US trade policies, and an end to US support for the war in Afghanistan and Colombia. Money needs to be spent on food and economic development instead of war, according to Gail Phares, director of Witness for Peace Southeast, the event’s primary organizer.By chris
by chris
Rev. Jill Edens, United Church of Chapel Hill
Though the disciples have left everything to follow Jesus, the discussion as they travel to Jerusalem reveals that they are profoundly unready for what is to come. In this pivotal moment we encounter blind Bartimaeus who Mark holds up as a model for discipleship: “As Jesus and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus, son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the roadside. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout out and say, ‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!’”By Aleta Payne, Former Deputy Executive Director
by Aleta Payne, Former Deputy Executive Director
By Aleta Payne, Former Deputy Executive Director
by Aleta Payne, Former Deputy Executive Director
By Aleta Payne, Former Deputy Executive Director
Durham Herald-Sun
Pilgrim United Church of Christ will host a community series this month on “Faith and the Marriage Amendment,” about the proposed North Carolina Amendment 1. If the ballot measure passes May 8, the only valid domestic union recognized by the state will be marriage of a man and a woman.Read more: The Herald-Sun – Pilgrim UCC hosting series on Amendment 1
By Aleta Payne, Former Deputy Executive Director
by Aleta Payne, Former Deputy Executive Director
By Aleta Payne, Former Deputy Executive Director
by Aleta Payne, Former Deputy Executive Director
By Aleta Payne, Former Deputy Executive Director
The Washington Post
WILMINGTON, N.C. — As the only Southern state without a constitutional amendment barring same-sex marriage, North Carolina is the next battleground, with religious groups on both sides bracing for a high-stakes fight on May 8.Against a recent string of gay-marriage victories in California, Washington state and Maryland, North Carolinians will be asked to vote on a constitutional amendment on May 8, the same day as the state Republican primary.
Same-sex marriage has been illegal in the Tar Heel State since 1996; Minnesota also has a marriage amendment planned for a vote in November.
By Joy Williams, Former PHW Regional Coordinator
by Joy Williams, Former PHW Regional Coordinator
By Aleta Payne, Former Deputy Executive Director
by Aleta Payne, Former Deputy Executive Director
By Aleta Payne, Former Deputy Executive Director
by Aleta Payne, Former Deputy Executive Director
By chris
by chris
In this season of Advent, we remember how the Holy Family walked this earth as refugees. As they followed the Roman decree — as they fled across the border to escape Herod’s law of the land–even up to the day he testified to Pilate, “My Kingdom is not of this world,” they walked as strangers among us.
This is the scandal of Bethlehem: If God invaded our world once unawares, God could do it again. Today. Anywhere. Among any people. Anytime.
By Aleta Payne, Former Deputy Executive Director
by Aleta Payne, Former Deputy Executive Director
The General Assembly has returned for another mini-session, this one scheduled to last a couple of days. (The one in early November concerned itself with revising the newly re-drawn districts […]
By David LaMotte, Consultant for Peace
by David LaMotte, Consultant for Peace
By chris
by chris
Much of the book of Romans is given over to some pretty heavy theological work. What is the meaning of God’s righteousness? Where does Israel fit into this? What about justification by faith? What happens to the Mosaic law? What role does grace play? Heavy questions facing the newly developing church in the First Century.
By David LaMotte, Consultant for Peace
by David LaMotte, Consultant for Peace
By David LaMotte, Consultant for Peace
by David LaMotte, Consultant for Peace
By Aleta Payne, Former Deputy Executive Director
by Aleta Payne, Former Deputy Executive Director
By David LaMotte, Consultant for Peace
by David LaMotte, Consultant for Peace
By Aleta Payne, Former Deputy Executive Director
by Aleta Payne, Former Deputy Executive Director
By Aleta Payne, Former Deputy Executive Director
The News & Observer
All the conflict raging about the Wake schools for the past year and a half came spilling out Wednesday night when a panel of federal civil rights investigators heard testimony – often heated – in an East Raleigh church.The hearing concerned a complaint against Wake Public Schools, filed with the federal education department by the state NAACP. An estimated 200 people nearly filled the fellowship hall at Martin Street Baptist Church, with speakers making emphatic points on both sides of the issues.
By Rose Gurkin, Former Program Associate for Administration
by Rose Gurkin, Former Program Associate for Administration
The drumbeat of bad bills continues. Suffice it to say that it’s a tough year for those of us who have advocated for public policy decisions promoting social justice, protecting vulnerable people, and caring for God’s creation. We can’t respond to every bad idea or bad bill. On many of these issues, we feel like we are butting our heads against a wall. Our tendency may be to throw up our hands in despair.
By David LaMotte, Consultant for Peace
by David LaMotte, Consultant for Peace
By David LaMotte, Consultant for Peace
by David LaMotte, Consultant for Peace
By David LaMotte, Consultant for Peace
By Aleta Payne, Former Deputy Executive Director
by Aleta Payne, Former Deputy Executive Director
By chris
by chris
By David LaMotte, Consultant for Peace
by David LaMotte, Consultant for Peace
By David LaMotte, Consultant for Peace
by David LaMotte, Consultant for Peace
By Aleta Payne, Former Deputy Executive Director
by Aleta Payne, Former Deputy Executive Director
By Rose Gurkin, Former Program Associate for Administration
by Rose Gurkin, Former Program Associate for Administration
By chris
by chris
Dr. H. Stephen Shoemaker, Myers Park Baptist Church
This man is scary. To others, probably also to himself. He lived among the tombs. There was no place else to live. He wore no clothes, the text says, and had no home. Does that mean no family too? The diagnosis of the time: He was possessed by demons. We guess today a psychological disorder, but let’s not be armchair psychiatrists, two thousand years away.By chris
by chris
Rev. Peter JB Carman, Binkley Baptist Church (Chapel Hill)
When the Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Galatia about baptism, it seems he had a whole lot more than water on his mind. He was writing to a church divided right from the very beginning. While he was welcoming in the non Jewish pagans, others weren’t so sure. While he was trying to help negotiate the beginnings of a multi-cultural Christian faith, others were, even from the very beginning, more comfortable with those who were their own people. Jews had every reason to be suspicious of Romans—after all they had suffered under the hand of their occupation governments for many years.By chris
by chris
Rev. Dr. Christopher C. F. Chapman, Knollwood Baptist Church (Winston-Salem)
For we can believe all kinds of things about God and have all the right positions on ethical issues, whatever those are, but if we don’t have love, who wants to be part of the church? We can have great ministries for all ages, the best staff, the most up-to-date programs with all the whistles and bells, but if the people of the church don’t genuinely love each other, who cares? We can have the best maintained buildings and grounds, the latest equipment and technologies, the perfect organizational structure and communications systems, but if we don’t want to be with each other, the buildings will eventually be empty. We can even claim to have a passion for missions, want to share God’s love with people around the globe, but if we do not love for the person sitting next to us, our passion will be all fire and no warmth.By chris
Dr. H. Stephen Shoemaker, Myers Park Baptist Church
For the love of Christ controls us, lays claim to us, compels us, grasps us at our deepest being. This is the heart of Christianity for Paul: the love of Christ permeating and shaping our lives, sweeping through us as breath carrying oxygen to every cell in the body. Paul’s words in this passage are more than prose; they are incantation.by chris
Dr. H. Stephen Shoemaker, Myers Park Baptist Church
For the love of Christ controls us, lays claim to us, compels us, grasps us at our deepest being. This is the heart of Christianity for Paul: the love of Christ permeating and shaping our lives, sweeping through us as breath carrying oxygen to every cell in the body. Paul’s words in this passage are more than prose; they are incantation.By chris
by chris
Rev. Amy Jacks Dean, Park Road Baptist Church
Matthew, Mark, and Luke all tell this same basic story of the healing of this blind beggar, but Mark is the only one to give the man a name – Blind Bartimaeus is how we know him. Jesus is headed to Jerusalem from Capernaum – and all along the way he is talking and teaching and answering questions and listening in on the disciples’ conversations with each other. You know how bad there were to get off track and try to figure out who was the favorite.By chris
by chris
Dr. H. Stephen Shoemaker, Myers Park Baptist Church
Two weeks ago I spoke of Jesus the Friend. Today, I want to explore Jesus the Stranger, Jesus as “other,” different, even as “enemy” because sometimes we perceive him as enemy. I was told as a young minister not to get too far ahead of my congregation because they might mistake me for their enemy. Sometimes we mistake Jesus as our enemy. It may seem strange to describe Jesus as Stranger. But this may be the only way to make sure we see him as he is, not as who we want him to be. This is the only way we truly know another, that is, as they are, not our projection of what we wish them to be.By chris
by chris
The Rev. M. Jonah Kendall, St. Philip’s Episcopal Church (Durham)
I want to come straight at you today. I want to be clear, and I want to be concise. I’m not going to open with an illustration but rather get straight to the point. And this is because our lesson from Genesis, with Noah’s ark – along with Jesus’ words in Matthew’s gospel about the house that could withstand the wind and rain – we are confronted with what I’d call the perfect storm.NC Council of Churches
27 Horne St.
Raleigh, NC 27607
(919) 828-6501
info@ncchurches.org