There was a great turnout for Saturday’s HKonJ5. Thanks to all of you who attended and marched.
Watch video of HKonJ here.
Please join us and people of faith across North Carolina in committing to diversity in North Carolina schools by signing this statement.
Torture conference logoOn March 25 and 26, 2011, the Duke University Divinity School in Durham, North Carolina will be hosting a conference on torture. This two-day event aims to equip participants to understand the arguments against torture and to prepare them for anti-torture advocacy within their own communities, trusting that the greatest protection against the U.S. government’s use of torture is a shared understanding that torture is always wrong.
A bulletin insert with an excerpt from Dr. King’s prophetic sermon at Riverside Church is available for download here. The Council’s David LaMotte will be preaching at Martin Street Baptist in Raleigh on Martin Luther King, Jr. Sunday, January 16.
The MIC @ 50 conference will take place on January 14-16, 2011, on the campus of Guilford College in Greensboro, NC. There is no charge to attend. The purpose of the event is to bring the MIC back into the spotlight as a key factor shaping our society and public life.
NC Policy Watch
In recent days, the Internet has been abuzz with revelations brought to us by “Wikileaks” of comments that were never intended to be public. Meanwhile, George W. Bush is touring to promote his new book, enthusiastically admitting that he violated international and US law. As the US government calls for accountability for Mr. Assange of Wikileaks, it must consider the applicability of its own words to other situations.As December begins, we make the transition from a time of thanksgiving to a season of anticipation. The Council has much to be grateful for this year. Talented and dynamic newcomers have joined our already excellent staff. We have been warmly welcomed into new offices at West Raleigh Presbyterian Church and celebrated the Council’s 75th […]
I strongly encourage people of faith who feel so led to contact your senators and urge them to support ratification of the New START treaty, which will reduce the US and Russian stockpiles by 30% and allow on-the-ground inspections, suspended last year as the START I treaty expired, to resume.
Raleigh News & Observer
On Christ the King Sunday, when many Roman Catholic and Protestant churches celebrate their allegiance to God rather than country, some Triangle congregations talked about a subject rarely mentioned these days: war. They discussed the rising suicide rate among U.S. Army veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.
We knew when David LaMotte joined the NC Council of Churches’ staff in July as program associate for peace that we were gaining someone with an international reputation for his thoughtful approach to peace and reconciliation work. We were reminded of that in a truly global way this week when he was appointed to a […]
In light of data recently released in the Wikileaks documents regarding the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a group of pastors, priests, theologians and seminarians has issued a call to preachers to address the acts of violence detailed in those documents, and their failure to live up even to the standards of Just War theory.
I was struck, as I listened to remembrances from the past, that we really are seeing progress on issues of social justice. But it happens over a period of years or even decades. The issues we heard about at the Anniversary are difficult ones. They have produced years of frustration and sometimes what looked like complete failure. And yet . . .
I’ll be speaking and singing at several events in the next few weeks, and thought I would let you know the details.
Dr. Terrence Rynne is the founder of the Marquette University Center for Peacemaking. His new book “Gandhi and Jesus, the Saving Power of Nonviolence” examines the intersections between the life of Jesus and the teachings of Gandhi. He has three presentations coming up in North Carolina, in Charlotte, Greensboro and Raleigh.
News14 Carolina recently featured a peace vigil held in downtown Raleigh in conjunction with the nine-year anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. The NC Council of Churches co-sponsored the event, and David LaMotte spoke during the vigil. News coverage of the vigil focused on WWII veteran and longtime peace activist Cy King. In 2009, King accepted the Council’s Distinguished Service Award for his many years of gracious and committed activism for peace.
Raleigh News & Observer
A coalition of North Carolina faith and justice groups marked the passage of nine years in the U.S. war in Afghanistan on Thursday with a call for peace and a vigil for dead servicemen and Afghans. N.C. Peace Action, along with the Muslim American Society and N.C. Council of Churches, held the vigil at Community United Church of Christ in Raleigh, and also rallied to redirect the money spent on war toward domestic initiatives. “We must rethink the war in Afghanistan,” said David LaMotte, program associate for the N.C. Council of Churches, which represents more than 6,200 Christian congregations from 17 denominations throughout the state.
Hello friends, There are a couple of upcoming events I wanted to let you know about in the Raleigh area, Charlotte and Greensboro. •Thursday, October 7 at 5 PM — please join us for an Action to End the Militarization of Afghanistan. Nine years after the US invaded Afghanistan, we gather to mourn the deaths of Americans and Afghanis and call for an […]
The American Independent
The NC Council of Churches on Thursday strongly endorsed the right of Muslims to build a community center near the site of the 9/11 terror attacks in New York City. “We stand with our Muslim brothers and sisters in affirming their right to build on a site two-and-a-half blocks from Ground Zero,” the council said in statement unanimously adopted by its governing board at its meeting this week in Greensboro. The statement comes as controversy flares around a TV ad being aired by North Carolina Republican congressional candidate Renee Ellmers.
The North Carolina Council of Churches represents 6,200 congregations in 17 denominations statewide. The North Carolina Council of Churches condemns all religious violence. As people of Christian faith, we value a teaching common to the Abrahamic faiths, which in the Christian tradition is expressed as “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” As Christians in a nation largely founded by religious refugees, we value the freedom of religion guaranteed by our Constitution and proudly proclaimed worldwide as a foundational principle of United States government and society. For freedom of religion to have substance and integrity, it must extend to people of all faiths.
Urgent calls to North Carolina senators are needed concerning the New START treaty, the National Criminal Justice Commission Act and the DREAM Act.
There have been no shortage of condemnations of the pastor in Florida who threatened to burn Korans. Those condemnations are effectively demolition work. Sometimes dangerous structures need to be torn down, and I’m not necessarily criticizing that. Demolition is most useful, though, when it makes space to build something new and constructive. I heartily celebrate the building of relationships and the expressions of respect and support that have come in response to this.
The NCCC encourages member congregations to celebrate and promote the International Day of Prayer for Peace on September 21. A bulletin insert for your use is linked here, as well as further resources.
As I move forward in trying to clarify my calling here, I welcome the input of friends of the Council. Peace is a big job description. What does it mean to you?
Asheville Citizen-Times
The title on David Lamotte’s business card sounds a little audacious: “peace associate.” But that’s Lamotte’s job with the North Carolina Council of Churches, and he’s serious about the work. Lamotte just spent two years living abroad and studying rigorously to earn a master’s degree in international relations and peace and conflict resolution. Now the former singer-songwriter who was once a fixture on the local music scene is ready to apply what he’s learned.
In April 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke at New York’s Riverside Church about the war being fought by the U.S. in Asia at that time, in Vietnam. His words remind us of the choices we now face about war in Asia and around the world in 2010.
Rev. Mel Williams, Watts Street Baptist Church (Durham)
William Blake was a poet who understood the meaning of mercy—the unearned, undeserved gift of God’s grace. Mercy is the character of God; mercy is God’s very self-understanding. When we beg for mercy, or forgiveness, we are reaching for God, for God is mercy. This is the character of God, stated throughout the Old Testament: “The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.
Rev. Dr. Sam Wells, Duke University Chapel (Durham)
These are the kinds of images that come into our minds when we hear the word peace. Such a diverse range of uses makes the word peace seem either vague and idealistic or cynical and manipulative. The New Testament is neither vague nor idealistic nor cynical nor manipulative. It has two words for peace. One of those words is Jesus. Ephesians chapter 2 gives us perhaps the most concise description of the way Jesus is peace. Here are the five ways that Jesus is peace. All of them center on the word “one.”
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.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.In the United States, Mother’s Day was originally suggested by poet and abolitionist activist Julia Ward Howe. In 1870, after witnessing the carnage of the American Civil War and the start of the Franco-Prussian War, she wrote the original Mother’s Day Proclamation calling upon the women of the world to unite for peace. This “Mother’s Day Proclamation” would plant the seed for what would eventually become a national holiday.
The following are prayers offered for Middle East Peace during a 2006 interfaith prayer service in North Carolina.
It is good that we have been here today, not because it changes a thing, but because it reminds us that as diverse as our traditions and convictions are, our hearts yearn for similar things. And if this is true, if we are hoping and praying and working for the same ultimate goals, then we are connected in a soulful way. And acknowledging that truth can change everything.May the One who made us for peace, give us the courage to live in peace.
May the One who made us in love, give us the compassion to reach out in love.
May the One who made us with hope, give us the strength to persevere in hope.
And may all of our sisters and brothers in the Middle East know the fullness of God’s peace, God’s hope, and God’s love. Amen.
The North Carolina Council of Churches has a long history of stands regarding our nation’s warmaking. Since 1935, we have called for political leaders to resist from entering wars, to follow international covenants and treaties while engaged in war, and to end conflicts that have begun. In keeping with this history, we now reiterate our opposition to the current war in Iraq and to the use of torture as an instrument of war.
Rev. Amy Jacks Dean, Park Road Baptist Church (Charlotte)
Let me tell you about a society of peace and prosperity that existed long ago. In this society, many people had much more than they needed. The construction business was experiencing an unprecedented boom; elaborate wine cellars and even personal vineyards were in vogue. All the markets were buzzing; the communications, entertainment, and travel industries had never enjoyed such escalating profits.
Rev. Edward Stallworth, Park Road Baptist Church (Charlotte)
On a larger scale, there are those expectations that are shattered by overwhelming joy and excitement. I have never met a parent that said, “I expected to love my child this much.” It seems that children bring more than what was expected. Despite not having children of my own, I see it in the eyes of all of you when you talk about your own children. That holds true to new parents to parents of teens or college students to parents whose children have children of their own.Since the morning of September 11, fear and anger have been redefined, inviolate boundaries have been crossed, the unimaginable has become the reality of our daily lives. Even the most measured and peace-loving among us have found our beliefs tested since we watched as the endless horrors of that day piled one upon the other. Our hearts are broken for all who suffered personal loss in this great tragedy, and we pray for our nation and world as we navigate an uncertain and unsettling future.
