Praxis UCC

While there is some confusion about what Occupy Wall Street and its affiliates stand for, the community that has sprouted up around the movement is something to behold.  At Occupy Atlanta they offer food, childcare, legal assistance, and health care to anyone participating as a testament to an alternate way of doing community.  Occupy Atlanta actually includes many people in its ranks who were already experiencing homelessness.  Together with those who have chosen homelessness in protest of a broken economic system, they have now created what is so difficult to find in so many American cities: a group of neighbors willing to take care of each other and share “all things in common,” distributing “to all, as any had need.” (Acts 2:44)

This is a movement where it’s difficult to see who has a home to return to and who does not.  Whether you agree with the many grievances the movement has espoused, the occupiers have shown us a face of solidarity between those who have and those in need.  Isn’t this what the church should be striving for?  To erase the lines that divide us?  To treat one another as equals regardless of social location? This might be summed up in our UCC motto: “That they might all be one”.

I’m excited for the upcoming Mission 1, where the United Church of Christ will take 11 days between 11/1/11 and 11/11/11 to feed the hungry and confront food related injustice.

As part of our Mission 1 collection at Praxis we’ll be taking donations to the Occupy Atlanta movement where it will help support those who are living on the street–whether by choice or by circumstance.  We’ll also collect canned goods that will go to the Atlanta Community food bank.

Here’s a list of items that the Occupy Atlanta protesters are requesting.  If you bring these to Praxis we’ll make sure that they get to the organizers:

I’m excited to be preaching at Cannon Chapel Tomorrow, February 4, as part of The American Prayer Hour from 12:00-12:30. We’ll gather to worship, pray, and address the issues of violence toward people who are GLBT around the world. Come and pray for transformation – that we would overcome the criminalization of people who are gay and lesbian, that we would show that most people of faith are not extremists, that we would overcome fear with love.

For more information go to www.americanprayerhour.org