The United Church of Christ and Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) were among 27 Christian churches and agencies to address a letter to members of Congress today. The letter, in the context of the ongoing war in Israel/Palestine, urged Congress to:
Publicly call for ceasefire, de-escalation and restraint by all sides
Prioritize steps to secure immediate release of hostages and ensure international protection for civilians
Call on all parties to abide by the laws of war, including the Geneva conventions and customary international law
The full text of the letter is below:
Dear Members of Congress,
We have watched in sadness the devastating loss of life in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories over the last several days. As Church-based denominations and organizations with deep ties to the Holy Land, we mourn with our Israeli and Palestinian siblings as they grieve the loss of loved ones and remain fearful of continued violence. Our commitment remains to a future in which both Israelis and Palestinians can live in peace, with security and human rights protected for all.
We unequivocally condemn Hamas’ attacks and violent treatment of civilians and call for the immediate release of all hostages in captivity. We also condemn the indiscriminate and violent Israeli response that has already claimed hundreds of civilian lives. The Israeli government’s decision to shut off power, water, and fuel will have a disastrous impact on millions of civilians in Gaza, including over a million children, especially those who need immediate medical attention.
At this critical time it is incumbent upon Congress to act in ways that will help de-escalate the violence and stop further loss of life. Specifically, we call on Congress to:
Publicly call for ceasefire, de-escalation and restraint by all sides
Call on all parties to abide by the laws of war, including the Geneva conventions and customary international law
Prioritize steps to secure immediate release of hostages and ensure international protection for civilians
During this time of heightened tension, we implore Congress to refrain from steps that only exacerbate the violence and increase the risk of expanding war into the broader region. Any Congressional effort that is one-sided, and rushes to send new weapons to Israel, will only intensify the conflict leading to further deaths and destruction. Congress must work to prevent the spread of more violence, including against Palestinian civilians in Israel and the West Bank.
Year after year, we have seen that increasing violence begets more violence. Our past responses have failed to end the bloodshed. As these horrific events unfold, we are reminded once again that only by addressing core systemic issues, including decades of institutionalized oppression and collective punishment of Palestinians through brutal military occupation and a 16-year Gaza blockade, will Israelis and Palestinians live in peace.
We are grateful for your service to this country. We pray for wisdom and discernment on your behalf in the days ahead.
Find the full list of denominations and organizations who signed onto the letter here.
Take action
Opportunities are available for staying engaged and getting involved.
The UCC Washington, D.C. office has created an action alert inviting people to urge their legislators toward de-escalation and restraint from policy decisions that would intensify violence in the area.
Updates are being posted on the Global Ministries website, including reports, letters and statements from partners, position statements and advocacy opportunities.
Content on ucc.org is copyrighted by the National Setting of the United Church of Christ and may be only shared according to the guidelines outlined here.
Almost two years ago, Lakewood United Church of Christ built on the foundation of a grant of $500 from the Florida Conference to provide books on anti-racism for the children in our community. Generous contributions from the congregation made possible the purchase of books by the libraries of two low-income elementary schools, Maximo and Campbell Park. The books were selected by the school; appropriate for each grade level. We then raised another $1000 to provide the nearest public library’s children’s department with a similar collection. The library selected the books. The library has finally received and catalogued all the books.
All patrons now see this wonderful temporary display inside the door of the South St. Petersburg branch of the Pinellas County Public Library system. Any library card holder in the county may now check out these new books written and illustrated for young people ages toddler to young adult. Stop in soon and have a look!
CIW Co-Founder Lucas Benitez to receive Wallenberg Medal for achievements in human rights on October 10, joining the company of previous medal recipients Rep. John Lewis, Elie Wiesel, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and His Holiness the Dalai Lama among others
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CIW co-founder Lucas Benitez
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CIW Co-Founder Lucas Benitez to receive Wallenberg Medal for Achievements in Human Rights on October 10, joining the company of previous medal recipients Rep. John Lewis, Elie Wiesel, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and His Holiness the Dalai Lama among others
Lucas Benitez: “I am immeasurably honored and humbled to receive the Wallenberg Medal in recognition of our efforts to forge a new paradigm for the protection of fundamental human rights from the fields to factories around the globe.”
IMMOKALEE – Lucas Benitez, co-founder of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, is set to be awarded the Wallenberg Medal by the University of Michigan for his extraordinary achievements in the field of human rights. Previous recipients include Nobel laureates Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Elie Wiesel, and the Dalai Lama of Tibet as well as Rep. John Lewis, Miep Gies, Paul Rusesabagina, Masha Gessen, and Denis Mukwege.
Born into a family of rural farmers in the highlands of southern Mexico, Benitez was one of six children living in a simple, rural house with dirt floors. At the age of 17, he joined his older brother in traveling to the US to work in the fields to help support his family. Upon arrival, the conditions he found in the fields of Florida and Alabama — from wage theft to violence to endemic sexual harassment — moved him, even at that young age, to stand up against the abuse.
The moment presented itself to join a small group of likeminded workers in Immokalee gathering at the local Catholic Church to ask why conditions were so brutal for people who left their families behind at home to feed the world. Mr. Benitez not only joined the meetings, he immediately took the lead and hasn’t looked back since. Those early gatherings led to the development, decades later, of the new ‘gold standard’ program for protecting workers’ fundamental human rights: the Fair Food Program, which was institutionalized first in the tomato fields of Florida in which Benitez used to work and is now covering over a dozen crops in 10 states and three countries including Chile and South Africa.
In addition to being one of the earliest farmworker leaders in the Fair Food movement, Mr. Benitez played a critical role in the investigation of several slavery cases, helping to free over 700 workers in one case alone. He also works with consumer allies to organize national actions — renowned for their creativity and effectiveness — designed to bring pressure on the large retail purchasers of Florida produce to join the Fair Food Program. Currently, Mr. Benitez is one of the primary ambassadors in U.S. and international expansion of the Fair Food Program. Benitez has received the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award as well as the “Ohtli” Award, the highest distinction conferred by the Mexican Government on citizens living outside of the country.
“I am immeasurably honored and humbled to receive the Wallenberg Medal in recognition of our efforts to forge a new paradigm for the protection of fundamental human rights from the fields to factories around the globe,” said Mr. Benitez. “I also want to recognize the efforts of my entire community, the decades of labor of countless women and men in Immokalee in the fields that have brought us to where we are today. We stand on the shoulders of past Wallenberg recipients like the late Representative John Lewis and Desmond Tutu, who embodied courage and commitment. And our work is still far from over. We recognize the urgent need to continue expanding the protections we won first for farmworkers in the U.S. to new fields and new industries across the country and the world.”
“Lucas Benitez’s work with the CIW reflects the ongoing need for frontline advocates for vulnerable people in our society. This movement harnesses the economic influence of consumers to improve working conditions, labor practices, and pay for farmworkers through its worker-led, market-enforced approach to the protection of human rights underlying corporate supply chains,” said Sioban Harlow, Professor Emerita of Epidemiology and Global Public Health and chair of the Wallenberg Medal Selection Committee.
The Wallenberg Medal honors the achievements of Raoul Wallenberg who saved the lives of tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews during World War II. Wallenberg issued thousands of protective passports and placed tens of thousands of Jews in safehouses while confronting Hungarian and German forces to secure the release of Jews, whom he claimed were under Swedish protection. He ultimately saved more than 80,000 lives.
Mr. Benitez will receive the 2023 Wallenberg Medal and deliver a lecture on CIW’s 30 years of achievements and the future of human rights for farmworkers on October 10th at 7:30pm in Rackham Auditorium at the University of Michigan. It is free and open to the public.
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About the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW): The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) is a worker-based human rights organization based in Immokalee, FL committed to improving working conditions through enforceable human rights protections within supply chains. Internationally recognized for its achievements in human rights, the CIW forged and currently oversees the Fair Food Program, which leverages legally binding agreements with corporate buyers of produce to protect tens of thousands of farmworkers. The CIW has also helped free thousands of farmworkers trapped in forced labor through its anti-slavery program, which investigates and assists in the prosecution of forced labor rings. The FFP and the CIW have been awarded the Presidential Medal for Extraordinary Efforts in Combating Modern-Day Slavery and received a MacArthur “Genius” Award as well as The American Bar Association’s 2022 Frances Perkins Public Service Award.
LAKEWOOD UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST 2601 54th Avenue South St. Petersburg, FL 33712 On land originally inhabited by the Tocabaga 727-867-7961 lakewooducc.org lakewooducc@gmail.com
Date: Sept. 24, 2023 Scripture Lessons: Exodus 16:1-18, 31 and Matthew 20:1-16 Sermon: Re-Programming Pastor: Rev. Kim P. Wells
Is this a simulation? That is a main theme of the novel Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel. Are the characters living in a simulation of some kind? The story involves life on Earth in the early 1900’s. It involves life on Earth in the 2020’s. It involves life on Earth in 2203. But there is more. The story also involves the first moon colony, the second moon colony, and the far colonies. And the book features time travel as well as space travel. And the question reappears, is this a simulation? What is reality?
In the novel Sea of Tranquility, one of the characters becomes involved in time travel to try to sort out an anomaly. He goes to different locations and different eras and interviews people. It takes years of training to prepare for this because he needs to learn about the time in history, the setting, the context, and the people, so that he can interact appropriately.
To me, the church, faith, religion, the Bible are our training ground for life in the reality of God. Here we learn what it means to be part of the Beloved Community here on Earth. And while it may not involve time travel, it certainly can involve preparation for life in a different kind of reality.
In the New Testament, we see Jesus defining the nature of the reality of the realm of God, the commonwealth of God, the kin-dom of God, the reality of God. Jesus is defining, describing, and creating an alternative reality, different in many ways from the reality of those who hear his message. And this alternative reality, the reality of God, exists within people, and among people who choose, or are called, to be part of that reality.
Again and again, Jesus is remembered for teaching people, “the realm of God is like” and then he tells a story. Like the one we heard this morning. A parable. A story that creates a reality through multiple messages and meanings. Jesus makes it clear that the realm of God involves being part of a reality very different from the social values, circumstances, and arrangements of the seeming reality around us. We might say heaven on Earth, or on Earth as it is in heaven. The reality of God here in our midst.
In the gospel lesson we heard this morning a story involving labor and wages is used to convey a message that in God’s reality people are not primarily economic beings. We are not primarily defined by work. There are countless ways, day in and day out, in our current society, that people are defined by economics, finances, and money. Economic value is the primary standard for defining worth. That is the main source of human value in our culture. In the story of the laborers, Jesus undermines that reality. He creates an alternative reality in which each and every person is valued and taken care of. Regardless of economic utility. And in the story we heard, that offends some people. Just like it does today.
Living into the reality of God in its many dimensions takes training and that is part of the ministry of the church. Here we learn to live in that different reality, in that beloved community. We learn, and experiment, and practice, and examine, and test what it is like to live in the reality of God. And given the gap between the reality of God and the reality around us, it can be a lifelong journey this learning to trust the reality of God within us and among us.
We see some of the implications of that learning process in the story that we heard from Exodus. The people have been liberated from slavery and are traversing the wilderness en route to a new home that will be an embodiment of the reality of God in its fullness. This time in the wilderness is needed as a time of re-training. The people need to become disentangled from the system of oppression and slavery even though it provided them with homes and food and water which they find lacking on their sojourn through the wilderness. So much so that they find themselves longing for Egypt. For slavery.
And during this wilderness transition, they plead and grumble and each time God provides what they need. It is a time to learn to trust and depend on God, their liberator. But the lessons are hard learned. Today, we heard about the quail and manna. The people are hungry and have no food. And suddenly they are provided with food that literally falls out of the sky. Enough for everyone. To eat their fill. Day by day. And even still, observe the sabbath. And are they jumping for joy about this? Are they stunned with gratitude? Oh no. This training in the wilderness, being weaned from oppression to liberation, it takes time. It is hard to learn to live in the reality of the generosity of God instead of the entrenched bonds of slavery.
While the people expect the desert to be barren, empty, it turns out to be filled with the glory of God. The God that has brought the Hebrews out of slavery is continuously providing for them. But they find this hard to see. And even harder to trust. As the story is told, the forty years in the wilderness provides the time for most of the people who were actually adult slaves in Egypt to have passed on. The attachments to the old system dying with them.
In the story we see that it takes time, experience, and patience on the part of God to bless these people with a new reality. They must be trained and encouraged and nurtured into a new reality. The reality of God.
And we see the same process taking place in the ministry of Jesus. Jesus teaches and heals and embodies the reality of God, the realm of God, so that people can become accustomed to that new reality. It’s not time travel. It’s not geographical travel. But it is travel to a different moral, religious, and spiritual realm. The traversing of a huge chasm from the cultural reality we have created and accepted to the reality of God which is our true forever home where all are cared for and provided for. God makes life possible for all. All receive what they need to flourish and thrive.
Where are we on our journey to the reality of God? Well, how do we react when confronted by lavish grace? It’s fine when we benefit. But when others benefit? Are we offended? How are we progressing at giving up our ledgers and accounts and score keeping? How are we doing at living in a reality in which people are not defined by their economic productivity? A reality in which things are not fair. NO. A reality which provides for all. How are we doing with all of that?
In the novel Sea of Tranquility, a main character, Gaspery, goes to the Time Institute for training for time travel and it takes years of preparation. To me, we come to church, week after week, year after year, and here we acclimate ourselves to the reality of God. We come here to be schooled in grace. To recalibrate our orientation from rugged individualism to the communal good. From the lure of making sure we have provided for our future, you know you need at least a million dollars to retire, we’re told, to trusting that all are to be provided for day by day by day. Here we learn not to grab our due but to celebrate when others benefit from good fortune. Here we come to be weaned from our false notion of independence to reveling in our dependence upon all that is being provided for us.
Here we are schooled in grace that strips away privilege. And entitlement. And we learn to glory in all that we are being given. Each and every day. And here we are invited to be generous so that we partner with God in creating a new reality and we experience our giftedness and blessing. Here we come to learn to accept the offense of grace: Yes, others get more than they deserve. And we are among them. This all takes time and training.
There is a story told of two friends who were walking down the sidewalk of a busy city street during rush hour. There was all sorts of noise in the city; car horns honking, feet shuffling, people talking! And amid all this noise, one of the friends turned to the other and said, “I hear a cricket.”
“No way,” her friend responded. “How could you possibly hear a cricket with all of this noise? You must be imagining it. Besides, I’ve never seen a cricket in the city.”
“No, really, I do hear a cricket. I’ll show you.” She stopped for a moment, then led her friend across the street to a big cement planter with a tree in it. Pushing back some leaves, she found a little brown cricket.
“That’s amazing!” said her friend. “You must have super-human hearing. What’s your secret?”
“No, my hearing is just the same as yours. There’s no secret,” the first woman replied. “Watch, I’ll show you.” She reached into her pocket, pulled out some loose change, and threw it on the sidewalk. Amid all the noise of the city, everyone within thirty feet turned their head to see where the sound of the money was coming from.
“See, she said. It’s all a matter of what you are listening for.” [“The Cricket Story,” contemporary North American, in Doorways to the Soul: 52 Wisdom Tales from Around the World, edited by Elisa Davy Pearmain.]
May we listen for the gospel, for the Divine dream of love, and let that create and define our reality on Earth as it is in heaven. Amen.
A reasonable effort has been made to appropriately cite materials referenced in this sermon. For additional information, please contact Lakewood United Church of Christ.
LAKEWOOD UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST 2601 54th Avenue South St. Petersburg, FL 33712 On land originally inhabited by the Tocabaga 727-867-7961 lakewooducc.org lakewooducc@gmail.com
Date: Sept. 17, 2023 Charter Sunday celebrating the founding of the church Scripture Lesson: Mark 4:1-9 Sermon: An Astounding Yield Pastor: Rev. Kim P. Wells
A year ago at this time, we were walking the Camino de Santiago Del Norte across the northern coast of Spain. It was one glorious day of walking after another surrounded by stunning scenery. I had with me a little book called How To Walk by Thich Nhat Hanh. This book was recommended by Yoko Nogami, a former member of this church. She read it each day when she was walking the Appalachian Trail. So each day on the Camino I would read a page from How to Walk. Inside the covers of the book, I made a list of each date we would be walking and beside each date was a name of someone from our Lakewood Church family. So each day, I would hold that person or family in my thoughts as I walked. On Sept. 17, today’s date, the name was Barbara Donohue. Barbara is not here today because she wanted to go to Trinity Church one more time as they come to the end of their Sundays worshipping at their church on 49th Street before coming here to join with us.
Each day on the Camino I would think about someone from our church family. And I was in awe, day after day, thinking about the amazing people that make up this church. You are an incredible group of people! The stories, the spirit, the generosity, the concern for others, the activities and interests of folks – it’s really quite remarkable.
This led me to think about how our church attracts such a beautiful mix of people. What draws them? How does it happen that we’re all here? I contemplated this for some time on the Camino and beyond. There are some things that could be said about this, but really nothing has come to mind that provides a satisfactory explanation for me.
Then I started to see this situation from another angle. Maybe it is through being part of this faith community that people become so amazing. Maybe it is being part of this congregation that moves us toward our highest good. Maybe here we feel safe to share and be who we are in our fullness. Maybe in this context we are being formed and shaped into our better selves.
I know that has happened with me. It is this community that has formed and shaped who I am as a pastor and as a person. Here’s an example. When I first started serving here in 1991, the church faced the decision about whether to continue to have a child care center here at the church. The Fellowship Hall building housed a day care for about 60 children from the neighborhood. There were issues with the program and we had to discern whether the church had the wherewithal to sustain the program. It needed a major overhaul or to be closed. Just to say – I would not have wanted my children to attend preschool here the way it was at that time.
Closing a childcare center is a major decision. It has a variety of implications for the congregation. It is a decision that would have a huge impact on about 50 families from the community. And, this decision would be a major public relations bust. Oh, that’s the church that closed the day care. The church that left all those families high and dry. Not to mention the staff.
So here was this huge decision to be made by people who had just been through months of conflict and contention over the former minister. How was this going to go?
Well, the lay leadership of the church council decided this decision needed to be made by consensus among the council and then presented to the congregation as unanimously agreed upon by the leaders. And these church leaders had a plan for how these discussions would go. They consulted certain Quaker methods of consensus decision making. They researched mediation techniques. And the church council met, pretty much weekly, and sat in a circle here in this sanctuary, and had conversations week after week after week about all of the perspectives, implications, and facets of this decision. And it was decided that we would keep meeting, weekly, until we had reached consensus.
And – it worked! The leaders did reach consensus. Finally. To close the childcare center. And the congregation overwhelmingly agreed.
Well, I can tell you this. This was all new territory for me. I had never seen a church go about anything this way. Nothing like this was ever covered in my seminary training. I had never seen this level of commitment – a weekly meeting to hash over the minutiae of this day care decision. The techniques for managing the conversation. I had never experienced anything like this – in or out of church.
And I could see the wisdom in it. They did not want another divisive situation, with the congregation embroiled in another conflict. And they had learned some things from their previous experiences. And we have used some of those techniques subsequently when we have faced other contentious situations.
So, I didn’t come into this as the ‘expert’ with a bag of tricks. I have learned from the congregation, from this community, about how to go about decision making in ways that are not divisive.
Another situation like this involved creating a new structure for the church which resulted in the system we have now with a group of advisors overseeing the operational matters of the church and leaving all other initiatives and events and ministries to the will of the congregation at any given time. The task force that worked on this new structure intentionally sought to create a structure that was non patriarchal and non hierarchical. They came up with those criteria. And, of course, I agreed. But I was learning from these church leaders about how we could more fully embody the beloved community as a functioning institutional church. And I must say, after over 20 years, the system we have works very well for us.
I could tell you story after story like this – about how I am continually learning, growing, and deepening in faith because of this community.
My brother is a UCC pastor of a large church in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. As he put it, “Your church is always moving you further to the left.” Yes, it is. Thankfully! I could never serve in a situation like his where he is always trying to nudge his church just a smidgen to the left.
What I have come to realize is that this church doesn’t just attract amazing people like a flower attracts a bee. This church is forming and shaping us into an amazing, incredible community of people. It is just as it says in the story of the sower. The seed has been scattered. We have all received it. And this church, this faith community, is our fertile soil. This is where we take root and those roots grow deep. This is where we are watered and fed. This is where we are sustained. This is where we are pruned when we need it. This is where we are provided with all that we need to thrive and grow and bear fruit.
So I am done worrying about how to attract amazing people to our church. Instead, I am thinking about how we can support each other in manifesting our highest good, in healing from the battering life too often brings, and in taking care of ourselves, one another, and this precious, fragile, beautiful world. How can we continue to be fertile soil?
In this blessed congregation, may we all find what we need to live, grow, thrive, and bear the fruits of love. Amen.
A reasonable effort has been made to appropriately cite materials referenced in this sermon. For additional information, please contact Lakewood United Church of Christ.
Lakewood United Church of Christ 