Several additional legislative days have been announced. Among them are:
HKonJ, People of Color Justice and Unity Legislative Day is Wednesday, May 23. The opening session will be at Raleigh’s First Baptist Church on Wilmington Street at 9:00. The group will then march to the General Assembly Building, where there will be a press conference at 11:00, followed by legislative visitations. For more info, contact HKonJ at 919-682-4700.
The Duke Center for Child and Family [...]
Continue reading Upcoming Legislative Days and a Revenue Plan
In light of yesterday’s vote to add a discriminatory amendment about marriage to our state’s constitution, it is important to consider what was accomplished through this campaign and what it tells us about progress.
First, the fine work of a committed group of people has resulted in alliances and coalitions that hadn’t existed before. People with very different political beliefs spoke together against Amendment One. Secular and religious groups worked side by side to defeat [...]
Continue reading Statement on Passage of Amendment One
Susannah Tuttle and I had the privilege of representing NCIPL at the annual meeting of Interfaith Power & Light last week in Washington, DC. We spent two days immersed in heady discussions with other state leaders about our mutual work with congregations all across the nation – finding ways to respond positively to the theological call to care for creation. Big and small, mature and fledgling state affiliates shared success stories, joys and frustrations, strategies [...]
Continue reading Care of Creation Faith Message Has Legs on Capitol Hill
Executive Director George Reed’s full interview with NC Policy Watch from Sunday is now available here. In it, Reed explains the Council’s opposition to Amendment One. People of faith who have not yet voted can make their voices heard on May 8 and prevent this discriminatory amendment from becoming part of the North Carolina Constitution.
– Aleta Payne, Development and Communications
Hear George Reed explain the Council’s opposition to Amendment One on Sunday morning’s News & Views hosted by Chris Fitzsimon of NC Policy Watch. The program airs at 7 a.m. on WRAL 101.5 and at 7:30 a.m. on WCMC 99.9.
For those who miss it, check the Council website on Monday for an MP3 of the full discussion. And in the meantime, visit the Policy Watch website to hear an excerpt.
–Aleta Payne, Development and [...]
Continue reading Reed Explains Council’s Opposition to Amendment One on Sunday Radio Show
We are happy to announce that the North Carolina Council of Churches’ Partners in Health and Wholeness (PHW) Initiative has received continued support from the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation. This enables PHW’s continued work to improve the health of clergy and congregants through faith-based health promotion over the next three years. And, boy, do we have a lot in store for you! To illustrate, we will offer mini-grants to Bronze, [...]
Continue reading Exciting Updates from PHW
I have helped to make the arrangements for the food served at Council meetings for ten years. But the 2012 Critical Issues Seminar was different. In staff meetings leading up to the recent Eating Well: For Ourselves, For Our Neighbors, For Our Planet Critical Issues Seminar, one remark kept coming up. “We have to be sure to get the food we serve right.”
As a self-professed Southern foodie who grew up eating pork at practically [...]
Continue reading “Eating Well” at the Critical Issues Seminar
It was a beautiful day spent at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Winston-Salem on April 19. I was there for the annual NC Council of Churches Critical Issues Seminar; this year’s theme was, Eating Well for Ourselves, For Our Neighbors, For Our Planet. The Right Rev. Michael Curry, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina, offered an inspiring homily to start the morning. Teaching from the Gospel of John, he challenged Christians to be made [...]
Continue reading Being Crazy Christians
The Critical Issues Seminar has come and gone, and with it goes the end of my internship with the NC Council of Churches.
The Council was not the sort of place I was expecting to end up in a social work internship. I have been researching and writing instead of assessing and treating. Despite this difference, it became apparent to me in the first days of my internship that the Council is one of [...]
Continue reading “You don’t have to take my word for it.”
Father Joe Vetter with Bridget Johnson, a prior Distinguished Service Award Recipient
On April 19, Father Joe Vetter received the Council’s Distinguished Service Award during lunchtime ceremonies at the 2012 Critical Issues Seminar. After Council President Stan Kimer offered the following remarks in presenting the award, Father Joe was greeted with a standing ovation for his years of service.
Every year, the North Carolina Council of Churches presents its Distinguished Service Award to someone with [...]
Continue reading Father Joe Vetter Receives the 2012 Distinguished Service Award
Early voting is now under way for North Carolina’s May 8 primary. Between now and May 5, you can vote if you are already registered, and you can register and vote at the same time (one-stop voting) if you are not already registered. To find out the places and hours for early voting in your county, click here and search for your county.
You can also vote early the “old-fashioned” way by requesting an absentee [...]
Continue reading Early Voting and Amendment One
The lead case applying the historic and ground-breaking NC Racial Justice Act (RJA) concluded today with a judicial finding of race discrimination in the operation of the death penalty in North Carolina.
North Carolina Superior Court Judge Gregory Weeks found that prosecutors deliberately excluded qualified black jurors from jury service in death row inmate Marcus Robinson’s case, in Cumberland County, and throughout the state.
As directed by the law, the Court stated that parole eligibility [...]
Continue reading Ruling on Lead NC Racial Justice Act Case
In 2008, Big Tobacco spent $9.94 billion to market cigarettes, and sadly, that amount corresponds to ‘new customers’ despite public health efforts to stop the destruction caused by tobacco. Part of the harm is caused by hidden substances within tobacco products which are not labeled, including radiation, and marketing designed to appeal to young people. Dr. Cheryl G. Healton, President and CEO of Legacy, comments in her article ‘U.S. Surgeon General: Young Adults are “Prime Targets” for Tobacco [...]
Continue reading $9.94 Billion Spent to Market Cigarettes
It’s funny when strangers strike you as family. That is what happens, for me at least, each time I attend another Earth Sabbath Celebration. After a few months of travelling what feels like “out of town” from Durham to the monthly Celebration in Raleigh, on April 2, I found myself with the newly formed Durham Earth Sabbath Celebration.
To start us off, a frame drum procession entered the space, first encircling us and then entering into [...]
Continue reading Celebrating With My Community
The 2012 County Health Rankings report, recently released by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute, points to major disparities in health by geographic location – with urban areas like Wake, Durham, Mecklenburg and Guilford counties experiencing overall better health than many rural parts of the state like Columbus, Bladen, Scotland and Robeson counties.
The North Carolina Council of Churches, a statewide nonprofit promoting Christian unity and social justice, [...]
Continue reading New County Health Rankings Point to Disparities in Health
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