Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving
your neighbor as yourself?
I will, with God’s help.
Will you strive for justice and peace among all
people, and respect the dignity of every human being?
I will, with God’s help.
Peace and Justice Committee
The St. Paul’s Peace and Justice Committee is up and running. We are currently discerning our Christian responsibility with regard to a number of topics, including LGBT rights, mass incarceration, mental health awareness, and seeking the Peace of Christ in today’s world.
We are looking for people interested in these and other topics, and through the Anglican tradition of a large umbrella, finding diverse perspectives.
If you are so inclined, please talk to Sarah+ or one of our committee members for more insight. We plan to meet on the last Tuesday of each month. Below are more resources of ministries that the Peace and Justice Committee is involved with.
A Prayer Attributed to St. Francis-
Lord, make us instruments of your peace. Where there is hatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. Grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.
World in Prayer
http://www.worldinprayer.org/about/
B-PEACE for JORGE
In John’s Gospel, the first gift of the risen Christ to his frightened disciples was God’s peace. Christ sends us out with the gift of peace, just as he sent out our ancestors in the faith. Every one of us can be a bearer of peace in eastern Massachusetts and beyond.
From the mass killings in places like Wisconsin, Colorado, Arizona and Connecticut, and the injustice of police brutality in Ferguson, Cleveland and the Bronx, to the senseless murders of children and teenagers on American city streets, including our own in Boston, Lynn, Brockton and New Bedford–the violence which is everywhere in our country profoundly touches all of us.
B-PEACE is a program of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts.
B-PEACE stands for:
Bishop’s Action Steps Toward Peace:
Programs for youth
Employment for teens and young adults
Academic excellence in public schools
Communities for families
End to gun violence
http://bishopsagainstgunviolence.org/
EPISCOPAL PEACE FELLOWSHIP
The Episcopal Peace Fellowship is a national organization connecting all who seek a deliberate response to injustice and violence and want to pray, study and take action for justice and peace in our communities, our church, and the world. We are called to do justice, dismantle violence, and strive to be peace makers.
Our goals:
Do Justice. Dismantle Violence. Strive to be Peace Makers.
INTEGRITY
For more than three decades, Integrity USA has been working for the full equality of LGBT persons in every part of The Episcopal Church. We pray that through our work the church will become a beacon of God’s love and radical inclusion to the world around us. Much has been achieved, and much still needs to be done before all of God’s children are always equally welcome in every Episcopal Church.
Integrity works both to change the policies of the wider church, and to encourage and enable local congregations to intentionally open their doors to LGBT people and their allies.
The Trinity
Designed and Commissioned by Mark Bozzuti-Jones
Welcoming Faiths
LGBTQ Welcoming Communities of Faith, also known as Welcoming Faiths, is a coalition of faith congregations in the Merrimack Valley who are united by our commitment to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer and/or Questioning individuals and families. We are a lay-led group that was established in the spring of 2011 by South Church’s Committee for Open Dialogue. Although we represent different faiths, our member congregations welcome all to worship regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, race, color, national origin, disability or age. All like-minded faith communities are invited and encouraged to join the coalition and participate in the efforts and activities of member congregations. We are also affiliated with PFLAG (Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) and MCVAGLY (Merrimack Valley Alliance of Gay and Lesbian Youth).
Members Are Episcopal, Jewish, Methodist, Unitarian Universalist and United Church of Christ, located in the Lower Merrimack Valley Communities of Andover, Boxford, Chelmsford, Haverhill, Lowell and North Andover.
“Welcoming Faiths“ Guiding Philosophy is to: “Be the change you want to see in the world.” M.K. Ghandi
National Alliance For Mental Illness
State resource for individuals & families facing the challenges of mental illness.
