READ STORIES: On Faith and Advocacy
As we strive for justice and peace, we can learn from what each other are doing. We can share in our successes and collaborate on our challenges. Post your stories – from everyday advocacy (the little things that sometimes happen and you even don't realize they're advocacy until it's over) to parish and community efforts that you are a part of. This is the place for Episcopalians to share how we are striving for justice and peace! Take a few minutes to tell us how you've made a difference in your community. You'll be amazed at how just one story – yours – could inspire people around the world. We welcome your contribution!
Read stories from (select one):
United States Stories
Making a Difference in Our Own Backyard
Hannah from San Diego, CA
Imagine being a homeless five-year-old on the streets of one of the most violent, crime-ridden cities in the world: Tijuana, Mexico. That's the situation certain children escape when they arrive in our foster home called Dorcas House. Dorcas House shelters, loves and educates children whose parents are incarcerated. No other foster home will take them because of the stigma attached to the faults of their parents. I have been involved with Dorcas House for over two years, visiting the children on weekends, writing newsletters and representing the foster home at charity fairs. I know the difference I'm making in these many young lives. I also know how I have grown in my understanding of Mexican culture, immigration issues, abundance, poverty, and true wealth. I can tell you that true bounty is not found on Wall Street or Rodeo Drive. It's in the heart. These children have so much love to give, it bowls me over every time I step inside the courtyard of Dorcas House, a foster home nestled deep in the heart of Tijuana and supported by the Episcopal Diocese of San Diego.
My ministry in evangelism
Coralie from North Andover, MA
I am the Boston Episcopal Examiner for Examiner.com. My ministry is to get the word out about what our Massachusetts diocese is doing and what your Episcopal Public Policy Network is doing. I recently traveled to England and visited several churches, asking clergy and parishioners questions about how they saw the Episcopal Church.
Now I Know Things Differently
Carol from Kearny, AZ
Back in college in the 1960s my roommate was a girl from the Congo named Ruth Musunu. We parted in 1968 and didn't see each other again for 37 years. But we kept in touch. We each raised a family and were happy when email made it easier to stay connected. She started a non governmental organization in Cameroon where she and her husband had settled, and in 2007 our college, Linfield College of McMinnville, Oregon, sent 15 nursing students to work with women and children in the villages her NGO (Women, Environment, and Health (WEH))serves near Douala.... had promised Ruth in college that one day I would visit her in Africa. Clearly the time had come. On the day after Christmas, 2008, 43 years after I had made that promise, I flew to Douala and spent six weeks with Ruth and her husband, Raphael Titi Manyaka...
greenRELAY - Youth and Environmental Justice at St. Mary's Los Angeles
Anson from Irvine, CA
At St. Mary's Episcopal Church in Los Angeles, I designed and implemented a youth environmental justice program. Young people from across the Los Angeles area gathered for a weeklong training at St. Mary's. They have been learning about environmental issues, attending community meetings, blogging about their neighborhoods, and sharing their visions of justice in their communities at http://greenrelay.org. The participants are proud of their work and excited that people from across the country and the world are reading the stories of their communities.