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NOVEMBER 2002 Return to NCC HomePage |
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NOVEMBER 2002 Return to NCC HomePage |
| PREACHING
ABOUT POVERTY 'War kills, even if we don't actually fight it'
"As war with Iraq becomes more and more likely, there are several critical issues people of faith need to consider....But the actual act of waging war is not our only concern. According to "Bread for the World," a charitable organization committed to finding solutions to poverty and hunger, war kills even if we don't actually fight it." Click here to read the entire sermon. ADVOCACY ALERT Urge Congress to Extend TANF for Three Years Please contact your Senators and Representatives before November 12 and urge them to support a three-year extension of the current Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program. Indicate that you still prefer the provisions of the Senate Finance Committee bill, with increased funding for child care. TANF was due to expire on September 30, but Congress extended its funding until December 30, in the hope of being able to have a debate and a vote in the Senate, resolve differences in a conference with the House-passed bill, approve a final version, and send the bill to the President to sign. But the Senate never voted and the President indicated he would veto any bill that differed significantly from the House version. That left legislators concerned about providing cash assistance to poor families with no alternative but to extend the present program and find ways to amend it later, through other legislation not directly related to TANF. See TANF Reauthorization pages on this Web site for details. MOBILIZATION
FACTBOOK "Improving Children's Economic Security - Research Findings About Increasing Family Income Through Employment" examines policies that seek to increase family income by encouraging, supporting and rewarding work, including:
The series is one of several new studies available on the Center's Web site at www.whatsnew@nccp.org. Others examine poverty trends among immigrant children, the effect of welfare policy changes on recipients, and more.
Here are links to Poverty Updates for: March 2002. . . April 2002 . . . May 2002 . . . June 2002 . . . July 2002 . . . August 2002 . . . September 2002 . . .October 2002 . . . November 2002 . . . December 2002 thru February 2003 |
  PEC Housing Rehab: Before and After MODELS FROM ECUMENICAL PARTNERS People's Emergency Center: 'A Continuum of Care' for Homeless Families In 1972, National Council of Churches General Secretary Bob Edgar -- then chaplain of Drexel University -- founded People's Emergency Center "in response to a real and unmet need to serve the growing number of homeless families in Philadelphia." Along with the Rev. Jim Hallam, now pastor of Lima (Pa.) United Methodist Church, Dr. Edgar started PEC as a weekend shelter and soup kitchen. It was a shoestring operation of student volunteers using borrowed space in a church near campus. Today PEC has three of its own buildings, a paid staff of 90, and national recognition as a model of how to help the homeless. For all its growth, PEC remains committed to the original ideas of service and social justice on which it was founded. Click here to read more! RESOURCES FOR MINISTRY Even the best designed and most successful social research projects do no good if their findings are left on the proverbial shelf. But what if there were a way to distill findings and present them to busy pastors and lay leaders in a form they can immediately apply to community ministry? That is the idea behind “Congregational Capsules,” resources on ministry-related topics that pack insights of social research into a few usable and attractively designed pages. The NCC has produced three prototype Capsules and tested them with focus groups, thanks to support from the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Using Casey-generated research that reflects the Foundation’s focus on the well-being of children and their families, the Capsules tackle such topics as living-wage jobs, neighborhood development and youth, and successful youth-to-adult transitions. Research findings, presented in bullet points, help readers learn what works for programs in these areas—and what doesn’t. “Sermon seeds” and Bible study material are built into the Capsules, adding to their usefulness. Diverse focus groups of clergy and lay leaders have given the Capsules high marks on content and design. And, in an unexpected result, several pastors said they might initiate projects in light of information in the Capsules. Based on this assessment, the NCC hopes to take the project to the next level, producing and widely disseminating Capsules for a trial period. Learn more/order from Earl Davis, NCC Research and Planning: edavis@ncccusa.org Briefly Quoted ... "President Bush rightly spoke of an 'axis of evil,' but it is not Iran, Iraq and North Korea. Here is a more likely trio calling for Herculean efforts to defeat: environmental degradation, pandemic poverty and a world awash with weapons." The Rev. Dr. William Sloane Coffin, June 1, 2002, Washington National Cathedral Coming Events ... |
NCC MEMBER COMMUNIONS African Methodist Episcopal Church African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church Alliance of Baptists American Baptist Churches in the USA The Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America Diocese of the Armenian Church of America Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) Christian Methodist Episcopal Church Church of the Brethren The Coptic Orthodox Church in North America The Episcopal Church Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Friends United Meeting Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America Hungarian Reformed Church in America International Council of Community Churches Korean Presbyterian Church in America Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church Mar Thoma Church Moravian Church in America Northern Province and Southern Province National Baptist Convention of America National Baptist Convention, U.S.A., Inc. National Missionary Baptist Convention of America Orthodox Church in America Patriarchal Parishes of the Russian Orthodox Church in the USA Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends Polish National Catholic Church of America Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Progressive National Baptist Convention, Inc Reformed Church in America Serbian Orthodox Church in the U.S.A. and Canada The Swedenborgian Church Syrian Orthodox Church of Antioch Ukrainian Orthodox Church of America United Church of Christ The United Methodist Church NCC MINISTRY PARTNERS REGIONAL ECUMENICAL AND INTERFAITH
ORGANIZATIONS |
Produced by the
CommunicationDepartment, National Council of Churches, 475 Riverside Drive, Suite 880, New
York, NY10115. Comments/ suggestions: 212-870-2227 or news@ncccusa.org. Copyright 2002 by National
Council of Churches of Christ in the USA.
By
James L. Evans, Pastor, Crosscreek Baptist Church, Pelham, Ala.