A Reflection
One
of my disappointments
with the organized church the last several years has been its seeming
abandonment of the justice issues that call out so strongly from our
society. One doesn’t have to look very far in the Old and New
Testaments, to find God calling through the prophets and through Jesus
for the people of God to engage social justice issues in radical
ways. I am still waiting for the church to speak out against
the
war in Iraq. There are now some weak calls from the
leadership,
but nothing on the scale called for.
Our culture
seems to have
lost the ability to engage in true conversation around social justice
issues. When one turns on the television or reads the print
media, there are pundits screaming at each other, seldom actually
listening to one another. Faith has an important voice to add
to
our national discussions on justice issues. Our nation
desperately needs true conversation.
It
is out of these two
concerns that Christ Church is initiating a series of Social Justice
Forums, with the goal of the first discussion occurring
in the summer. We are currently purchasing audio and
video
equipment
that will turn our fellowship "chapel" area into a small
theatre.
Each forum will begin with the showing of a movie that generates true
conversation about a justice issue. We plan to show films
such as
"Invisible Children," "An Inconvenient Truth," "Sicko," and "The Ground
Truth." It is hoped that out of these conversations some
action
will take place. Also, we will soon be adding a Social
Justice
Forum page to the website that will encourage discussion and air
comments that come to us by e-mail to christchurchucc@verizon.net.
We
specifically would like to invite students at area colleges and
universities to bring insights from their experiences in social justice
groups at their schools.
Join us! Watch
the Events Page to get the starting date!
Pastor
Sautter
Christ
United Church of
Christ
1414 Ligonier Street
Latrobe, Pennsylvania 15650
724-537-4901
724-537-4492 (Fax)
christchurchucc@verizon.net
Rev. Wayne D. Sautter, Pastor
Pamela Steiner, Minister of Music
Penny Neighly, Church Secretary
Wayne Nicely, Custodian
Office hours:
Monday through Friday - 9:00 AM - 12:00
PM
Other times by appointment
God is still
speaking...,
