Dear Church Family,
It is with great excitement that I am writing to you today! This past Sunday, we launched Epiphany’s new Journey to Justice (J2J) with 50 or so members of our community in attendance. Rev. Janelle Hiroshige, Rev. Edwin Johnson, Lisa Core, and I gave an overview of what we hope this newly imagined iteration of Mission and Outreach will be.
We talked about justice: why Christians should care about justice, how charity and justice are at odds yet intertwined, and what it means to see our engagement through a justice lens as we move into this next chapter. We talked about journeys: moving from faith being a Sunday morning thing to living our faith daily in the world, moving from charity to justice, moving from racism to antiracism, moving from doing for (saving others) to doing with (mutual partnership), moving from harmful actions to empathy and allyship. There are so many journeys to take together as we learn and grow.
I am excited about ALL of this! I am excited about journeying with each of you. I am excited for us to learn about ourselves, our community, our history, and the societal structures in which we live, to think critically and feel deeply, and then to act with justice at the center of what we do.
I am excited about engaging the entire parish in this work so keep your eyes open for more information. Please share your email address with me (click on my name below) if you would like to receive a monthly J2J email about upcoming opportunities for engagement, and join us for our next gathering on Sunday, November 19 at 11:30 am. It's never too late to start this journey!
Lastly, I am excited to be on this journey with our fantastic clergy. Rev. Nick and Rev. Janelle both bring a true heart and passion for justice work to Epiphany. I am incredibly grateful to Rev. Nick for including Outreach/J2J in Rev. Janelle’s responsibilities. This is the first time in my 25 years at Epiphany that our work has had staff representation. The.First.Time. Having our incredible staff as partners in this work is the reason that this significant change from Mission and Outreach to Journey to Justice is possible.
With gratitude for this church community and our journeys together,
Betsy Walsh
Co- chair, Journey to Justice
