Northern California Nevada Conference, United Church of Christ

01/29/2019

War, agricultural hardship, severe weather—all of these can connect to climate change and the factors behind migration for millions of people. Learn more about one of the most important issues of our time by signing up for this free webinar:

Like the migrant caravan from Central America, climate change is often a "hidden driver" behind migration. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, 22.5 million people have been forced to migrate by climate-related or extreme weather events since 2008. How are faith communitie...

12/06/2018

Recruiting NCNC Clergy Communities of Practice Facilitators

The challenge for clergy is often how to find ways to be continually renewed in your own faith and practices. The Clergy Communities of Practice (CCOP) are groups for those who have been serving in ministry for more than three years. Each CCOP is facilitated by a clergy colleague who receives specialized training and financial support in their role and is charged with keeping the group's calendar, lifting up the mutually created covenant, providing hospitality, and providing worship for the group, as well as facilitating conversations. If you are interested in being a CCOP Facilitator complete this form and email or snail mail to Miranda Samaile at 16190 Foothill Blvd San Leandro, CA 94578 or [email protected]

11/29/2018

Friends: We are aware that our website is down. This is an issue with our web host and outside our control. Email and phone service does not appear to be impacted, as they are hosted by different providers. Thank you for your patience!

09/04/2018

On September 8, there will be thousands of rallies in cities and towns around the world to demand our local leaders commit to building a fossil free world that puts people and justice before profits.

No more stalling, no more delays: it’s time for a fast and fair transition to 100% renewable energy for all.

Real climate leadership rises from below. It means power in the hands of people not corporations. It means economic opportunity for workers and justice and dignity for frontline communities that are the hardest hit by the impacts of the fossil fuel industry and a warming world.

This September, cities, states, businesses and civil society from around the world are gathering in California for the Global Climate Action Summit.

The Summit has invited every mayor, governor, and local leader in the world to make a bold climate commitment to help the world reach the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement.

We know what those commitments need to achieve: a fast, fair and just transition to 100% renewable energy and an immediate end to new fossil fuel projects.

Visit this link (https://riseforclimate.org/) to plan or join an event in your community. If your elected officials commit, your rally can be a celebration. If they fail to act, it’s a chance to hold them accountable.

We are at a crossroads. By acting together, we can end the era of fossil fuels and save the climate we all depend on.

08/15/2018

Global Ministries Missionary Visit Opportunity: Volunteers Needed

We have just learned of a golden opportunity to hear from a UCC minister who has spent the last five years in Jerusalem as a Global Ministries co-worker and has a gap in her itineration. Her name is Rev. Loren McGrail and she is available for preaching and speaking events in Northern California during September 9 -20. Rev. McGrail is not only a powerful preacher, she comes with an urgent message from Palestinian Christians. She also brings pictures of artwork she created from found objects in Palestine--a way to reach the heart.

We cannot accept the invitation to host her in this Conference until we know that we have lodging and meals covered for her so we are looking for three to four churches that would be willing to take her in during this period. Each home stay would be for three to four days, hopefully, in a different area of the Conference so that she could visit with not only members in that particular church but in neighboring churches as well, and thus, be able to share her message with as many people as possible.

Conference staff will help to coordinate between the host churches and additional visits once we know who might have space to plan an event at their church and, most importantly, someone in their congregation who can volunteer to host Loren for the days she will be at the church. If you are interested in helping to make Northern California part of her itineration, please contact Esther Riley at [email protected] or Diane Weible at [email protected] by Friday. Rev. McGrail's plane ticket has not yet been bought, and this is the latest we can wait. Global Ministries provides the plane ticket to bring her to this Conference and that is when we can all step in to welcome her and host her throughout her stay so we need volunteers to step up to take advantage of this wonderful opportunity.

08/14/2018

Get Trained as an ICE Detainee Bail Out Volunteer
Brought to you by: Sydney Ji

Over the past several weeks, between 4 webpages, we've managed to raise over $100,000 for the Richmond ICE bail fund! Now, we're facing a new challenge, and we need volunteers to help:

Becoming a bail out volunteer is an amazing way you can to help reunite immigrant families who have been torn apart by ICE. It's not hard work, it just requires patience and a big heart.

So far, we've only had to time to bail out four people--even though we have enough funds to bail out more.

As it turns out, the actual physical on-the-ground process of bailing someone out of ICE isn't automatic. It takes at least a full day, if not several, of meeting with the detainee in visiting hours, filling out paperwork, meeting with their family to help arrange to pick them up so they aren't just ejected out into the night with no money and no charged phone (yikes, no!), and dealing with random paperwork issues that might come up.

If we're going to get this done before the facility closes, we are going to need around 1 volunteer per detainee per week. That's around 50 new volunteers we need if we are going to reach our mission of bailing all 169 people out of Richmond ICE who were there the day the sheriff announced it was closing.

There's a 120 day deadline for the facility to close, and already we're a month in. We have to hurry if we are to get everyone bailed out before they are moved to facilities in other states, far from their families!

If you feel ready to take on this hugely important role of being a bail out volunteer, you'll need to be trained. It is a 2-hour training with Rebecca Merton from Freedom for Immigrants. These trainings only happen once a month and the next one is TODAY Tuesday (the 14th), so please, please spread the word!!

08/07/2018

If you're planning on visiting with ACM Daniel Ross-Jones at his afternoon coffee hours -- wait! Due to construction around his original spot he's had to move on the fly. You can now find him until 4pm today at the Starbucks at 775 Gravenstein Hwy N in Sebastopol.

07/16/2018

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6422166350415958016

Join us for Transforming Broken Systems July 17th 6pm at Oakland City Hall! Hear from Brooke Staton and others working to find design solutions for t…

07/16/2018

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6417109211049787392

A quote from David Vásquez-Levy on using ancient wisdom to transform broken systems. Join us Tuesday July 17th at Oakland City hall for an importan…

07/16/2018

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6422165609785753600

Join us for Transforming Broken Systems July 17th 6pm at Oakland City Hall! Hear from Christopher McLemore and others working to fix broken systems a…

06/27/2018

The national office released the following statement in response to today’s SCOTUS decision.

"UCC leadership sickened, angered by Supreme Court ruling upholding Muslim travel ban."

The national leadership of the United Church of Christ is condemning the U.S. Supreme Court decision that upholds President Trump's September travel ban, which restricts citizens from predominantly Muslim countries from traveling to this country.

The deeply divided court, ruling 5-4 on Trump v Hawai'i, reversed a series of lower court decisions which struck down the ban as illegal or unconstitutional.
The Court Justices decided that the travel ban is a legitimate exercise of the authority of the executive branch of U.S. government. UCC leadership continues to denounce the restrictions as evil.

"Let it be known that people of faith did not join the crowd, wave their flags, and acquiesce to a government bent on re-establishing white power and white supremacy and white privilege as the law of the land," said the Rev. John Dorhauer, general minister and president of the United Church of Christ. "The United Church of Christ will not stop fighting this. It is wrong and it is evil and it must be resisted."

Read more here (http://www.ucc.org/news_ucc_leadership_sickened_angered_by_supreme_court_ruling_upholding_muslim_travel_ban_06262017 #.WzKE3m0SmFk.mailto)

The national leadership of the United Church of Christ continues to condemn President Trump’s September travel ban, which restrict citizens from predominantly Muslim countries from traveling to this country. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the ban this morning.

06/17/2018

Friends, here is the letter that many of us attending Annual Gathering are signing on to and will send to the US President and members of Congress:
June 16, 2018

Dear Mr. President and members of the United States Congress,

We, the delegates and visitors gathered for the Northern California Nevada Conference of the United Church of Christ Annual Meeting, June 14-17, 2018, demand that you follow international law and human decency and immediately end the mistreatment and abuse of those camped at our borders seeking asylum in the United States. In addition, we demand that you allow them to enter this country and follow the process that our ancestors and countless others have followed throughout the years, a process that has identified this country as a country that welcomes immigrants and values diversity.

In many cases these human beings are fleeing kidnapping, torture, and abuse in their own country in order to find protection in the United States, a country that has the Statue of Liberty as one of its greatest symbols, proclaiming: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free….”

The systematic violation of U.S. and international law that blocks these immigrants at international bridges goes against everything our country stands for. It goes against everything that human decency demands of us. It goes against everything that we stand for as Christians in the United Church of Christ, people of faith who follow a resurrected Christ who healed the broken, stood up for the weak, brought strength and courage to people discarded by society.

The Rev. Randy Mayer, a UCC minister in Arizona who has witnessed what is happening at the border, said this: “In my 20 years here being engaged in frontline immigration work, this was probably my most difficult and hopeless day. There were probably 120 migrants looking for support. Most were coming from Guatemala and Honduras, wanting to seek asylum. There were a lot of women with children who were fleeing horrible domestic violence situations where their ex-husbands are trying to kill them. They had no idea that Attorney General Sessions has changed the laws and that they can't even apply, or if they do, they will be separated from their kids. It was so painful to see them process this news and they are so far from home."

When Attorney General Jeff Sessions insulted all of us by quoting Romans 13 regarding submission to governing authorities, he missed the first line, which states, “There is no authority except that which God has established.”

Our God is a God who, according to Isaiah 10, says:
Woe to those who make unjust laws,
to those who issue oppressive decrees,
to deprive the poor of their rights
and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people,
making widows their prey
and robbing the fatherless.
What will you do on the day of reckoning,
when disaster comes from afar?
To whom will you run for help?
Where will you leave your riches?
Nothing will remain but to cringe among the captives
or fall among the slain.

All human beings are entitled to being treated as human beings, the way any of us would want to and expect to be treated. The mistreatment and abuse of those individuals who have come to this country asking for help from our country is abhorrent and must end immediately. Signed below in faithful witness,

CC: Attorney General Jeff Sessions