Christmas Postcard Campaign

Wesley UMC is joining the UMC's General Board on Church and Society (GBCS), the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR), and many others in an interfaith plea for comprehensive immigration reform sponsored by the Interfaith Immigration Coalition. The coalition supports:

1. Uphold family unity as a priority of all immigration policies
2. Create a process for undocumented immigrants to earn their legal status and eventual citizenship
3. Protect all workers and provide efficient channels of entry for new migrant workers
4. Facilitate immigrant integration
5. Restore due process protections and reform detention policies
6. Align the enforcement of immigration laws with humanitarian values

You can participate in the postcard campaign by filling out 3 postcards--one for each member of your congressional delegation--distributed in worship December 6, and returning them to CSAM by Dec. 20 through the offering plate or the collection point in the center office. Once sent to the Coalition, they will be combined with the other participants' voices to send a concentrated, collective call to action on immigration reform.

Spiritually-Centered Christmas Shopping

The family Thanksgiving feast is not yet a memory and already Christmas is on retailers' minds. Before running to the stores on an early shopping spree, consider saving some shopping for the Methodist Advent Fair Trade Agreement (MAFTA) Market, CSAM's annual fair trade market at Wesley UMC, Urbana. Items from 10,000 Villages, Heifer, Equal Exchange, and Susan Garner will be available on December 6 in the morning during coffee hour, after the second service, and in the evening during hanging of the greens.

You may also consider a couple other alternative shopping practices. First, shop at a craft market or on web sites like Etsy.com through which you can support creative individuals in an online craft market. If you were inspired by Jeff Hanson's story, then you may want to also check out his web site. Second, bless strangers as well as those closest to you. For example, for every $1 spent on Christmas presents, also spend $1 toward a charitable cause (an idea Pastor Howard shared with me).

Please join me in taking a justice-filled, spiritually disciplined approach to Christmas giving this holiday season. If you have ideas you would like to share, please leave them in the comments section below.

May this Advent be a time of creative preparation so that Christ will be felt present by all this Christmastide and the year to come.

Extravagant Generosity

My dad told me about a month-long book study on personal finance started at his church based on Rev. Adam Hamilton's book, Enough: Discovering Joy Through Simplicity and Generosity. Intrigued, I picked up a copy. The book is a crucial conversation on what the Bible might have to say to us, Christians in the U.S., and it challenges us to become extravagant in blessing others.

Rev. Hamilton shared several statistics, many you likely heard in a sermon recently. He shared ways that we as a nation have strayed from generosity to credit and consumerism. I felt convicted, but also gained some wisdom, even inspiration. Of the many stories shared in the book, the most inspiring centers on Jeff Hanson, a 15 year old student with neurofibromatosis attending KS School for the Blind.

“Jeff bakes and paints, sells his creations, and donates the money [$15,000 at book's writing] to the Children's Tumor Foundation,” writes Hamilton. When his wish to meet Elton John came true (made possible by Make a Wish Foundation while he was undergoing chemo), Jeff, age 12 at the time, handed Elton John $1,000 for Elton John's AIDS Foundation. Elton John later reciprocated with $5,000 check for the Tumor Foundation. Interested in hearing more about Jeff's story, Elton John flew Jeff and his family to Dubai for a concert.

Extravagant generosity opens doors to share the love of God in the world. This Advent, may we prayerfully ask how we are called to bless others as Jeff has with his gifts and graces.

Stand in Solidarity with the Graduate Employees' Organization

On November 2, 2009, the Christian Social Action Ministry pledged solidarity with the Graduate Employees' Organization.

The United Methodist Church has historic roots in support of the working class and has taken a strong stand in favor of workers through its social principles.

With respect to unions, the United Methodist Church supports "the right of public and private (including farm, government, institutional, and domestic) employees and employers to organize for collective bargaining into unions and other groups of their own choosing. Further, we support the right of both parties to protection in so doing and their responsibility to bargain in good faith within the framework of the public interest. In order that the rights of all members of the society may be maintained and promoted, we support innovative bargaining procedures that include representatives of the public interest in negotiation and settlement of labor-management contracts, including some that may lead to forms of judicial resolution of issues. We reject the use of violence by either party during collective bargaining or any labor/management disagreement. We likewise reject the permanent replacement of a worker who engages in a lawful strike."

With respect to the rights of workers, the United Methodist Church believes, "Every person has the right to a job at a living wage. ... We support social measures that ensure the physical and mental safety of workers, that provide for the equitable division of products and services, and that encourage an increasing freedom in the way individuals may use their leisure time."

In recognition and affirmation of the United Methodist Church's support for workers' rights, the Christian Social Action Ministry of Wesley United Methodist Church stands in solidarity with the Graduate Employees' Organization.

THE GRADUATE EMPLOYEES’ ORGANIZATION
ALLIED GROUPS STATEMENT OF SOLIDARITY

The Wesley United Methodist Church Christian Social Action Ministry stands in solidarity with members of the Graduate Employees' Organization (GEO), AFT/IFT, Local 6300 in their efforts to secure a fair contract through negotiation with the University of Illinois administration. We believe that all campus workers deserve a Living Wage and, therefore, support the GEO's request that the minimum stipend be raised from $13,430 to $16,086. We also believe that one responsibility of the public higher education system is to ensure accessibility to all. We therefore support the GEO's request for tuition waivers to be guaranteed as a condition of employment. Accordingly, we urge the University’s Administration and the Board of Trustees to bargain in good faith and in the best interests of graduate employees and the University as a whole.

Organization: Wesley UMC Christian Social Action Ministry
Date: Monday, November 2, 2009

This Thursday from noon to 1:00pm, you have the opportunity to join CSAM in standing in solidarity with the GEO, which recently authorized to strike. Graduate students, undergraduates, faculty, campus workers, and community members are invited to join in a rally of solidarity with the Graduate Employees' Organization. Everyone will meet at the Quad side of the Illini Union, march to Swanlund Administration Bldg.