Indigenous communities have been struck by the epidemic of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and Two-Spirit people (MMIW) for decades. This epidemic is a systemic failure where Indigenous women are going missing and being murdered at alarmingly high rates with minimal justice. Within the past several years, the MMIW movement has brought awareness of this violence to the public’s attention. Still, there is much work to be done.
May Friendship Day, a Church Women United initiative, is most often celebrated on the first Friday of the month of May around a theme of shared concern for Christian women and their communities. The predecessor to May Friendship Day, May Fellowship Day, began in 1933 after two Christian women’s groups planned gatherings based on similar concerns: child health and children of migrant families. These groups united and, over the years, eventually became what we now know as Church Women United. The May celebration has been continually observed since 1933; in 1999, Church Women United changed the name from May Fellowship Day to May Friendship Day.
May is Mental Health Awareness Month. This month, we can all be mental health advocates, joining others to come together as one unified voice to decrease the stigma surrounding mental health and illness, increase visibility of treatment options and support those who deal with mental health concerns.
They left their homeland in fear of persecution and ethnic cleansing …
A heartbreaking tragedy is unfolding in Armenia due to continuous greedy and barbaric invasions by Azerbaijan. More than 120,000 innocent people of Artsakh (the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic), who endured starvation for over nine months under severe blockade, have been forced to flee their homeland to save their lives. They left in fear of persecution and ethnic cleansing, abandoning an irreplaceable cultural and religious landscape that includes at least 300 Armenian heritage sites, ranging from exquisite medieval monasteries to historic cemeteries adorned with iconic Armenian engraved cross stones. Recent history, just over the past two years, demonstrates the inevitable risk of dismantling, destruction and falsification of these cultural and religious sites.
When thinking of the Arctic, many cling to an image of pristine white tundra. This is far from reality. Research is confirming that the Arctic contains some of the most highly contaminated animals and people in the world due to the persistent industrial chemicals and pesticides that are transported on atmospheric and oceanic currents from lower latitudes. Much of this pollution comes from both plastic production and plastic contamination.
April 17 marks the International Day of Farmer and Peasant Struggles. It is a day when we recognize the sacrifices of smallholder producer farmers who tend the garden and nourish the world.
In Belgrade, Serbia, many Roma families live in settlements scattered about the city. In one that we visited, the streets were flooded, water mixed with sewage, and there were mounds of garbage between and behind their homes. Trucks drive through the settlement daily, and one day recently, one truck ran over a Roma child. The public response was to blame the victim — Roma chooses to live this way. But who chooses to live in a slum?
Repairers of the Breach – Fixing What’s Broken
“In a broken and fearful world
the Spirit gives us courage
to pray without ceasing,
to witness among all peoples to Christ as Lord and Savior,
to unmask idolatries in Church and culture,
to hear the voices of peoples long silenced,
and to work with others for justice, freedom, and peace.”
Fred Rogers was an ordained minister of word and sacrament for the PC(USA) and is a notable public figure whose work around peace and reconciliation is worth remembering. Rogers was also a pioneer in the world of Christian education and formation of young children. March 20 was his birthday, and so it is the day that the PC(USA) has chosen to highlight all we can learn from his work.