Justice United Listening Sessions: Jan 21, 23 & 27

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Jan 28

Week of January 21

Justice United is a community organization that advocates for justice issues in Orange County. St. Matthew’s is a long-time member, and the Rev. Robert Fruehwirth serves on the strategy team. Ran Hamner and Martha McCamy lead the team from St. Matthew’s. The other twenty-something member organizations are as diverse as the county is. Many are churches, including Piney Grove Missionary Baptist, Chapel Hill Friends, and all the area Episcopal Churches. Others include Habitat for Humanity and the Inter-Faith Council. JU members work hard to prioritize issues that affect the community, such as affordable housing, accessible public transportation, and resources for Spanish-speaking residents. Over the years, JU has developed community leaders who know how to work effectively within the civic, education and criminal justice systems in the county.

The process of setting priorities for the next three years or so is starting now. Listening sessions will be held with at least 700 members of the wider community. Each participant will tell a story about pressures that they, their family, or their community are facing. JU membership will collate and assess these stories and rank them to determine priorities. From there, they will identify the actions that the group may take to influence officials in power.

It is important that as many members of St. Matthew’s as possible participate in the listening sessions. Many in our congregation (staff, Vestry, Youth Group, RJRC, Daughters of the King) have already done so. There will be three “open” sessions during the week of January 21st, and everyone is encouraged to plan to join one of them:

1. Sunday, January 21st, in person, after the 10:30 service in the Fellowship Hall,

2. Tuesday, January 23rd, on the Formation Channel at 6:30pm (meeting ID: 879 326 3231; password: grow), and

3. Saturday, January 27th, on the Formation Channel at 9:00am (meeting ID: 879 326 3231; password: grow).

Listening sessions are well-facilitated and stories are limited to two minutes. Each session lasts about thirty minutes. Most importantly, your story will become foundational to the work of Justice United, as it should be.