2011-2012 PLANS

Last May, our congregation approved two issues for the year, one global issues and one local issue. Our global issue has been Appalachian Tragedy: Mountaintops and Miners. Our congregation has held educational sessions, shown movies, collected toys for W.V. children at Christmas, and written letters calling for political action. About 20 youth and adults are going on our trip to West Virginia to see mountaintop removal, tour a coal mine, and participate in the March on Blair Mountain in June. This will complete our focus on this issue.

1) Our local issue for this year was the Green Sanctuary Program. During this year, many of us worked on reducing our environmental impact and recycling more of our waste products. However, a professional environmental assessment is a requirement for the Green Sanctuary Program. The SC Dept of Energy gave us a grant for this ($1700), which paid 100% of the cost, but was not completed until April. So, we have not formally begun this program. We want to focus on this for 2011-2012. It has both local and global aspects.

2) For our second issue, we want to choose Hunger, also with both local and global efforts. As a church, we have filled our food barrel, collected groceries for Park Hills families, and donated collections to Total Ministries through Christmas Eve and Share the Plate. Our youth and adults this year have attended a vigil for Homelessness, collaborated in preparing meals for the SPIHN program (combating homelessness in SPTG) and participated in packaging & handing out food for 300+ families. This is a big problem that lends itself to both large and small-scale efforts, for both youth and adults, and we would like to really focus on it.

Today, the congregation approved and committed to both these issues. The Green Sanctuary and Hunger both offer many ways for adults, teens, and children to get involved.

We look forward to a fruitful year for Social Justice— if these issues excite you, watch for opportunities to participate—and you’re always welcome at any of our meetings! ~ Alice Sutton, chair, May, 2011