Mission Bite: Update from Global Missionary, Rev. Loren McGrail

In memory of four boys killed playing football on the beach in Gaza: Mohammed Bakr, 9 years old. Ahed Bakr, 10 years old. Zakaria Bakr, 10 years old. Mohammed Bakr, 11 years old. (art by Amir Schiby).

from Rev. Loren McGrail, Minnesota Conference Authorized Minister and Missionary in Israel-Palestine

 

In this time of fear and suffering, from Jerusalem to Gaza, from Hebron to Nazareth, we reaffirm that all people deserve security, justice, dignity, and peace. We mourn all who have died, been injured, or made homeless. This is not a conflict or a war. It is an offensive attack on a people who have no army, navy, or air force.

 

Operation Protective Edge is taking place in the context of Israel's illegal military occupation and a seven year siege on Gaza. Israel controls Gaza from air, land, and sea, therefore it is obliged to protect civilians not attack them according to the Geneva 4 Convention. It is criminal to collectively punish a whole population, or to target civilians, journalists, and medical workers. It is criminal to use banned weapons and gases that blow up bodies beyond recognition. These are crimes against humanity and violate humanitarian and international law.

We cannot be silent. We must hold Israel and all governments and companies accountable.

 

The above comes from my first Action Alert for our partner the YWCA of Palestine on the newest offensive bombardment on Gaza. I have written five alerts altogether because each week there have been new and more horrible events that we wished the world to know so it could act to end the violence.

Click to keep reading.

Church on the Move
Are you ready to enhance your relationships with those in your congregation, in your region and across the Minnesota Conference? Do you want to learn best practices and network to discover the marks of thriving churches? Will you lift your voice with fellow UCCers in moving worship?

Join us for Church on the Move: a regional event designed to empower congregations across the Minnesota Conference into motion with resources, best practices, and an enriched and strengthened network.

 

Where: Pilgrim Congregational UCC, 2310 E 4th St, Duluth, MN
When: Saturday, September 20, 9:30am Registration, 10:00-3:00pm Program
Who: Lay leaders, authorized clergy, ministry teams
Cost: $20/person; includes lunch and materials

 

Registration is now open! 

Joys and Concerns

• An Ecclesiastical Council for Mary Shaffer will be held August 21 at 11:00am at Mayflower Congregational UCC (106 E Diamond Lake Rd, Minneapolis). Clergy with standing in the Minnesota Conference and lay delegates from a minimum of seven churches with standing will engage in a period of examination to be followed by a vote on a motion that Mary Shaffer be ordained into the ministry of the United Church of Christ. A light lunch will be served following the Ecclesiastical Council. To ensure a quorum for the council, please RSVP to the church at 612-824-0761 or mayflower@mayflowermpls.org. Information about Mary may be found here.

Response to ISIS blitz campaign in Iraq

paraphrased from www.globalministries.org

On June 9th, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) initiated a blitz campaign that has seen them take over large swaths of north and west Iraq from control of the central Iraqi government. Since then, people from the city of Mosul have been fleeing to the Kurdish controlled section of the Nineveh plain. Through long-established partnerships, The UCC and church partners in the ACT Alliance, through long-established partnerships, have been providing food, water, trauma-counseling, health kits, and cash assistance to the most vulnerable.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) has issued an urgent call to the United Nations for an immediate response to the killing of Christians and others by Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militant fighters.

In to an open letter of solidarity to the member churches of the WCC in Northern Iraq, Dr Isabel Apawo Phiri, the WCC associate and acting general secretary, solicited prayers for the Christians, the church communities and the people on the Plain of Nineveh in Northern Iraq, as well as the surrounding region.  

 

This letter is forwarded regarding the plight of Christians, Yazidis and other religious and ethnic groups in Northern Iraq, a letter that requests our prayers and advocacy, by Rev. Geoffrey Black, President and General Minister of the UCC. If you are willing to respond, please do so. Questions? Contact Garland Pierce, contact person for North America at the WCC: 

Rev. Garland F. Pierce

Senior Assistant to the General Secretary

World Council of Churches

Route de Ferney 150, PO Box 2100

CH-1211 Geneva 2, Switzerland

Phone: +41 22 791 6093 | Fax: +41 22 791 6535

www.oikoumene.org

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