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Creation is at a Crossroads: The Opportunity
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by Jim Antal
Minister and President
 Creation is at a crossroads. The magnitude of the historic moment can be seen in the Pope's arrival at the home of the most powerful man in the world. It can be understood when we realize what climate science is telling us - or if we attend the 2015 Rising Seas Summit being held in Boston, November 3-5, 2015.
Creation is at a crossroads. It presents people of faith with the greatest opportunity we have ever had.
Creation is calling anyone who claims to be a religious leader to speak out from their pulpit and follow the Pope's lead, rallying all who claim to be faithful to stand up, be heard, and make a difference.
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8 Trained to Facilitate Conversations on Race
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The Massachusetts Conference recently hosted an intensive, five-day racial justice facilitator training workshop which was attended by five people from the Massachusetts Conference and three from the Rhode Island Conference.
The program was led by Da Vita "Day" McCallister, Associate Conference Minister of Leadership and Vitality in the Connecticut Conference. The Connecticut Conference has been a leader in the area of racial justice, and the boards of the three Conferences recently affirmed a desire to bring the work from Connecticut to Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
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Urgent: Affirm the importance of resettlement and support for Syrian refugees!
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 With the administration's announcement to increase annual resettlement numbers to 85,000 in 2016 and 100,000 in 2017, it is critical that we support this increase and continue to call for an addition 100,000 Syrian refugees to be resettled.Take Action TODAY: We need as many people to call Congress and the White House TODAY and EVERY DAY THIS WEEK, to counter the anti-refugee groups who will be calling the White House and Congress all this week. Feel free to use this script:
I support Secretary John Kerry's announcement to increase refugee resettlement in 2016, and want the administration to do even more and resettle 100,000 Syrian refugees on top of the annual numbers. In 1980, the U.S. resettled more than 200,000 refugees, showing that where there's a will, there's a way. I am ready, willing and able to welcome Syrian refugees.
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Support Transgender Legislation - Sign On!
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 The ONA Ministry Team urges you to sign on as an individual and as a congregation to support the current transgender legislation for Massachusetts. Our current laws do NOT protect transgender people and people or all gender identities and gender expressions from discrimination in places of public accommodations - theaters, restaurants, medical offices, transportation, etc.
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| Racial Justice Training | |
 On two successive Saturdays, October 24 and 31, the Conference will offer an intensive workshop in Northampton, providing a common language around racism, the skills to begin to unmask racism in the personal, interpersonal, cultural and institutional realms in our lives and in the world, and the ability to move forward into action and next steps.
Rev. Kelly Gallagher, Associate Conference Minister of the Massachusetts Conference of the UCC, will be the workshop leader.
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| My Prison Outreach Transformed Me | |
 by Rev. Noelle Dattilo
Prison Ministry Director to Worcester Fellowship, Inc. Sometimes when we reach out to help transform others, we are transformed ourselves. This happened to me while doing prison ministry. Several years ago, I was invited to attend the closing ceremony of a local prison ministry program. I was so moved by this ceremony that, years later, when I heard there was a need for volunteers at the Concord prison, I offered to create a new spiritual formation program. With the assistance of the prison chaplain, I developed a meditation and spiritual formation group (that ran for over two years). Before going into the prisons, I thought all inmates were scary and dangerous. But something wonderful happened behind those prison walls: I began to see Christ in the men.
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Stand Up for Families Without Homes
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 Please encourage your state legislators and legislative leadership to reject Governor Charlie Baker's proposal to severely restrict access to family shelter and related services, submitted to the Legislature as Section 30* of his request for supplemental funds to close out FY'15.
In the supplemental budget, the Governor is seeking to limit access to the Emergency Assistance family shelter and services program (EA, line item 7004-0101) by eliminating two major sub-categories of EA eligibility for FY'16: 1.) Families experiencing homelessness that have "irregular housing" and need to engage in chronic couch surfing. 2.) Families experiencing homelessness that are staying temporarily in a unit unfit for human habitation.
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A Mighty River of Justice
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Events coming up in the next month
Through Sept. 27, various locations in the West
Sept. 27, First Churches Northampton
Sept. 27, Hadwen Park Church, Worcester
Sept. 27, Trinitarian Congregational Concord
Oct. 1, 24, 25, West Barnstable
Oct. 2-3, South Cong. Church, Concord, NH
Oct. 6, Worcester Public Library, Worcester
Oct. 14, State House, Boston
Oct. 20, St. Andrews Church (Episc.), Framingham
Oct. 22-23, Andover Newton Theological School
Oct. 31, People's Baptist Church, Boston
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Songs for Syria benefit concert