UPCOMING EVENTS
Season of Advocacy
2024 SEASON OF ADVOCACY
This Eastertide, join ECM in advocating for our priority bills, such as a $20 minimum wage and housing justice measures, aimed at closing the racial wealth gap. Let's work together to move these bills out of committee and onto the House and Senate floors for a vote. We invite you to bring Episcopal City Mission’s Season of Advocacy to your parish! Each week we’ll have a toolkit focused on one policy goal along with a liturgical resource.
Here are the bills that will be prioritized each week:
April 8-12: Allow Cities & Towns to Enact Rent Control (S.1299/H.2103)
April 13-20: A Commission to Study Reparations for MA (S.1053)
April 21-27: Eviction Records Sealing (H.4356)
April 28-May 4: $20/hour Minimum Wage & Annual Increase Tied to Inflation
May 5 onward: The “Affordable Homes Act” Housing Bond Bill
What will be in the toolkit?
A promotional poster
A page of instructions for that week
A special youth group guide and activities (For Middle and High School age students)
Brief faith-based resources that tie the week’s theme to the Easter season
The toolkit will be posted here on the website each week, as well as sent directly to everyone that registers at this link.
CLICK HERE TO VIEW WEEKLY TOOK KITS.
Everyone is invited to participate individually and we encourage engagement with your parish. For those who are engaging their church community in the Season of Advocacy, we have a brief sign up form so that we can stay in touch about how it goes! The toolkit will be full of different ideas for church engagement, in order for there to be something for everyone.
How can I bring this to my church?
Everyone is invited to participate individually. For those who are engaging their parish in the Season of Advocacy, we have a brief sign up form so that we can stay in touch about how it goes! Some ideas for how to involve your church:
Host a table curing coffee hour after the service for people to make calls or write letters right then and there.
Collect a list of interested parishioners and reach out to them each week with the new toolkit.
As part of a social justice/racial justice committee, take the time to make the calls or write letters together during your meeting.
Include the Season of Advocacy flyer in your church newsletter or bulletin
Share at weekly announcements during the service
Post the Season of Advocacy poster on a church bulletin board
Have your church post the Season of Advocacy materials on their social media accounts
Will there be any zoom or live events for Season of Advocacy?
ECM’s Bridging the Gap (BTG) series will include an “Action ½ Hour” for the group to take part in this advocacy together. If you can’t be part of BTG but would like to join for the action-taking segment, email Hannah Hafter, Lead Organizer, at hannah@ecmteam.us.
In mid-May there will be a public action in front of the state-house for rental control and “Time for Twenty” (the $20/hour minimum wage campaign) hosted by Raise Up MA, Homes for All, and other partners. Let’s show a strong Episcopal presence! More information is coming soon.
Bridging the Gap 2024
ECM’s Spring Spiritual and Political Education Series
“Bridging the Gap” is back this spring, with four sessions on April 9, April 23, May 7, and May 21 (every other Tuesday night) from 6:30-8 pm EST.
This time, we’re hosting two different tracks for new and returning participants— both meeting at the same time with breakout groups at the end of each session for their respective level of learning.
Both tracks will meet together for spiritual grounding, and then new participants will focus on the foundations of political and spiritual formation around the racial wealth gap, reparations, solidarity economy, and state policy, and include opportunities for action.
For experienced participants, some who are with a congregational team and others that are there as individuals, we’ll continue growing our organizing skills and take on self-defined projects which will be supported in community together.
A Stolen Beam
Dr. Constance Holmes and the Rev. Steven Bonsey present:
“A Stolen Beam”:
Essential Conversation and Spiritual Reflection on Reparations for Descendants of Slaves in the U.S.
African-Americans have been systematically deprived of the fruits of their labor, opportunities for advancement, and more for 400 years. Do I have the courage to face the truth of this history? Can I imagine what it would be to live in a family that has been the target of relentless discrimination for generations? What do I know of God’s will for the future this nation? What is my calling and personal responsibility for bringing about this future?
The moral challenge of reparations for slavery can be viewed through an ancient lens: What would you do if you discovered that your house was built upon a stolen beam? What would you do to make that right?
This question posed for rabbinical debate, as recorded in the Talmud, serves as a framework today for conversation and reflection: What will we do with the knowledge that the prosperity of our nation – and hence our church – was built upon the stolen labor of enslaved people? How do we make this right – as a nation and as a church?
This seven-session course of educational engagement and personal reflection, originating from the Jewish Community of Amherst, focuses on the legacy of African enslavement and 400 years of anti-Black racism to what was stolen and what may be owed. It examines the historical case for reparations; global and national precedents for reparations; practical proposals for national and local reparations; and theological reflections on reparations from Jewish and Christian sources.
The Stolen Beam course has been offered in communities throughout the U.S. ECM’s offering will incorporate contemplative practices in the Christian wisdom tradition as well as opportunities to discern in community how we may be called to respond in action.
Seven sessions on Zoom, weekly on Mondays, April 8 – May 20, 7:00-8:30 pm. There is no fee for the course; voluntary contributions to ECM will be gladly accepted.
Community Conversation with Boston Impact Initiative
We are excited to invite you to a conversation and Q&A with the Boston Impact Initiative, a community investment fund that shares our mission! They are currently open to investments in their Fund II, which is focused on 2 areas:
1. community-controlled real estate to keep housing affordable and prevent displacement;
2. and capital for entrepreneurs of color whose social enterprise businesses bring quality jobs and broad community benefit.
Please Join Us!
Boston Impact Initiative Community Conversation and Q&A
Tuesday, March 19, 6-7 PM (ET)
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84684743279
Episcopal City Mission and BII are working with churches that would like to consider investing a portion of their endowment, and with individual Episcopalians (and others!) who would like to make their own investments. For those that are interested but worry that this is out of reach, please be aware that for unaccredited investors (Most of us! If you don't know, you are unaccredited!) the investment range is from $1,000 to $25,000.
Please RSVP by sending an email to Hannah Hafter at hannah@ecmteam.us , but anyone can join even if it's last minute. We encourage everyone who is interested to read our Frequently Asked Questions document and watch a short video (12 minutes) in advance. These can be shared with your church's Rector, members of the vestry, finance committee, or the whole congregation to explore the possibility together!
If you were part of last fall's Bridging the Gap series, you'll be familiar with BII. This is not a repeat of that presentation, but a chance to get into the nuts and bolts!
Call to Repair: Justice, Healing and Reparations in Massachusetts,
Join us on Sunday, December 3rd for the Reparations Sabbath, hosted by the Reparations Interfaith Coalition.
Bridging the Gap 2.0!
Bridging the Gap 2.0: We will focus on the practical nuts and bolts of doing work on reparations, solidarity economy, and state-level policy.
ECM Annual Meeting—Free Registration Now Open!
Mark your calendars!! On Saturday October 14, 2023 from 9 a.m. to noon, we will hold our first in-person Annual Meeting in four years! We will review and celebrate a year of Episcopal Organizing, make key decisions about our organizing strategy moving forward and connect more deeply with key partners and each other. There will be activities and actions for delegates and members of all ages! Click the button below to reserve free tickets on our Eventbrite page.
Ticket Information:
ECM will provide free breakfast options to all cathedral attendees. Please add on the “Free In-Person Breakfast RSVP” ticket option if you are planning to join us in person!
The breakfast RSVP option will be unavailable after Thursday, October 12.
Bridging the Gap
ECM’s Spring Spiritual and Political Education Series
Join our spring program, "Bridging the Gap,” if you are interested in being part of the first stage of this journey. 6 sessions will occur over zoom on the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays each month from 6:30-8:00 pm, starting on March 22. Parishes are encouraged to form groups to participate together. For more information and to register, go to the sign up form. As you and your parish discern your involvement, we invite you to consider our Asset Mapping tool as a starting point for discussion.
The program will be a spiritually grounded space for personal transformation, relationship building, both joy and reckoning, and most of all concrete and bold action in the world. As part of the program, we'll be developing longer-term campaigns and projects on shrinking the racial wealth gap.
To reach out to the organizing team, e-mail our Director of Organizing Edwin Johnson at edwin@ecmteam.us and our Lead Organizer, Hannah Hafter, at hannah@ecmteam.us.