Gun Violence Prevention: How You Can Act Right Now

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Published in UCCmn.org, April 12, 2023

Original article here: https://www.uccmn.org/2023/04/12/an-easter-call-to-resurrecting-action-prevent-gun-violence-now/

Gun violence will continue to wreak havoc on communities and families until we determine to make a substantive change in policy and cultural norms. There are things we can do right now to make our voices heard and mobilize for change. This list offers a start, including some immediate action needed in Minnesota to effect policy change.

  • Watch this April 11 press conference with Protect Minnesota and Attorney General Keith Ellison to learn more about the bills being considered and the urgency to the issue.
  • Contact your state Senators to express your support for these bills. Find their contact info here. Consider a letter-writing campaign in your congregation.
  • If you’re a pastor, consider signing this letter written by the Interfaith Alliance of Protect Minnesota directed to Senators about the hearings and related bills this week.
  • Reach out to Jared at Protect Minnesota to learn more about their Interfaith Alliance and be part of the ongoing movement in Minnesota to reduce gun violence.
  • Download the Congregational Toolkit from Protect Minnesota to help you have conversations about gun violence and take action for its prevention in your congregation and in your community.
  • Join the momentum toward a federal assaults weapons ban. The House of Representatives narrowly passed such a ban in 2022; it’s time for the Senate to do the same. Reach out to our Senators easily using this form from March for Our Lives, telling them to vote YES to an assault weapons ban.
  • Lift personal and congregational prayers: for grieving victims’ families and friends, for traumatized communities, for medical and law enforcement personnel and chaplains who respond, for a nation and a state to find the will and the means to meaningfully change gun safety policy and prevent gun violence in our time.

Civic Buzz Town Hall: MPD Chief Brian O’Hara to Speak at Plymouth on Police Reform and Community Safety

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Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara will be the guest speaker at a Town Hall at Plymouth Congregational Church at 7 p.m. Tuesday, May 2. The Town Hall is co-sponsored by the League of Women Voters Minneapolis (LWVMpls), Plymouth’s Re-Imagining Community Safety Committee and Mill City Commons.

 

Plymouth’s lead minister Rev. Dr. DeWayne Davis will welcome attendees. Ellen van Iwaarden, program director of the LWVMpls, will facilitate the discussion.

 

O’Hara is expected to talk about the complexities of police reform and his plans to increase public safety in the City of Minneapolis. O’Hara was named Minneapolis Police Department chief in November 2022 after previously serving as the deputy mayor of the City of Newark. Throughout his career, Chief Brian A. O’Hara has worked collaboratively with communities and other public safety divisions, including alternatives to policing strategies, to enact enduring change.

LMVMpls is a non-partisan political organization that encourages informed and active participation in all levels of government, works to increase understanding of major policy issues, and influences public policy through education and advocacy. Its Civic Buzz interactive town halls feature pressing local issues, focused discussion and knowledgeable speakers.

Plymouth Congregational Church is a progressive faith community grounded in the Christian tradition. It has a long history of being committed to racial, economic, social and climate justice. Its Re-Imagining Community Safety committee was formed nearly three years ago after the death of George Floyd to actively promote the re-imagining of community safety in the City of Minneapolis, on the basis of faith values.

 

Earth Sunday Guest Speaker

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Michael Noble – Climate Policy Change Champion

Michael Noble will speak on a life in climate policy, with special emphasis on how progress in Minnesota has remained steady while the power of money thwarted meaningful federal action for 32 years. He will describe the game-changing momentum of the new energy provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act and the 100 percent Clean Electricity Standard recently passed by the Legislature and signed by Governor Walz.

Michael is executive director and a founder of Fresh Energy, a nonprofit public policy energy advocacy organization. Stepping down this spring after 30 years to support generational change, under his leadership Fresh Energy persistently and effectively advocated for clean energy policies and systems in the state, region, and nation, advocacy that has driven bold public policies on the path toward an equitable carbon neutral economy.

Make a Joyful Noise – with Ukuleles!

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Third Monday of each Month – Starting February 20th

10:30 a.m. in the Chapel

Facilitator – Jill Nelson

Looking for uke players of any level who want to meet others and play music together. We will focus on songs of joy, community and inspiration. I’ll have some songs to get us started and I’m hoping you’ll find songs to share with the group. Bring your ukulele and a music stand (if you have one). Questions? Email Jill at jillary17@comcast.net

Want to encourage voting in November?

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Please join us to write personalized, non-partisan letters urging sometime voters to vote this November. Work with others at our table in Jones Commons 9:45–11:00 a.m. on Sunday, September 18 and 25, and October 2, 16, and 23. We will provide names, addresses, examples, and stamps.

Sponsored by the Racial Justice Initiative

March with CTUL Construction Workers and Allies

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June 16, 2022, Noon – 3 p.m.

Where: Plymouth Congregational Church
1900 Nicollet Ave, Minneapolis

CTUL members will publicly name three large multi-family housing developers that have a history of using problematic contractors on their job sites, inviting them to join the Building Dignity and Respect (BDR) Program. Over the past six months, CTUL members who work in construction have been reaching out to large multi-family housing developers to inform them of the severe abuses that non-union workers face in the industry, including rampant wage theft, dangerous working conditions, and at the extreme, labor trafficking.

CTUL is inviting these developers to join the Building Dignity and Respect (BDR) Program, a monitoring program that ensures a voice, as well as dignity and respect for construction workers.

Despite multiple attempts to communicate with the developers over the past six months, only one developer has agreed to meet but does not seem to have taken any meaningful steps to improve working conditions on their projects. We can no longer sit back as workers continue to face severe abuses of their workplace rights. On June 16, CTUL members will bring our message to the broader public. In this action, we will name the three large multi-family housing developers that we believe have the most power and influence to change the industry.

Join us to win basic dignity and respect for all construction workers in the Twin Cities metro area.

See you in the streets!

Campus Task Force Round Tables

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Join other members at the Round Table conversations. We are eager to hear your thoughts and dreams about how we can make our church, property and land more hospitable to our neighbors and guests and to create a stronger sense of community.

 

One hour discussions will be held on

  • Sunday, May 22 at 10 a.m. in the Parsons Room.
  • Zoom conversations will be held on Tuesday, May 24 at 6:30 p.m.
  • Zoom conversations on Wednesday, May 25 at 10 a.m.

Join Zoom Session here:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87234982700?pwd=OWgl7yZEIo5LwaBEjOLDH0q6Zsefgm.1

Plymouth Discussion of Public Safety in the Beloved Community

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Session 1:  Commissioner Harrington’s 1st Police Encounter Dilemma

 

Thursday, March 3, at 7 pm

VIA ZOOM

Register Here

Commissioner Harrington is working with Interfaith Action of Greater St. Paul to engage faith communities throughout the state in a series of three or four public safety discussions.  Each discussion will be inspired by the question of how the values of our respective faith traditions should guide the response to a specific police encounter dilemma that Commissioner Harrington will create.

 

Plymouth’s role in this project

 

In late January, Commissioner Harrington introduced the first police encounter dilemma to Reverend Davis and our RiCS team. Harrington will introduce further dilemma scenarios to faith-based communities in late March, late May and possibly in July. Interested Plymouth members will then engage with each other in conversation about each of these dilemmas. These conversations will be structured as follows:

 

(i)  We will give our immediate and visceral reactions to the police officer’s dilemma, without the benefit of thoughtful reflection — remembering that the officer confronted with the dilemma does not have time to engage in thoughtful reflection.

 

(ii)  Reverend Davis will introduce us to a text from our faith tradition, either from the Bible or from other learned faith texts, inviting us to consider the best response to the dilemma from the perspective of the core values illuminated in this faith reading.

 

(iii)  We will break out into small groups to discuss the dilemma again in light of the faith reading.

 

(iv) RiCS will harvest and summarize the responses from each of these discussions and send this summary report to Interfaith.

 

(v)  Interfaith will collate reports from all of the participating faith communities for Commissioner Harrington and share those reports with the participating faith communities

 

Nicollet Square Holiday Party

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Nicollet Square Holiday Party, will be different again this year . There will be no tree, no dinner, no gift room, no cookie platters to take home. BUT with your help, we can give a boxed dinner and a gift card to our 42 youth residents. Please send gift cards in any amount for Target to Penny Bond, 101 Promenade Ave. Apt. #243 W, Wayzata, MN 55391 by 12/13. Call 612-710-2421 with questions. Let’s try to make it a Happy Holiday for these young people. And a Happy Holiday to you.