MORE JUSTICE Midlands Organized Response for Equity and Justice
From Ken Watkins, Openings President:
March 24 Openings Event Cancelled & Program Postponed Until Further Notice
The Openings Program Committee met to discuss the upcoming schedule of Openings events. Because of our concern for the health and safety of attendees, speakers, and host churches, and in an abundance of caution, we have decided to postpone the March 24 Openings program at the Garden of Grace Church. The Openings Administrative Board will be meeting April 2 to review the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) situation at that time, and will make an announcement about future programs.
We appreciate your involvement in Openings, and look forward to resuming a regular schedule of events when it is safe to meet again. In the meantime, please be careful. Especially those over the age of 60 with preexisting conditions should avoid attending events with crowds because of the increased risk for complications associated with COVID-19.
Join Openings at a later date for a presentation and discussion on the organization MORE JUSTICE. Future program will be lead by Rabbi Jonathan Case from Beth Shalom Synagogue and Pastor Tim Bupp from Reformation Lutheran Church.
MORE Justice is a growing network of faith-based congregations which are culturally, economically, racially, geographically and religiously diverse – coming together to fulfill our scriptural mandate to “do justice” and make the Central Midlands area a more just place to live for all people.
Member congregations work together to empower marginalized people and act powerfully to address serious community wide problems through direct action. We accomplish this by identifying a problem, doing research, educating the public, and publicly addressing the root causes of, and solutions to, poverty and injustice in our communities.
MORE Justice is unique in its approach in that it transforms the systems that cause suffering by holding local officials accountable for resolving these inequities and injustices.
Where: TBD
When: TBD
6:00 PM Dinner $15/person payable with cash/check to “Openings" at the door
6:30 PM Program
FUTURE SPEAKERS -
Jonathan Case is Rabbi of Beth Shalom Synagogue, and has served as a spiritual guide and minister for more than three decades. Having degrees from Columbia University, Jewish Theological Seminary, and Leo Baeck College in London, Rabbi Case has studied under some of the greatest masters of this past century.
Beth Shalom Synagogue has a long and illustrious history, which extends back one hundred years and counting! It is a welcoming community that cherishes each of its members, and rejoices in one another’s accomplishments, and supports each other in times of pain and loneliness. We recognize that no one is alike. We look different from one another. We have different lifestyles, choices, and have diverse personalities. But this is where we gather in joy. As is usually translated, the name of our home is Beth Shalom, House of Peace. Yet, the real source of Shalom is “whole” or “complete.” What we seek to provide for our members and the Jewish community is a sense of wholeness.
Tim Bupp is Pastor of Reformation Lutheran Church, a Reconciling in Christ Congretation.
Pastor Tim Bupp’s Journey: My faith & professional journey has been a wandering one, starting with my first exposure to church and religion at the age of 10 in my Grandma’s Holiness Church with “hellfire-and-brimstone” preaching. My Grandma married my Grandpa Ira, a black man, in the early 1950’s, and they had to move because Pennsylvania’s cohabitation laws prevented them from living together. That social injustice made me angry then and continues to underpin my ministry outlook today. After a disappointing stint at a Presbyterian church, I swore off both church and religion.
But when I married Kathy and our second child was due we decided to find a church home. We visited the nearby Lutheran Church and were very attracted by the pastor’s emphasis that we do not need to earn our way to heaven, but instead, that we are called to respond to God’s love by sharing that love with others. Over the next years, the pastor asked me to work with the youth, then to help with catechism, and then to preach when he was out of town. Finally, he asked, “Did you ever think of ordained ministry?” I laughed profusely! To get into Seminary, I’d need an undergraduate degree — after barely graduating from high school and working only in steel mills. With his and Kathy’s help, I went to Slippery Rock University full time, graduated, and began my journey as a seminarian at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg. In my last semester at seminary, I worked as a Lay Worship Leader at Grace Lutheran Church in Butler, PA. As the semester came to an end, Grace Lutheran called me as their Pastor. This appointment was followed by one that brought me to Lexington SC. When looking for a new challenge, I learned about Reformation Lutheran Church, a Reconciling in Christ congregation. I accepted their call in August 2013 and now serve an awesome church filled with radical hospitality, where my interracial Grandma and Grandpa could have attended; a Congregation where my lesbian daughter and her partner can attend; and a Congregation willing to live out the fullness of Jesus’ grace, identified with his radical love and inclusiveness.