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Justice in society ~ Social Justice at Fairlawn: A Journey
Worth Taking
Social justice has been embedded in the life of Fairlawn Avenue United Church
from the very beginning. Our church history, contained in the 2007 Directory,
tells us the following:
“The earliest branch of the Fairlawn family tree was formed as Toronto’s
Second Congregational Church in 1849 [160 years ago] by 25 renegade members
of the city’s first Congregational church who were opposed to slavery.”
Social Justice Vision
Our vision, now an integral part of Fairlawn, encompasses this history and
expands on how we must act as Christians for social justice.
Fairlawn Avenue United Church will be an
inspiring and thriving champion of social justice where the congregation is
passionately engaged in actions which transform society, individual lives and
ourselves as we move toward a just and sustainable world.
Guiding Principles
- Being inspired by the life and teachings of Jesus
- Educating ourselves and others about the root causes of social injustice
- Being active and visible advocates for social and political solutions
- Working in partnership with others to leverage our own efforts and
resources
Background
The Vision of Social Justice at Fairlawn
flows from, and is consistent with, the key documents of our Church which preceded
it, including:
- The Call to Social Justice in the
Bible
- The Call to Social Justice in our
parent organization The United Church of Canada
- The Covenant that joined the
St James Bond and Fairlawn Heights United Church congregations
- The Constitution of that new
Congregation
- And, finally, the Mission of
that new Congregation
What we want to do this year
- Expand our reach within the congregation
- Encourage social justice partnerships with other congregations
- Continue our work on affordable housing
- Pursue new interests, such as Poverty Reduction and the ‘25 in 5’ campaign
(the Ontario’s Government’s Poverty Reduction
Act 2009 to reduce the number of children living in poverty by 25% over 5 years)
You can help us by
- joining our working team
- reading these Social Justice web pages
- providing ideas for social justice projects
- bearing witness to social injustice and encouraging others to do the
same
How to reach us
What we have accomplished so far as a congregation
- We established a foothold in
social housing through grants of $ 2.4 million from the sale of St.
James Bond United Church to the Toronto Christian Resource Centre; Fred
Victor Centre; Parkdale United Church/ Phoenix House and the South West
Affordable Housing Group – all for the construction of new affordable
housing units.
-
Through the St. James Bond Social Justice Trust Fund we provided funding for
a TCRC staff member and a volunteer to attend a series of advocacy workshops
provided by the Multifaith Coalition on Homelessness and the Wellesley
Institute. We continue to consider the best use of these funds in the longer
term.
- We continue to support
three out of the four organizations to which we have provided funding for
affordable housing: Toronto Christian Resource Centre; Fred Victor Centre;
and Parkdale Green Phoenix
- We provided educational events to encourage members of the congregation
to learn more about social justice in our community, for example:
- Social Justice
workshop on Poverty Reduction with Jonah Schein from
'The Stop' - This Feb. 3, 2010 workshop included writing
advocacy letters which were mailed to politicians from over 60 participants
- Social Justice Sunday, Sun. Jan 31, Guest sermon by
Nick Saul of 'The Stop'
http://www.thestop.org/ and their 'Do the Math' campaign
http://www.dothemath.thestop.org
- Tour of Green Phoenix
- From Vision to Action: a panel discussion on how we can move into
action by being agents for change, Apr. 29, 2009
- Introduction to KAIROS, with Gail Turner, Feb.
8, 2009
- Michael Blair, guest sermon and seminar on making social justice a
living commitment in our congregation, Jan. 18, 2009
- Advocacy in Action, with Kathleen Wynne, Nov.
12, 2008
- Spiritual Roots of Social Justice and Green
Action, Oct 25, 2008
- Social Justice workshop, Jan./Feb. 2008
- We published several articles in the local newspaper Community Life,
kept the Social Justice web pages updated, and provided quotes and
interesting information for the weekly Bulletin
- We continued to
network with others in Toronto working in the area of social justice issues;
for example,
- Gail Turner from KAIROS
- Wehn-In Ng from Toronto Conference
- Murray MacAdam, Coordinator of Social Justice and Advocacy, Anglican
Diocese of Toronto
- Debra Dineen, Christian Resource Centre
- Network of interested church representatives from churches in North
Toronto
-
Visits to three local MPPs (Kathleen Wynne, Mike Colle, and Erik Hoskins) to
discuss our support of the province’s Poverty Reduction Plan and of our
particular concern about access to healthy food
-
In
June the team decided to adopt poverty reduction as our focus with
affordable housing remaining as a key component. In so doing, Fairlawn
Avenue United Church joins a broad coalition of faith communities and
community agencies that are working together to ensure the Government of
Ontario lives up to its commitment to reduce child poverty by 25% in 5
years: one year down; four to go.
-
Working with the STOP Community Food Centre, we focused on the issue of the
failure of social assistance (welfare) to assure the most marginalized in
our city have access to healthy food
-
We distributed and encouraged the Do the Math web exercise developed
by the STOP and began to publicize our February poverty reduction workshop
To loose the bonds of injustice….
to share your bread with the hungry,
and bring the homeless poor into your homes…
then… you shall be like a watered garden,
like a spring of water
whose waters never fail.
Isaiah 58: 6-7, 11
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