Advocates Called to Stay Connected

Sandy Sorensen

From Sandy Sorensen, Director, D.C. Office, United Church of Christ. Reprinted with permission. Visit CHHSM’s Advocacy page for more resources.

Dear Advocates,

Like you, we in the D.C. office are concerned about the impact of COVID-19 on our community and congregations. Although we are not working from our office next to the Capitol, we are continuing our dedicated advocacy work from our virtual offices.

In addressing the issues prevalent in this current climate, we are powerfully reminded of the most vulnerable among us. As people of faith, we believe in the moral call to care for those in need. In the midst of a global pandemic, it is critical that our elected officials place the wellbeing of people over that of corporations, and that the first priority of Congress is to make sure that everyone has access to the resources they need for their health and wholeness.

We must also remember that we are in the midst of a critical election. With primaries postponed, and pressure rising to switch to mail-in ballots, it is more important than ever that we stay informed.The D.C. Office is here to help with Our Faith, Our Vote resources including our new Civic Action Center. Find out if you are registered to vote, updated dates for elections, who is running for positions in your area, and how you may register or sign up for mail-in ballots online. The way we interact with elections may have changed, but the importance of our participation has not!

We will continue in our work, and we encourage all of you to use these resources to stay connected and to advocate with us:

• Keep up to date on our latest actions in our Action Center
• Follow our updates on Facebook and Twitter
• Check out other resources on our website
• Hear how UCC churches are adapting amid COVID-19.

Before we signed off to the UCC Justice and Peace Network prior to the Christmas holiday for a brief hiatus until the new year, I talked about three primary responses to threat: fight, flight and freeze. I invited all of us to think about a fourth possibility – to flock. Although in this time of the COVID-19 virus pandemic, we are restricted from physically flocking together and are encouraged to practice faithful physical distancing, we can still flock if we sync our hearts, minds, spirits, thoughts and individual actions together in one energy to promote movement toward healing, justice and inclusion. We continue to be grateful for your partnership and heartened by your resilience. Forward together!