While the troop reductions in Iraq are a good step, we need grassroots voices like yours to keep up the pressure to continue to return Iraq to Iraqis and redirect money spent on the military to help rebuild Iraq and the United States economy.

We’ll gather on March 20 at noon by the intersection of East University and S. University (across from the School of Social Work) for a time to sing out and speak out for peace in Iraq and Afghanistan.

For more information please contact me at 734-663-1870 or chuck@icpj.net or Anne Garcia with Michigan Peaceworks at (734) 645-8470 or awgarcia@wccnet.edu.

• Hear about the experiences of last year’s participants.
• Find out the first steps to begin growing food.
• Learn tips andtricks from other participants.
• Get your congregation signed up to grow food for the hungry this year!

Volunteers working on the St. Andrews Faith & Food Garden in 2009

New and returning congregations are invited to attend. We hope you will be a part of this exciting program to fight local hunger!

Monday, March 22
6:30-8:30pm
Memorial Christian Church (730 Tappan)
Light dinner will be served

Questions? Call 734-663-1870 or e-mail melihe@umich.edu

Faith and Food is back for the 2010 growing season! Faith and Food assists congregations in creating community gardens to fight local hunger. Congregations then donate 50 % of their yield to local food banks. Last year local congregations donated over 3500 lbs of fresh produce. Come to our kick-off meeting on March 22 to learn how your congregation can be involved. (Click here for more on Faith & Food.)

Climate change will lead to dessertification and other calamities that will mostly affect the world's poor. It is time for religious leaders to speak out for comprehensive climate and energy legislation.

Calling pastors, rabbis, imams, deacons, bishops, social action chairs, and other faith leaders to add your names to a sign-on letter about climate change.

As the Senate debates whether or not to act to stop climate change, now is the time for faith leaders to add our voices to clean energy, anti-poverty, and environmental groups to call for a strong and comprehensive climate and energy bill.

To add your name to the sign-on letter either:

1. Sign up online or using the form below;
2. Call ICPJ at 734-663-1870;
3. email info@icpj.net (please let us know how you would like to be identified);

The deadline for signatures is March 26, 2010.

Letter text

Dear Senator Levin and Senator Stabenow:

As people of faith from a range of faith communities and traditions, we are writing to express our serious concern for the state of our environment and to urge that you take strong action to reverse the conditions that are leading us into major climatic problems.

We are well aware that the nation faces a number of urgent problems at this moment and that focusing on climate change will take courage and leadership. We believe, however, that taking courageous action to address climate change is crucial to increasing our security, creating more jobs, and defending against serious economic problems that will arise if we fail to act.

Our inefficient use of dirty energy sources like coal and oil is harming human health, polluting our environment, and fueling climate change. What is worse, these impacts are seen the most in areas where the people are least able to adapt to the change. As a nation that contributes heavily to the harmful levels of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere, but has also been a leader in promoting justice in the world, we must take action on a national level to be far more efficient in our energy use and to transition to clean energy sources like wind and solar.

The moral responsibility to be good stewards of the earth complements our human desires to provide a safe and healthy world for our own children. It goes to the heart of being a spiritual being and caring about all the world’s people. The climate change already underway and steadily growing worse will make the earth less habitable for human beings, and it will almost certainly affect the poorest and most vulnerable first.

People of faith can no longer be silent or hesitate to speak out. The time to ask Congress to take strong action on federal climate legislation is now. The longer we wait, the deeper the problems grow.

As representatives of the faith community we urge you to support a strong, comprehensive energy and climate bill that will protect human health, provide jobs, and curb climate change. Taking such action is a way to act upon the faith-filled call to treat all people with love and compassion by preserving and protecting the integrity of our earth.

Thank you for what you have already done to protect our planet. We are relying on you to take leadership on these issues that affect us all.

In deep care and concern for the Earth we all share and the people who live on it,

[Signature here]
Organizations listed for identification purposes only

A Nuclear Free Middle East
Sunday, March 14th
6:30 potluck (feel free to bring an item to share)
7:00-8:30pm speaker and discussion
Temple Beth Emeth/ St. Clare’s Episcopal (2309 Packard St., Ann Arbor)

• What is the role of nuclear weapons in today’s world?
• What are the prospects for disarmament?
• What are the current nuclear weapons issues in the Middle East?

Hosted by ICPJ’s Common Ground for Peace in Israel/Palestine and NOW: No Weapons, No War Groups. For more information, call (734) 663-1870 or email lkthams@gmail.com. Free and open to the public. Join us!

About our speaker: Andrew Lichterman is a lawyer and peace activist based in the San Francisco Bay area. As a lawyer, he has represented peace and environmental activists in a variety of settings, and also taught law at alternative law schools for many years. In recent years his work has focused on the purposes and impacts of U.S. nuclear and other strategic weapons programs, including their effect on global disarmament efforts, and on the relationship between nuclear technologies and the global economy. He is a member of the Global Council of the Abolition 2000 Global Network to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons and a member of the boards of the Oakland, California based Western States Legal Foundation and of the Los Alamos Study Group, an Albuquerque, New Mexico based disarmament organization. Andrew is being brought to Ann Arbor through the Bring it Back, Take it Forward Conference happening April 12-14 (see www.bringitbacktakeitforward.org).

ICPJ members march at the 2009 SOA Vigil in Ft. Benning, GA. This April, we'll take the protest to Congress. Join us!

Each November, ICPJ’s Latin America Task Force organizes labor leaders, students, faith community members, veterans, families, and others to take a bus to Ft. Benning, Georgia, to protest the School of the Americas/ WHINSEC for the human rights abuses committed by its graduates.

This April, we’ll take our protest to Congress during the SOA Watch Lobby Days. Delegates from Michigan will carpool/fly/train to D.C. to lobby our elected officials demanding that the school be closed. You can join us for this important mission!

Agenda Overview:

• Saturday, April 17th – evening social event (optional)
• Sunday, April 18th – lobby training
• Monday, April 19th – lobby visits to Congress
• Tuesday, April 20th – possible continued lobby visits

This year, with a bill to close the school on the table (H.R. 2567 which would suspend operations at the SOA/WHINSEC for investigation of human rights abuses), we are optimistic that we have a real chance to make a difference.

Join us! Click here to download a registration form and learn more about trip logistics.

Questions: contact Grace at ICPJ (734) 663-1870 or gracek@icpj.net.

Charlie King and Karen Brandow in concert on April 11

Charlie King and Karen Brandow are two of the peace movement’s most poignant musicians, and they’re coming to Ann Arbor on April 11.

Who: Charlie King, Karen Brandow, you, and other music-loving peacemakers.

When: Sunday, April 11, 7:00 p.m.

Where: Temple Beth Emeth/St. Clare’s Episcopal Church, 2309 Packard St., Ann Arbor (map)

How Much: $15 regular admission, $50 benefactor.

What else? You can also take out an ad in the program. Ad prices are $45 for a business cardsize ad, $60 for a 1⁄2-page ad (5”x 4”), and $75 for a full-page ad (5”x 8”).

Details: chuck@icpj.net, 734-663-1870

Special Bonus: If you purchase your tickets prior to the concert  you will also receive a $5 gift certificate for Ten Thousand Villages of Ann Arbor!

“Exactly what a folk music recording should be: songs that make you think, laugh, weep and dance.” Matt Watroba, Folk DJ WDET, Detroit MI.

Ticket type

1 regular ticket $15.00 2 regular tickets $30.00 3 regular tickets $35.00 1 benefactor ticket $50.00 2 benefactor tickets $100.00 business card-sized ad $45.00 half-page ad $60.00 full-page ad $75.00

What:

When: Sunday, March 21, 2010

6:30pm Dessert Reception
7:00pm Business meeting
7:45pm Program featuring Bill Wylie-Kellermann

Where: Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church, 1501 W. Liberty, Ann Arbor (Map)

Who: Open to the public, voting limited to current ICPJ members. Become a member today.

At this meeting, 2 of our founding members, Barbara and Russ Fuller, will step down from our Board. Please help us honor them by printing a personal message of thanks in the program ($1 per word, $5 minimum) or making a gift in honor of Barbara and Russ.

About our Speaker

Bill Wylie-Kellermann is a United Methodist pastor who has served city parishes in Detroit, and is currently pastor at St. Peters Episcopal Church in Detroit. A graduate of Union Theological Seminary in New York City, he is also a frequent contributor to Sojourners and other publications, often on topics framed biblically by “the principalities and powers.”

He is author of Seasons of Faith and Conscience which explores the biblical and theological bases for non-violent resistance and “liturgical direct action.”

Bill Wylie-Kellermann has been at the forefront of organizing faith and spirituality outreach and programming for the 2010 U.S. Social Forum in Detroit, to take place from June 22-26. The Social Forum brings together activists from across the country on all different issues to build relationships, learn from each other, and build a more dynamic movement for social justice.

Board Candidates:

New Candidates:

• Heather Laird
• Bill Alt
• Kadesha Baker-Simpson
• Denese Brown (tentative)

Candidates for re-election:

• Bryan Weinert (also candidate for Board president)
• Jim Schaafsma
• Abby Weinberg

However, some people are facing this tough economy in a hostile work and unjust work environment.  For months, Restaurant Opportunities Center, Interfaith Worker’s Justice, and ICPJ have been protesting Andiamo Restaurant in Dearborn for hundreds of thousands of dollars of unpaid wages and workplace discrimination.

As a federal lawsuit against the owner works its way through the courts, we need to continue to show support for the workers.

WHAT: Faith & Civil Rights Vigil in Support of Justice at Andiamo workers

WHEN: Friday, February 19th from 7-8 pm;

WHERE: outside Andiamo Dearborn Restaurant, 21400 Michigan Avenue, Dearborn

WHO: Civil rights songs as well as Sister Cathey DeSantis, Detroit Catholic Pastoral Alliance & Pastor Bill Wylie-Kellerman, St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Detroit. Sponsored by the Restaurant Opportunities Center, Metro Detroit Interfaith Worker Justice, and Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice.

WHY: Learn more about the struggle here.

HOW:  There will be carpools leaving at 5:45 from “The Cube” near Maynard and Jefferson in Ann Arbor. Please let Rick Durance know if you’re going at rdurance@umich.edu so we can know how many people to expect.

Whether you’re feel strongly about workers right, racial or sexual discrimination, economic injustice, or just feel called to help, please come and support the movement for justice at Andiamo.

If you’re a member, you get a print edition mailed to you each issue. Become a member today.

St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church's Faith & Food Garden

We are pleased to announce the return of the Faith and Food initiative in 2010. Once again, we are partnering with two well-known hunger relief agencies, Food Gatherers and Growing Hope, to support the development of congregational gardens to feed the hungry.

In 2009, fifteen congregations participated in the program, producing over 3500 lbs of fresh produce for the hungry in Washtenaw County. This year we are hoping for even more community involvement to make a bigger impact on addressing local hunger needs.

The 2010 program is setup to support new congregational gardens and existing congregational gardens to grow food for the hungry. Visit www.foodgatherers.org and click on “Get Growin’ for Food Gatherers!” for great resources to get started on your garden for 2010! You can also contact Food Gatherers with questions at getgrowing@foodgatherers.org or call 734-761-2796.

Click here for a Faith & Food 2010 Fact Sheet about this year’s program.

We look forward to working with you this year to get fresh, healthy produce to our neighbors in need.