Justice & Mercy Team
Our Mission:
From Micah 6:8
To do justice...
strive for justice and peace among all people
To love kindness…
respect the dignity of every human being
To walk humbly with God…
identify issues of concern and develop strategies to address these issues
To build the beloved community…
think globally, act locally
The Justice and Mercy Team listens to the needs in our community both for justice and mercy and reaches out with servant-love.
They lead our congregation's justice and advocacy work primarily through F.A.S.T (Faith and Action for Strength Together), an interfaith justice coalition of Pinellas County faith groups working on issues such as education, homelessness, criminal justice, and jobs. Our two denominations also engage in advocacy and justice on a broad spectrum of issues with a presense in D.C. and around the globe. We participate where possible.
The team leads our congregation's mercy work primarily through our emergency food pantry, which serves 200-400 people per month. In addition, they coordinate volunteers from the congregation to serve many meals throughout the community at Pinellas Hope, The Saint Pete Free Clinic, and Aids Partnership. Finally they organize our congregation to collect Christmas gifts for homeless families and emergency supplies for disaster assistence as well as send scholarships to Inanda Seminary, a girls school in South Africa, and Pinellas Youth Pride graduates.
They also express God's love and solidarity by encouraging and organizing us to join in grassroots community movements such as Black Live Matter, Fight for Fifteen, the Immokalee Farm Worker protests and CROP walk.
They educate the congregation frequently about issues of justice and mercy facing our community. Some of our previous classes have included: sacred conversations on race, bible studies on gender and sexual orientation, and speakers talking to us about the condition of farm workers in Florida, and much more.
