Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Hunger Justice Series Week Two: Charity and Justice

Ruy Costa from Episcopal City Mission to address the issues of Hunger and Poverty from Charity to Justice.
Ruy will deal with two basic approaches to issues of hunger and poverty, works of charity and works of justice, from the perspective of their effectiveness, costs and long term impact. Background information will include some discussion of growing economic inequality in the United States. The spectrum of models includes charity, volunteer service, advocacy and social structural change. Some of the illustrations to be discussed include works done by the Episcopal City Mission, such as helping build affordable housing, grant making and organizing public policy advocacy.
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  1. Sara FoltaMarch 7, 2010 at 7:36 PM

    The spectrum presented - from charity to service to advocacy to social change - made sense to me. I find this a very interesting and challenging question, one I deal with in my professional life as well. I feel great about all the outreach work the church is involved with. It basically all falls under the "service" category. This leads to the classic questions - are we supplying band-aids for a gaping wound? Are there other, more systemic things we could/should be doing to solve the problem of hunger? Would those things be "better"? I felt like this session left me with more questions than answers, though. I believe that all these levels are important (which seemed to be the consensus). My personal belief is that different congregations may be called to do different things. We seem to be a congregation of doers. I noticed this pretty early on in my time at Grace, and it's something I love about our church. People see a need, and they jump in and do. So I wonder if that is our call, our place on the spectrum. I think it would take a lot of thought and discussion to move into the other levels, and it has the potential to become political and to divide us. Do we want to start that discussion? Do we need to? I don't know - but I trust that if we are prayerful and deliberate, we will be led to do (or continue doing) whatever God most needs us to.

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