Social Justice

“Strive for Justice and peace among all people and respect the dignity of every human being.” The Book of Common Prayer

This is the mission of the Social Justice Ministry. If you share our passion for this critical work, we hope you will JOIN US! At the present time, we are involved in a variety of projects:

• Prayer for Social Justice

Lectio Divina, an ancient traditional practice and special form of communal contemplation, takes place once a week on Thursday at noon on Zoom. The group focuses on a significant passage written by a marginalized person and chosen by the facilitator. We are gently guided through a series of steps where participants speak voluntarily and experience listening to each other, ourselves, and to God. This deeply inspiring practice centers our group and empowers our work. For questions and instructions on how to join, click HERE.

• Education

Education has been an important part of our ministry from the beginning. Historically, our first project was “Social Justice Movie Night”. These events were followed in time by a multi-session presentation of theologians, including Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who were activists, and several book studies. More recently, we supported an inter-church exploration of White Christian Nationalism. We have offered two workshops, Sacred Identities, which focuses on support of different sexual orientations and gender identities, and Sacred Ground (see below). We look forward to offering Braver Angels, which teachers positive communication across the cultural divide.

Sacred Ground: An 11-session workshop designed by the National Episcopal Church. It explores race and racism in American society of its 250+ year history. Through reading assignments, videos, and small grop discussions, participants examine systemic racism and the history of their own families. This impactful learning experience culminates with beginning discussion of how to work together to dismantle racially unjust structures.

• Advocacy for Just Legislation

Our largest and longest on-going project is our advocacy for just and equitable lows for all people of Colorado. By working on the systemic level, we believe we can make the largest impact on behalf of the underserved. During the Colorado Generally Assembly term, we advocate for and against bills in our designated areas of concern: racial justice, LGBTQIA rights, housing / homelessness, and climate justice. As each bill progresses, we send messages to the committees hearing the bill and to our own senators and representatives. Do not underestimate the power your voice has to influence our policy. Our elected representatives listen when enough of us speak up! Below you will see the bills we are currently focusing our advocacy efforts around. If you’d like to receive messages from the Social Justice Committee that include action steps you can take each week, including information about the bills, a sample letter and the contact information for where to send letters, please contact Sue Torfin to be added to the distribution list by clicking HERE.

Here are the bills we’ve been following this session. Any bill with a CURRENT advocacy alert will be highlighted in RED. If you click on that bill, you will be taken to the advocacy alerts page, which will have the actions YOU can take. Bills that are NOT in red currently have no active alerts. Check back each week to see what bills need your help.

We are currently tracking the following bills:

• HB25-1092: “Rent Increases by Landlord to Tenant”

• HB25-1109: “Gender Identity Certificate of Death”

• HB25-1119: “Require Disclosures of Climate Emissions”

• HB25-1136: “Peace Officer Conduct Database”

• HB25-1169: “Housing Developments on Faith and Educational Land”

• HB25–1240: “Protections for Tenants with Housing Subsidies”

• SB25-041: “Competency in Criminal Justice System”

• SB25-014: “Protecting the Freedom to Marry”

• SB25-276: “Protect Civil Rights Immigration Status”

• Advocacy on the National Level

For national concerns, we respond to advocacy alerts from the Office of Government Relations and the Episcopal Public Policy Network. If you would like to receive their alerts directly, click HERE to sign up. These often include a quick action link that facilitates a ready response.

To contact your senators, Michael Bennet and john Hickenlooper, or your House representative, use the “5 Calls” app. You can download the application by clicking HERE.

• Feet-on-the-Ground Advocacy

We anticipate that there will be increasing opportunities to participate in rallies or marches in our areas of concern. Many of our members regularly march in the Pride Parade and in the Martin Luther King Jr. Day Parade. In recent times, there have been many protests and marches, including those in support of both immigrants and democracy. We will post protests on our website when we become aware of them.

WANT TO GET INVOLVED?