A Criminal Justice Sabbath

The season after the Epiphany is a time in which we remember and celebrate that the light of Christ has come for all people. On this particular Sunday we will join with the Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon to participate in a Criminal Justice Sabbath, which is an opportunity to make connections between our faith traditions and the legal system we are part of, and to see our shared responsibility to participate in healing. To help us make these important connections, Dr. Graham Reside, Vanderbilt University Divinity School Assistant Professor of the Practice of the Sociology of Religion will speak on restorative justice and the sociology of incarceration, and he'll help us to ask how our religious and moral commitments can shape our approaches to crime and punishment.

HANDOUTS

Criminal Justice Statistics in the US

Disrupting Mass Incarceration

Longing for Justice

The season of Advent is filled with longing. We long for rest; we long for special times with loved ones; we long for the re-enactment of traditions; we long. Isaiah’s prophecies about the nature and work of messiah ache with longing. Isaiah longs for a messiah who enacts justice, sets people free, and creates a new humanity out of the old. During this season of Advent, our sermon series will encourage this ancient longing by pondering prophetic poems about messiah, which will warm our hearts with hope and prepare us to sing, once again, “Merry Christmas!”