More Messages to Congress and Other 2021 Highlights

United Methodists are sending more messages to Congress this year through the General Board of Church and Society.

The denomination’s social justice agency has supported a substantial increase in advocacy efforts by United Methodists in 2021, even as most staff worked remotely during the pandemic.

During the virtual fall board meeting on Oct. 21, directors of the General Board of Church and Society learned of a 370% increase in United Methodist engagement with decision makers since the inauguration of a new Administration and Congress last January.

That translates to more than 5,400 messages sent to 440 congressional offices and the White House through the Church and Society website. Staff members also have conducted 32 congressional visits and 18 visits with the Biden Administration.

Top areas of concern included voting rights, climate action, immigrants and refugees, the Israel/Palestine conflict, women’s healthcare and human rights for Native Americans.

In her report, the Rev. Susan Henry-Crowe, general secretary, noted that the agency’s programming and operations were informed by the COVID-19 pandemic and the attending social inequities that were exposed during the pandemic.

“Peace, poverty, health, climate and migration and immigration through a racial equity lens continued to be our focus,” she told the directors.

Topics that served as major markers of the agency’s work in 2021 include human rights violations in the Philippines, historical injustices in the U.S. against people of color, global climate change action and global aid for vaccine access.

A webinar series, “Reparations: Remembering, Repairing and Reimagining,” featured experts who discussed examples of reparations in the U.S., the history of slavery and the biblical theological framework for understanding a call for reparations. Some 2,900 viewers registered, with up to 500 participants in attendance at each of the three sessions.

The General Board of Church and Society also supported advocacy for a pathway to citizenship by offering the United Methodist Building as a canvas for portraits of individuals created by the Inside Out Project. “It goes away when it rains and there’s no harm done to the building but it’s really a fun project,” Henry-Crowe said.

Plans are in the works for a new IT system in the United Methodist Building, she reported. The building itself is open but the staff continues to work remotely for now and public spaces have remained closed during the pandemic. Henry-Crowe said she hopes to reopen the public spaces early in 2022. The security system has been adjusted to include a sign-in system through an iPad so the staff will know who is in the building, both for security and contact tracing purposes.

Staff reports

Mark Harrison, Director of the Peace with Justice Program and Special Assistant to the General Secretary, said the pandemic has had a devastating effect on Africa and many other parts of the world that have little access to the COVID-19 vaccines because of cost and availability. He pointed to the peoplesvaccine.org website and the World Health Organization’s campaign for vaccine equity as sources of information for advocacy efforts.

Advocacy work has focused on getting the rights for vaccines to be produced in other countries, particularly in Africa, he noted, adding that President Biden supports those efforts.

“We need to get the president also to put pressure on U.S. allies … to allow these vaccines to be produced in other parts of the world, at least temporarily.”

Church and Society also has been working with other denominations and groups on the HR 40 reparations bill, which has more than 200 co-sponsors in the U.S. House of Representatives, Harrison said.

In advance of the U.N. climate change conference (known as COP 26) Oct. 31-Nov. 12 in Scotland, John Hill gave a primer on the justice implications on the effects of human activities on climate.

Hill is Deputy General Secretary for Advocacy and Grassroots Organizing and Director of Economic and Environmental Justice.

“We know that — historically and currently — certain countries can contribute more greenhouse gases than other,” he said. “When we look at the impact … we see an inverse relationship.”

Wealthier countries have better resources to protect against impact of climate change, Hill noted. “Those who are least resourced, those who are contributing the least, have the least resources to adapt to the changing climate.”

Hill called COP 26 “a moment of great opportunity and great challenge” for the world. The nongovernmental status of the General Board of Church and Society at the U.N. allows the agency to use some of its credentials for British Methodist counterparts and young adults involved in Climate Justice for All, a campaign of the World Methodist Council.

Laura K. James, Program Coordinator for Grassroots Organizing, told board directors about the agency’s “first ever” conversation on environmental justice through an Aug. 26 webinar. The webinar panel discussed how to talk about racial equity and engage with frontline communities around the effects of climate change.

Through the Climate Action Network, James has engaged with Black climate leaders in U.S. and elsewhere.

She also engages with the United Methodist Creation Justice Movement, a “self-guided and self-directed” advocacy effort.

Budget

During the meeting, Church and Society directors approved an operating budget of $5,822,509 for 2022, which includes a 3% pay increase and 1% bonus for staff. The budget is based on a 65 percent payout from World Service funds.

Bloom is the interim communications director for the General Board of Church and Society