In preparation for the 2019 launch of the faith-based organizing initiative, we spent 2018 deepening relationships and training core teams within congregations.
Clergy and lay leaders from our 50+ faith communities began conducting extensive one-on-one meetings within their congregations to connect more deeply and form core teams. To date, 25 faith institutions have formed core teams, and nearly 100 core team members have completed CAC’s 12-hour in-person leadership training.
On Tuesday, March 12, 2019, close to 300 Christians, Jews, Muslims, and Universalists met at Congregation Beth Israel in West Hartford for the Winter Organizing Assembly. Those gathered participated in one of the 30 house meetings conducted that evening, and will soon hold house meetings within their own faith communities to uncover the issues that truly weigh deeply. With momentum and energy in the air, the body enthusiastically voted to name the organization the Greater Hartford Interfaith Action Alliance (GHIAA).
GHIAA’s purpose is to invite our faith leaders and communities into organizing together on tangible, winnable justice issues across racial, geographical, economic, and theological divides. Issues gleaned from the house meeting campaigns will be used to form the official slate of issues for the fall 2019 launch.
“Justice work happens when we build true relational power, when we move away from a helping mentality, and towards an understanding that we are all affected by injustice, that we all have a responsibility to address it, together,” wrote Rev. Kari Nicewander, GHIAA steering committee member and Senior Pastor of Immanuel Congregational Church, United Church of Christ. “Broad-based organizing allows us to change the structures of injustice, by fully listening to one another and building relationships of solidarity.”
We have spent years developing a deeply relational and lasting infrastructure able to tackle formidable systemic change with faith-filled resolve.
