While needs are still being assessed, those who would help are being urged not to go to West, the tiny town, population about 2,500, where the disaster occurred.

Instead, they may channel their assistance by donating blood at a local center or to assembling cleaning buckets, which will soon be in great need, and health kits. These relief kits can be shipped to any of the eight depots in the UMCOR Relief-Supply Network.

For updated information about how to help going forward, please call UMCOR’s toll-free number: 1-800-554-8583. Those who would help are urged, again, not to telephone the conference directly so that personnel there can attend to the needs at hand.

Your donation to US Disaster Response, UMCOR Advance #901670, will support UMCOR’s efforts to bring relief to the survivors of this and other disasters. http://ctcumc.org/

We Need Your Books!

For several years, SWT-MFSA has sponsored a Book Fair at Annual Conference.  Members and friends box up their gently used religious and spiritual books, and we haul them to Corpus Christi.  It becomes like a treasure hunt at our tables!  People contribute to us according to what they think the books are worth to them.  It has been quite successful for the past 4 or 5 years, but to make it happen, we need your books!  Contact Rowland Curry (rcurry@austin.rr.com) and we will arrange to pick them up.

Living on the Edge

Friday, June 7, 2013 – Noon

American Bank Convention Center
Garrett Pre-Conference Room
Corpus Christi, Texas

A Peace & Justice Luncheon Sponsored by

Southwest Texas Conference Board of Church & Society

Methodist Federation for Social Action, SWTX Chapter

Featuring          

 Rev. Lorenza Andrade Smith

Rev. Andrade-Smith is a UMC pastor, who is living on the streets in solidarity with the poor.  Her mission is to minister with the poor and marginalized, advocating for systemic changes.  You can follow her ministry journey on Facebook at:

https://www.facebook.com/lorenza.andradesmith

Join your friends for this on-site luncheon.  In addition, we’ll honor the recipients of the MFSA “Building a Just Community” Awards.

Luncheon Registration Information

Cost:   $12.00 in advance (by June 1) – Check or cash

$15.00 at the door (limited number available)

Or, pay by credit card* – http://www.eventbrite.com/event/5854598261

For the full luncheon invitation, go to our website link.

The Southwest Texas Reconciling Ministries Team is working hard to advance the cause of opening hearts, minds and doors.

Video Project: Each United Methodist Church that is affiliated with RMN in our Annual Conference is making video  featuring church members telling what it means to them personally to belong to a Reconciling congregation or community. These videos are very effective because they feature individual testimony, which is very moving.  We need to pull together Travis Park UMC volunteers to make our own video. We especially need folks with video editing experience and access to better technology than a cell phone camera. Are you called to be in ministry through this project? Contact Rachel – Rachel.Jennings@utsa.edu

Sewing Stoles for Annual Conference: We are working to make the Reconciling movement more visible by making rainbow -colored stoles to distribute at Annual Conference, which meets in June in Corpus Christi. Two years ago, many Travis Park UMC volunteers helped with this hands-on community project and had a great time working together. People are needed to trace, cut, sew, iron, provide food for the crew, etc. On-the-job training provided!  Please email Rachel Jennings – Rachel.Jennings@utsa.edu – to express interest in volunteering on Saturday, April 27, noon – 1:30pm.

Bullying is a term so common to our schools and culture that its consequences are often overlooked or avoided. For many of our young people who are bullied or who bully, this is a mountain so high it cannot be walked over and so wide it cannot be talked around.

On Sunday, April 28th, several youth groups around the Austin District will gather at St. John’s UMC from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m. to plant seeds of change. With parents, youth, and other community supporters, we will view and discuss “Bully,” a documentary exploring personal stories of those touched by bullying.

Dinner will be provided; a love offering will be appreciated. To RSVP for this event, contact Mary Ann, Youth Director at University UMC, at makaiser@uumc.org. To watch the trailer or for more information about “Bully,” visit www.thebullyproject.com

April 24: Elroy Chester
April 25: Richard Cobb
May 7:    Carroll Parr
May 15: Jefferey Williams
May 21: Robert Pruett

The TCADP 2013 Spring Newsletter is available online.

Amnesty International has released its annual report on death sentences and executions for 2012. Worldwide, 682 people were executed this past year, compared to 680 in 2011.  Sentencing fell from 1,923 death sentences in 63 countries in 2011 to 1,722 in 58 countries in 2012.  Amnesty International asserts that the global trend is towards abolition, and the U.S. figures certainly give such an assertion some validity.  The United States is responsible for 43 executions, essentially the same as in 2011; however, only 9 states carried out executions compared to 13 in 2011. The number of new death sentences (77) was the second lowest since capital punishment was reinstated in 1976, and only occurred in 18 of 33 states retaining the death penalty.  Notably, Connecticut became the 17^th state to abolish the death penalty!

On April 16, 2013, the Texas House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee considered House Bill 2458, which seeks to prohibit the imposition of a death sentence or execution under any judgment that was sought or obtained on the basis of race.  TCADP Executive Director Kristin Houlé testified in support of the bill in front of the committee, as did Yannis Banks, Legislative Liaison for the Texas NAACP and Cindy Eigler, Policy Specialist for the Texas Interfaith Center for Public Policy.  Former Texas Governor Mark White and Linda Geffin, one of the trial prosecutors in the 1997 Harris County case of Duane Buck, provided written testimony in support of the bill, as well.

Several groups registered support for the bill, including the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers’ Association, the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition, Texas Fair Defense Project, the ACLU of Texas, Texas Defender Service, and the Texas Catholic Conference.  HB 2458 was left pending in the committee.

In the April 19 edition of the Austin Chronicle, reporter Jordan Smith presents an article about Elroy Chester, a death-row inmate now scheduled to be executed on June 12, 2013.

Chester pleaded guilty and was sentenced to death in 1998 for the fatal shooting of Port Arthur firefighter Willie Ryman III.  Ryman was killed when he tried to stop Chester from raping his two nieces.

The Chronicle article is based on a key issue that Chester is mentally retarded, according to his attorney Susan Orlansky.  This circumstance should make him ineligible for execution, based on a 2002 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court barring execution of the mentally impaired as cruel and unusual punishment.  “He has a compelling case for mental retardation,” she says.

The article asserts that Chester was placed in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s Mentally Retarded Offenders Program during his previous stays in prison.  Nonetheless, the courts have repeatedly determined that Chester has not proven he is mentally retarded, and is thus eligible for execution.

1:    Webinar: Addressing the Needs of Victims in Death Penalty Cases: The Role and Responsibility
of the Defense http://bit.ly/11JSJFO

7:    Scheduled Execution – Carroll Parr

14: The New Jim Crow in Texas w/ Michelle Alexander,
King of Glory Lutheran Church, Dallas 1:00pm   www.ntnl.org

15: Scheduled Execution – Jeffery Williams;
Dallas Religious Organizing Committee 6:00pm, Chapter meeting 7:00pm, dallas@tcadp.org

20: El Paso Chapter Meeting, 7:00pm, elpaso@tcadp.org

21:  Scheduled execution – Robert Pruett