Rio Texas Methodist Federation for Social Action

March with Austin-Area United Methodists

Saturday, September 20, 7pm

The SWTX MFSA and SWTX Reconciling Ministries Team collaborate on the Austin Pride Parade.  In 2013, over 400 United Methodists participated in the parade, sharing God’s love and grace with all.  Our goal this year is 500 United Methodists participating together in the 2014 Austin Pride Parade.

Late Breaking News!!  Joining us this year in the Austin Pride Parade will be Bishop Melvin Talbert, champion of the Biblical Obedience movement and Vice-Chair of the Reconciling Ministries Network, and Matt Berryman, Executive Director of the RMN!

Participants should be registered with one of the church groups.  General questions about United Methodist participation in parade?  Contact Kenneth Henry: KDHenry@gmail.com  or Joy Butler: JoyLButler@gmail.com

2014 Pride Interfaith Celebration

When: Tuesday, September 16^th, 7:00pm.

Where: University Baptist Church

2130 Guadalupe St.

Austin, TX 78705

Austin’s Pride Interfaith Partnership announced details on the upcoming 2014 Pride Interfaith Celebration, to be held on Tuesday September 16^th, as part of Austin’s Gay Pride Week.

The free event will be held at University Baptist Church at 7pm. The keynote speaker this year will be Randy Roberts Potts, the gay grandson of evangelist Oral Roberts.  Randy is a prolific author and speaker, encouraging the LGBTQ community to live authentically.  He was featured in the It Gets Better campaign and the performance art, The Gay Agenda.   Further information on Randy Roberts Potts can be found on the website www.PrideInterfaith.com.

For more information on the service, please visit www.PrideInterfaith.com  or the Facebook page at www.facebook.com/PrideInterfaithPartnership.

On October 29 – November 1, MFSA’s national Board of Directors and Program Council will hold their Fall Meeting in Austin!  We are looking for volunteers for home stays for approximately 35 adults.  If you have an extra bedroom and would be willing to host one or more of these folks from chapters throughout the nation, please let Anne Mund (ennadnum@hotmail.com) know.

We will also be seeking volunteers for transportation of our guests to and from the airport, and to other venues, and for meal arrangements.  If you are available, contact Rowland or Janice Curry (rcurry@austin.rr.com).

These meetings will be open to any of our friends who wish to meet our board members or wish to observe the meetings.  We hope to arrange for one or more opportunities for socializing and learning more about MFSA and the other chapters throughout the country.

Donate now at http://bit.ly/1ktKNEJ

This Fall, the SWTX-MFSA Executive Committee will be sharing information about MFSA through a Power Point presentation.  We will begin this program at Buda UMC on Sunday, September 14, at 10:00am, at the invitation of Rev. Barbara Day.  If you have a group or Sunday School class that would be interested in hearing a presentation about the social justice work that the local and national MFSA organizations do, please contact Anne Mund, ennadnum@hotmail.com, and we will schedule a visit

As religious progressives we embrace a non-violent resistance to domination systems that marginalize the poor and the weak. Both Torah and the New Testament are clear about God’s dream for the world – a society of equality and justice where everyone has enough. As people of faith we recognize that all women, men and children are members of the family of God; they belong to us and we belong to them. We now deliberately join together determined to create economic and social justice for all.  As progressive religious people – regardless of our faith or political affiliation – we must pay attention and take action to combat this injustice. It’s time to turn the page in Texas!A three-day organizing event to unite religious progressives, academics, and justice activists to act in solidarity to promote economic justice.

Presenters include Ralph Douglas West,  Amy-Jill Levine,  John Dominic Crossan,  Joerg Rieger,  Keri Day,  Robin Meyers and many more.

For more information, click here.

5K and 1 Mile Family Fun Walk/Run
Saturday, September 20, 8:30 AM

Brushy Creek Lake Park – Cypress Pavillion
3300 Brushy Creek Road, Cedar Park, TX  78613

Come join us for this no frills 5K and 1 Mile Family Fun Walk to benefit clean water projects in Matete, Kenya. Walkers Welcome! Strollers Welcome! Digital timer for personal record. Inflatable!
Proceeds benefit water, education, food, and medical projects
in Matete, Kenya through World Vision.

2014 CIVIL RIGHTS CONFERENCE

Saturday, September 20

Texas Southern University

YOU KNOW THE ISSUES – ARE YOU READY TO DO THE WORK?

At the 2014 Civil Rights Conference you will learn how to strategize, organize and stand up for civil rights. You will learn to be an effective and dynamic activist.  The conference is a day-long program that will feature speakers addressing topics such as:

• Community organizing
• Political strategies
• Media strategies
• Immigration issues
• Criminal justice reform
• Coping with discrimination and voter suppression

Our keynote speaker will be Jim Harrington, Director of the Texas Civil Rights Project and long-time civil rights activist and role model.  The conference will be held on Saturday, September 20, 2014, from 9 am to 4:30 pm at the Mickey Leland building on the Texas Southern University campus. Registration fees: $7 with pre-registration, $10 at the door, $5 for students. Register here.

The City of Austin’s Ethics Review Commission and the League of Women Voters of the Austin Area are co-hosting a series of candidate forums in September to which the public is invited. If you are unable to attend, these forums will be televised live on City Channel 6 (cable). They also will be broadcast repeatedly this fall, and will be webcast on the City’s website: austintexas.gov/.

All candidates for each of Austin’s ten geographic districts as well as all candidates for mayor have been invited to participate. The dates, times, and locations can be found here.

 Austin Interfaith Fall Election Events

Austin Interfaith is a non-partisan coalition 41 of congregations, schools and labor unions that work together on issues affecting the families of Central Texas. The organization does not endorse candidates, but has an agenda and a vision for an affordable, safe and healthy Central Texas for all families.

Candidates for Mayor and County Judge

Tuesday, September 16, 7:00 pm

Temple Beth Shalom – 7300 Hart Lane

Candidates for Mayor and City Council

Sunday, October 5, 3:00 pm

Abiding Love Lutheran Church, 7210 Brush Country Rd

The Red Bench is an on-going dialogue program designed to address the most pressing needs of our time: improving interfaith understanding and civil discourse in our society.

Next Red Bench Conversation

September 23

Time: 6:30 – 8:30pm Location:  Trinity United Methodist Church

http://interfaithtexas.org/

A Night Under One Sky

October 7

ANUOS

Time: 6:30 – 9:00pm

Location:  Umlauf Sculpture Garden

Purchase Tickets
Become a Sponsor

Mark Your Calendars!

An Interfaith Thanksgiving Service & Celebration

November 23

The Texas Hunger Initiative, Texas Food Bank Network and the USDA Southwest Regional Office are pleased to present Together at the Table: Hunger and Poverty Summit at Baylor University on October 1-3, 2014.

We hope you’ll join the conversation as we hear from leaders from across the country as they share their expertise in addressing poverty, specifically food insecurity, on both a macro and micro-level. Together at the Table is designed to encourage the exchange of ideas and to strengthen partnerships as we move closer toward our goal of ending hunger and poverty together.

Keynote speakers include Robert B. Aiken, Jr., Chief Executive Officer of Feeding America, US Rep. Joaquin Castro, and Suzii Paynter, executive coordinator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.

Connections, Temple, TX

Barbara Wendland and her family foundation, The Joe B. and Louise P. Cook Foundation, are supporters of progressive Christianity and the work of the MFSA.  Barbara, a lay United Methodist from Temple, TX, is the author of Connections, a four-page monthly letter. Connections urges church members to take initiative and action to help make their personal lives, the institutional church, and the world more like what Jesus described.

In Connections, Barbara Wendland, a lay United Methodist, is urging church members to:

• Continually reevaluate their religious beliefs, their understanding of God, their understanding of the church’s purpose, and their churches’ effectiveness in carrying out that purpose
• Revise their beliefs and their churches’ methods when new insight or information seems to make revision necessary
• Focus on today rather than yesterday, and on earthly life rather than an unknown afterlife
• Notice how their personal lives, their churches, and their world differ from what Jesus advocated
• Take initiative and action to help make their personal lives, the institutional church, and the world more like what Jesus described
• Talk openly in the church about how the teaching of Jesus may apply to current issues and about how the church needs to exemplify and promote adherence to that teaching.

Barbara has a theology degree, years of personal reading and study about religion and the church, and wide involvement in the church, helping her to see and say what many lay church members can’t. In Connections, Barbara takes on one sacred cow after another. Wendland is saying what many other laity and many clergy would like to say, and she says it clearly in conversational language.

Take a look at her website and sign up to receive Connections free of charge.  http://connectionsonline.org/

Becoming Carbon Positive

The documentary, Becoming Carbon Positive, represents the values and actions of Austin’s faith community in tackling the challenges of climate change.  Clergy and church communities have joined across central Texas, forming the Interfaith Environmental Network to spur awareness and action in reducing their congregational carbon footprint.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfvICzzqyX0