By Karen Spradlin

We ran out of time at our annual meeting for me to give the following report. This is to update you on the status of the JustFaith class as well as to inform you of the exciting new position I will be filling as the Justice & Witness Organizer for the conference. Since I'm no longer tied to a time limit, I've lengthened it a bit.

I am co-facilitating the JustFaith class with Valerie Love. The board of Christian Education purchased the excellent curriculum and we all believe it's been well worth it. We are in our 6th week of this 30-week transformational class. We lost a few from our original group and now are a strong group of 6. The class is providing us with the opportunity to really grapple with issues of poverty and justice through our readings, videos and immersion experiences with people who live in poverty and face injustice. We meet for 2.5 hours every week -- and so far, we've filled up every minute. It's an incredible class and I hope you'll consider participating in it when it's offered next fall.

I am also very excited about the new position in the conference that I will be filling! Through my work with the Peace with Justice Task Force, we have realized that there is so much justice work to be done, and a lack of people getting paid to do it -- especially in Oklahoma. We don't have many grass roots organizations working for justice. In other UCC conferences across the country, there is a larger staff with some staff able to fill the role of justice organizer. That has not been the case in Oklahoma and Kansas. Our justice work has been done by volunteers, and it lacks organization and continuity.

The purpose of the position is:

Building relationships within and among Oklahoma and Kansas churches and empowering congregations and individuals to put their faith into action through works of social justice. The organizer will be a point of contact for local churches as well as a facilitator to local and national organizations. We have many ideas of actions I can take in this new position and I'd love to discuss them with you if you're interested. One of the main things I hope to do is work with congregations to help them find ways to express their faith through actions of social justice. Sometimes it's hard to find ways to get involved, but I can help them with that.

The position will work within a small budget $15,000-$30,000 a year, depending on how large we try to make it. The conference is planning to work this position into their budget within the next 3-5 years. In the meantime, we are doing fund raising as well. We have sought financial support from larger churches within our conference -- including Mayflower. At our annual meeting, the congregation approved $1500 from the Deacons' budget to support the position. I will also be seeking financial support from individuals, as well as grants for various projects we might undertake. I know many of you are interested in supporting the work of social justice, so let me know if you'd like to discuss making a personal donation or you can send money to the church or conference office marked "justice and witness organizer." Let me know if you'd like to see the position description or want to know more about planned tasks. We hope to raise necessary monies quickly so that we don't have to spend too much time fundraising and can begin the work.

The first project of this position has been in response to the resolution we passed at our annual meeting last year -- to pay all UCC employees a living wage by 2009. I am coordinating educational forums about poverty and low wages and the call for people of faith to get involved in six communities across the state. It has been incredibly valuable and one community is planning to create a Justice Alliance out of the group that we put together to plan the wage forum. It's amazing to see the unintended positive impact of this work. I also hope it will bring the churches across the conference closer together -- working on issues we agree on rather than letting the issues that we disagree on divide us.

So, I thank you for your support, and please let me know if you'd like to talk more about any of this. Send e-mail to: Karen Spradlin or (405) 213-3282

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