As part of the effort to raise awareness of justice issues across the Episcopal Diocese of Newark, the Commission for Justice and Peace is spearheading a communications effort to inform people across the diocese about the work of the eight groups leading our diocesan justice ministries and encourage them to get involved. For each edition of The Voice Online throughout the rest of the year, we are highlighting the justice work that is happening at the diocesan level. The focus for this edition is on the Justice goals and initiatives of the diocese’s Strategic Vision, and what we have done thus far to begin collaborating and coordinating among these various justice ministries in order to implement these important initiatives.
Within the Strategic Vision, there are three goals related to our justice work with two to three initiatives identified under each goal that will move us toward reaching it:
Justice for People & Planet Goal One: Identify 2-3 key issues and engage in proactive advocacy to achieve systemic change in those areas.
Initiative 1 – Create a Justice for People & Planet Commission (or expand the mission of the Commission for Justice & Peace) to act as the umbrella group that will communicate efforts of the various diocesan justice groups and implement the initiatives in this priority area.
Initiative 2 – Develop a process for diocesan leadership to identify and approve large-scale issues to pursue.
Justice for People & Planet Goal Two: Inform all congregations and its members of immediate opportunities and actions to take for social justice and creation care.
Initiative 1 – Engage current diocesan bodies and committees to research and track issues and opportunities for action.
Initiative 2 – Create systems to identify and communicate diocesan-wide actions and priorities to pursue in a timely manner and engage congregations in taking action.
Justice for People & Planet Goal Three: All congregations commit to learn about and discern one justice or creation care issue to act on for systemic change.
Initiative 1 – Pursue formation and discernment for all congregations to understand our baptismal covenant’s call to act for love, peace and justice for people and planet.
Initiative 2 – Have each congregation adopt a covenant expressing their commitment to work for systemic change in the areas of justice and creation care that the entire Diocese is supporting–or in another area of their choosing.
Initiative 3 – Develop support systems (that also build momentum and accountability into place) to assist congregations in sustaining justice and creation care work.
For 2024, the Diocesan Council, which is overseeing the implementation of the vision, is focused on building the communications structures needed to implement the full plan. In the justice arena, a consultant has been working with the Commission on Justice & Peace and the other groups to develop a collaboration and coordination plan for the eight justice groups, as well as an external communications plan to engage the entire Diocese in their collective work.
As part of this coordination effort, the Co-Chairs of all eight groups meet quarterly with Bishop Hughes to discuss their work, collaborate on activities, and offer support to one another. Members of all the groups are now included in a joint listserv that can be used to promote events and activities, request assistance, and share important news and resources with each other. The Communications Office is also setting up a shared Dropbox, so that groups can easily share materials and other resources. As they begin to use these new tools, the groups will create a few metrics to determine how effective they are in supporting this new collaboration. More updates about our progress in these justice initiatives will follow in 2025.
