Literacy is a social justice issue. You may already know that the United Church of Christ has had a focus on literacy for the past year – a focus called Reading Changes Lives, where churches were encouraged to read books together. On the website by that same name you will find additional lists of things that your church can do and ways your church can make a difference around literacy.
This literacy initiative continues this spring with March Forth for Literacy, promoting denomination-wide goals and hands-on participation, similar to past all-church initiatives. Later this year, General Synod 30, (late June in Cleveland) will highlight literacy as a service project focus and ask Synod attendees to participate within the greater Cleveland community, one of the country's urban centers of illiteracy.
March Forth for Literacy begins this week Wednesday, March 4th - a day for a concentrated focus on literacy awareness throughout the UCC. This effort invites our congregations to a renewed opportunity to share with the wider church their involvement in literacy issues locally and nationally, and will give individuals the chance to share their experiences, either as volunteers with literacy organizations or persons who have struggled with literacy themselves.
I will be interested in learning how your church is addressing this issue, which some of you may already be doing! I ran across an amazing YOUTUBE video on Facebook that highlights some of the basic reasons we need to pay attention to literacy as a justice issue. I am providing the link here to help us all understand what a huge problem this is for our country – it is called Reading Changes Lives and is available at http://youtu.be/SwtIXgj2P2A
This literacy initiative continues this spring with March Forth for Literacy, promoting denomination-wide goals and hands-on participation, similar to past all-church initiatives. Later this year, General Synod 30, (late June in Cleveland) will highlight literacy as a service project focus and ask Synod attendees to participate within the greater Cleveland community, one of the country's urban centers of illiteracy.
March Forth for Literacy begins this week Wednesday, March 4th - a day for a concentrated focus on literacy awareness throughout the UCC. This effort invites our congregations to a renewed opportunity to share with the wider church their involvement in literacy issues locally and nationally, and will give individuals the chance to share their experiences, either as volunteers with literacy organizations or persons who have struggled with literacy themselves.
I will be interested in learning how your church is addressing this issue, which some of you may already be doing! I ran across an amazing YOUTUBE video on Facebook that highlights some of the basic reasons we need to pay attention to literacy as a justice issue. I am providing the link here to help us all understand what a huge problem this is for our country – it is called Reading Changes Lives and is available at http://youtu.be/SwtIXgj2P2A
