{"id":14680,"date":"2017-01-26T13:08:33","date_gmt":"2017-01-26T21:08:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/?p=14680"},"modified":"2017-01-26T13:08:33","modified_gmt":"2017-01-26T21:08:33","slug":"washington-united-methodists-listen-to-voices-we-need-to-hear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/washington-united-methodists-listen-to-voices-we-need-to-hear\/","title":{"rendered":"Washington United Methodists Listen to ‘Voices We Need to Hear’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Edmonds, WA –\u00a0On Sunday, January 22nd, nearly 100\u00a0Edmonds United\u00a0Methodist\u00a0Church<\/a> congregants and community members attended a forum called Voices We Need to Hear. The event was planned as a\u00a0listening session between members of the community and representatives from\u00a0Muslim, LGBTQ, immigrant, and communities of people of color.<\/p>\n

Michael Ramos, Executive Director of the Church Council of Greater Seattle<\/a>,\u00a0moderated the event, sharing the work of the council in the metro area. Their goal, like that of the January 22 forum, is to bring together\u00a0people of different perspectives to be reconciled with one another and then work together for justice and acts of compassion to serve the\u00a0most vulnerable in our midst. Also in attendance was\u00a0Edmonds City Councilman Dave Teitzel, who\u00a0shared (to applause)\u00a0the council\u2019s\u00a0recent vote to become a safe city where all visitors and\u00a0residents\u00a0could expect a safe, hate-free environment.<\/p>\n

Josefina, a U.S. green card holder of Zapotec indigenous descent from Oaxaca, Mexico, shared\u00a0her extraordinary\u00a0story of escaping an abusive home, life-threatening poverty, and involuntary child servitude. At 12, she fled\u00a0to the city, where she endured homelessness and discrimination. With\u00a0little education, limited Spanish, and no job prospects,\u00a0she faced the life-or-death choice of starving in Oaxaca or\u00a0making a dangerous journey to America. She described how deadly this journey\u00a0was, and expressed her gratitude to God for bringing her here.\u00a0She thanked Edmonds UMC in particular for providing support through the mobile health clinic, the food bank, a surgery, and getting her work visa papers and helping her find a home in our community. As soon as the forum finished, she immediately shared a tearful and heartfelt hug with Ron and Lynn Heitritter, who organized\u00a0the Edmonds Mobile Health Clinic.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Speakers at the Edmonds UMC “Voices We Need to Hear” community event.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Hisham Farajallah, trustee of the Idris Mosque in Northgate, Seattle, spoke about how his group has turned outward to their community, particularly after the tragic events of 9\/11, in order to create a welcoming space for all people to share in their worship. He offered an open door to all who wanted to contact the mosque and join their monthly barbecue and social time so that we could all learn more about each other.\u00a0His statement was to remind everyone there that\u00a0“Islam is a religion, not a culture”, and the cultural views\u00a0held by some of its extremists do not represent Islam, and certainly do not represent the ideals of Idris Mosque.\u00a0He invited all to visit their community by calling and setting up a visit:\u00a0http:\/\/www.idrismosque.com\/visitmosque.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Jessica Burwell, a\u00a0congregant at Edmonds United Methodist Church, described her experiences in our culture being married to another woman with a child.\u00a0She talked about the\u00a0discomfort of\u00a0being gay or lesbian in our society\u00a0\u2014\u00a0especially in public. Many people think of “coming out” as gay a one-time event, but she shared that for her it was a daily event, explaining that everywhere someone who is LGBTQ goes, they have to worry about how that status will cause others to treat them.\u00a0She described the grief and fear she had experienced immediately\u00a0following the 2016 election, and\u00a0the great\u00a0anxiety in the LGBTQ community about how they will be treated in the current day. She recommended action with compassion, even towards those with whom we disagree. “My advice is to be kind. Be fierce. Stand up for justice.\u00a0But be kind.”<\/p>\n

The stories were powerful and moving, while the tone of the event was deeply respectful and forward-looking. 60 people signed up to help speak out for those at the margins through future talks and events focussed on\u00a0compassion, reconciliation, and action.\u00a0Edmonds United Methodist church is a radically inclusive faith community at 828 Caspers, Edmonds WA,\u00a0committed to welcoming all in our midst to worship, serve, and grow together.\u00a0More information on the church or additional actions going forward can be directed to Corinne Travis at\u00a0cmgtravis@gmail.com<\/a>\u00a0or by calling\u00a0the church at\u00a0(425) 778-2119<\/a>. \u00a0www.edmondsumc.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Edmonds, WA –\u00a0On Sunday, January 22nd, nearly 100\u00a0Edmonds United\u00a0Methodist\u00a0Church congregants and community members attended a forum called Voices We Need to Hear. The event was planned as a\u00a0listening session between members of the community and representatives from\u00a0Muslim, LGBTQ, immigrant, and communities of people of color. Michael Ramos, Executive Director of the Church Council of Greater […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":14681,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[384,394,32,438,448],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-14680","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-districts","8":"category-local-church-2","9":"category-news","10":"category-press-release","11":"category-puget-sound"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Edmonds-UMC-Voices-Forums-1-2217.jpg?fit=480%2C360&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2l75j-3OM","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14680"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14680\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14685,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14680\/revisions\/14685"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}