WASHINGTON – In light of the challenges facing America, Repairers of the Breach, a national organization that advances fusion politics and state-based moral movements, today announced it will host a “Moral Revival Poor People’s Campaign Watch Night Service” on New Year’s Eve. Religious leaders and moral activists will also hold a press conference that morning to call on President-elect Donald Trump to meet with them prior to the inauguration and to reject extremism and embrace a higher ground moral agenda. The press conference will be immediately followed by a teach-in at the National City Christian Church.
The watch night service grows out of “The Revival: Time for A Moral Revolution of Values” national 22-state tour, and calls on the nation to resist extremism and join the movement to advance state-based moral public policy agendas. The social justice event welcomes all including people of faith and those who may not be persons of faith but who have deep moral convictions. During the service, three moral declarations will be outlined including:
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A call for people of conscious to make a moral decision to enlist in the fight against systemic racism, poverty, child poverty, extremism, denial of healthcare, voter suppression, environmental injustice, xenophobia, unchecked militarism, anti-LGBTQ, and our current moment in history;
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A call for a race and poverty audit of America;
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A call for a national Moral Revival Poor People’s Campaign in 2017 and 2018 demanding that we address systemic policy-based racism, poverty, healthcare, and xenophobia.
The service will be broadcasted nationally via livestream (http://www.breachrepairers.org/livestream) and include sermons and testimonies from leaders of various social justice struggles, as well as people who have been personally impacted by these social justice issues. Religious leaders will commit not to retreat in this moment, and to stand up for state-based moral public policy agendas.
“In 1968, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and others knew the nation needed a Poor People’s Campaign to challenge extremism,” said the Rev. Dr. William Barber. “Today, we recognize that in order to challenge the extremist policies that are being proposed at the highest levels of government, which hurt the most vulnerable, we need a Moral Revival Poor People’s Campaign. Standing down is not an option. We must stand up and advance a moral movement in America, that can move beyond the limited language of left versus right politics, if we are going to save the heart and soul of our democracy,” he said.
“Now it should be clear to every citizen how prophetic Martin Luther King, Jr.’s words were when he said, America needs a radical revolution of values,” said the Rev. Dr. James Forbes. “Our moral revival seeks to reveal the actual values beneath the current anti-democratic policies, practices, and attitudes so blatantly displayed during the recent election campaign, and also to call the nation to a higher moral and spiritual plane to a set of values just and wise enough to enable us to sustain the rich heritage upon which our nation was founded.”
“The Poor People’s campaign, motivated by a desire for economic justice, began in 1968. At that time it was estimated that 40-60 million citizens were living beneath the poverty line and the idea was that all people should have what they need to live,” said the Rev. Dr. Traci Blackmon. “Here we are 49 years later, 2016, with similar numbers of impoverished people in our midst. If the incoming administration is to indeed establish itself as pro-life, efforts must extend beyond closing abortion clinics to health care coverage, living wages, and adequate food and housing for all,” she said.
“In these times, we are called to finish the unfinished business of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. – to organize and unite the poor and dispossessed, and to build a new Poor People’s Campaign that will abolish poverty, racism, militarism and ecological devastation,” said the Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis. “Ending poverty and racism is possible even today. It is what we need and what our God of justice demands and commands,” she said.
The Watch Night Service is being held at the Metropolitan A.M.E. Church where President Obama attended services on the Sunday before his second inauguration. It’s also the site where the funerals of both Rosa Parks and Frederick Douglass were held.
The watch night service in 1862 was celebrated by enslaved and free African Americans, abolitionists, and others awaiting news that the Emancipation Proclamation would become law to free Blacks living in the South. The 2016 event brings together diverse communities in a shared fight against extremism and commitment to advance state-based moral public policy agendas.
Repairers of the Breach will be joined by Healing of the Nations Ministries, Union Theological Seminary, Auburn Theological Seminary, School of the Conversion, and the Kairos Center for Rights, Religions, and Social Justice.
Press Conference and Teach-In
Who:
Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, president and senior lecturer of Repairers of the Breach, architect of the Moral Monday Movement in North Carolina, and pastor of Greenleaf Christian Church
Rev. Dr. James A Forbes Jr., senior minister emeritus of The Riverside Church, president of Healing of the Nations Ministries, and national minister for the Drum Major Institute
Where:
National City Christian Church, 5 Thomas Circle NW, Washington, DC 20005
When:
Saturday, December 31, 10:00 a.m. (press setup available at 9:45 a.m.; teach-in to follow immediately after press conference)
Watch Night Service
Who:
Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, president and senior lecturer of Repairers of the Breach, architect of the Moral Monday Movement in North Carolina, and pastor of Greenleaf Christian Church
Rev. Dr. James A Forbes Jr., senior minister emeritus of The Riverside Church, president of Healing of the Nations Ministries, and national minister for the Drum Major Institute
Rev. Dr. Traci Blackmon, acting executive minister of the United Church of Christ’s Justice and Witness Ministries
Rev. Dr. Serene Jones, president of Union Theological Seminary
Rev. Dr. Katharine Henderson, president of Auburn Theological Seminary
Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, director of School for Conversion
Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, co-director of the Kairos Center for Rights, Religions, and Social Justice
Where:
Metropolitan A.M.E. Church, 1518 M Street, NW, Washington, DC 20005
When:
Saturday, December 31, 10:00 p.m. – midnight
Watch Night Service Livestream: http://www.breachrepairers.org/livestream
Watch Night Service Promo: https://youtu.be/K6zYl_rVqWg
ICYMI: “Pushing back on Trump from day one,” via AM Joy, MSNBC http://player.theplatform.com/p/7wvmTC/MSNBCEmbeddedOffSite?guid=n_joy_moralmondaysblueprint_161211
ICYMI: Moral Mondays win “a key victory in North Carolina” via CNN http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/06/opinions/victory-for-progressives-north-carolina-barber/index.html
Repairers of the Breach is a national nonpartisan and ecumenical organization that seeks to build a public policy agenda rooted in a moral framework to counter the ultra-conservative constructs that try to dominate the public square. Repairers of the Breach trains moral leaders across the nation in fusion politics, and supports their efforts to advance state-based, indigenously lead moral movements.
