Public Witness
The Pastor of Public Witness represents the congregation’s commitments to justice and mercy in the community. This work entails education, advocacy, relationship building, partnerships with larger organizations, and public witness. The three current focuses of Lakeshore’s public witness are our local commitment to immigration justice, our global commitment for a just peace in the Holy Land, and the intersectional justice work for a World Without Walls.
Justice for Palestinians
In response to the ‘Palestinian Cry For Freedom’, a modern day epistle written by Palestinian Christians, Lakeshore commits to standing in solidarity for freedom, justice, and equality for all Palestinians. We engage in advocacy, education and responsible travel practices, and we support the Palestinian-led non-violent BDS call through our identity as an HP-free church.
World Without Walls
The Bay Area ‘World Without Walls Coalition’ unites organizations working for justice and liberation. Together, we are building a world of freedom, respect, and dignity for all as we resist all walls of exclusion, exploitation and expulsion. Our recent call to action can be found here.
Giving Voice to the Struggle offers pastoral reflections on resistance to injustice that I encounter in my work of public witness.
Immigration Justice
Lakeshore is a Sanctuary Congregation, standing with and for migrants, immigrants and refugees, who are an integral part of our community, our state and our nation. We participate in advocacy, accompaniment, education and public witness, working for freedom, justice and dignity for all who live in this land. Our primary partners in this work are the Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity and the New Sanctuary Movement.
Advocacy
We support legislation that promotes justice and equality for immigrants with local, state and national representatives through letter writing, phone calls, visits with public officials, and trips to Sacramento.
Public Witness
We engage in prayer and public witness outside of ICE headquarters on a monthly basis in an effort to end detention. We participated in a state-wide banner drop, praying for Governor Newsom, and demanded an end to the prison-to-detention pipeline through ICE transfers. We also provide courtroom accompaniment, write letters to detainees during the holidays, and provide short-term housing to help get them back on their feet.
Freedom Campaigns
We have journeyed with several individuals and communities seeking release from detention and the threat of deportation. These journeys allow us to develop relationships with those directly impacted by our country’s inhumane treatment of immigrants as well as help us understand the devastation of current immigration practices on individuals, families, and communities.
Educational Events
We host and advertise events that shed light on what is happening in the U.S., why it is happening, and what can be done to embrace our community members, such as ‘Justice Jams’ events.
Justice Jams are quarterly events that focus on a pressing social issue in our community. They provide a clear, comprehensive overview of the larger phenomenon, a moral and theological lens through which to view the issue, and various avenues to approach and address the situation in our community. Some topics we have covered are housing insecurity, immigration, decreasing gun violence and understanding mental illness. These events are open to the larger community and congregations.
For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who is not partial and takes no bribe, who executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and who loves the strangers, providing them food and clothing. You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.
Deuteronomy 10:17-19