In Solidarity With....

Our Methodist brothers and sisters are in the process of aligning their words with action. Please join me in prayer and support of their courage and commitment to justice. If you are new to the issue of boycott, divestment, and sanctions or want to know more about these companies, click onto the suggested links.

Of course I wish them success in their efforts but they have already achieved some of the important aims of a divestment campaign which is to call people's attention to the injustice and the companies that are profiting. As a faith leader in another denomination, I am extremely humbled and grateful for their witness. It gives me hope that the church, as an institution, is not dead or irrelevant but capable of being an agent of radical change. Thank you.

I have posted directly from the Methodist website the following information:

United Methodist
Kairos Response

Watch our narrated video presentation (about 11 minutes) on the companies that are profiting from the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land and why the United Methodist Church must cut its ties to a
military occupation the church opposes:

(click on this icon    in the bottom right corner
of the screen to make the video larger) 

United Methodist Kairos Response (UMKR) is an international movement in the United Methodist Church responding to the “Kairos Palestine Document,” an urgent plea from Christians in the Holy Land for decisive action supporting a just peace in Israel/Palestine.  

UMKR is working to put actions behind the denomination's words and seeks to align the church's investments with its resolutions opposing the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land. To that end, we have written a resolution that would direct UMC boards and agencies to divest from corporations that sustain and profit from the occupation; this resolution was adopted by the church's General Board of Church & Society in February 2011.

The resolution identifies three companies that have been engaged for years by United Methodist agencies.  Our Book of Discipline encourages consideration of divestment when corporate engagement does not succeed.  Yet only the General Conference of the United Methodist Church, which meets once every four years, can instruct UM boards and agencies to divest.

This legislation will go to the UMC's next General Conference, being held in Tampa, Florida,  April 24 - May 4, 2012.



Pictures from the General Conference