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Participating Congregations and Organizations
  • American Muslim Voice
  • Bahá'í Community of Palo Alto
  • Beyt Tikkun Synagogue
  • First Congregational Church (United Church of Christ) Palo Alto
  • First Evangelical Lutheran Church Palo Alto
  • First Presbyterian Church Palo Alto
  • First United Methodist Church Palo Alto
  • Mountain View Buddhist Temple
  • Palo Alto Buddhist Temple
  • Palo Alto Friends Meeting
  • St. Mark's Episcopal Church, Palo Alto
  • St. Thomas Aquinas Parish, Palo Alto (Catholic)
  • Social Action Committee of the Redwood City Unitarian-Universalist Fellowship
  • Trinity Church in Menlo Park (Episcopal)
  • Unitarian Universalist Church of Palo Alto
  • Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Los Gatos
  • West Bay Chapter, Buddhist Peace Fellowship

Who's Online
Guest Users: 5

Statement on Charlottesville

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In gatherings small and large, thousands have come together around the country to honor Heather Heyer, killed by a hateful young man using his car as a weapon of terror, and to rebuke the neo-Nazis and white supremacists who brought hate and brutal assault to Charlottesville.

We at Multifaith Voices for Peace and Justice stand with those vigil attendees in their proclamation that "love wins" and in declaring that hate is not welcome here.

We also acknowledge that what happened in Charlottesville is not new, perhaps only forgotten, as our history of racial, xenophobic and anti-semitic violence runs deep in American history. Our faiths demand that we stand up, name, confront, resist and defeat evil with love and in love's name and we welcome and honor all who share the same commitment.

 

Together at the Table: A Potluck for Peace

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Sunday, August 20
5-7PM
Oshmann Family Jewish Community Center
Outdoors at the Jessica Lynn Saal Town Square
FREE

Hosted by the Oshmann Family Jewish Community Center, this potluck is to honor our diversity and common humanity.  In the face of last week's hateful events, we are dedicating this meal to diversity, inclusion, equality and open conversation. Leave your signs at home and bring a dish to share with your neighbor. (Please no pork or shellfish.) Tableware, cultery and beautiful outdoor setting will be provided by the JCC.

The flyer for the event is required for admission. Please download, print and bring with you.

 
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Rally for Equality and Diversity in Mountain View

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Saturday, Aug. 19, 1-3pm
Mountain View City Hall, 500 Castro Street, Mountain View

In response to the planned right-wing "March on Google" this Saturday, August 19, Mountain View Voices for Peace and Justice, along with other organizations and individuals, will be holding a rally in Mountain View Civic Center Plaza to demonstrate our area's support for the human rights principles of equality and diversity. The rally will take place from 1 pm to 3 pm on Saturday, August 19, 2017 at Mercy and Castro Streets in Mountain View.

Click here for more information.

 
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URGENT ACTION: Urge Senator Harris and Congresswoman Eshoo to Cosponsor Bill to Restrict First Use of Nuclear Weapons

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Urge Congress to send a strong message to the President regarding the very serious threat of the use of nuclear weapons. A long list of cosponsors have signed a bill entitled "Restricting First Use of Nuclear Weapons Act of 2017" that would deny Trump the authority to use nuclear weapons without a declaration of war by Congress.

In the House, H.R. 699 has 40 cosponsors, including Rep. Speier and Rep. Lofgren. Rep. Anna Eshoo has not yet signed on as a cosponsor. In the Senate S. 900 has 9 cosponsors, including Sen. Feinstein, but Sen. Harris has not yet added her name.

URGE Sen. Harris and Rep. Eshoo to become co-sponsors!  Call or email them today!

EMAIL Sen. Harris.
EMAIL Rep. Eshoo.

 
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Local Concern for Palo Alto Congregations

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As you may be aware, the City of Palo Alto has been dealing with complaints from some neighbors of the First Baptist Church in Palo Alto about the impact their renters are having on the neighborhood, zone R-1 (Residential). First Baptist Church, as many congregations in Palo Alto, operates in an R-1 neighborhood under a “Conditional Use Permit.” At this point, First Baptist’s renters have been told to move out by September 30, 2017. Other First Baptist tenants have less time.

Click here to read a San Jose Mercury News article with more information.

Palo Alto City Councilman Greg Tanaka has scheduled a public meeting this Sunday afternoon, to gather input. You are invited to attend.
When: 2:00 PM., Sunday, August 13
Where: 3630 El Camino Real, Palo Alto, CA 94306. There is parking on the street or in the parking lot at the rear of the building.

 
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A New Map for Relationships: Creating True Love at Home and Peace on the Planet

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Sunday, July 23, 7pm
First United Methodist Church of Palo Alto
Kohlstedt Hall
625 Hamilton, Palo Alto

Dorothie and Martin Hellman, authors of A New Map for Relationships: Creating True Love at Home and Peace on the Planet, will tell how they tranformed an almost failed marriage into one where they reclaimed the true love that they felt when they first met fifty years ago. They will also explain why the lessons they learned are the same ones the nations of the world need to grasp to build a more peaceful, sustainable planet.

Admission: Free

Click here to download a flyer.

 
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March for Nuclear Abolition and Global Survival

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Rally, March & Nonviolent Direct Action
Wed., August 9, 8am
Livermore Nuclear Weapons Lab
Corner of Vasco & Patterson Pass Road, Livermore

Commemorate the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the place where new US nuclear weapons are created today. Change the future!

Program features:
Daniel Ellsberg (pictured above) - renown whistleblower, former Pentagon War Planner, disarmament advocate
Emma's Revolution (pictured below) - acclaimed singer/songwriter duo of Pat Humphries and Sandy O
Christine Hong - North Korea expert, UC Santa Cruz
Marylia Kelley - nuclear weapons watchdog, Executive Director at Tri-Valley CAREs
Barbara Rose Johnston - advisor to the Marshall Islands radiation claims tribunal, senior research fellow, Santa Cruz
Jan Kirsch, M.D., M.P.H. - medical oncologist, global warming specialist at SF Bay Area Physicians for Social Responsibility
Hibakusha speaker invited


8am Program
9:15am March - Bring large photos of people, animals or nature for which you care deeply; drummers, singers, guitarists, traditional Japanese bon dance & symbolic die-in at the Lab's West Gate followed by an optional opportunity for those who wish to peaceably risk arrest in the gates. Civil disobedience and risking arrest is not expected or required of anyone.

MVPJ is a cosponsor in memory of our dear friend and colleague the Rev. John Beverley Butcher, who faithfully participated in this nonviolent action for many years.

Click here to download a flyer with full information. 

 
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Diverse Ways to Offer Care & Sanctuary for These Times

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Discussion on Ways to Support Immigrants, Refugees, Muslims and Others
Thursday, July 13, 7pm
First Congregational Church
1985 Louis Road., Palo Alto

Join a discussion of ways faith communities and individuals can support immigrants, refugees, Muslims and others who are threatened. "Sanctuary" can mean many things. Rev. Deb Lee of the Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity has vast experience in helping communities and individuals discern and find concrete ways to engage.  Options such as advocacy, networking, accompaniment as well as providing physical sanctuary will be discussed. Congregations not ready or able to offer physical sanctuary can still find important ways to actively participate.  

Click here to download a flyer.

 
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MVPJ Statement on Supreme Court Ruling on Muslim Ban

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Multifaith Voices for Peace and Justice is gravely concerned by the recent Supreme Court decision, allowing partial reinstatement of President Trump’s Muslim ban, pending court review of the issue.  We are gratified that the Court greatly restricted the ban, by ruling that those with “bona fide relationships” with persons in the U.S. are to be admitted.  But we are deeply alarmed that, pending Court review, U.S. law now restricts entry for Muslims from the six majority-Muslim countries named in the ban.  We believe that this sets a profoundly dangerous precedent, permitting religiously based discrimination against Muslims in American immigration policy.  We share heartfelt distress with our Muslim friends and neighbors who await future court decisions in fear, and we renew our determination to object with all our might to discrimination against Muslims in our country.  If any one of us is persecuted, we all suffer as Americans, as a nation, and as a human family.  We will not stand idly by as our neighbors and friends are victimized and as our country closes its doors to people in need of refuge.

Multifaith Voices for Peace & Justice
June 29, 2017 

 
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CAIR on SCOTUS 'Muslim Ban' Decision

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The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, said the recent decision by the U.S. Supreme Court allowing a limited version of the Trump administration’s “Muslim ban” executive orders to take effect ignores the Islamophobic origins of the policy and emboldens Islamophobes in the Trump administration.

Click here to read the full statement.

For a court summary and more on what the ruling means, click here.