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

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.

March for Nuclear Abolition and Global Survival

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. 

NEW MVPJ Solidarity Team Plans in Place

Multifaith Voices for Peace & Justice (MVPJ) is setting up a process which will allow us to respond quickly with publicly visible acts of solidarity on behalf of any religious, ethnic, or other vulnerable communities in our local area which are being threatened, or which have been harmed or violated in some way.  Examples of triggers could be receipt of hate mail, defacing of property, threats to the well-being of the community or to a member of the community.   Our goal is to gather in response and public solidarity within 24-48 hours of learning about the incident. These MVPJ solidarity responses will be faithful, peaceful demonstrations of solidarity and friendship, and do not require the training necessary for the Rapid Response teams who will be possibly confronting ICE agents or raids.  Supportive, peaceful, faith-based signs may be brought by participants to these public solidarity events. 

 

When an action is needed, our email subject title will be “IMMEDIATE LOCAL RESPONSE NEEDED”, and the body of the email will include instructions as to where and when to gather.

 

Multifaith Voices for Peace and Justice Non-Violent Commitment

 

In all actions that it takes, members of Multifaith Voices for Peace and Justice commit to the principles of non-violence, and pledge that all their actions will be peaceful, respectful, prayerful and non-violent.

MVPJ Statement on Supreme Court Ruling on Muslim Ban

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 

Multifaith Prayers for Peace on 11th of the Month

Monthly Multifaith Prayers for Peace
7-7:30pm on 11th of every month
Friday, August 11, 7-7:30: Palo Alto Friends Meeting House

In the midst of difficult times, Multifaith Voices for Peace and Justice will host “Peaceful Presence,” a monthly prayer service on the evening of the 11^th of each month, offering a time of quiet multifaith prayers for peace and strength for the journey.  All are welcome: those of all faith traditions and of no defined faith, those who are suffering at the hands of their own government, those who need a pause in the midst of intensive work on behalf of others, and all who would like to pray with others for the well-being of all.  The prayer time will include elements from several religious traditions.

Upcoming:
Friday, August 11, 7-7:30: Palo Alto Friends Meeting House, 957 Colorado Ave., Palo Alto - Click here for map.
Monday, September 11 PUBLIC WITNESS, 7-8pm in Downtown Palo Alto

CAIR on SCOTUS 'Muslim Ban' Decision

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.

Statewide Call to Action!

California Religious Freedom Act, SB 31, prohibits a state or local agency or public employee acting under color of the law from providing to the federal government personal information regarding a person's religious beliefs, practices or affiliation.  This bill will ensure that California does not participate in any way in a registry targeting Muslims or any other religious group. SB 31 has passed the Senate and is scheduled to be heard in the Assembly Judiciary Committee on June 13th. Click here to download a SB 31 Fact Sheet. The bill is co-sponsored by the ACLU of California, Asian Americans Advancing Justice - California, and the Council on American-Islamic Relations California. Please contact your local Assemblymember and urge him/her to support SB 31.

The California Senate recently passed SB 54, the California Values Act, that will ban the use of state and local resources from carrying out the work of federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in deportation actions, essentially making California a Sanctuary state. This is a huge step in standing up for immigrants and those who could become targets of the Trump administration.  Click here to download a SB 54 Fact Sheet. SB 54 next must go through the California Assembly committees (which may entail amendments or changes), pass a majority State Assembly vote, and then be signed into law by Governor Brown.

What is most important to do now is to contact your State Assemblymember to express your support of SB 31 and SB 54 and urge them to work for its passage.

 Contact information for local Senators and Assemblymembers can be found below.

Know Your Rights

Everyone here has constitutional rights, and that includes Muslims, immigrants and refugeees.  The ACLU has Know Your Rights posters translated into 14 languages, and provides videos in Spanish, Arabic, Urdu and Farsi on what to do if stopped by immigrant agents or the police.  Click here to access these important resources from the ACLU website, and share widely!

Knowing your rights is crucial, now more than ever.  

What if this darkness is not the darkness of the tomb, but the darkness of the womb?

This is a gift to you for today: WATCH THIS VIDEO AND BE TRULY INSPIRED. 

In face of the darkness, Valerie Kaur shares the deep hope of her Sikh tradition as she speaks on December 31, 2016 at the National Moral Revival Campaign. 

What if this darkness is not the darkness of the tomb, but the darkness of the womb? 
What if our America is a country that is waiting to be born?

Valerie Kaur is filmmaker, civil rights lawyer, Sikh activist and interfaith leader.  She is founder of the Groundswell Movement.

MVPJ Statement of Solidarity

During a time when our immigrant neighbors are rightfully afraid to leave their homes, take their children to school, seek shelter from the cold, register for college, or seek medical attention, as people of faith we cannot sit by and simply pray. During a time when Jews and Muslims nationally and locally are targets of bomb threats, hate crimes, and desecration of sacred spaces, as people of faith we cannot sit by and simply pray. During a time when tens of millions of Americans rightfully live in fear that they will lose their access to health coverage, as people of faith we cannot sit by and simply pray. During a time when millions of people have fled their homes due to horrendous violence in places like Syria, Iraq, Sudan and Libya, and thousands of people drown trying to find refuge, as people of faith we cannot sit by and simply pray. During a time when these and many other forms of hate, violence, and injustice fill our inboxes, newspapers, social media feeds, and dinner table conversations, as people of faith we cannot sit by and simply pray.

As people of faith we are called to:
Speak Out
Act Up
Console
Defend
Accompany
Vote
Organize
and yes... pray -- both silently and loudly, in the privacy of our homes, in our houses of worship, and out in the streets. 

And very importantly, as people of faith, we must do all of this and more in the name of our faiths, shining a bright light of hope that together, people of all faiths and no particular faith at all, can and will stand up for peace and social justice, and as we unite in that cause, we will grow stronger in love, a love that will be victorious.