Advocacy & Social Justice
Our Mission
To empower faith communities, ministries, and individuals to live into their baptismal covenant to seek and serve Christ in every person and to respect the dignity of every human being. Through advocacy, social ministry, and the pursuit of restorative justice, we create a more equitable and just society. In the practice of hope in the midst of brokenness, oppression, and sin we seek the coming of God’s commonwealth on earth as it is in heaven.
Our Core Values
Dignity: defined as the “quality or state of being worthy, honored or esteemed,” dignity is the result of our belief in the incarnation: the divinity of human experience. If all people are viewed as being worthy of honor or esteem, our relationships and social structures will reflect God’s commonwealth.
Equity: the idea that all people are worthy of what they need to live a full and fulfilling life. It goes beyond equality and bestows on each what they need rather than the same for all.
Hope: often defined as confident expectation, hope allows us as people of faith to desire a world that reflects the commonwealth of God. Hope is not naiveté nor is it merely optimism; it is the expectation that, as the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. expressed as he paraphrased Theodore Parker, the moral arc of the universe is long and that it “bends toward justice.”
What We Do
We partner with faith communities, ministries, and individuals ready and willing to use their faith to address systemic issues in our society through community organizing, advocacy, and informed action.
Advocacy: the OASJ engages in advocacy work to connect what the church has done so well in terms of charity with the long-term goals of improving quality of life, community development, and impacting our state. Additionally, the OASJ will maintain an active presence at Together Colorado committee meetings to determine in what ways the Episcopal Church in Colorado can use its influence for the promotion of human dignity in the public sphere.
Diaconate: the OASJ works closely with the diaconate and diaconal formation process to include an advocacy year. This includes starting and fostering new ministries, community organizing training, and community engagement through organizing and advocacy projects with the OASJ.
Jubilee Ministries: the OASJ directly serves and promote Jubilee Ministries and maintains a support network with those ministries. This includes organizing regional meetings for those involved with new and established ministries to share and learn from each other. Additionally, the OASJ hopes to invest in the development of Jubilee Ministry Centers by providing resources in areas that each ministry center feels called to grow in. This can include: volunteer coordination, human resources, development, etc.
Community Development: the OASJ, using an Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) model, determines what resources already exist in a community rather that using an issue-centric model. By focusing on assets rather than issues, we can more organically empower communities to be change agents for internal growth and development rather than bringing an inordinate amount of outside resources to “fix” a problem. Through utilizing the Together Colorado (PICO) model of one-on-one conversations and empowering individuals, the OASJ develops leaders within the community.