VOICE Public Action is on You Tube!

If you would like to see a brief video capturing the spirit of the VOICE Public Action on October 5th, please visit www.youtube.com/9500Liberty.

VOICE Public Action Makes News in Canada!

Excerpts from an October 7th article by Olivia Ward, Foreign Affairs Reporter, in the Toronto (Canada) Star newspaper:

Dumfries, Va. - The parking lots were overflowing, and the large church hall packed with rapt listeners: women in bright African dress, robed Catholic monks, Hispanic families and white Middle Americans.

Eyes shining with purpose, they were looking for a new world that would bring the power of their faith to the capital of America, and beyond.

But the hundreds of diverse churchgoers and clergy who thronged the spacious First Mount Zion Baptist Church in this historic Virginia town Sunday were a different breed of believer...They had come to found a new activist organization, VOICE - Virginians Organized for Interfaith Community Engagement - working against poverty and homelessness in a traditionally wealthy state where both are growing at unsettling rates.

"Our church has (free) dinners once a week," said Cindy Ellmore of the St. Paul Methodist Church, attending with her husband Bill. "But it's getting to the point where the need is so great we can't handle it. We came because something has to be done."...

"We're motivated to live out the gospel in our daily lives," said Tim Devine, a member of the Rising Hope Methodist Church...Added fellow Methodist Jamecia Willis, "you can pray for change but you also have to work for it."...

"Unity is the key to solving these problems," said Arnie Grant, a national staffer of the Chicago-based Industrial Areas Foundation, which helped to launch the interfaith coalition, and builds activist umbrella groups to fight for social and economic rights.

"If you look around you, you'll see that it's not true that Christians can't talk to Muslims and Jews, and blacks, Asians and Latinos can't work together."

In Virginia, he said, "people have been very separate and fragmented,. Now we're building something that cuts across all religions and communities. It's something politicians can't ignore."...

For the full article go to www.thestar.com/article/512899

A Public Action of "First Responders"

On Sunday, October 5th, there was an amazing turnout of over 2,000 fellow Northern Virginians from 40 churches, synagogues, and mosques at First Mount Zion Baptist Church in Dumfries-- including over 275 parishioners of Saint Anthony of Padua -- for the inaugural VOICE Public Action.

This was VOICE's opportunity to introduce itself as a new, organized, committed and long-term force for social justice in Northern Virginia. In his call to action, Fr. Robert Menard of Saint Francis Catholic Church remembered his fellow Franciscan, Fr. Mychal Judge, the fallen New York City Fire Department Chaplain who responded on September 11th. Like Fr. Judge's example, he called us all to work through VOICE to become "First Responders" for social justice!

In introducing itself and clearly demonstrating the commitment each member faith community has to VOICE, VOICE also asked for the personal commitment of political leaders in our area from both major political parties to the first six Actions that the VOICE membership had voted for:

1. Affordable Housing and Homelessness:

a. Preserve existing funding for affordable housing and the homeless and, as the economy improves, seek additional funding.

b. Work to identify public lands that could be available for development of affordable housing and housing for the homeless.

2. Immigration:

a. Work to reduce the backlog in processing of applications for citizenship from Northern Virginians, which is more than twice what it is in other areas of the U.S.

b. Work to increase the number and availability of classes in English as a second language.

3. Access to Healthcare and Mental Health:

a. Secure $98,000 to staff an additional dentist in the Northern Virginia Dental Clinic, one of the few dental resources available for the poor.

b. Work to develop a more comprehensive plan within six months to provide dental services those who cannot afford them.


Present at the meeting and personally responding to these challenges were former Governor and current U.S. Senate candidate Mark Warner, Virginia State Senator and Senate Majority Leader Richard Saslaw, Fairfax County Board Vice Chair Sharon Bulova, Prince William County Board Chair Corey Stewart, Arlington County Board Chair Walter Tejada, and Alexandria Mayor William Euille. Each was also asked to commit to meeting again at the beginning of 2009 to report on the progress toward these goals.

For more information about VOICE, please join us on October 21st at 7:30 pm in the Corpus Christi cafeteria for an evaluation, discussion, and planning session for VOICE.

Saturday Washington Post -- VOICE

A Binding Concern for the Poor
40 N.Va. Congregations Are Forming Interfaith Advocacy Group

By Jacqueline L. Salmon Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, October 4, 2008; Page B09

Nearly 2,000 members of 40 houses of worship in Northern Virginia are expected at a public meeting tomorrow in Dumfries to launch an interfaith organization that will seek commitments from public officials to do more to help the poor in the area.

The organization, Virginians Organized for Interfaith Community Engagement, or VOICE, is asking local, state and federal officials to increase funding for affordable housing and health care and to ease the backlog of U.S. citizen applications in Northern Virginia.

With a collective membership of 120,000 people, the congregations making up VOICE could prove to be a potent political force in Northern Virginia. Until now, interfaith efforts there have not been as influential or as diverse as in Maryland or the District.

"I haven't ever seen any organization with the potential of VOICE in terms of actually promoting justice in the area," said the Rev. Gerry Creedon, pastor of St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church in Arlington County, who expects to bring about 100 members of his congregation to the gathering.

But the group's list of funding priorities has received a mixed reaction from public officials faced with looming budget deficits.

"I think we're more than fulfilling the goals that they're trying to pursue," said Gerald E. Connolly (D), chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors. "We had these goals long before the group even got formed, and so we are happy to have them on the scene as allies for what we're already doing."

Corey A. Stewart (R), chairman of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors, rejected the group's demand that the county spend upward of $20 million on building and preserving affordable housing.

"I'm not going to commit to that -- absolutely not," said Stewart, who nonetheless expects to attend the meeting Sunday. "Instead of focusing on the funding, we have to focus on what the problem is -- which is a surplus of housing on the market" from the epidemic of home foreclosures that have hit Prince William, he said.

Organizers of VOICE said they aren't deterred.

"It's quite obvious that, given our current economic posture, trying to go out with new housing and new construction is not going to wash," said the Rev. Clyde W. Ellis, pastor of Mount Olive Baptist Church in Woodbridge. "But that doesn't mean we have to lose sight of our goal. . . . We're coming back. And when we come back, we want to make sure that we're very sensitive to those priorities of affordable housing."

Northern Virginia clergy launched an effort to put together an interfaith organization in 2005 after watching the success of similar groups elsewhere in the Washington area, including the Washington Interfaith Network and Action in Montgomery, both of which played key roles in winning millions for neighborhood investment and affordable housing.

"As along as we're isolated -- congregation or church or faith community -- we face our own issues without realizing that they're much more universal," said the Rev. Horace "Tuck" Grinnell, pastor of St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church in Falls Church and one of the founding clergy members.

VOICE received advice and initial funding from the Industrial Areas Foundation, a Chicago organization that builds activist coalitions from voluntary organizations such as religious congregations, labor unions and immigrant groups. IAF helped found the Washington Interfaith Network and Action in Montgomery.

Clergy and members of Christian, Jewish and Muslim congregations in Northern Virginia spent three years networking and sorting through issues they believed most affected low- and middle-income residents. They ultimately focused on immigration, affordable housing and health care and then developed goals within those areas, which they presented to city, county and state leaders and members of Northern Virginia's congressional delegation in a dozen recent meetings.
Public officials who attend tomorrow's event will be asked to commit to working with the group on its goals, the leaders said. Among the leaders expected to attend are former governor Mark Warner (D), who is running for U.S. Senate, state Senate Majority Leader Richard L. Saslaw (D-Fairfax), Alexandria Mayor William D. Euille and Arlington Board Chairman J. Walter Tejada.
"From the elected officials' side," Grinnell said, "they're going to see the birth of an interfaith organization as a huge ally for them if they do the right thing or a huge obstacle if they do the wrong thing."

Labor Day Statement

An American Catholic Tradition

Most Reverend William F. Murphy

Bishop of Rockville Centre

Chairman, Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

September 1, 2008

Excerpt:

"We are a nation committed to both economic freedom and economic justice. But that cannot mean freedom for me and justice for me alone. The classic linking of the human person with the common good teaches us that we have to use our freedom and creativity not just for ourselves and those we care for. It must extend to all those who are affected by our actions and by society's goals. That means everybody in today's globalized world."

For the full text, please go to www.usccb.org/sdwp/national/labor_day_2008.pdf.

National Housing Trust Fund

A member of the team working on Affordable Housing for VOICE notes that the American Housing Rescue and Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2008 signed into law on July 30th (Public Law 110-289) has a provision that creates a National Housing Trust Fund. As described in an article by the National Low Income Housing Coalition (www.nlihc.org/detail/article.cfm?article_id=5393):

• This new law provides funding for those who have extremely low or very low income to secure affordable housing.


• The Trust Fund has a dedicated source of funding from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac based on a percentage of each company's annual new business.


• This funding is not subject to the annual appropriations process.


• Funding for the Trust Fund starts in FY10 when, hopefully, the current mortgage crisis is over and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have stabilized.

This is a good start, but makes the on-going work of VOICE even more important since this new National Housing Trust Fund needs a strong VOICE to support it and ensure that its implementation does not get quietly get diverted over the next few years. (If anything, it's roll-out should be expedited given the current housing situation!)

VOICE also needs to make sure that Virginia and our respective counties get a reasonable share of the funding from the Trust Fund. As always, our VOICE for affordable housing needs to be strong and consistent.

Sen. Webb's Response to Fr. Grinnell's Letter on Immigation

Click on the text image above to enlarge it.

Copies of the letter were also sent to County Chairman Gerry Connolly (and congressional candidate), Congressional candidate Keith Fimian, Governor Jim Gilmore (candidate for U.S. Senate), Supervisor Penny Gross (who responded verbally in full support to Fr. Grinnell), and Governor Mark Warner (candidate for U.S. Senate). As any other replies are received, we will post them.

Fr. Grinnell's letter to the Virginia Commission on Immigration on May 21, 2008:

Virginia Commission on Immigration
c/o Matt Gross
7 North 8th Street, 6th Floor
Richmond, VA 23219

Dear Mr. Chairman and Commissioners:

As the pastor of a large Catholic Church in a community that is home to many immigrants from all over the world, I am obviously concerned about the impact of the Commission’s work on this community and on the immigrant population throughout our state. As a native Virginian, I hope that the Commission’s work demonstrates Virginia’s leadership for our nation on this vital issue that impacts so many people so directly.

In the Commission’s charter it mentions that it will “study, report, and make recommendations to address the costs and benefits of immigration...including the impact on education, health care, law enforcement, local demands for services and the economy, and the effect on the Commonwealth of federal immigration and funding policies.” I would like to comment on these points from my own experience as well as that of our parish ministries that provide food, financial assistance, health care, and counseling services to the people in our community.

From what we experience here at Saint Anthony of Padua, the benefits of immigration are obvious and substantial:

· We gain young, hard-working, faith-filled families who are seeking to improve their lives and those of the children by becoming productive residents and citizens of the United States.

· As is often noted, we gain a workforce willing to take many jobs that would otherwise be hard to fill. However, perhaps less obvious is that we are also gaining a very entrepreneurial group of small businessmen and women creating jobs for others and providing needed services to the community.

· We gain a second generation of the children of immigrants who continue to be hard-working and, I see, become youth leaders in our schools and communities.

· Finally, and certainly not least, we gain diversity and the new ideas and inputs to our culture that diversity brings. In a global economy, diversity provides a tremendous advantage.

By contrast, I see the costs of immigration as being primarily the “upfront costs” for new immigrants to find a job, become acculturated, learn English, and advance their skills. As a parish, we try to assist these new immigrants with our financial, counseling, and health ministries, as well as programs in ESL, computer technology, and interviewing and resume writing. Once settled, like most families, immigrants become net contributors to our society, using community resources in relation to their age more than their ethnicity. While we can attempt to quantify these costs, I think it would take a true prophet to foresee the similarly quantified benefits.

There will, of course, be those who speak of resources spent on gang issues, use of hospital emergency rooms, special classes in schools, or simply the fear of unknown people with different foods and customs. These are all real issues, but they are more issues that cut across our society. Gangs have existed all my life and certainly well before this recently immigration; use of emergency rooms is a problem of our transitional health care system as it moves from employer-based to a yet undefined model; special classes, individual learning plans, and remedial training span schools across the spectrum of economic statuses and ethnicities. To solely attribute them to immigration is to simplify much larger problems.

Finally, I would offer a comment about the impact of federal immigration policies from having seen first hand how these policies DO create additional costs for the Commonwealth and our communities while inflicting real hardships disproportionate to any “crime” that may have been committed wittingly or not. As pastor, I have seen the honest, hard-working breadwinner of a family swept up and literally disappear from his family leaving them with tremendous needs that we all then have to try to fill. I have known of those breadwinners being moved from confinement facility to confinement facility as though allowing any contact with their family would cause some calamity. Try to explain to a ten year old child who is a U. S. citizen by birth that this is how his country operates.

Illegal immigration is an issue, but that does not mean we have to behave with bureaucratic indifference bordering sometimes on cruelty or not treat any human being who committed no other “crime” with such a lack of basic Judeo-Christian charity.

Thank you for your consideration of my comments. I wish the work of the Commission well and certainly would offer to amplify on my experiences here at Saint Anthony. Regrettably, we only received the information about your hearings at George Mason University in the last few days.

Sincerely yours,

Rev. Horace H. Grinnell
Pastor

Creating a VOICE for those in need

WHAT IS VOICE: V.O.I.C.E. in NOVA (Virginians Organized for Interfaith Community Engagement in Northern Virginia) is a new, broad-based, non-partisan, multi-racial, multi-faith citizens' organization rooted in local congregations and other voluntary associations that is committed to make change on social justice issues affecting the lives of middle and low income residents in Fairfax, Arlington, Alexandria, and Prince William.

WHO IS VOICE: As of this posting VOICE consists of 40 congregations (Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, and Moslem) and is still growing. Saint Anthony of Padua is one of the founding member congregations. VOICE is being organized with the aid of the Industrial Areas Foundation (I.A.F.), who have a long and successful history of organizing ordinary people to make social change in their communities. We are committed to help VOICE become a strong and persistent voice to our political leaders in Northern Virginia for social justice action.

GOAL OF VOICE: The goal of VOICE is Action! Problems are things that are too big to get our hands around so we give up; issues are tangible things that can be done to begin cutting down Problems to size so we can solve them. But Action results not just from congregations joining VOICE. Even more importantly it comes from individuals within a congregation getting to know individuals within other congregations, hearing the social justice issues they are passionate about, studying the issues, prioritizing what can be done now, and taking Action!

FIRST VOICE ACTION: On Sunday, July 27th VOICE held an Action meeting at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Alexandria. 38 parishioners of Saint Anthony of Padua attended that meeting and helped ratify Action on three issues affecting Northern Virginia:

1. AFFORDABLE HOUSING AND HOMELESSNESS: As we heard from a retired worker who moved to Fairfax County after Katrina, it is very difficult to find affordable housing in Northern Virginia. Rents are high and even if you find a somewhat reasonable rent, next year it'll probably go up 50% or even 100%. Listening to him, many of us who have lived here for a while had to admit we couldn't really afford to "buy into" Northern Virginia's current prices.

Some of us know from our children how hard it is for teachers, firefighters, police, and nurses to find affordable housing in the counties they serve. But think also about all the folks who work in retail establishments, who do the semi-skilled manual labor jobs, and who hold two or three jobs each to support their family. They need affordable housing too! And we also need to think about those who have become homeless for whatever reason; everyone deserves a decent place to live in some of the most prosperous cities and counties in the U.S.

The Issues: We challenge our local, state, and federal representative to turn the tide and stop the loss at all levels of affordable housing in Northern Virginia.

2. IMMIGRATION: In spite of recently raising the fee for a legal immigrant to apply for citizenship, there is an huge backlog in the Northern Virginia area of applications for citizenship. We are told the backlog averages 15 months (compared to around 6 in other areas of the U.S.).

However, as we heard from a member of one of our neighboring faith communities, he has been waiting patiently for years and years. Only after he became armed with information from attending a VOICE meeting did he question why his paperwork wasn't being processed; but surprise, as soon as he asked, they said it finally had been.

The Issues: Legal immigrants who want to become citizens and are qualified shouldn't face more obstacles just because they live in Northern Virginia. Our elected representatives need to find out what is going on and push for it to be fixed. At the same time, they need to provide expanded opportunities for more recent immigrants to learn English so they can become part of our society just like our own immigrant grandparents and great-grandparents did.

3. ACCESS TO HEALTH CARE: Medical evidence increasingly points to significant links between dental health and overall physical health. However, as we heard from our own Adrianne Bustamante, getting dental services in Northern Virginia if you're on a fixed or low income is very difficult and very expensive. The few dental services available to folks who aren't fortunate enough to have dental insurance have long, long waiting lists for services -- even if you need a tooth taken out ASAP!

The Issues: For less than $100,000 (shared by the Northern Virginia jurisdictions), our representatives could almost immediately increase the number of folks the Northern Virginia Dental Clinic serves by 30%! With that, the next step would be a comprehensive plan to expand services.

NEXT STEPS: October 5th, you are invited to join us along with over 1,500 folks from other Northern Virginia congregations to raise our VOICEs and tell our elected representatives (local, state, and federal) that we want ACTION on these issues!

But before that, if you are interested and would like to join one of the working teams in each of these areas, let us know and we'll put you in touch. And if you don't like meetings, this is a great opportunity because we really need folks to do research and analysis, which can be shared via email or other electronic tools.

Interested? Join your VOICE to ours; email fred@stanthonyparish.org or office@stanthonyparish.org for more information.