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San Diego, CA. 92103-6397
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Communication
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Justice & Peace Commission
Strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being
GOAL: The goal for the Social Justice commission is to become a community of justice and peace through advocacy, action, and service in Jesus’ name.
Mission Statement: The Social Justice Commission will work to make all congregations aware of the activities at the diocesan and parish levels directed toward becoming a community of justice and peace through advocacy, action and service in Jesus' name. The Commission will develop an effective communication system, facilitate discussion, and collect and share resources to enable greater participation by members of the diocese in these activities.
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Advocacy
The Millennium Development Goals:
- Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
- Reduce by half the proportion of people living on less than one U.S. dollar a day.
- Reduce by half the proportion of people who suffer from hunger.
- Increase the amount of food for those who suffer from hunger.
- Achieve universal primary education
- Ensure that all boys and girls complete a full course of primary schooling.
- Increased enrollment must be accompanied by efforts to ensure that all children remain in school and receive a high-quality education
- Promote gender equality and empower women
- Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education preferably by 2005, and at all levels by 2015.
- Reduce child mortality
- Reduce the mortality rate among children under five by two thirds.
- Improve maternal health
- Reduce by three quarters the maternal mortality ratio.
- Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases
- Halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS.
- Halt and begin to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases.
- Ensure environmental sustainability
- Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programs; reverse loss of environmental resources.
- Reduce by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water.
- Achieve significant improvement in lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers by 2020.
- Develop a global partnership for development
- Develop further an open trading and financial system that is rule-based, predictable and non-discriminatory. Includes a commitment to good governance, development and poverty reduction—nationally and internationally.
- Address the least developed countries’ special needs. This includes tariff- and quota-free access for their exports; enhanced debt relief for heavily indebted poor countries; cancellation of official bilateral debt; and more generous offiial development assistance for countries committed to poverty reduction.
- Address the special needs of landlocked and small island developing States.
- Deal comprehensively with developing countries' debt problems through national and international measures to make debt sustainable in the long term.
- In cooperation with the developing countries, develop decent and productive work for youth.
- In cooperation with pharmaceutical companies, provide access to affordable essential drugs in developing countries.
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Action / Service
Environmental Justice
What can you do?
- Buy cloth shopping bags for grocery shopping and keep them in your car. This will help keep plastic out of landfills and save trees. You will get store credit at some stores.
- Buy local produce and products that do not need to be transported long distances. This helps to cut down on emissions.
- Do not buy bottled water because of the excess of plastic. Fill up with reusable containers or install a water filter in your faucet.
- Buy your food in bulk. It is usually cheaper and packaging is minimal.
- Compost your kitchen wastes. The soil in San Diego can use it.
- Buy products that pay living wages to those producing them and that practice environmentally safe production processes, like Bishop’s Blend Coffee.
- Carpool or take the bus to reduce emissions.
- Do an energy assessment for your house and replace conventional bulbs with compact flourescent.
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Resources and Links
California Interfaith Power and Light www.interfaithpower.org
This website has resources for creating environmental justice. It is a group of over 460 congregations, including several in our diocese, working on issues of environmental justice, such as global warming.
Episcopal Network for Economic Justice www.enej.org
A national organization that provides a communication network, assists members in resource development and advocates for economic justice.
Episcopal Peace Fellowship www.episcopalpeacefellowship.org
This is a national organization that works for peace and justice in communities, churches and the world.
Episcopalians for Global Reconciliation www.e4gr.org
This is a grass roots movement supporting the Millenium Development Goals. Realizing that the alleviation of material suffering and spiritual renewal go hand-in-hand, EGR seeks to mobilize the Episcopal Church to be a force for global reconciliation. EGR aims to: remain rooted in prayer, worship and community; empower Episcopalians to respond in action; unify the church in servant-action across political and theological divides; value personal, grassroots exchanges; engage overseas partners as essential partners in the journey and more.
Episcopal Public Policy Network www.episcopalchurch.org
The Office of Government Relations and the Episcopal Public Policy Network, composed of more than 15,000 Episcopalians across the country, brings the positions of the Episcopal Church to our nation's lawmakers. We represent the social policies of the church, including: international peace and justice, human rights, immigration, welfare, poverty, hunger, health care, violence, civil rights, the environment, racism and issues involving women and children.
Episcopal Relief and Development www.er-d.org
Episcopal Relief and Development responds to human suffering around the world. It provides emergency assistance after disasters, rebuilds communities, and helps children and families climb out of poverty.