Journey to Justice Day, Seattle

Last Saturday I had the opportunity to attend the annual Journey to Justice Day here in Seattle, a gathering of all the current JustFaith groups in the area. I've posted about JustFaith before; quite simply, it's absolutely the best parish program I've ever run into, and as far as formation in Social Justice goes, there's nothing else even in the running. It includes prayer; two retreats, at beginning and end; DVD and video presentations; guest speakers; field trips (called "Border Crossings"); book study (10-12 over the length of the program); and connections with solid Church institutions (the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, Catholic Relief Services, Maryknoll, Bread for the World, and Pax Christi) -- all over a period of 30 weeks of sessions, each 2 1/2 hours long, during which time participants develop a sense of shared purpose and community. Whew!

Journey to Justice Day is one of the Border Crossings, an "immersion experience" during which the JF participants meet with people involved in a CCHD project -- low-income people themselves -- explain what problem their project addresses and how they go about it. Here in the Seattle area we have so many JustFaith groups that the Archdiocese organizes Journey to Justice Day as an event for ALL the groups, and invites ALL the various CCHD groups to attend and explain their programs.

What a collection of great programs! Included were Women's Justice Circles, Latinos for Community Transformation, the Lopez Community Land Trust, the Tenants Union, and Women's Housing, Equality, and Enhancement League (WHEEL), among a few others. I was so impressed by all those who came to represent their groups... all low-income, and so many of them women. I admired their dedication, their strength, and their ability to articulate their situation and what they were trying to do. This was not only an eye-opener for so many of the JustFaith attendees, and an exposure to what institutional change was all about... seeing and experiencing those women was also something that broke through a lot of stereotypes about poor people.

My personal favorite was WHEEL, an organization made up of homeless and formerly homeless women. Two of them, Tammy and Naomi, described some of their activities... organizing what they call Women in Black, vigils for homeless people who die as victims of violence... the Homeless Remembrance Project, installing sculpture and "Leaves of Remembrance" in public places, to keep the issue of homelessness before the public eye... and Tent City 3 & 4, which are temporary shelters for the homeless that move every 2-4 months to different communities in the area that agree (not always without dissention) to host them. These and other projects are decided upon, organized, and then carried out by the women themselves, and with allies they make within the wider community.

So refreshing, so inspiring, and so powerful!