Events

As the Christian holiday season descends we re-read the story of Joseph and Mary who were told there was no room at the Inn, just as we are told that there is no housing for the homeless, no healthcare for the sick, no refuge for the immigrant. As the poor and dispossessed we are not looking for empty Christmas celebrations but the abundance that Jesus proclaimed for all and not just a few. This season, we see that a movement is being born in the forgotten mangers, the poor hoods and hollers of the nation. May we spread this good news that ending poverty and homelessness aren’t only possible, they are what God demands of us. 

Our revolutionary mothers and caregivers have tended generations of revolutionaries with patient urgency. This week we celebrate how God has lifted the lowly and brought down the rich through the movements of the poor past and present, while looking to the policies that would lift the heartbreak of poverty for children, families, and caregivers. Scripture

As we continue in the Winter Offensive season, we remember those who have died in the past year due to poverty and homelessness. The annual memorial for National Union of the Homeless highlights the challenges that the longest night of the year brings to those whose only roof is a winter sky, and to those most impacted by policy violence. This week we celebrate the conception of Immanuel, the God who chose such a night for his incarnation and whose life teaches us to mourn the dead and to fight like hell for the living. Scripture Reading: Matthew 1:18-25

Join us as we commemorate the Annual National Homeless Memorial Day in NYC and condemn the mass graves of unnamed poor and homeless men, women and children in “Potters’ Fields” around the country and internationally. We will share food and sing, give voice to our plight, and continue our collective fight demanding housing for all.

Join us Sunday December 25th for Christmas with Freedom Church of the Poor. As we continue through the 2022/2023 Winter Offensive Organizing Drive, we will be uplifting this revolutionary time of year; when the old ends and the new begins - a rebirth of values and morality for a new year ahead. As part of the ceremony we will engage in lighting candles, as each presenter gives testimony, to represent those we have lost due to this unjust system. The scripture reading will be Luke 2:1-20, which tells of the birth of a revolutionary and of a revolution!

We look ahead to the new year with strengthened commitment to realize a world rooted in love and guided by justice and truth. Like early Christians communities a central part of our struggle today is against a religion that degrades and divides us; a religion in the service of Empire. Leaders from Put People First Pennsylvania and La Iglesia del Pueblo will join and help us expose how these forces express themselves in the US and across the world. Their communities of struggle also gives us a glimpse of the world that we need and deserve, one of abundance life for all. Scripture reading: Luke 11:42, 46-52

Continuing our Winter Offensive series inspired by the National Union of the Homeless, this week the Freedom Church of the Poor reflects on Jesus as a revolutionary leader. According to the gospels, Jesus found his divine mission to proclaim “good news to the poor” in Hebrew scripture (Isaiah 61). Organizer and theologian, Rev. Erica Williams, will preach on this revolutionary Jesus, who overturned money changer’s tables and was executed by the Roman Empire. Scripture reading: Luke 20:1-8, 17-19

Join The King Center for the 2023 Beloved Community Global Summit, as a part of the 2023 King Holiday Observance! Kairos Director Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis will be speaking on January 12th from 2:30-3:45. The opening and closing sessions with Dr. Bernice A. King, CEO of The King Center, are hybrid events. Participants may register

Register featuring: * Reverend Dr. Liz Theoharis * Pastor Michael McBride of Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft * Judith LeBlanc of Native Organizers Alliance * Daniel Ellsberg * Khury Petersen-Smith of Institute for Policy Studies * David Swanson of World Beyond War * Rev. Theoharis * Norman Solomon * Hanieh Jodat – Moderator

Reimagining King’s Vision - The Fierce Urgency of Now” will take place on Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday, Sunday, January 15 from 4-5:30 pm EST. From Ukraine to Uvalde we see the crises of which Rev. Dr. King warned, militarism, materialism, racism and the prospect of spiritual death. This webinar will address how we

Which MLK Jr do we remember? In our final week of the Winter Offensive we lift up the King who proclaimed the need for “restructuring the whole of American society” and called forward the leadership of the poor to get us to the revolution of values that would make it possible.
Sacred Text: Mark 10:17-31 and an excerpt from Martin Luther King Jr. “Where Do We Go from Here?” (SCLC Convention, August 1967).

The 2023 “Reducing the Threat of Nuclear War” Conference will be held virtually on Saturday January 21, 1-6 pm (Eastern). This annual gathering is one of the major national conferences addressing this acute problem.   Given the tragic events in Ukraine, tensions with China over Taiwan, and provocations from North Korea, we need to accelerate