Justice/What's New 

Holy Spirit Hosts IHN

Interfaith Hospitality Network (IHN) is Rochester’s way of supporting homeless families by giving them food and shelter one week at a time at participating churches. Holy Spirit has been involved for many years; currently we support another host church for 4 weeks per year.

Now we are in great need of a volunteer coordinator (or better yet, a pair of co-coordinators) to make it possible for us to continue. For more details, please write or call John Orbeck at jporbeck3@gmail.com or 507-269-4118 (cell). Also check out the IHN website: http://www.ihn-greater-rochester.org.

Our next week for volunteering is January 29-February 5 at Homestead United Methodist, 13th Ave and 4th St SE in Rochester .

The next training for new volunteers will be:

• Thursday, February 9 at 6:30 PM at Rochester Covenant, 4950 31st Ave NW, Rochester, MN
• Thursday, March 1 at 6:30 PM at Christ Lutheran, 201 Frontage Road NW,   Byron, MN

Rochester Catholics Read

The difficult issue of immigration will be explored when Margaret Regan visits Rochester in April. She is the author of The Death of Josseline: Immigration Stories from the Arizona Borlerlands. Ms. Regan writes for the Tucson Weekly and has won a dozen journalism awards for border reporting, including two national prizes.

On April 27, there will be a potluck dinner and book discussion at the Unitarian Church in Rochester. On April 28 there will be a presentation at the public library; and finally on Sunday, April 29 at 2:00 PM, there will be a bilingual presentation at St. Francis of Assisi Church.

Book discussions will be taking place prior to her visit. Buy your copy of her book now and stay tuned for further information. 

Please see the links below to the letters from the US Latino bishops and the bishops of Wisconsin on the issue of immigration.

Bishops' Immigration Letters

http://archsa.org/UserContent/file/San%20Antonio%20Archdiocese-Letter%20of%20the%20Hispanic-Latino%20Bishops%20to%20Immigrants.pdf

http://www.wisconsincatholic.org/WCC%20Immigration%20Letter--ENGLISH.pdf

Annual Day on the Hill

The annual Day on the Hill sponsored by the Joint Religious Legislative Coalition (JRLC) brings together nearly 1,000 Minnesotans of diverse faiths (Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Muslims) who share JRLC’s vision for the common good, social justice, and democracy to meet with their legislators to discuss key social justice issues in Minnesota. JRLC is the largest, most inclusive interfaith public policy body in Minnesota. For more information, go to www.jrlc.org.

There will be opportunities for carpooling for this event. If you are interested, contact Margie Hake (margiehake5@gmail.com or 202-3223) or Judy O’Fallon (ofallon.judy@gmail.com or 269-7494).