Massachusetts Episcopal Network for the Poor People’s Campaign

December Updates and 2024 Year In Review

After a busy 40 weeks of action, the Poor People’s Campaign is in a time of rest and assessment. Once the PPC gears up again and announces the next season of action, we will be sure to pass the info on to you. 

The steering team for this network is also taking a pause until the new year. We continue to host our weekly We Cry Justice Bible study, and, after Epiphany, we will resume meeting to discuss what we’d like to work on this year in addition to supporting the PPC. We learned so much from reading and discussing Matthew Desmond’s Poverty, by America this year, and we’d like to do more group reads and discussions in 2025. There are several new books out about White Christian Nationalism, including the House of Bishops Theology Committee’s report, The Crisis of Christian Nationalism, as well as other topics relating to the work of the PPC, including Bishop Barber’s book titled White Poverty, which was published this year. Stay tuned for more info.

Above is our slide for the virtual exhibit hall at Convention.

We were engaged in many ways this year, and highlights include:

In January 2024, we participated in the Diocese of Western Massachusetts’ Bending Toward Justice conference for the third time. This was a space for us to talk about the campaign organizing in our churches and as a denomination and to meet folks in Western Massachusetts. 

On February 20, 2024, we supported the Massachusetts Poor People’s Campaign at a press conference on the State House steps to announce the March 2 State House Assembly. We are grateful to Bishop Alan Gates, Dean Amy McCreath, Rev. Sean Leonard, and other Episcopalians for joining faith leaders from various denominations to speak out about poverty and our moral call to action.

We worked with the Bishops to secure a letter of support to stand with the Poor People’s Campaign at the March 2 assembly. 

On March 2 at the Massachusetts Poor People’s Campaign (MAPPC) State House Assembly, Dean Amy McCreath again joined faith leaders to speak publicly about our moral call to act. The Cathedral Church of St. Paul served as a warming and gathering place for Episcopalains and others to meet and pray before and after the march and assembly. 

Also on March 2, the Cathedral served as host/warming site for the MAPPC event, where we showed the livestream of the assembly and provided space for rest, warmth, and refreshment on a cold day. Many people of different faiths noted how welcomed and appreciated they felt, how grateful they were for the space we provided, and how this event modeled what church is supposed to be. It was a day to not just live into our resolution to support the campaign but our call to welcome the stranger. 

In May, we hosted an online Open House to provide an opportunity for Episcopalians to learn about the campaign and ways to be involved, including the June 29 Mass Moral March in DC. 

Also in May, we hosted an online community book read and discussion on Poverty, By America by Matthew Desmond to learn more about the causes of poverty in our country. 

On June 20, we hosted a MAPPC faith leaders gathering at the Cathedral to welcome in clergy and lay leaders from our own and other denominations to learn about the campaign and a faith-led response. 

We helped the MAPPC organize people to travel to DC on June 29 for the Mass Poor People’s and Low-Wage Workers’ Assembly & Moral March on Washington and to the Polls. Although it was a tough day (coming on the heels of our General Convention), Episcopalians from across the state went to DC, including folks from the Cathedral Church of St. Paul and MANNA communities.

On June 29, we hosted a watch party at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul for those unable to travel to DC. We had the doors open and welcomed people in to watch the livestream broadcast. Again, it was a chance to be a welcoming space and invite people to learn more about the campaign and the Episcopal Church. 

This fall, we worked to help get out the vote with the Poor People’s Campaign. 

Numerous Episcopalians signed up to be PPC election activators who helped with canvassing and text banking as the PPC worked to mobilize and touch 15 million poor and low-wage voters. We had 40+ parishioners and clergy from churches across the state sign up to participate, as well as institutional support to help share information and resources, including folks from:

  • All Saints (Brookline)
  • Cathedral Church of Saint Paul 
  • Church of the Good Shepherd (Watertown) 
  • Church of the Holy Spirit (Mattapan)
  • Creation Care Justice Network 
  • Diocese of Massachusetts
  • Diocese of Western Massachusetts
  • Episcopal City Mission
  • Grace Church (Great Barrington)
  • Grace Church (Newton)
  • Parish of the Epiphany (Winchester)
  • St. Andrews (Framingham)
  • St. Anne’s In the Fields (Lincoln)
  • St. Dunstan’s (Dover)
  • St. Mary’s (Newton)
  • St. Mark’s (Foxboro)
  • St. Paul’s (Natick)
  • St. Paul’s (Holyoke)
  • St. Peter’s (Cambridge)
  • St. Stephen’s (Boston)

Dean Amy McCreath spoke at the MAPPC press conference in September in Holyoke to announce the PPC nationally coordinated canvass weekend, and she and other Episcopalians from across the state joined the MAPPC to canvass in Holyoke. 

Church of the Holy Spirit in Mattapan hosted a MAPPC canvassing event in October for the 2nd nationally coordinated canvassing weekend. Episcopalians joined others in the Boston area to do outreach in Mattapan, and several folks also joined other MAPPC canvassing locations that weekend.

On the administrative side, we:
1. Upgraded our newsletter from a Google Doc sent via email to a more user-friendly form using Constant Contact.
2. Created a Network Zoom account to host our weekly We Cry Justice meetings, steering team meetings, book reads and other online network events. We give thanks to the diocese for this support for the network.

We continue to:
1. Host a weekly Bible study meeting of We Cry Justice: Reading the Bible with the Poor People’s Campaign. Our numbers grew again this year, and we have a steady group who attend weekly and others who pop in when they can. Each week is self-contained, and we welcome all to join us! We are currently on our second reading of the book, and like our lectionary, we learn something new with each reading, conversation, and prayer around the chapters. 
2. Send out a Monthly Newsletter with information on the PPC, including ways to be involved, justice news and events in the dioceses of MA and Province I, news articles on topics of injustice, and more. If you want to catch up, you can view our archived newsletters here. 
3. Host a MA Episcopal network for the PPC Website with news and ways to get involved and stay connected.
4. Host a MA Episcopal network for the PPC Facebook page.
5. Work with the MAPPC faith leader trichair to help grow ecumenical support for the campaign.

A full report, which we submitted to the Diocese of Massachusetts 2024 Convention in October, can be read here. Please note the GOTV activities were still pending at that time so they were not detailed in the report as they are above.

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

ABOUT US

Welcome to the Massachusetts Episcopal Network for the Poor People’s Campaign (MAPPCEN) web page, and thanks to St. Dunstan’s for hosting us!

Drawing from the resolution passed at the 2022 Diocesan Convention, we acknowledge that issues of poverty and justice are interconnected and cannot be adequately addressed with siloed action. These injustices adversely affect us, our siblings, both locally and globally. We commit to ministries of active engagement, advocacy, and support.

We hope Episcopalians in Massachusetts will join in solidarity with the Massachusetts Poor People’s Campaign (MAPPC), whose goals overlap substantially with the justice ministries currently happening, and participate through education, formation, engagement, support, and/or actions, all providing avenues for us to live into our mission strategy.

The network offers Episcopalians in Massachusetts a Bible study based on We Cry Justice, public witness, and actions of solidarity with the campaign at the local, state, and national level.

The network also plans to highlight and support the related justice work already underway, to provide opportunities to build relationships and spread the good news of the work being done.

Mission – What is our purpose?

Our purpose is twofold:

  • Connect local Episcopalians to the actions of the Poor People’s Campaign (PPC) movement for people at the local, state, and national levels
  • Foster supportive relationships among those doing justice work in the Dioceses of Massachusetts

Goals – What will we do?

Support the PPC movement to build the political will to eliminate systemic racism, poverty, ecological devastation, militarism and the war economy, and the distorted moral narrative of religious nationalism.

  • Serve as a bridge to help Episcopalians in MA connect with PPC (via MAPPC), and channel them into action
  • Enable Episcopalians to stand in solidarity with MAPPC/PPC – coalesce when there is an action

Support the constellation of related justice work being done in the Dioceses of MA.

  • Collaborate and support justice organizations in our Diocese and connect with Western MA
  • Connecting and highlighting social justice work done by Episcopalians in our state
  • Build relationships among Episcopalians in Massachusetts doing justice work, giving them opportunities to share their experiences

Tactics – How will we do it?

  • We Cry Justice Bible studies
  • Newsletter to share MAPPC and DioMass Justice news
  • Annual conference/gathering
  • Mobilizing communications for action
  • Others as we discern them

We began gathering as a network in 2022, working to connect people across our dioceses who are interested in learning more about the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival (PPC), how our faith calls us to learn about the five interlocking justices and fight against them, and how we can engage with and support the PPC. You can read about us in the DioMass News HERE.

Since our formation, we have:

  • Participated in the Mass Poor People’s and Low Wage Workers’ Assembly and Moral March on Washington and to the Polls in Washington, D.C., on June 18, 2022.
  • Presented a resolution in support of the PPC at the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts 2022 Annual Convention (and it passed!). You can read the resolution and the full convention report for more information, and the resolution is a way to live into our Mission Strategy 2021.
  • Created a monthly newsletter with info on justice work being done here in Massachusetts and at the national church level, as well as news on the PPC and related news articles. You can read all our newsletters here. If you would like to be on our email list and/or have info to add, please email us at [email protected].
  • Built a MAPPC EN Google Calendar. This lists justice events going on across the state and online, with links to more info. A great way to see all the impressive work being done by churches and groups across the state and find ways to get involved. If you have events to add, please email us at [email protected].

If you’d like to be part of the steering team for our network and/or be a liaison between our network and one of the justice groups in our dioceses, please email us at [email protected].

Network Steering Team Members:
Phoebe Chatfield, Cathedral Church of St. Paul (Boston)
Rev. Jer Colvin, St. Luke’s (Hudson)
Claudette Gates, Church of the Holy Spirit (Mattapan)
Meredith Haider, Grace Church (Great Barrington)
Dan Fields, St. Paul’s (Natick)
Martha Gardner, Cathedral Church of St. Paul (Boston)
Rev. Sean Leonard, St. Dunstan’s (Dover)
The Very Rev. Amy McCreath, Dean, Cathedral Church of St. Paul (Boston)
Connie McGrane, Parish of the Epiphany (Winchester)
Amelia Slawsby, St. Dunstan’s (Dover)
Rebecca Spangler, Cathedral Church of St. Paul (Boston)
Wendy Wheeler, All Saints (Brookline)
Kris Wile, St. Andrews (Framingham)