The 25th National Assembly of the Episcopal Urban Caucus
met in Newark, New Jersey the last week of February and
the theme of the conference was Returning to Our Roots:
American Cities in an Age of Globalization.
Meeting in Newark is particularly significant as one of
the urban hearings which led to the foundation of the
Caucus in 1980 occurred in Newark. Historian
Clement Price delivered the keynote address on Newark
Since the Riots.
Learning tracks addressed such issues as immigration,
jobs, health care, education, housing, economic justice,
labor and environment. The caucus featured a
special Youth Track with 25 high school age Caucus
members attending and included visits to the Statue of
Liberty and Ellis Island. The caucus also featured
the Episcopal Peace Fellowship luncheon and Rutgers
University Provost addressed a special plenary from the
perspective of government and the economy. Next
year's caucus was scheduled for Seattle.
The annual meeting of the Episcopal
network for Economic Justice occurred at the same time
beginning with a breakfast featuring the Gloria Brown
Award to an economic justice initiative. The 2005
Award went to the Good Samaritan Center in San Antonio,
Texas. This 53 year old agency of the Diocese of
West Texas has a variety of programs for youth and
adults with the award focusing on the Get 2 Work job and
educational program for more than 1000 at risk youth
between the ages of 14-18 years of age.
ENEJ also elected Michael Kendall of New York as its
new president and Aina Gutierrez of Chicago as the new
vice president of the organization while creating
strategies for the coming year for each of its four
committees..
|
