Help Support Our Justice-Seeking Work

Over the last 116 years, Methodist Federation for Social Action (MFSA) has strived to uphold the core values of the Christian and Wesleyan tradition, values that compel us to seek justice, promote equity and equality, and embody love and compassion in our church and our world. 

As we reflect on the challenges that our world continues to face, we are reminded of the critical importance of our work. Poverty, inequality, climate change, discrimination, and countless other social injustices remain stubbornly present. These issues demand our continued unwavering commitment to make a difference.

I'm so grateful that we do this work together. Because of your generosity we continue to be able to advocate for more just social policies both in the church and the world, make progress on issues deeply impacting our communities, and offer educational opportunities that deepen our collective analysis and sharpen our lens in order to more effectively organize across our movement. The arc of the universe may bend towards justice, but together we bring it closer to that goal each day. Together we have:

• Completed the MFSA Organizational Racial Audit (an over three year process), presented the report and recommendations to the MFSA Board of Directors and Program Council for adoption, and presented the report and findings publicly to our whole movement

• Formed the Racial Audit Implementation Team to lead the work of implementing the recommendations from the Organizational Racial Audit.

• Worked for justice across our Justice-Seeking Movement (MFSA Regional Communities/Chapters, Justice-Seeking Congregations and communities, members, and coalition partners) 

  • Worked to uphold free speech and democracy

    • Advocated and organized for free speech, spoke out against book bans and censorship, and encouraged our movement to read commonly banned books in our bookstore 

    • Justice Seeking congregation offered space for AP African American Studies to be taught after the course was banned in Florida

  • ​​​​​​Organized against gun violence in the coalition wide Wear Orange campaign 

  • Began serving as the fiscal sponsor of our partner the International Coalition on Human Rights in the Philippines- US Chapter to raise awareness about the human rights violations of the Filipino government against their own citizens and the use of US tax dollars to do so. 

  • Continued offering our movement wide educational webinars in partnership with United Methodists for Kairos Response (UMKR)

• Worked in coalition across our denomination to organize towards the 2024 General Conference.

  • Worked across our MFSA Regional Communities/Chapters and coalition partners to pass justice-centered legislation this past annual conference season. 

  • Built support around what we are now calling the 3 R’s. Regionalization, the Revised Social Principles, and the Removal of the discriminatory language concerning LGBTQ people in the Book of Discipline. 

  • Worked in coalition with the Love Your Neighbor Coalition (LYNC) which consists of 14 caucus groups that represent and/or advocate for those that our church pushes to the margins. (MFSA also serves as the fiscal sponsor of LYNC)

  • Supported justice seeking pastors, lay people, and churches across annual conferences in Africa and the Philippines.

While we have been able to accomplish a lot to build our collective capacity to make a bigger impact in the church and the world, we still have more work to do and we need your help to make even more progress together. With your help, we can:

• Organize for General Conference 2024 to ensure that progressive legislation passes, making a more just United Methodist Church

• Support the work of the Racial Audit Implementation team to implement recommendations of the Racial Audit and dismantle and interrupt white supremacy within MFSA and the church at all levels

• Continue to find creative ways to resource our movement to be a more powerful voice of conscience in imagining what the United Methodist Church will be in the future, and advocating for more voices to be present at the table(s)

• Speak as people of faith who are grounded in God’s love, care, and compassion for all people, and train more people to do the same

• Empower organizing in areas without regional communities and help build their capacity to form new regional communities

• Resource our regional communities and their leadership and offer training and support.

• Expand our justice-seeking congregation program

• Participate in more coalition-building work in the church, across the US, and around the world, advocating for whoever isn’t being heard

• Expand the justice-seeking movement of Jesus followers to transform the world

I am so grateful to work for a more just future together with you.  We can't do this work alone. Make a gift to MFSA today!

Seeking Justice Together,

Bridget Cabrera, MDIV
Executive Director, MFSA