A Reminder - We've Moved!

As mentioned in our last blog post, Social Action Ministries has transitioned to a new name: Social Action Massachusetts. We also have a new blog!  Make sure to visit socialactionma.wordpress.com so that you don't miss our updates about faith, ethics and ending homelessness.

See you at the new blog!

-Caitlin Golden, SAM Coordinator

A New Name but the Same Mission: Introducing Social Action Massachusetts

This is the first post from our new blog, located at socialactionma.wordpress.com. Be sure to update your links and check there for the continuation of our dialogue about faith, ethics and ending homelessness!

In our March 30 blog post “What’s In a Name?”, we invited your ideas about how SAM, through the language we use and our actions, can be more welcoming to a greater diversity of faiths and spiritual or ethical practices. After much reflection, we have decided to affirm our commitment to social action across boundaries of faith, belief and practice by transitioning from “Social Action Ministries” to our new name: Social Action Massachusetts.

As we change our name, our commitment to the mission of ending homelessness remains the same, as does our deep respect for the religious communities who originally came together in 1976 to found SAM and work together to advocate for housing for our most vulnerable neighbors. Their belief in the importance of living out their faith through social action will continue to inform the work that SAM does as we encourage lively dialogue about the relationship between belief and action in conjunction with our advocacy to end homelessness. Becoming Social Action Massachusetts reflects our conviction that people of diverse religious, spiritual or ethically-based backgrounds—many of whom may not identify with the word “ministries”—all share a belief in recognizing the dignity of all human beings by working for a society in which no one is without a home. Whether you draw your beliefs and practices from traditional religious sources, humanistic values or other spiritual or ethical ideas or communities, we need you to be a part of our dialogue about social action—and a part of the solution to homelessness.

Thank you to all who have journeyed with us as Social Action Ministries. We look forward to continuing to work with you and with many others across the Commonwealth as Social Action Massachusetts!

A Call for Advocates: Changing the Public Discourse about Homelessness

In our May 16 blog post “Love in the Long-Term: Community Service and Systemic Change,” we reflected on a challenge that communities of faith and ethical commitment face when engaging in social action efforts—the challenge of approaching these efforts both with love and a critical eye toward what steps we must take to implement long-term solutions.

Click here to read the rest of this post on the new SAM blog, socialactionma.wordpress.com.

Jewish Homelessness in History: What It Teaches Us Now

This week, Joshua Stanton, Founding co-Editor of the Journal of Inter-Religious Dialogue, reflects on how the Jewish historical experience of homelessness informs his understanding of housing as a fundamental human need.

I first saw a Judería when walking in the streets of Segovia, a small Spanish city just a couple of hours outside of Madrid. Though not a Jewish “ghetto” in being so tightly sealed as the Jewish areas of Venice or Rome, it delimited the section of the city in which Jews could settle.

Click here to read the rest of this post on the new SAM blog at socialactionma.wordpress.com.

Interfaith Dialogue & Youth Ministry

In this blog post, originally published on the blog of the Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC), Rachael McNeal, a Masters in Divinity candidate at Princeton Theological Seminary, reflects on the question: “What is it about Jesus that makes you want to do interfaith work?”

Click here to read this blog post on the new SAM blog at socialactionma.wordpress.com.

Interfaith Social Action as Religious Practice

This week, Honna Eichler, an ordained elder in the Presbyterian Church (USA) and a staff member at Interfaith Worker Justice, reflects on the reasons interfaith social action is part of her religious practice.

Click here to read this blog post on the new SAM blog at socialactionma.wordpress.com.

Love in the Long-Term: Community Service and Systemic Change

In his April 21 guest post about social action and the Eastern Orthodox Church, D. Vasilis Schairer stressed the importance of “the transformative relationship between two persons” in the Eastern Orthodox tradition of social action and philanthropy.

Click here to read this post on the new SAM blog at socialactionma.wordpress.com.