We breathe the same air, and we drink the same water. Nicole Johnson My grandfather was an old school farmer. Any suggestions to include newer techniques or farm machinery on […]
We are doing things a little differently for the second Sacred Conversations in our series on faith, health and the environment. We invite you to join us as we hear […]
What does it mean to be caretakers of creation when we ourselves are a part of creation, and where do we start when we know that the environments in which […]
Join the UCC Southern Conference’s Creation Justice Network on Saturday, February 29, for “Biscuits and Popcorn: A Climate Mobilization Film Festival,” at Elon Community UCC, 9:00 a.m. until noon. Thirteen […]
Partners in Health and Wholeness invites you to join fellow neighbors and community members for a regional health gathering in Eastern North Carolina. The theme of the event is “Mindful Together: […]
Emmanuel Baptist Church invites you to engage in solutions driven discussions and educational sessions on environmental justice, environmental racism, climate justice and addressing health disparities in African American communities. This […]
The Wild Goose Festival is a 4-day art, music, and story-driven transformational experience grounded in faith-inspired social justice. Come to not only learn from incredible speakers, but also to engage […]
After failing to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act, the Trump administration now has its sights set on our Clean Power Plan. For this one, they won’t have to […]
More than 10,000 individuals and 50 organizations have signed a petition asking Governor Cooper to revoke the world’s largest wood pellet manufacturer’s flawed air quality permit in Richmond County. At […]
“Biomass” may sound like a clean idea, but it actually means cutting down and turning trees into fuel pellets to be burned for energy — creating more carbon pollution than […]
We were already living in a time of profound consequence. President Trump’s decision to pull the U.S. out of the Paris Climate Agreement means that while the needs of our endangered climate are increasing, […]
Plenty of analysis is already happening around the 2018 budget proposal out of the White House. The Washington Post provides two helpful graphics here and here. More is being written […]
By George Reed, Retired Executive Director [For more information on bills, including committee referrals and re-referrals, texts of bills, procedural histories, and recorded votes, go to the General Assembly website […]
By George Reed, Retired Executive Director [The deadlines for the introduction of most new bills have now passed, and we are in Crossover Week. By the end of the week, […]
By George Reed, Retired Executive Director Newly Introduced Bills BUDGET AND TAXES H 540, Teachers & State Employees Pay Raise, would give annual raises of $2,400 to teachers and other […]
By George Reed, Retired Executive Director Bills are being introduced at a rapid pace as the Senate’s deadline for new bills has passed and the House’s deadline on non-money approaches. […]
This week, Donald Trump issued an executive order to turn back the clock on the climate progress we have made over the past decade. In addition to directing the EPA to […]
The budget blueprint for 2018 released by President Trump on Thursday cuts a wide swath through programs that serve women, people of color, those of low income (for poor women […]
By George Reed, Retired Executive Director Newly Introduced Bills CRIMINAL AND JUVENILE JUSTICE H 233, Ban the Box, would govern how state and local governments could use criminal histories in […]
The political situation at the national level has occupied the time and attention of many faithful progressives. Each day has brought with it more reasons to be concerned for our […]
We are pleased to introduce the PHW Collaborative. Mostly, it is a change in the name, so if your congregation has been a part of the Partners in Health and […]
By George Reed, Retired Executive Director Newly Introduced Bills ENVIRONMENTAL CARE H 171, Change Exclusion for Solar Energy Systems. Current law provides an 80% exclusion from property taxation for the […]
Partners in Health and Wholeness is hiring for two new regional coordinators, one to serve in the Charlotte area and the other in the Wilmington area. Both positions are open […]
The Council has added two new staffers in recent months. Andrew Hudgins is our Program Associate for Operations, and Michelle Peedin is our Program Associate for North Carolina Interfaith Power […]
Our friend Rob Schofield over at Policy Watch wrote a column on Tuesday that was as vitally important in its truth-telling as it was hard to read for the future […]
At another time in my life, I would not have spent most of Saturday occupying my tiny square of personal space in the heart of Washington DC, literally shoulder to […]
Groups at the state and national level continue to mobilize around concerns about President-Elect Donald Trump’s stated policy objectives and choices for cabinet posts. The NC NAACP, Interfaith Power & […]
We are excited to announce that we are now accepting mini-grant applications. Congregations who were certified in 2016 (and have not already received a grant from the last cycle) are […]
PHW-certified congregations across North Carolina are eligible to apply for a mini-grant to assist in furthering their commitment to health and wholeness. Mini-grant application periods are open twice a year; […]
The Council is hiring a full-time program associate to support Partners in Health and Wholeness and North Carolina Interfaith Power and Light. The full job description is posted below and […]
The amount of grassroots, efficient, and sustainable Kingdom work happening in North Carolina is astounding. People across our state are working together in various communities to promote health and wholeness. […]
Looking ahead to 2017, there is much more work for the Council to do than we ever imagined. Please join us. Your financial support helps us continue what began in […]
We are living in unsettling times. Progress we once thought inviolable now feels threatened. One constant is the NC Council of Churches and our commitment to a more just, united, […]
Partners in Health and Wholeness ambitiously endeavors to work for and toward issues of mind, body, and spirit with faith communities. The words ‘health’ and ‘wholeness’ are truly huge words, […]
“Partners in Health and Wholeness, an initiative of the North Carolina Council of Churches, is designed to bridge issues of faith, health and social justice.” These are the words that […]
Registration for 2016 Critical Issues Seminar workshops is now available online. If you have not yet registered, please use the form below to do so and include your selection for […]
Infographic by Tracy Loeffelholz Dunn / The Nation. Shutterstock images from Lorelyn Medina, Agusto Cabral The Clean Power Plan, and transitioning to a clean energy economy more broadly, are creating […]
By Brian Hollingsworth, PHW Intern, Wake Forest University School of Divinity A few years ago, my faith needed a breath of new life. Despite having grown up in church, being […]
The proverbial elephant labored and, against all hopeful expectations, brought forth a mouse. The “elephants” who run the Republican-controlled General Assembly labored and now have brought forth, if not a […]
For a boatload of lofty, noble and wise sentiments, look no farther than the opening fanfares of Chapter 113A, Article 1, N.C. General Statutes. The reference is to a law […]
The Council of Churches’ Legislative Seminar – its top-profile public event of the year – is meant to inform, and it’s meant to inspire. We’re not too bashful to say […]
The mission of the NC Council of Churches extends into many areas that highlight the links between faith and public policies. And of the various events and activities sponsored by […]
Join us on April 14 at Greenwood Forest Baptist Church in Cary for the Council’s 2015 Legislative Seminar. Held every two years, the Seminar equips people of faith with the […]
Apparently I scare Civitas. Maybe it’s my upbringing. I was raised by a single mom (my parents divorced when I was a toddler) who was fortunate to have a solid […]
The Council’s 2014 Advent Devotional Guide is now available as a free download. Each year, Council staff take a social justice theme as a focus for these guides to be used during […]
What do Tuesday’s elections mean for North Carolina? How can people of faith in the state continue to affect positive change? Join the staff of the North Carolina Council of […]
If you haven’t had a chance to take a look at the Council’s curriculum, “Eating Well: For Ourselves, For Our Neighbors, For Our Planet,” I urge you to do so. You […]
Forget the yoga mats and fitness tapes, and step your way to health in your home, while using less toxic products. I enjoy the work of Partners in Health and […]
I had the pleasure of serving on the North Carolina Institute of Medicine’s (NCIOM) Task Force on Rural Health, which was charged with creating a roadmap for better health in […]
The Watershed Discipleship Course was held June 16-20 at in Warren Wilson College in Swannanoa. This conference was sponsored by the Food, Faith, and Religious Leadership Initiative at Wake Divinity with […]
Meet one of our community leaders, Helen Livingston, of Scotland County. I first met Helen through the phone when I started with PHW, and almost instantly we were kindred spirits. She […]
Please join the North Carolina Council of Churches at the 2014 Faith and Health Summit, which will be held on Friday, October 10, 2014 at Ardmore Baptist Church in Winston-Salem (501 […]
Partners in Health and Wholeness co-hosted a youth conference on Saturday, July 12, with Empowering Word Ministries in Wadesboro. I was honored to be able to participate as a PHW intern. […]
Say this much for the leaders of the North Carolina Senate and House: When they make up their minds on a course of action, they don’t mess around. The General […]
Meet one of our community leaders: Helen Livingston of Scotland County. I was able to get her to tell us a bit about herself and her community involvement. Joy: Ms. […]
Healthy North Carolina 2020 is a health improvement plan for our state. It addresses a wide range of issues that impact our health, such as tobacco use, physical activity and […]
Partners in Health and Wholeness recently teamed up with the NC Division of Public Health, Faithful Families and Voices into Action to assess what is currently happening around shared use […]
Economic circumstances too often define us. How much we do or do not earn can put us on a path that either buffers our failures or tempers our successes. The people who make the least amount of money have the fewest opportunities to succeed, no matter how much they work or how hard they study.
For Christians, the biblical calls to justice and to providing for the least of these are foundations of our faith. At the same time, we as a nation mark this year the 50th anniversary of the war on poverty. Under different circumstances we might celebrate the milestone, but there is still too much to be done.
Recently, I received a notice from a local community garden organizer about a grant opportunity sponsored by a fertilizer company. I shared it with my e-mail group and found one […]
A cross-section of North Carolinians and progressives from other states flooded downtown Raleigh on Saturday as part of HKonJ 2014. Longtime activists from across the state walked with college students, parents […]
Join the NC NAACP, the North Carolina Council of Churches, and coalition partners for this weekend’s Moral March on Raleigh and HKonJ People’s Assembly. Events include: A Mass Meeting and […]
At the close of a momentous year for politics and public policy in North Carolina – a year that challenged many people of faith to act on their beliefs — […]
Thank you for joining the Partners in Health and Wholeness Book Club. You can officially sign-up here. Through it, we hope to engage people of faith in discussions over why our […]
Partners in Health and Wholeness is teaming up with the NC Alliance of YMCAs to identify organizations, like churches, with active youth groups who seek to improve the health of […]
Thank you for joining the Partners in Health and Wholeness Book Club. You can officially sign-up here. Through it, we hope to engage people of faith in discussions over why our […]
Thank you for joining the Partners in Health and Wholeness Book Club. You can officially sign-up here. Through it, we hope to engage people of faith in discussions over why our […]
Thank you for joining the Partners in Health and Wholeness Book Club. You can officially sign-up here. Through it, we hope to engage people of faith in discussions over why our […]
Thank you for joining the Partners in Health and Wholeness Book Club. You can officially sign-up here. Through it, we hope to engage people of faith in discussions over why our […]
Thank you for joining the Partners in Health and Wholeness Book Club. You can officially sign-up here. Through it, we hope to engage people of faith in discussions over why […]
The impact of Moral Mondays continues to extend beyond North Carolina. Two recent articles and an editorial in “The New York Times” are reaching a national audience. One of the […]
The Fayetteville Observer
Sam Thompson was looking for a sunny spot to plant tomatoes. He ended up leading an award-winning community revolution. Thompson, an elder at Laurinburg Presbyterian Church, pitched the idea of a community garden to the church six years ago. What began as a creative use for otherwise empty church property was recently awarded an equipment grant by the North Carolina Council of Churches and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina. “We’re using the grant funds to dig a well,” Thompson said. “Wouldn’t you know this would be the wettest June in years.”Winston-Salem Chronicle
The Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina (BCBSNC) Foundation has partnered with the North Carolina Council of Churches to provide grants to faith-based organizations to help them supply healthy eating alternatives to their members and underserved communities.United Metropolitan Missionary Baptist Church (UMMBC) is one of 20 faith-based organizations that have received a $5,000 Healthy Eating Equipment Grant. The church will use the grant to purchase much needed equipment and supplies to support the 10 gardens that now comprise the S.G. Atkins Community Gardens at Winston-Salem State University.
Participating in Moral Monday impressed me with a sense of fraternity and hope in the face of policies and legislation that seem increasingly unjust and discriminatory, besides being detrimental to […]
NCCC Volunteer Program Associate Sandy Irving was arrested at the June 24 Moral Monday. Thirty-five years ago today, I became a mother—and in these last 35 years, I’ve spent a […]
The Coalition on Human Needs is sharing sequester impacts and challenging people of faith to raise their voices for the less fortunate. Real cuts are harming our most vulnerable children. We […]
All people affected by this week’s devastating storms, particularly those in Moore, Oklahoma, need our prayers. In addition, donations can be made to organizations providing assistance, including denominational relief agencies, […]
The theme of this free conference is “Growing Roots: A Youth Training Focused on Gardening, Faith, and Collecting Stories From Our Elders.” The conference is for ages 12-24. There will be healthy locally and organically grown food provided by church gardens, home gardens, and other healthy local food donations.
One thing that almost every congregation does is eat together. Coffee hour after worship, Wednesday dinners, pancake breakfasts—where there is a congregation, there is food. Over the past years, many […]
Everyone gets so hyped about attending conferences. You go there, you collect as many business cards as you can, you write down notes, quotes, and things to follow-up with. You […]
Since 2010, beginning with the spring growing season, Ward Street Mission United Methodist Church has implemented a concept called, “House Gardens Greening Project”. The concept is simple. Instead of having […]
Partners in Health and Wholeness, in partnership with the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NC Foundation, recently conducted a webinar for places of worship interested in the new Healthy Eating […]
Click here for a free download of our new 2013 social justice study for Lent: Preparing the Way. This simple 10-page document combines traditional Lenten themes and Bible passages with contemporary issues including hunger, care of creation, and immigration. We invite you to join us in this season of reflection and preparation.
The Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation and The Rensselaerville Institute are looking for individuals with project ideas for creating a healthier Wilson County. Projects will be implemented over the next 6 months and must focus on increasing physical activity and/or access to and consumption of fresh produce.
Selected Community Sparkplugs and their teams will receive the following: a $3,000 grant (simple application process), individualized help to create an action plan and set project results, support and coaching over the next 6 months, and an opportunity to become part of a growing network of Community Sparkplugs across North Carolina.
Willona Stallings, PHW Program Coordinator, co-authored a section on working with faith communities to improve population health in the September/October issue of the NC Medical Journal (NCMJ). Stallings highlighted the […]
Since 1965, my first year of medical school, I knew that coal kills (see Alan Lockwood’s The Silent Epidemic: Coal and the Hidden Threat to Health). Since 1989, when I […]
Because the season of Advent is a time of awaiting the Christ child and the risen Christ, it is a perfect time to think about social justice issues. Christ’s ministry, […]
Entering into fall, notions of harvests and feasts abound. As people of faith, we are called to make our eating decisions, our “foodscapes,” as sacred as possible. We must ask […]
Over the past few months, North Carolina Interfaith Power & Light has been a proud part of a coalition of nonprofits and businesses participating in a statewide ad campaign emphasizing […]
One of my friends just posted this amazing YouTube video of Severn Suzuki who, at age 12, addressed the United Nations at the first Earth Summit in Rio twenty years […]
The General Assembly leadership is committed to having this short session truly be short, and there’s talk of adjourning by early July. In fact, an adjournment resolution was introduced yesterday with a target date of June 19. This session, which starts in May of even-numbered years, is primarily to tweak the second year of the budget adopted the year before. In addition, certain bills which were introduced last year (mostly ones which passed in one house) can be considered. For a new bill to be introduced this year, it must fit into one of a few specific categories, with most new bills having to do with budgetary matters or coming from a study commission which met during the interim. Finally, pending veto overrides are also thought by the House and Senate leadership to be eligible for consideration.
The Spring 2012 Church Council Bulletin includes photographs from the Council’s recent Critical Issues Seminar, an update on items of interest in the General Assembly’s short session, a statement on the passage of Amendment One, the Council’s spring appeal, and more.
Susannah Tuttle and I had the privilege of representing NCIPL at the annual meeting of Interfaith Power & Light last week in Washington, DC. We spent two days immersed in […]
The 2012 County Health Rankings report, recently released by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute, points to major disparities in health by geographic […]
The deadline to guarantee lunch at the 2012 Critical Issues Seminar has been extended to April 12. This year’s seminar, Eating Well for Ourselves, For Our Neighbors, For Our Planet, takes […]
Alexia Kelley will deliver the keynote address for the North Carolina Council of Churches’ 2012 Critical Issues Seminar, and Father Joe Vetter will receive the Council’s Distinguished Service Award at the […]
To register for the 2012 Critical Issues Seminar and to choose your workshops, complete the form below. The Seminar is taking place April 19 in Winston-Salem. This exciting day-long event […]
I’m pleased to announce the North Carolina Council of Churches has a new curriculum in the works! “Eating Well: For Ourselves, For Our Neighbors, For Our Planet” is an introduction to […]
Everyone eats. How and from where we get that food, how much is available to us, how it is grown, and what happens when there isn’t enough all have implications […]
The debate over whether to place morbidly obese children in foster care or to leave them in an unhealthy home environment resurfaced a few days ago when a 200-pound eight-year-old […]
