NH & the Global Church

New Hampshire Council of Churches Executive Director Sabbatical

 

 The summer of 2008 David Lamarre-Vincent, Executive Director of the NHCC was on sabbatical.

 

The primary theme was how the diversity of the global church in New Hampshire with riches of ethnic/racial/language/religious diversity can be transformative of the whole church in NH.

 

Follow him from a delegation on trade, migration and workers rights in the US-Mexico border region, to a faithful health care reform consultation, to a Whole Communities Thinking retreat, to visits to NH ethnic, racial and global language churches. He will be building this website with blogs, photos, stories, videos and more.

The first leg of the sabbatical will be May 21 to 26, 2008. Lamarre-Vincent heads to Texas and northern Mexico next week with a delegation to look into trade, migration, and workers rights in the US-Mexico border region.

 

Contact him at David@NHchurches.org or David@BibleNH.org or call the New Hampshire Council of Churches / New Hampshire Bible Society office for reports on the trip or to book a speaking engagement for this fall.

 

Additional information about speaking topics from the sabbatical will be posted on this sabbatical website.

 

 

New Hampshire Council of Churches Executive Director returns from Interfaith Delegation to Israel and Palestine - Israelis and Palestinians share insight on the question of apartheid and hope for peace

Washington, DC — David Lamarre-Vincent, Executive Director of the New Hampshire Council of Churches, has returned from a unique delegation to Israel and Palestine.  Mr. Lamarre-Vincent, along with thirteen other participants from around the US landed in Tel Aviv on July 28 for a two-week trip through the conflict zone. The delegates investigated the question of apartheid in the Israeli-Palestinian context while meeting with representatives of Israeli and Palestinian civil society, religious leaders, politicians, businesspeople, farmers, students, Human Rights workers, former combatants and more. 

Participation in the Interfaith Peace Builders delegation was a cornerstone of Mr. Lamarre-Vincent’s summer sabbatical focused upon grassroots stories of interfaith understanding, whole community environmental thinking, and ethnic/racial/language diversity in the New Hampshire church community.  “Middle East peace hinges upon settlement of the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. This instability poses the greatest threat to world peace and support for the Israeli and Palestinian peace movements offers hope,” he explains.  “Upon seeing and hearing the frustrations, fears and hopes of Israelis and Palestinians, New Hampshire religious leaders can support peace with justice based upon realities, not preconceptions.”

 

 

Interfaith Health Care Reform Consultation

June 2-4, 2008

Cleveland, OH

It is with great enthusiasm that I write to you about this week's Cleveland, Ohio, Interfaith Health Care Reform Meeting. On behalf of the New Hampshire Council of Churches, thank you for all you have done to this point in NH for a unified voice for reform.

I have a two minute request. Click onto the web link below for a revelation regarding not only the content (role of faith in health care reform) but also the medium that allow many more than the seventy people in the room to follow along and benefit into the future!!!

 

http://thedifference.missinglink.biz/the-difference/interfaith-health-care-reform

The website has been established by our meeting facilitators from The Difference. This site currently contains important information about the meeting in nearly real-time.

How many consultations have we all attended, taking notes, trying to both participate and record? Here is a state-of-the-art use of technology so YOU can be a "virtual" participant. You will also have access to the entire product of the consultation.

For more go to Faithful Health Care Reform page.

 

 

NH Maquiladora Delegation Returns from Mexico

 

The first major milestone of Lamarre-Vincent's sabbatical was accomplished this past week. A delegation organized by the NH - American Friends Service Committee has just returned from a 3-day visit with maquiladora workers in northern Mexico, where job creation has been affected by NAFTA and other trade agreements. The 10-member group, which included Lamarre-Vincent of the New Hampshire Council of Churches, three NH-AFSC staff, labor leaders and students met with employees of U.S.-based multi-nationals, who described the long hours, low pay, and dangerous working conditions they face every day. Yet they also described impressive organizing for change against great odds.

As I learn more about building this website I will be adding photos, streaming video and blog essays.  For now, trust me, there was no more powerful way to learn about detention of families applying for refugee or asylum status (at the T. Don Hutto Immigration and Customs facility in Taylor, TX run by the Corrections Corporation of America in what was a medium security prison), the lives of Mexican workers and their families, and the impact of NAFTA.