Christ Church Cathedral Cincinnati - Jewish World Watch

Ecumenical Coalition on Human Rights

An ecumenical coalition created by Christ Church Cathedral Cincinnati in partnership with Jewish World Watch to take active measures to halt genocide and human rights violations in Darfur and around the world.

We invite the participation of any and all churches, synagogues, mosques, and other organizations and individuals who wish to join in this fight against these cruelties and injustices in the recognition of the rights and dignity of people everywhere on Earth.

From relief to self-help!

Campaign Helping Hands Haiti

Mission

Self-sustaining sufficiency is Campaign Helping Hands Haiti's mission goal of Christ Church Cathedral's ecumenical coalition on human rights. It answers these questions: What is our rightful obligation toward women in developing countries too poor to raise their own children? Does charity in truth and justice compel enabling help to those women in their formulation of infrastructures for the care of their children? At the aggregate cost of fees averaging $30,000 per child adoption, how many women and children in a community of families could instead be brought into life-long self-sustaining sufficiency and human dignity?
		Nikah, who is 2 months old, is severely malnourished. She was brought in by her mother, who could not take care of her. Most of the children in the orphanages, the authorities said, are not orphans, but children whose parents are unable to provide for them. For an in-depth look at the children's dilemma in Haiti, please see this special section here...

Helping Haiti amputees

A Child's Hope for a New Limb

Organizations step forward to help repair the lives of adults and children who suffered amutations from the Haiti earthquake. Good and reputable venues for those who want to help. See them here...

18 January 2010 National Underground Railroad and Freedom Center Dr. Martin Luther King Legacy Award - Darfur Project

“In the Words of Martin is there a Ghandi here today?”

An acceptance speech for a Freedom Center King Legacy Award for Darfur Project – Christ Church Cathedral written on the occasion of the Cincinnati Underground Railroad and Freedom Center’s observance of the birthday of The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., Breakfast Celebration; 8:00 a.m. Monday, 18 January 2010.

Please read here.
See Legacy Award photos here.

Building an Ethical Economy - Theology and the Marketplace

27 - 29 January 2010 - Trinity Institute 2010 Conference

Does Theology Have a Role In Shaping a New Economy?

Whatever happens in the world economy in the coming months, one thing is certain: advocating for an ethical economy – one that works toward the biblical ideal of sufficiency for all and is resistant to exploitation – will be a priority, especially for clergy and lay leaders. Building an Ethical Economy will bring together leading theologians and economists to talk about the relationship between economics and Christian belief and action. Speakers will address topics including:

Theology & Economics: Two Different Worlds?
Is Capitalism a Belief System?
What Is Wealth?
What Do We Owe the Future?

For more information…

27 January 2010 New Pittsburgh Courier --------------------------------------------

Haiti adoptions and children’s right to name, nation and lineage

Do children have human rights? “Of course!” one might hastily reply. Since 1948, in the wake of the Holocaust, nations across the world spoke in one voice to create international instruments for the protection of citizens and individuals and minorities against capricious behaviors by national governments and strong-willed leaders. Yet the question remains. read more here...

Monday 11 January 2010

Canterbury and Sudan Archbishops issue urgent plea

The Archbishop of Canterbury, together with the Archbishop of Sudan, the Most Revd Daniel Deng visiting from Sudan, met with the Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary on Monday to discuss the urgency of addressing outstanding issues affecting peace in Sudan...read more

Mark your calendar

Friday, 04 December 2009; 5:30 reception; 6:00 p.m. symposium

The Formation of a Moral Voice: An Evening with Nick Clooney

On the evening of Friday, December 4, 2009, Darfur Coalition and the Christian Formation ministry of Christ Church Cathedral will present Nick Clooney, the recent recipient of an "everyday hero" award by the Cincinnati Underground Railroad & Freedom Center. The symposium will feature Mr. Clooney and a panel discussion on moral voice appeal, using the holocaust in Darfur as the central issue. The U.N. Global Compact is a public/ private initiative endorsed by chief executives in 5,200 corporations in over 130 countries. Their next meeting is in 2010 when the parties consider business moral standards in international commerce. How shall the cathedral’s ecumenical coalition on human rights formulate its message? What shall be its content? Must global expansion depend on deliberative starvation of Sudan children?

The distinguished panel will be attended by community business, religious, education and political leaders including The Very Reverend James Diamond, The Right Reverend Thomas E. Breidenthal and Ohio State Senator Eric Kearney as well as the following:
Mr. Douglas Bolton	Douglas Bolton has been publisher of the Business Courier since August 2000. A 25-year veteran of the newspaper business, Doug began his career as a newspaper reporter and worked at the Cincinnati/Kentucky Post for five years. Doug first started working for the Courier in 1987. He was named editor of the Courier in 1996, and was promoted to publisher of the Dayton Business Journal in 1997. A native of Piqua, Ohio, Doug received a bachelor of arts degree in journalism from Morehead State University. He and his wife, Kateri, have a daughter, Marian, who is a junior nursing student at the University of Kentucky.
Senator Eric Kearney	Senator Eric H. Kearney serves as the Senator for Ohio’s 9th District. A life-long Cincinnatian, he is a graduate of St. Xavier High School and earned a B.A. in English from Dartmouth College, and a J. D. from the University of Cincinnati College of Law. Before joining the Ohio Senate, Senator Kearney founded and built one of the largest African American owned publishing companies. He also practiced law with Strauss & Troy, LLP and later became a partner with the law firm Cohen, Todd, Kite & Stanford, LLC.
(Ret.) Judge Ann Marie Tracey	(Ret.) Judge Ann Marie Tracey is an associate professor of Legal Studies and Business Ethics and Co-Director of the Cintas Center for Ethics and Social Responsibility at the Xavier University Williams College of Business, which she joined after retiring from the Hamilton County, Ohio Court of Common Pleas in 2003. Prof. Tracey also serves as on the Ohio Ethics Commission, which enforces ethics laws for Ohio’s public officials and employees and is recent past Chair. In 2007 the University of Cincinnati College of Law Alumni Association named her a “Distinguished Alumna Award,” and in 2004 she was named the Williams College of Business “Teacher of the Year. She teaches undergraduate The Legal Environment of Business (BLAW 300), and MBA Business Law and Ethics (BUAD 600).
Dr. John Sniegocki	John Sniegocki is an associate professor of Christian Ethics and director of the Peace Studies minor at Xavier University. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Notre Dame. He is the author of Catholic Social Teaching and Economic Globalization: The Quest for Alternatives (Marquette University Press, 2009), as well as numerous journal articles on Catholic Social Teaching, economic justice, ecology, war and peace, and food ethics.

A reception with heavy snacks will begin at 5:30 p.m.; program to follow at 6:00 p.m.

Click here for symposium photos

Encylical Letter Caritas in Veritate of the Supreme Pontiff Benedict XVI

To the Bishops, Priests and Deacons, Men and Women Religious, the Lay Faithful and all People of Good Will.

On Integral Human Development in Charity and Truth

pope benedict

Love - caritas - is an extraordinary force which leads people to opt for courageous and generous engagement in the field of justice and peace. Development, social well-being, the search for a satisfactory solution to the grave socio-economic problems besetting humanity, all need this truth. "Caritas in veritate" is the principle around which the Church's social doctrine turns, a principle that takes on practical form in the criteria that govern moral action...of special relevance to the commitment to development in an increasingly globalized society: justice and the common good. Charity goes beyond justice, because to love is to give, to offer what is 'mine' to the other. But it never lacks justice...

If we love others, then first of all we are just towards them. Justice is inseparable from charity.

Read entire letter here . . .

ENCYCLICAL Chapter 3 --- "Fraternity, Economic Development and Global Society" read here. . .

See examples of how the Pontiff's words may apply to new conflicts:
Haiti Q&A: The ethics of disaster adoption (Independent News UK)
Forest People May Lose Home in Kenya Plan (New York Times)
The world’s threatened tribal peoples - a world map
Indonesia: "What rights do we have?" (New York Times)

United States Moral Voice

19 October 2009 - Laying out the basic outlines of Sudan policy…

Over the last several years, governments, non-governmental organizations, and individuals from around the world have taken action to address the situation in Sudan, and to end the genocide in Darfur. Going forward, all of our efforts must be measured by the lives that are led by the people of Sudan. After so much suffering, they deserve a future that allows them to live with greater dignity, security, and opportunity. It will not be easy, and there are no simple answers to the extraordinary challenges that confront this part of the world. But now is the time for all of us to come together, and to make a strong and sustained effort on behalf of a better future for the people of Sudan. More…

Darfur Sunday, 13 September 2009

Rabbi Abie Ingber preaches at Darfur Sunday Services

Xavier University’s Rabbi Abie Ingber was the preacher at the September 13th 8:00 and 10:00 services at Christ Church Cathedral Cincinnati. Prayers were offered at the ecumenical services commemorated the lives of Darfur men, women, and children killed in genocidal wars in Darfur, Sudan Africa.
See Darfur Sunday Events held on that special day of observance. Call 513.621.1817 for more information on how you may become involved. Rabbi Ingber recently returned from travels to Sudan. We are our brother's keeper. We cannot in good conscience stand idly by.

Click here for Darfur Sunday photos

July 2009 - Speaking in religious moral voice, Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, the most senior cleric, issued a series of Fatwas...

Question 3: Will [persons] committing the following great sins and insisting on doing so prove that there is no longer any fairness and that they are unjust?

a. ordering the murder of innocent people;

b. preventing innocent people from gathering in public places and injuring them;

c. preventing people by force from doing their religious duty of preaching good deeds and avoiding sin through banning all the legitimate and peaceful ways of protesting;

d. denying the freedom and jailing of those who preach good deeds and avoiding sin, and pressuring them to "confess" to doing what they have not committed;
e. preventing a free flow of information and censorship of the news, which are the essential and introductory parts of preaching good deeds and avoiding sins to the Muslim masses;
f. libeling the protestors, who seek justice, by claiming that, "whoever that is opposed to the officials is a traitor and spy for foreigners."
g. lying, giving false testimony, and making false reports about people's rights;
h. treason against the national trust;
i. ignoring people's votes and neglecting the advice of the learned and informed people;
j. preventing people from participating in the national process of deciding their own fate;
k. making a bad name for Islam and the religion through presenting a very violent, irrational, aggressive, superstitious, and dictatorial image of Islam and Shiism in the world.

Answer: Committing any of the above sins and insisting on doing so are some of the clearest demonstrations of lack of fairness and obvious signs of injustice. Indeed, if such sins are not viewed by the people as signs of injustice, what sins can be considered as such? It is clear that any sin that is committed in the name of the religion, law, and justice, will cause even more corruption and elimination of justice, which will have punishments both in this world and even more severe ones in the next world, because such sins, in addition to their own particular effects, also cause the destruction of the good images of religion, justice, and law. Read New York Times article here...

30 October 2009 - Africa - More than 200 Bishops tell corrupt leaders: repent or resign

In the name of common good, African Bishops send “repent or resign” message to corrupt Catholic heads of state in Africa

- John Thavis – The Catholic Herald (Britain)

The bishops' call came at the end of the three-week Africa Synod in Rome in an 11-page document summarising their conclusions. The document called for a new spirituality to counter bad government, ethnic tensions, disease, exploitation by multinational companies and the cultural agenda of foreign aid organisations...The message said poverty, misery, war and chaos were most often caused by
"a tragic complicity and criminal conspiracy of local leaders and foreign interests"...Africa needs "saintly politicians who will clean the continent of corruption, work for the good of the people and know how to galvanise other men and women of good will from outside the Church to join hands against the common evils that beset our nations..."
read more...

african bishops
Photo with permission of
Catholic Herald editorial team

A Memorandum from the Dean

Darfur Sunday- 13th September 10:00 a.m.

The Dean of Christ Church Cathedral, the Very Reverend James A. Diamond, solicits your attendance on Sunday, September 13th for a “Darfur Sunday” of prayers for the reconciliation of Sudan conflicts...read more.

Situation Status: Critical Level

In 2004 Colin Powell was the first to openly pronounce the situation in Darfur as a genocide. Estimates put the number of dead at over 400,000 with from 5,000 to 10,000 more dying monthly. And the situation for the survivors is abysmal. Forced to flee from their burnt villages, the UN estimates that there are now two million internally displaced people in Darfur mostly in towns and camps, often in very poor conditions, while more than 200,000 have crossed the border into Chad.

An Invitation to Join!

The Very Rev. James A. Diamond, Dean of Christ Church Cathedral, invites you and caring people everywhere to join him and other leaders in the fight against genocide and human rights abuses worldwide. Read the Dean's letter of invitation to partnership.
(please read here).

So Many Ways to Help! See how you can donate by clicking HERE!

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