Faith & Justice
“Inviting the church community to join us, Faith & Justice explores, educates,
and takes action on issues that converge at the intersection of justice and God’s
Word.”
If you are interested in this work, please talk to Pastor Jamie.
News from the Faith and Justice Team
Greetings in the Name of the Lord!
The Faith and Justice Team have been busy connecting with various organizations in Spokane that support our legal immigrant neighbors. This includes people who are here awaiting the outcome of their asylum application, have temporary protection status, humanitarian parole or refugee status. Currently, these people have faced the threat of arrest and detainment. Some Spokane immigrants, including a child, have been detained in a Texas prison for weeks until an attorney could speak for them and show they are here legally waiting for their asylum application outcome. Imagine the trauma of that ordeal! When asked, “What is the most important commandment?”, Jesus said, “Love the Lord your God… and Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Matthew 22:35-40 NIV
“Neighbor” also refers to people in our community that may or may not look like you, act like you, believe the same things you do, but are all made in the image of God, like you are. If you feel you are living too much in a bubble of people just like you, check out opportunities to build bridges instead of walls, with all people, through organizations like Global Immersion at globalimmerse.org and Building Restorative Communities. Also search Facebook for more information on these organizations. Global Immersion is led by one of the authors of the book we studied last year as a whole church: Mending the Divides: Creative Love in a Conflicted World by Jer Swigart and Jon Huckins. Look for the podcast Mending Divides as well.
We are still working our way through the book Disarming Leviathan: Loving Your Christian Nationalist Neighbor by Caleb Campbell.
There is a series of Zoom meetings on Monday evenings at 6:30 in March that is detailed in the flyer here and on the Faith and Justice table. By the way – it is great to see so many resources in circulation! Please return them when you are finished so that others may have the opportunity to read/view them.
We believe it is the mission of the Church to act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with our God. Jesus commanded us to love our neighbor as ourselves. It is our love of God and neighbor that compels us to offer the following statement:
We acknowledge that Whitworth Community Presbyterian Church was built on the unceded homelands of the Spokane Tribe of Indians. Since time immemorial, these Native Americans have prospered on this land. We respect their past, present and future elders as we recognize their continuing connection with the land, waters and culture that surrounds us. We thank God for the land itself and the peoples who have fished, hunted, harvested and gathered here for generations.
This acknowledgment honors the first caretakers of this land, the suffering they endured, and the continued restoration and healing needed. Through the understanding of the history that brought us here, we hope to foster a more united community that embraces the first peoples of Spokane.
This Land & People Acknowledgement
was approved by the Board of Elders October 21, 2025.
For more information on Land & People Acknowledgements and the first people on this land we call Whitworth, explore these websites which were used (in addition to meetings with elders from the Spokane Tribe and our Nimiipuu siblings of faith) in crafting this statement:
https://nativegov.org/news/a-guide-to-indigenous-land-acknowledgment/
https://www.npr.org/2023/03/15/1160204144/indigenous-land-acknowledgments
https://www.whitworth.edu/cms/about/land-acknowledgment-statement/
