October 16: Children's Sabbath

As you celebrate Children’s Sabbath in your congregations (whether this weekend or next), take time to read the words shared by Marian Wright Edelman the president of the Children’s Defense Fund: 

“Fifty years after that turning point in the Civil Rights Movement, some of us are asking 'How long will it take?' Still deeply pained by the killing of Trayvon Martin, with fresh anguish over the killing of unarmed Black boys in Ferguson, Cleveland, and countless other cities and towns across our land, we’ve heard this year the collective question, 'How long will racial prejudice blind our vision, how long until we affirm and act like precious Black lives matter?'

"Fifty years after President Johnson’s war on poverty, some of us are asking 'How long will it take?' How long will it take until we end the child poverty that traps one in five children — one in two Black babies and one in three Hispanic babies? It is a national moral disgrace that there are 14.7 million poor children and 6.5 million extremely poor children in the United States of America — the world’s largest economy. It is also unnecessary, costly, and the greatest threat to our future nation, our economic and military security. And soul.”

We pray for our children this Sunday and every day. We pray to be a part of the solution. 

(Excerpt from the 2015 Children's Sabbath Manual Welcome Letter: http://bit.ly/2cYeegX. For more faith-based resources from the Children's Defense Fund, visit http://bit.ly/2ceOZZ5)