Lamarre-Vincent asks that you support this work by joining Faithful Reform of Health Care. Go to www.faithfulreform.org. One thing was clear from this meeting, the faith role in social transformation is the same, whether it's local, state or national, and in the end it's all inextricably intertwined.
Faithful Health Care Reform Consultation a Stand Ovation Success!
State and national reform of healthcare has rapidly moved up the societal agenda. The question before us is whether we seize this moment in time of ripeness and redirect ourselves for the next month, quarter, years to fully engage and be present in the public square with a BOLD, FAITH VOICE. This is an opportunity for us to knit all of our faith-based values into the societal conversation. Pull on the single strand of faithful health for all Americans and the faith communities' concerns come out in the weave and warp of this piece of cloth.
A national interfaith consultation on Faithful Health Care Reform has just concluded convened by Faithful Reform in Health Care (www.faithfulreform.org). Lamarre-Vincent of the New Hampshire Council of Churches was present. He sees this as an interreligious opportunity. Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists - all faiths are fundamentally united at the deepest level to ensure that American society provide affordable, accessible health care for all redirecting our failing Rube Goldberg structure to an American system supported by the pillars of human dignity, compassion, stewardship, health, healing and wholeness for all.
Lamarre-Vincent invites you to take a sixty second step, one click, because the entire consultation as it continues to unfold is available to you online at http://thedifference.missinglink.biz/the-difference/interfaith-health-care-reform
First impressions:
A) THE most well conceived, designed and executed gathering of this nature I have ever attended - whether hosted by NGO, state, faith body. The attention to detail was phenomenal because it was relentlessly mission driven and outcome oriented. The planning team was one of the most gifted and hardest working teams I have ever witnessed.
As a back-sliding organizational practitioner and active designer of consultations in their multi-varied form, this one was a QUANTUM leap higher in all respects.
This alone made it worth the price of admission, which in my case I owe a debt of gratitude to the Endowment for Health for a discretionary grant to attend, the time out from sabbatical, the energy drawn out to participate fully.
B) THE BIG POINT. By the end of forty eight hours of work, prayer and play my consciousness of how state ecumenical ministries conceive of our execution of our mission must be nimble enough to recognize KAIROS moments when they hit us while we're extremely busy trying to cover the entire waterfront.
State and national reform of healthcare has rapidly moved up the societal agenda. The question before us is whether we seize this moment in time of ripeness and redirect ourselves for the next month, quarter, years to fully engage and be present in the public square with a BOLD, PROPHETIC VOICE. This is an opportunity for us to knit all of our economic justice, human dignity, immigrant rights, etc. concerns into the societal conversation. Pull on the single strand of faithful health for all Americans and the church's justice concerns come out in the weave and warp of this piece of cloth.
C) SECOND BIG POINT. Never have I ever been given such an ecumenical and simultaneously interreligious opportunity. Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists - all faiths are fundamentally united at the deepest level to ensure that American society provide affordable, accessible health care for all redirecting our failing Rube Goldberg structure to an American system supported by the pillars of human dignity, compassion, stewardship, health, healing and wholeness for all.
D) END OF SERMON. Sorry that I have four points instead of the Trinitarian three but my personal take away is to challenge my board to step back in prayer and reflection about this moment in American history, personally step forward with action on specific requests (support for the Voices for NH Health Care Coalition), join with other NH faith leaders to convene a similar gathering and to infuse all that the NHCC does with word and action for taking a proactive public stance for the ROLE of faith communities in the societal conversation.
You are invited to take a sixty second step, one click, because the entire consultation as it continues to unfold is available to you online at http://thedifference.missinglink.biz/the-difference/interfaith-health-care-reform
This step should be worth the price of your admission. A great opportunity to look over the shoulder of staff that represented you!
David Lamarre-Vincent
New Hampshire Council of Churches