ISAIAH

One of the benefits of membership in ISAIAH to the Pax Christi Catholic Community is National Leadership Training by the Gamaliel Foundation. It is offered four times a year. Pax Christi parishioner Mary Cooper and Director of Social Justice, Ted Snyder, attended this training in August along with 40 other people from congregations that belong to ISAIAH and a 110 people from around the United States. Gamaliel Foundation is a network of 55 congregation-based community organizations throughout the US and a growing network in South Africa. We hope to send seven more Pax Christi members to national training in 2005-06 (see the ISAIAH link for more details).

What is ISAIAH?

ISAIAH Story: Who We are and What We Stand For

State Representative Ray Cox Website Reflection

Star Tribune Article


For more information about ISAIAH, contact Allison Boisvert, 952-405-7225.





What is ISAIAH?
ISAIAH is an ecumenical collective of urban and suburban congregations united to build power in support of economic and racial justice as an expression of the common good.

ISAIAH employs the discipline of congregational organizing to build the necessary base of power for effective action in the public policy arena. Building relationships and developing emerging leaders in congregations is foundational to moving congregations into public action.

Toward that end ISAIAH invites clergy and people from member organizations into intensive training experiences that form them in the attitudes and disciplines necessary for effective action: How to conduct one-on-one meetings that build relationships. How to run effective meetings. What accountability means. Strategic planning. What is an actionable issue. These skills and perspectives taught in community organizing have
direct application and positive consequences for the internal functioning of congregations.

ISAIAH has staff organizers who have multiple functions: Mentor clergy and lay leaders; plan and execute internal organizing; bring congregations into relationship with each other; facilitate movement into action; and engage participants in reflection. Organizing is agitating: helping people to view their lived experience anew, imagine their public selves in a fuller manner, decide to risk and invest time and energy. Moses and Jesus are key agitational figures of our tradition.

The congregations of ISAIAH have the opportunity to work on issues at their immediate local level, at the state level and at the national level. For example, St. Joseph the Worker is engaged in a two year campaign to gain a change in Maple Groves housing policy to include housing affordable to moderate income people. The ISAIAH organization has adopted a program of state legislation addressing public transportation, public school funding, funding for programs addressing domestic abuse, and immigration concerns. ISAIAH is part of a network of 55 similar organizations throughout the United States that can work on federal level issues. ISAIAH is associated with the Gamaliel Foundation based in Chicago which is the national training and consulting resource for the national network.

ISAIAH is primarily supported by member congregation dues that are structured according to size and income of the congregations. This financial base pays for staff organizers and makes basic organizing training available to member congregations. Weeklong leadership training and Advanced training with the Gamaliel Foundation is available at 50% discount. The dues system builds in ownership by member congregations and accountability to members by ISAIAH.





ISAIAH Story: "Who We Are and What We Stand For"
As Christian people of faith, we believe that all people are sacred, that all people are meant by God to have access to dignity and power, that any oppression is a sin and should be rooted out systemically. We are called to act powerfully to eradicate that which undermines the fundamental sacredness of every human being.

We see a world of economic and racial injustice. The real abundance of the world is only shared by a few. This injustice is upheld by a myth of scarcity. This myth of scarcity builds a world of fear. Because we are afraid we act in isolation, as individuals. Our sense of community erodes and we become even more afraid and more isolated. This perpetuates the myth of scarcity. The world becomes more unjust.

We can see that the world does not have to be this way. This present reality can be transformed. We are called to play a role in this transformation.

We envision a world of economic and racial justice, a world where the abundance of this world is shared by all people, by all creation. We believe that this shared abundance is possible when we are acting as community rather than as isolated individuals. When we act as community, we begin to transform our fear into hope. When this transformation occurs, a just world becomes possible.

We see a path and a role for ourselves in acting to build this social transformation. We act on the values that come from our faith, and we are acting in the context of the American democracy. The principles of democracy align with our fundamental values. Democracy works best when all participate. Democracy works best when people have power and a real voice in the decisions that affect their lives. We know that a healthy democracy will make a social transformation more possible. We are called to act powerfully to transform our democracy into one that works for all people. Thus, we strive to act powerfully and effectively in the public arena. Democracy is the context within which we will move forward our vision of shared abundance and the primacy of human dignity.

We believe an economically and racially just world will only become a reality if we act in ways that are consistent with our faith values and the principles of democracy. Thus, we strive to think and to act as community, we strive to act powerfully, we strive to be effective, we strive to make many voices heard, we strive to move our vision and our leaders into the center of the public conversation and we strive to be powerful.

We must maintain the integrity of our vision by acting on it with one another as well as acting on it in the public arena. We believe that we must be disciplined and willing to act in certain ways to live out our serious belief that we can indeed change the current reality. 

THEREFORE:
We build relationships SO THAT we can act powerfully to create social transformation and a just world. We build relationships because we believe that it is only through community that we can transform ourselves, eradicate fear and bring forth a vision of hope.

We invest in leaders SO THAT more people work to realize the clarity of their own power and voice; we deepen our community through investment.

We work on issues SO THAT we can move forth a vision for a just world of shared abundance, leading to real social transformation.

We build power together SO THAT we can act collectively, in true community, effectively living out our values and vision of a just world.

We act collectively SO THAT we can be powerful, effective and fearless.

We operate out of self-interest SO THAT we maintain clarity about our personal and collective mission, the potential of God’s call for all of us and for the world at large.

We negotiate around self-interest SO THAT we honor that all people are equal and able to act on their own integrity in powerful ways.

This is how we choose to live out our faith. This is how we choose to live out our responsibility as citizens of this democracy.






State Rep. Ray Cox (R-Northfield) posted on his website the following reflection concerning his experience with ISAIAH. The DREAM Act he references would have permitted the children of non-citizen immigrants who have gone to grade school and high school in Minnesota to attend the Universoty of Minnesota at in-state tuition rates. 

Friday, June 24, 2005
ISAIAH
Yesterday after the House floor session I went over to the St. Paul Cathedral for a meeting. A group called ISAIAH invited me to speak with them about a higher education bill I carried this year….HF566 called the DREAM Act. Members of ISAIAH worked with me to build support for HF566. They were great to work with and did a good job visiting with Representatives and Senators. Unfortunately, the bill did not have support from Governor Pawlenty. While I introduced it in this Special Session, I explained to the group that I am not pushing for passage now. This type of bill generally is not included in an overall budget agreement that we are working on in Special Session. There was good representation from the
Legislature at the ISAIAH meeting. Senators Anderson, Kubly, Dibble, Limmer, Kelley, Moua, and Hann and Representatives Hausman, Atkins, Thissen, Hornstein, and Huntley were all there with me. Rep. Hausman addressed the group about transportation issues. ISAIAH has been
supportive of transportation bills that include reasonable amounts of funding for transit options. I then spoke to the group about the DREAM Act. I told them I was pleased with the level of support I gathered for my bill, including most of the members of the House Higher Education committee. I promised the group to continue work on the bill and they promised to continue to help me. After the presentations we broke up into small groups to discuss the legislative process. I was at a table with Sen. Dibble and six ISAIAH members. We had a good discussion about what worked this session, what didn’t work so well, and how we could improve things at the capitol. The ‘small world’ connections to District 25B are always out there. A young woman at my small group table was a St. Olaf College student working as an intern at a urban church. And as I was leaving Morrie Wee came up and said hello to me. Morrie served at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Northfield some years ago and is the brother of Northfield resident David Wee.






Citizens spoke up for common good
by Sarah Mullins
Published July 22, 2005
In the last few weeks Minnesotans have heard a lot about what did and did not happen in the past legislative session. The expectation is that everyone will see the session in terms of their own personal self-interest. Typically, media focus on individual perspectives: "If you are a (fill in the blank: truck driver, teacher, nurse, student, farmer, homeowner, etc.), this is how you fared at the Legislature this year." What's needed is an analysis that considers whether our communities have been strengthened and improved at the end of a session. The media too often foster a cynicism about politics and the political process. We should have seen it coming, "it" being a hopeless situation in which legislators and Gov. Tim Pawlenty spend the entire session digging deeper into their ideological viewpoints. Same old story. I recall a conversation I had with a Capitol reporter just days before the end of the regular session. Pawlenty had just vetoed the transportation bill. The reporter, knowing my organization had been advocating all session for significant new money for transit, said to me in a matter-of-fact tone, "Well, you expected this to happen." It was obvious to the reporter that the governor had made his "no new taxes" position well-known; therefore it was end of story --"nothing else to report there." The "same old story" fosters pessimism. Actually, we have a choice about what kind of politics we practice in Minnesota. Will we travel a narrow road of individualism, one that appeals to our base fears and prejudices? Or will we choose a path that strengthens our community and recognizes a common good? What the same old story missed this year is that nearly all legislators will say they experienced unprecedented participation from regular Minnesotans. This did penetrate their thinking about state needs and possible solutions. The Republican-led House passed a transportation bill that, among other things, raised the gas tax. Then the DFL-led Senate dropped its own bill and passed the House version. It was bipartisan support for getting a reasonable bill meeting Minnesotans' growing needs for transit and roads and bridges to the governor's desk.
As a community leader present often at the Capitol, I saw people acting collectively -- for the common good of the whole state. We were privy to a different reality from the one frequently described in the news. The legislative session was not a complete, hopeless failure; in fact, good legislation passed both chambers. How did this happen? Minnesotans came to the Capitol every day for serious conversations with our legislators. We challenged the starting assumptions. If a legislator claimed there was "simply no money," we asserted that Minnesotans aren't willing to be boxed in by a myth of scarcity about our state resources. We made policy proposals. The response was slow at first, but then the Legislature responded. Creative investment ideas poured in from citizens and some courageous legislators willing to challenge their own party and their governor's tax pledge. Minnesotans moved beyond individual concerns to state clearly what infrastructure we want to build for our community. Throughout the session, community leaders from ISAIAH, Transit for Livable Communities and others advocated support for education, health care and public transportation. There's a story even older than the "same old story" -- Minnesota's long tradition of purposeful investment. This means that good education, quality health care and a balanced transportation system must be available for all. That's a story about hope, faith, resourcefulness and abundance. It's a story that the press and our political leaders would do well to remember.

Sarah Mullins, St. Paul, is cochair of the public transportation task force for ISAIAH,
an interfaith advocacy group representing 81 congregations in Minnesota. More
information is at www.gamaliel.org/ISAIAH.
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