Western Methodist Justice Movement gathered on July 9 in Spokane, Washington. Following a tradition of social justice leaders holding a meeting before the Jurisdictional Conference, the group gathered delegates, advocates, and a few candidates for bishop to the meeting.

The theme for the day was “Moving Forward: Advocating for Justice in a Challenging World.” Along with lunch and updates from WMJM leaders, the afternoon had a keynote presentation from Billie Fidlin and a presentation on Climate Justice from Rev. Sandy Ward.

WMJM Meeting - Part 1

The first video on this page features the welcome and introduction from WMJM Convener Jan Nelson and the keynote.

Keynoter Billie Fidlin has recently retired from the position of Director of Outreach & Justice for the Desert Southwest Conference. In addition to her 25 years of service to the conference, she serves as the President of the Arizona Faith Network in her second term, is President & Founder of Whisper n Thunder Inc., and sits on various boards including Gina’s Team, and the Justa Center.

Her greatest passion is teaching leadership at Perryville Women’s Prison, which she has done for many, many years. In that same light, she is a regular advocate at the state legislature regarding justice issues and incarcerated women working closely with the Department of Corrections and Director Ryan Thornell.

WMJM Meeting Part 2

Rev. Sandy Ward of Manito United Methodist Church in Spokane presented the second part of the WMJM gathering.

She shared Climate Justice information and resources to those gathered; offering ideas to be used and ways to incorporate climate justice programming in the local church.

Note: During her program, Sandy shared two videos from YouTube. To allow you to view those, and maintain the copyrights of those video authors, you need to watch this portion of the program in 5 segments. Each of the segments is linked here on this page.

Sandy shared a Definition of Terms document with the group. You can view or download it here.

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