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Service 2 Justice Conference

For many of us, our involvement in social service deeply reflects our humanity. When

we provide service to our community, either as a paid professional or a concerned friend,

we embody compassion and the joy of loving labor. When we accept service, we

embody the strength of interdependence. In either role, the offering and acceptance of

support has the potential to be a sacred, if commonplace, ritual. It is through such

practice that we can weave ourselves into beloved community.

In recent decades, we have seen inspiring projects that take social service work to a new

level. Brilliant leaders, often from marginalized communities, have recognized that some

of their neighbors' needs are caused not just by the natural ebb and flow of life, but rather

by the societal structures that make life easy for some and much more difficult for others.

We work in the image of projects such as the Free Breakfast for School Children

Program initiated by the Black Panther Party in 1969. These visionaries worked to not

only address the day-to-day needs of their people, but also bring those people together to

challenge the very circumstances that created those needs in the first place.

Despite this rich history, an unfortunate divide has often existed between those who focus

on service, and those who strive to fundamentally alter the system, to bring justice. There

is real danger in this unnatural divide; social services that lack an understanding of

injustice are at best condescending and at worst deeply damaging to the communities

they claim to serve.

We are here to engage this difficult yet saving dialogue. There is no claim to have all the

answers. The road from service to justice is not an easy one. No, this path rings with the

hard truth that we are sometimes part of the problem, despite fervent efforts to be the

solution.

Despite any discomfort, we are here because our values demand nothing less from us.

We are reminded that we all bring our life experiences to every meeting, no one person

more valuable than the other. Justice blossoms out of that encounter, taking us beyond

"the world as it is" to "the world as it could be."

Thanks for being here with us on this difficult yet essential journey.