Upward of 1,800 leaders from 40 religious institutions are expected in Prince William County on Sunday to launch a broad new interfaith organization.
They will meet at 5 p.m. at the First Mount Zion Baptist Church in Dumfries to kick off a new organization in Northern Virginia public life dedicated to a “New Dominion” of justice and political participation in the state.
The organization, which will draw representatives from Alexandria, Arlington, Fairfax and Prince William, is “Virginians Organized for Interfaith Community Engagement” and it seeks to make changes on affordable housing, immigration, health care and other issues.
Northern Virginia clergy and lay leaders from Christian, Jewish, Unitarian and Muslim religious institutions have been working with the Industrial Areas Foundation over the last three years to create a broad-based, non-partisan, multi-racial, multi-faith, citizens’ power organization, rooting in local congregations and other voluntary associations to make change in the lives of low and middle income residents and communities in the area.
On Sunday, the V.O.I.C.E. member groups, which represent a total constituency of 120,000 people, will lay out an action agenda on affordable housing, immigration and health/dental services that has been hammered out after months of organizing within the various faith organizations and introduced in a recent series of meetings with city, county and state leaders. A number of elected leaders will address the organization Sunday, including Prince William Board of County Supervisor Chairman Corey Stewart, R-at large.
The Industrial Areas Foundation — founded in the 1940s by Saul Alinsky — already has several affiliate organizations who worked together to pass the first living wage law in the United States, won a $40 million dedicated annual fund for affordable housing in Montgomery County, Md., and secured $1 billion for neighborhood investment in Washington, D.C.
The Rev. Horace Grinnell, pastor of St. Anthony Roman Catholic Church Parish in Falls Church and a V.O.I.C.E. founder, said, “The current economic crises make this unified action all the more imperative. Now is the time for our faith communities to stand together and speak for all whose voice is not heard. Our faith values call us to raise our voice in solidarity with them.”
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