Our Mission:
Progressive Christians Uniting inspires and equips individuals and communities for courageous leadership in the 21st century.
Our Mission & Values
Our Vision:
As Progressive Christians Uniting fulfills its mission, individuals and communities grow more deeply in faith, find strength in one another, and build the prophetic movement for social transformation.
Five years ago... PCU laid the groundwork for this national cross-branding project related to LGBT advocacy in mainline denominations. As hoped, participation in Believe Out Loud has gone viral and has drawn the attention and involvement of lots of young people. Click here to find out what the excitement is all about!
Conscientious Projector offers free screenings of socially conscious films in Claremont, Tustin, and Pasadena. Pasadena’s series is presented by the Sustainable World Ministry at All Saints Church. The others are presented by PCU chapters; for more on those people contact John Forney.
Our Partners
Progressive Christians Uniting
Planned Giving
New polling shows how depressed most Californians are about their future. In a new Public Policy Institute poll, two-thirds of voters think the state is gong downhill, and almost half of those polled now count themselves among the "have nots." That is a big switch from 10 years ago when just 32% counted themselves as "have nots" while 60% felt they were among the "haves." There's good reason for the widespread gloom. A new report from the California Budget Project shows that over a third of all California income gains between 1987 and 2009 went to the 1% of state residents; almost three-fourths of all income gains were harvested by the top 10%. Inflation-adjusted income actually fell by 15% during this period for people in the middle of the income scale, whereas income jumped by 50% for the top 1%. People in the top% now have 33 times the income of people in the middle fifth - a gap that is now twice as large as it was a generation ago.
In 2012, the new interfaith network known as California Faith Action will mobilize religious leaders in every faith tradition to focus on a primary cause of growing suffering and despair: a broken governance system in California that protects the interests of private wealth at the expense of the public good. PCU is a leading actor in ramping up the Faith Action initiative. Look for more on this in January.
PCU's Brave New Planet conference in late October inspired over 250 activists to see the stakes in climate change in a dramatically different light. They are taking the message back to their faith communities and neighborhoods: climate change isn't simply one issue among dozens of other issues; rapid global warming constitutes the defining issue of this period, tying human survival to the need to build sustainable communities in the midst of a collapsing and corrupted carbon-addicted economy. Unfortunately, the Keystone XL Pipeline project, which Brave New Planet keynote speaker Bill McKibben pronounced dead in November, was revived in December by House Republicans. Stay connected to the movement via Tar Sands Action.
Rev. Sandie Richards: Pastor, First United Methodist Church of Los Angeles
Those who know her know Sandie Richards to be a force of nature. She is an expert communicator and blogger who uses the new social media very effectively. Sandie has years of experience in social justice work, having served as a board member at CLUE-LA and as chair of the social justice commission of her denomination’s California-Pacific Conference. More recently, Sandie has played a central role within the Occupy LA Sanctuary interfaith network.
Rev. Elizabeth Griswold: Associate Pastor, Irvine United Church of Christ
Harvard Divinity School graduate Elizabeth Griswold is enjoying her first call with the Irvine UCC. At IUCC she created new alternative evening service and has been able to involve herself in a considerable amount of social justice work. Elizabeth chairs of Steering Committee of PCU in Orange County and is active with CLUE-OC and Clergy for Choice.
Ms. Susana Sngiem: Assistant Pastor of First Friends Church, Long Beach
Susana Sngiem is a 26-years-old Cambodian American who is devoted to developing and connecting loving, healthy and committed communities. A UC Irvine graduate, Susana has been an effective community activist in Long Beach as an AmeriCorps member/supervisor and as a faith leader. Early next year she will receive her MSW from USC’s School of Social Work.
Dr. Sharon Rabb: Founder & CEO, Center for the Empowerment of Families
As a clinical psychologist and a licensed marriage and family therapist and pastoral counselor, Dr. Rabb has 30 years of experience working with families in private practice and community settings. Dr. Rabb conducts leadership training for secular and faith-based community organizations and oversees the mental health component of an inner-city afterschool program for at-risk youth and their parents. She is passionately involved in working with foster care youth with young people who have been incarcerated.
Rev. Andrew “Andy” Schwiebert: Associate Pastor, First UCC Pasadena
Rev. Andrew (Andy) Schwiebert is the lead pastor of a new and progressive “church-within-a-church” for younger adults called (a)Spire Ministry. Prior to serving in Pasadena, Andy worked as a recruiter for the Claremont School of Theology and for the newly emerging interreligious program that has since become the Claremont Lincoln University. A UC and PSR grad, Andy has led workplace justice campaigns and worked with Witness for Peace internationally.
“We must rapidly begin the shift from a 'thing-oriented' society to a 'person-oriented' society. When machines and computers, profit motives, and property rights are considered more important than people, [then] the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.”
-- King speaking at Riverside Church, April 4, 1967
