“Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love.”
- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 

JPIC COMMUNITY ORGANIZING CORE TEAM AND DURHAM CAN
JUSTICE, PEACE, AND INTEGRITY OF CREATION (JPIC)

​TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. Upcoming Events

II. Parish-Wide Listening Session Report

III. New to Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation (JPIC) Community Organizing?

IV. What is Durham CAN?

V. How Do I Get Involved?
VI. JPIC Community Organizing Core Team

VII. Durham CAN Metro Council and Internal Action Meetings

VIII. ​Durham CAN Research and Action Teams
  • Affordable Housing
  • Education
  • Immigration Rights
  • ​​Violence Reduction
IX. Durham CAN​ Public Action Meetings
​
X. Additional Durham CAN Teams 
  • ​Durham CAN Strategy Team  
  • ​Durham CAN​ Clergy Caucus

MINISTRY SPOTLIGHT:
​JPIC COMMUNITY ORGANIZING CORE TEAM

Would you like to engage your spiritual gifts* of leadership, communication, service, mercy, administration, pastoring, knowledge, prophecy, or wisdom? Interested in being part of Immaculate Conception’s team of grassroots organizers helping our church identify the “signs of the times,” mobilizing parishioners collectively for public action ​to address a variety of social justice initiatives? Consider sharing your time, talent, and treasures by joining Immaculate Conception’s Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation (JPIC) Community Organizing Core Team.
Our JPIC Core Team serve as Immaculate Conception's main representatives in Durham CAN and other community organizations. They present our parish’s priorities, concerns, and questions, disseminate important updates, organize turnout for public action, identify/develop leaders responsible for organizing within our parish, and build an institutional culture of trust through relational practices.
In addition to getting to know your fellow parishioners through “relational meetings,” the typical commitment includes attending a monthly core team meeting. To learn more, contact Robert Singagliese, JPIC Community Organizing Core Team Parishioner Leader or see Section VI. below.

I. UPCOMING EVENTS

Durham CAN Delegates Assembly

​The Durham CAN Delegates Assembly with candidates for Mayor and City Council will be held on Sunday, October 19th, 3 pm at St. Mark AME Zion Church (531 S. Roxboro Street). 
​Immaculate Conception Catholic Church is a founding member of Durham CAN (Congregations, Associations, and Neighborhoods). This summer, four Durham CAN Research and Action Teams have been working on strategies around Affordable Housing, Immigrant Rights, Violence Reduction, and Education. Candidates will be asked to respond to Durham CAN’s agenda for change in the areas of increased funding for immigrant legal protections, youth summer jobs, a comprehensive plan to reduce gun violence, and affordable housing at 505 West Main. Please plan to attend and support our efforts to make Durham a safer and more equitable city.
To join a Durham CAN Research and Action Team or to learn more about our JPIC Core Team, contact Robert Singagliese, JPIC Community Organizing Core Team Parishioner Leader or Ken Chiha ([email protected]), Director of Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation (JPIC). 

II. PARISH-WIDE LISTENING SESSION REPORT
JPIC COMMUNITY ORGANIZING CORE TEAM​​​

            The Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation (JPIC) Community Organizing Core Team would like to thank the more than 150 parishioners who participated in the parish-wide listening sessions held in both English and Spanish from last fall 2024 through the spring of 2025. The goal of the sessions was to identify those Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation (JPIC) issues that parishioners most wanted community and parish leaders to address in the next two years.
Notes were taken during all sessions, and all responses were shared in a written summary and during an in-person meeting with Immaculate Conception’s pastor, Fr. Manuel, and the JPIC Director, Ken Chiha. Additionally, Core Team members shared priorities for community action with Durham Congregations, Associations, and Neighborhoods (Durham CAN), an interfaith community organization dedicated to collaborative action to improve quality of life in Durham. Immaculate Conception has been a core member organization of Durham CAN since its founding in 1999.
Below is a summary of the issues that featured most prominently with parishioners.

​PRIORITIES FOR COMMUNITY ACTION

The issues that parishioners most wanted community leaders to address included immigration, gun violence, and education. In April, Core Team members attended a meeting of all Durham CAN member churches and associations. At this meeting, Durham CAN leadership shared results from all member organizations’ listening sessions, helping the organization to determine its priorities for the next two years. Thanks in part to Immaculate Conception Core Team members advocating for parishioner priorities, Durham CAN has formed four research and action teams:
  1. Affordable Housing,
  2. Education,
  3. Immigration Rights, and
  4. ​​Violence Reduction.

PRIORITIES FOR PARISH ACTION

The issues that parishioners most wanted parish leaders to address included immigration, parish unity, social justice identity, and community outreach and charity.
  • IMMIGRATION: Specifically, participants in both English and Spanish-speaking listening sessions wanted parish leaders to make sure that our immigrant parishioners felt welcomed and safe in our church. Parishioners were concerned about immigrants being targeted for crime and feeling unable to report to law enforcement, being victimized by unfair housing practices, and feeling generally unsafe and unwelcome in the community.
  • PARISH UNITY: Participants desired greater unity between the parish’s English and Spanish speaking communities. Most parishioners who discussed this issue supported more bilingual activities and liturgies at the parish. They also desired more opportunities for one-on-one relationships.
  • SOCIAL JUSTICE IDENTITY: Participants expressed a desire for Immaculate Conception to retain a social justice identity, in its liturgy, faith formation, and community involvement.
  • COMMUNTY OUTREACH/DIRECT SERVICE: Participants also expressed a desire for the parish to maintain and increase its opportunity for community outreach and direct charity services.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

III. NEW TO JUSTICE, PEACE, AND INTEGRITY OF CREATION (JPIC) COMMUNITY ORGANIZING? ​​​

If you are new to Durham or Immaculate Conception, or just to our Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation (JPIC) ministry, you may not be familiar with our parish’s relationships with numerous “community organizing” nonprofits. Although our parishioners and staff promote the Gospel’s call for solidarity and social justice through a number of local community action organizations, Immaculate Conception has a particularly long history of supporting Durham CAN. In the section below, "What is Durham CAN?," you can read my more detailed description of the organization. Simply put, Durham CAN is a nonprofit organization uniting "Congregations, Associations, and Neighborhoods" to help promote the common good within our shared community. Our church was a founding member of the organization. In addition to providing financial support over the years, our parishioners have continued to work for justice on countless issues alongside other Durham CAN member institutions. ​
If you would like to join your fellow parishioners on our JPIC Community Organizing Core Team to help provide a voice for our parish in organizations like Durham CAN, or if you have any questions about the information explained below, please contact:
Ken Chiha, Director of Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation (JPIC)
Robert Singagliese, JPIC Community Organizing Core Team Parishioner Leader

IV. WHAT IS DURHAM CAN? ​

Durham CAN (Congregation, Associations, Neighborhoods) is based in institutions: congregations, associations, schools (both private and public), nonprofits, community health centers, and neighborhood organizations that share a concern for families and a tradition of faith and democracy. Durham CAN strengthens these institutions by developing the skills and capacity of their leaders to be change agents in the public process.
Picture
Durham CAN (Direct Link)
Calendar - Durham Congregations, Associations and Neighborhoods (durhamcan.org)
Durham CAN creates a vehicle for ordinary people to have a powerful voice in community decisions that affect their lives, instead of leaving decision-making in the hands of a select few. It builds relationships of trust among people and institutions across Durham County, intentionally crossing boundaries that divide our communities. It supports member churches, synagogues, even dioceses, synods, and conferences as they seek to address problems that impact families and communities. Issue-driven and politically non-partisan, Durham CAN puts forth an “issues agenda” as a platform for constructive change. ​

V. HOW DO I GET INVOLVED? ​

Many parishioners are familiar with or have already participated in supporting larger Durham CAN events, particularly around elections or specific social justice issues in Durham. Every CAN campaign begins with listening. People come together to share stories about the issues that affect their lives, families, and communities, then choose issues all can support. Durham CAN acts strategically, holding government and corporate power players accountable to create change for the common good. Durham CAN only moves forward on projects you have the energy and commitment to address. They remain driven by the testimony of concrete experience, not pre-conceived ideology. Once potential issues are identified, community leaders like you do research to develop practical, achievable solutions on concrete issues we can do something about in our community. I have listed below several ways our JPIC parishioners can get involved. ​

VI. JPIC COMMUNITY ORGANIZING CORE TEAM

JPIC CORE TEAM COMMUNITY ORGANIZING MEETINGS

TIME COMMITMENT
2nd ​Monday each month, 7-8:30 pm
Online (Zoom/Teams)
and In-Person Quarterly Meetings Before JPIC Council Parishioner Leaders Gatherings (Fellowship Hall/Immaculata Gym)​
Monthly meetings and regular parish/community "relational meetings"
Our JPIC Community Organizing Core Team organizes and strengthens our church's ability to work for social justice in our parish and throughout our community. Our Core Team also works directly with Durham CAN as our JPIC parish representatives responsible for disseminating important updates, organizing turnout for public action, and building an institutional culture of trust through relational practices. 
Consisting of a small group of parishioners trained in the art of grassroots community organizing, they help identify our church's priorities and organize/mobilize our parishioners collectively ​to address community issues through public action on a variety of social justice initiatives. They serve as Immaculate Conception's main JPIC representatives in Durham CAN, presenting our parish’s concerns and questions, while maintaining a constant flow of communication, action, and evaluation about all Durham CAN-related issues.
Our JPIC Community Organizing Core Team's efforts to organize our parish’s involvement with Durham CAN is part of its larger mission and goal to identify/develop leaders and strengthen/build our JPIC in our Immaculate Conception community to participate in training, initiate local action, and take part in major parish and social justice community organizing actions/campaigns. It is a vital part of the health of our JPIC, parish, and all broad-based organizations/institutions.
Many of our current JPIC Core Team members attended Durham CAN training sessions that helped teach members from all Durham CAN institutions what a Core Team is and how it can function within institutions like Immaculate Conception. At these training sessions, we discussed how Core Teams build collective power, organize within institutions, increase energy and participation from our members, and mobilize institutions into public action. We also learned how to conduct group listening sessions and one-on-one relational meetings. I have included PowerPoint presentation slides from one of our first training sessions below.

VII. DURHAM CAN METRO COUNCIL &
​INTERNAL ACTION MEETINGS

DURHAM CAN METRO COUNCIL MEETINGS

3rd Thursday each month, 6-7:30 pm
​Location Announced Monthly
Our JPIC Community Organizing Core Team members serve as Immaculate Conception's parish representatives at Durham CAN's Metro Action and Internal Action meetings. In addition to sharing the perspectives of our parishioners (noted above), the Core Team makes important decisions on behalf our church community at these meetings. They also serve as liaisons, communicating and receiving important updates/new resource materials, ensuring our parish commitments to Durham CAN are fulfilled in our efforts to make our city a better place for all!

VIII. DURHAM CAN RESEARCH & ACTION TEAMS

​TIME COMMITMENT
​Meetings 1-2 times per month
Parishioners may join a Durham CAN Research Action Team, empowering them to work alongside leaders of other Durham CAN member institutions. Research Action Teams temporarily work on a partial solution to a larger collective problem through research, relational meetings, listening sessions, power analyses, and action campaign recommendations. 
Durham CAN Research Action Teams often are the most direct way to help others and have your voice heard when wanting to address a particular issue. Durham CAN’s agenda emerges from small-group gatherings. People like you share your stories about issues you would like to see changed. They are responsible for the refining work of turning larger, abstract problems into specific, tangible issues they have identified as negatively affecting our constituency. Ultimately, Research Action Teams help provide Durham CAN institutions, like Immaculate Conception, clarity and specificity around our common issues, enabling Durham CAN effectively to address and transform those issues by organizing and mobilizing our collective power. 
Our JPIC invited all IC parishioners to participate in the process of setting Durham CAN’s agenda for this current organizing cycle/year. We also invited our parishioners to attend the Research Action Team Training meeting to prepare to be a part of these teams. If you missed this training session, please review the helpful resources below.
In Durham CAN's most recent organizational cycle, the four Research Action Teams include: ​
1) Affordable Housing
2) Education
​3) Immigration Rights
4) Violence Reduction

IX. DURHAM CAN​ PUBLIC ACTION MEETINGS

All parishioners can come together to support Durham CAN by showing up and participating in larger Public Actions they sponsor. Many of these events are designed to bring our community together and allow the people to express shared needs or concerns. 

Often, public or political leaders are invited to respond to Durham CAN's broad-based, achievable requests for action on behalf of the common good. These public figures may be asked to change a particular policy or practice that Durham CAN's institutions have identified as negatively affecting our community. 
TIME COMMITMENT
​2-4 gatherings per year

X. ADDITIONAL DURHAM CAN TEAMS

​DURHAM CAN STRATEGY TEAM  

​The Strategy Team is responsible for setting the direction of Durham CAN, based on issues raised and ratified by the membership. The Strategy Team authorizes new issue campaigns, reviews the progress of current campaigns, attends to financial and structural aspects of the organization, and oversees the hiring of a Lead Organizer. 


Immaculate Conception does not currently have a representative on the Durham CAN Strategy Team. It is my understanding that representatives must be invited/appointed directly by the current Durham CAN Strategy Team.

​DURHAM CAN​ CLERGY CAUCUS 

​​Durham CAN's Clergy Caucus is composed of clergy leaders of member institutions who work with Durham CAN organizers to act on proposed strategy and guide Durham CAN's campaigns. The Clergy Caucus provides a regular space for philosophical, theological, and practical reflection. 


Our Parochial Vicar, Father Hugh Macsherry, OFM, is a member of the Durham CAN Clergy Caucus. 
© All rights reserved.
If you have questions regarding our various JPIC ministries, please contact:
Kennith M. Chiha, Director of Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation (JPIC)
Immaculate Conception Catholic Church - 901-A West Chapel Hill Street, Durham, NC 27701
(919) 682-3449 Ext. 293 - [email protected]
​
IMMACULATE CONCEPTION CATHOLIC CHURCH   |  810 W CHAPEL HILL STREET, DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA 27701  |  919-682-3449


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