Labor in the Pulpits

On Sunday, August 31, we will join with congregations across the nation in lifting up and honoring the sacred link between work and faith. This is an opportunity to educate ourselves about the issues that impact workers, especially those in low-wage jobs, and reflect on the true meaning of Labor Day. Ashley Dearborn will join us to give her testimony on what it means to be a person of faith and a working artist.

Ashley is a member of SAG-AFTRA Union and serves on the local board of her union as well as a delegate of the Chicago Federation of Labor. She is a performer and has performed on television and films. She worked/lived/worshiped in Logan Square for over 20 years, where she served on the board of the Logan Square Neighborhood Association and chaired the housing committee. She has also been very active in housing and youth development issues. She comes to us through a program of ARISE Chicago titled "Labor in the Pulpits/on the Bimah/in the Minbar" which prepares speakers from a variety of faith traditions to speak to the call of the world's great religious traditions to treat those who work with dignity and equity.

Our preacher and presider that day will be the Rev. Dr. Ray Picket, Professor of New Testament at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago and member of St. Luke's. Dr. Pickett has been a committed advocate for ministry that engages and learns from cultural difference, and worked to assist in efforts to develop a program that will help the church engage the rapidly-growing Hispanic-Latino communities in the United States and to seriously engage “borderlands” theology.