Celebrating Faith Action’s 25th Anniversary

By Evie Hao, chair Anniversary Planning Committee

  The word “celebrate” usually evokes images of confetti and people dancing to Cool and the Gang’s 1980’s song of the same name.  But celebration can take many forms.  It can be quiet and reverential. It can engage and excite.  It can commemorate and inspire.

   As the Faith Action Anniversary planning committee digs out memorabilia of the past 25 years of our existence, some of those sentiments are felt.

   We are reverential when we read about the handful of ministers who quietly met and eventually led their congregations to spearhead “Faith Action for Community Equity” long before it had a name.  

   We feel the excitement our founders may have felt when they engaged other churches and members of the larger community to join in the work. 

   We are inspired to recognize leaders who were led by the Spirit to work for social justice. Some leaders are no longer with us; some are still here “fighting the good fight.”

   Given recent COVID developments, an in-person celebration is not possible for now.  Instead, in November, we will celebrate with a series of webinars that chronicle our foundational values and highlight key events that brought Faith Action to the forefront.  

    It is our hope that the webinars will evoke the same feelings – reverence, excitement, and inspiration – that a celebration can create.

    We welcome your input in any form.  We need you to share your memories and photos, help select visuals for the webinars, create videos, take photographs, write articles, write dialogue for the webinars, etc.  Please contact me at evyhao@gmail.com if you have questions or contributions.  You may also contact anyone on the planning committee: Patrick Zukemura, Kathy Jaycox, Karen Ginoza, Sam Domingo, Christy MacPherson, Kiki Mills, Jun Yang, and Deanna Espinas.

    In the next few weeks, members of the committee will share their views of what this anniversary celebration means to them personally. 

A MEMORY that inspires: The late Rev. Bob Nakata (middle left) leads a delegation of ministers of Faith Action churches in a worship service held in Central Union Church on April 29, 2009.  This event highlighted FACE’s Interfaith Healthcare initiative about to be introduced in the legislature that year.