Last week, MMOC parishioners distributed a booklet about Metropolitan Congregations United (MCU) and their work during 2024. MMOC is a congregation member, along with over 30 area congregations of many faith traditions. MCU identifies its core issue work: environmental justice, campaigning to ensure equal protection from environmental and health hazards; breaking the school to prison pipeline, by ending criminalization and mass incarceration of Black and Brown youth and adults; sacred votes, encouraging members of any congregation to exercise their right and moral duty to hold officials and the state accountable to the needs and demands of its people; and organizing formerly incarcerated individuals devoted to ending mass incarceration and the collateral consequences of inequities in the criminal justice system. MCU’s goal as a faith-based community organization is to bring together community members in geographically based groupings to foster collaborative, empowered, and resilient neighborhoods, taking action when their values and faith are violated by injustice. Two major projects where MMOC participated this year were petition drives for Medicaid expansion and raising the minimum wage for many workers, with the ability to earn one day of paid leave for every six months of work. For more information visit their website: www.mcustlouis.org.