Saturday, September 1, 2012

Souls to the Polls and Voter Registration -- What, Why, and How

One of the things your Chapter and clergy staff are trying to do is remove the mystery about how things work and how things happen at Christ Church Cathedral. Last week, I wrote this post (What is *Christian* Outreach at Christ Church Cathedral) and updated you on the work of our Outreach Visioning Team ... which (among other things) will be proposing to Chapter a process for discerning which outreach ministries we should embrace as an entire congregation.

In the meantime, I was approached by the Rev. Traci Blackmon of Christ the King United Church of Christ to see if Christ Church Cathedral would be a part of Souls to the Polls, an ecumenical movement afoot among 31 churches (so far) in the St. Louis metro area to help get out the vote on Election Day, Nov. 6.

Christ Church Cathedral is now a "Souls to the Polls" congregation. But I want to be clear how we got there ... and invite conversation and feedback as much about the process as the outcome. Remember, we're all in this together.

First, what is Souls to the Polls?
Souls to the Polls is Rev. Blackmon's idea (I know Traci from our work together on Magdalene St. Louis). It is a nonpartisan effort that I believe comes from two common principles:

1) As Christians, we believe faithful exercise of the vote for the greater good is part of loving one another as Christ has loved us (John 13:34)

2)As Americans, we believe nobody should have his or her right to vote taken away or discouraged.

Many of us (myself included), believe that voter suppression ... particularly among the poor, elderly and minorities ... is alive and well. But you do not have to share that opinion to be part of Souls to the Polls. You just have to recognize that the poor, homeless, disabled and elderly face many challenges accessing the vote ... and be willing to help.

For a congregation to participate, all they need is a congregational coordinator who can rally volunteers in the congregation and act as a liaison between the church and the citywide effort. All volunteers need is a vehicle (theirs or the church's), driver's license and valid insurance.

Second, how did Christ Church Cathedral become a "Souls to the Polls" congregation?
When Pastor Blackmon invited us to join, I asked her to put us in the "maybe" category and I attended an organizational breakfast at her church. There, I became convinced that this was truly a nonpartisan effort, and that the two principles above (which are my distillation of their mission) were ones that the vast majority of people not just in our Cathedral congregation but in the diocese whose cathedral we are could embrace.


The next step was to see if it was something that not just I thought we should embrace but the congregation. I put an article in Wednesday Weekly saying this had been offered to us and also emailed 44 Cathedral parishioners who have been active in outreach asking them if they were interested in the Cathedral being a part of this and in personally helping make it happen. 

Seven people stepped forward -- Darrin Holt (whom I asked to be the coordinator), Pat Cleary, Connie Cominsky, Chloe Hallett-Rickard, Jennifer Grant, Frank Sprayberry and Jane Mayfield, which showed me that this was something that had enough support in the congregation to be viable. Darrin and his crew are taking it from here and you will be hearing from them.

Third, how do I get involved?
That's the easy piece! If you want to learn more or help out in any way, just contact Darrin Holt (DRUSSH at aol.com). 

Wait, there's more ... Voter Registration on Saturday Morning
When I was at the organizational meeting, I met representatives from the Urban League who offered to come to our churches to do voter registration. It occurred to me that the population least likely to be registered and vote (and in many ways whose voice is least heard in society today) is those who show up to eat and pray Saturday morning at Miss Carol's Breakfast. "What about doing voter registration at Miss Carol's Breakfast?" I wondered.

But I wanted to hear what other's thought. So I contacted the executive committee (the wardens and treasurer ... whom I use as a sounding board and strategy group in between Chapter meetings), Amy, three people who have been heavily involved in Miss Carol's Breakfast (Tom and Kathy Rogers and Pat Cleary) and Dave Lawson, who with Tom Edelman is part of our still-forming ad hoc group that will help Chapter wrestle with what the Cathedral role is in political and social action. 

All agreed that doing voter registration at Miss Carol's Breakfast was a good thing and within the mission of the Cathedral. I will be contacting the Urban League representative and having them coordinate with the Miss Carol's Breakfast teams. I have also reached out to leadership at The Bridge, New Life Evangelistic Center and St. Patrick's Center to see if they wanted to coordinate with both voter registration and Souls to the Polls. I have also kept the Cathedral Souls to the Polls team in the loop as it is possible our Miss Carol's Breakfast guests might be our major target population to get to the polls on Election Day.

What do you think?
Do you think these are efforts that Christ Church Cathedral should be involved with? Why or why not? What do you think of the process I went through? Any suggestions? Anything else? Leave a comment!  

 



1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I love the idea of an old school, grassroots idea! It is important, very important to get back to old time ideas remenbering that these types of ideas are the ones that united and remember, the church was th hub! Let's do it again and educate our young about it!