I am excited to present to you sample guidelines for congregational values-based decision making in the area of social justice and advocacy.

Taking a specific stand on a social or political issue is a real and complex challenge for any faith-based community.

The guidelines were developed by Adat Shalom in Bethesda, Maryland, Columbia Jewish Congregation, Columbia, MD, and Tzedek V'Shalom in Newton, PA, over an intensive year of study and community-wide discussion and decision making. The documents were graciously shared with us to aid other congregations in similar processes.

Congregational Advocacy is when a community takes a formal position on a public issue. This could show up in a wide range of contexts, such as participating in demonstrations (e.g. Million Mom March), signing a petition in favor of a certain policy (e.g. gay marriage), or hosting consciousness-raising events for a particular cause (e.g. genocide in Darfur).

Please also see this article by Rabbi Rebecca Alpert: http://jrf.org/showres&rid=202 as well as http://jrf.org/pearl/2008/how-to-successfully-integrate-and-use-reconstructionism-in-synagogue-processes

I invite you to add a comment to this post describing your own havurah or congregation's process and guidelines.