Ushering in a New Season at the Church Council
Image by Lupe Carlos III - Multi-faith support of the Embassy Suites worker strike
As we enter a new season of faith-rooted community organizing in our 107th year, I want to re-introduce myself. My name is Tara Miller, my pronouns are they/them, and I am the Executive Director of the Church Council of Greater Seattle. Through my time as an intern in 2016 when we officially transitioned our work to being grounded in community organizing, to returning in 2022 as the Operations Lead and becoming Co-Executive Director in 2023, I have found no better home for my hope in the collective power of people of faith and conscience.
If you know me well, you know that I rarely use the words “hope” and “faith”. I come from a nonprofit background that extracted the hope of impacted families to fundraise hand-in-hand with corporations who create and maintain the structures of injustice which keep our communities impoverished. At the same time, my dad instilled in me a love of history, and I’ve seen time and again the cruelty of empires, and how powerless it can feel to dismantle them and rebuild a world where we all thrive. I feel pretty jaded about the word “hope”.
Growing up, “faith” for me meant a marriage of US militarism with the god of a future time and space who demands unquestioning allegiance, one who is not alive among the people and places around us. In contrast, the youth and college ministries I was involved in taught me to look at root causes and to learn from people of faith across history who put their bodies on the line to demand justice for themselves and their neighbors. I struggle with the word “faith” because I am not always good at connecting with something Sacred in a “beyond” sort of way. However, I am clear that my faith lies in the power we hold together, rooted in a hope that we may not always feel, but we choose to usher in, because we refuse to lose our humanity to systems of dehumanization.
The hope that we instilled in 2016 in our shift toward community organizing, the intentional grounding of our work in anti-racism and following the leadership of communities most impacted, facilitating 6 Faith Land Discernment Cohorts where 20 faith communities are imagining anew the stewardship of their land and assets toward community benefit, our Immigration Organizing blossoming into leadership by our Grupo de Solidaridad, creating a dedicated and unforgettable presence at City Hall through our Budget Roundtable, intentional organizing across faith traditions and community organizations – this deepening of relationship and accountability has borne fruits of effectively organizing our collective power for tangible solidarity with communities across Seattle and King County.
We’ve said this for many years – this is a time for faith to speak and act boldly. We’re experiencing a dangerous season when all of the isms are on display in full force. We’re actively seeing our migrant neighbors being stolen and disappeared, Black and brown and trans people continuing to be threatened and killed, the president trying to conquer a new country every week, our paychecks stretching less far than the day before, not being able to eat the food because it’s contaminated, and passing the point of no return for climate disaster. It feels overwhelming. And yet our faith traditions call us to usher in hope.
I preached a sermon on Labor Day weekend about taking strategic risk. Through that sermon, we explored the many ways labor unions have set an example of how to organize strategically to change the material conditions of workers across our nation. If you have not been following the story of Unite Here Local 8 and the Embassy Suites hotel worker strike this summer, that is a great place to dive in.
You will read through the many campaigns we are celebrating this summer that the power of the people is strong enough to topple injustice. As we follow the leadership of those most impacted, as we refuse to let those being threatened fight alone, as we take strategic risk, we have enough power and creativity to build a different future.
My hope and my faith lie in us. May we continue into this new season together, grounded in how powerful we are and certain that we will usher in a future when justice is realized, where all people experience liberation, profound peace, expansive equity, and joy-filled human flourishing.
Onward,
TARA MILLER (they/them)
Executive Director