By B.J. Coleman | SDUN Reporter

An established organization has landed in North Park to promote worker’s rights throughout the city, and they bring some religion to the discussion as well.

The Interfaith Center for Worker Justice (ICWJ) advocates for the same initiatives as before, but under a new name. The organization’s banner used to fly as the Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice, with its members working out of a Mission Valley office shared with the Center on Policy Initiatives; however, the Foundation for Change, another sister group, decided to vacate its storefront offices at 3758 30th Street. The Foundation’s first offer to transfer of the facility went to the ICWJ, which subsequently moved to the North Park site in mid-September. They immediately laid plans for enlarging its operational scope and outreach, becoming the Interfaith Center for Worker Justice at the end of January.

The newly reinvigorated ICWJ initiated its first-ever “Lunch & Learn” seminar series on March 4th, opening the first discussion of five weekly sessions on “Faith and Social Justice in Diverse Traditions,” with a joint presentation by Reverend J. Lee Hill, Jr. and Reverend Wayne Riggs. These ministers were on hand to outline the perspectives of Protestant and Evangelical Christianity. The new offices have made such talks possible.

The ICWJ’s executive director, Rabbi Laurie Coskey, started the meeting by teaching participants how to sing “Amen” in response to blessings and prayers. She noted that the meeting’s goal was to “delve more deeply into faith traditions and their link to social justice.”

The initial gathering drew an unexpectedly large crowd of approximately 40 attendees, who spanned such diverse occupations as pastors, psychologists, church planters, and social workers, and who derived their religious views from a variety of faith traditions. Riggs spoke of how “theology does and should affect behavior,” describing his early ministerial work in an African-American prison cell block and his military service as a Navy chaplain. Hill remarked that Jesus was among the marginalized of his day, comparing the execution method of crucifixion then with lynching in the 20th century.

The ministers’ presentation included a lengthy passage from the Poverty and Justice Bible. Riggs said the mission of evangelism should be to “involve and engage everyone for their own personal good and the good of humanity.”

Hill concurred, “Our responsibility is to get out of the churches and into the world.”

Coskey, known around the group as “Rabbi Laurie,” has been with the organization since 2001. She is enthusiastic about the ICWJ’s new “safe space” where people of varied backgrounds and cultures can learn together.

“We have renewed energy to stand in solidarity with working families,” Coskey said. “Having our own space has expanded our ability to fulfill the mission of connecting working people and people of faith, with the goal of ending poverty.”

She noted that the new offices unite individuals from notably different faiths around a “center” of caring action. As one seminar attendee from the religiously divided Belfast, Ireland put it, “Common ground is sacred ground.”

The ICWJ was established in San Diego County in 1998. The center’s new slogan is “Changing the future for workers and their families!” The center invites attendees to bring “inquisitive minds” along with their brown bag lunches every Tuesday at noon through April 1 for its ongoing five-part winter session, with subsequent presenters discussing the views of Catholicism, Islam, Judaism and Unitarian Universalism on fairness for workers and related social-justice concerns.

The center adopts campaigns so as to “walk the mission” and put “faith on the streets.” Among other ongoing activities is participation in “Raise Up San Diego,” which kicked off with a gathering on Wednesday, March 12th, at the Downtown Civic Center Plaza, urging support for earned sick days and increase in the minimum wage for workers.

Other current campaign action deals with immigration reform. The organization is also available to provide information to other groups about the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare). The Golden State’s “insurance exchange” under the ACA is called Covered California, and the ICWJ can educate audiences about choices in the exchange’s insurance options.