Instead of a table with letters to sign, this week, Advocacy Action is requesting members of St. Michael’s to email the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) asking them to deny Zenith Energy’s air-quality permit. Zenith Energy operates an oil-processing and storage facility on the banks of the Willamette River in NW Portland.

Our Palm Sunday sign collaboration with Rose City Park Presbyterian Church was so successful that many would like to keep it going. All are invited on the first Sunday of each month—including this Sunday, May 4—to offer Christian witness to our community.

Through a generous grant from our Outreach & Justice Council, St. Michael’s is sponsoring Advocacy Day on April 7. This will be a day of building community, sharing our stories and advocating for values-based legislation in Salem through group meetings with our legislators.

For Week 2, we’re directing your attention to the Oregon Black Pioneers website and, specifically, to their History Maps tool. Please take some time to explore History Maps, following your interests and curiosity wherever they take you. You’ll be glad you did! Because of our work on the St. Michael’s land story, we clicked on the map point closest to St. Michael’s and followed the thread as far as we could (within reason) not knowing what more we might learn about our neighbors and neighborhood history.

Thanks to all the kids who made the Souper Bowl of Caring announcement on February 2nd – you were terrific! So far, we’ve raised over $1,700 for the Northeast Emergency Food Program.