Dear friend,

We find ourselves now in the heart of a season of coming together. As nights stretch on, the National Union of the Homeless prepares for observe the Longest Night. As the season of advent marches forward, many observe Las Posadas, tying the turning away of Mary and Joseph to the abandonment of immigrant families, neighbors, and communities. Many more commemorate the legacy of shaking off repression and revolting against Empire with the observance of Hanukah. It is clear this moment is for joining in community to reflect on the sorrows, losses, joys, and triumphs of the past, and resolve to honor them in our struggle onward.

In this letter:

• Applications due: Join the launch of a new movement to end child and family detention.

• Upcoming Events: Day of the Immigrant, Solstice Sing, Freedom Church service honoring Min. Ron Casanova.

• Resources: NEW! Holiday Songs for Collective Action

• In The News: Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis on Trump as the new Nero.

With radical hope,

The Kairos Team

Last Day to Apply for the Young Organizers Survival Corps

In these dark and dangerous times, we draw hope from the courageous actions of so many, especially young people. From working to keep families together to practicing life-saving mutual aid to protesting war, violence, climate chaos and attacks on workers and communities, there is a multi-generational non-violent movement for change rising up across the nation.

Applications close tonight.

Resources + Day of the Immigrant

We're inviting you again to take action this week on Thursday - International Migrants Day - and infuse the spirit of Free Families into your local community. Please join or organize alongside folks across the country  and take some time to check out the toolkit and the resources of Free Families to increase the spirit and potency of this necessary work. And please take a moment to document your gathering and share at #FreeFamilies so we can continue to inspire each other!

Honor Min. Ron Casanova on the Longest Night of the Year

Ronald “Cas” Casanova—beloved leader of the National Union of the Homeless & co-founder of the Poverty Initiative—lived his life as a ministry of struggle, truth, and love. He helped organize the first nationally coordinated occupation of vacant federal housing in 1990, exposing the violence of homelessness and insisting that housing is a human right: "I'm dying in the streets. I think that should be against the law."

Having survived life on the streets of New York City from the age of nine, Cas taught us that “struggle is a school” and that each of us bears responsibility to teach others, a truth he captured in Each One, Teach One: Up and Out of Poverty; Memoirs of a Street Activist. Guided by a deep faith in the God of Matthew 25, Cas lived the gospel with his whole life. Though he was never ordained in his lifetime, the Freedom Church of the Poor honors his living ministry by commissioning him posthumously as a minister during the Longest Night of the Year service—held on Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day—as we remember those lost to homelessness and renew our commitment to ending it.

Standing With Striking Baristas

Veterans vow to defend the Constitution, and faith leaders vow to uphold moral values. The mistreatment of workers and the refusal to negotiate a fair contract by one of the richest corporations in the world is an affront to everything we hold dear.

That is why veteran leaders from Common Defense, alongside faith leaders from the Kairos Center for Religions, Rights, and Social Justice and the New York State Labor–Religion Coalition, have joined Starbucks Workers United in the fight for a fair contract and living wages this weekend.

Common Dreams—Trump: American Nero

Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis shows how sex and sexuality are important ways to understand both Nero’s and Trump’s uses and abuses of power, but the parallels (and the abuses) don’t stop there.