The Franciscan Action Network (FAN) is a faith-based 501(c)(3) non-profit organization in Washington DC composed of Franciscan sisters, friars, secular Franciscans, and others. The organization was created to address issues regarding ecology, [1] human rights, poverty, [2] and general peacemaking in the United States.
FAN is led by active volunteers across the country, supported by a small staff. As of August 2013, its board members consisted of the national minister of the Secular Franciscans, three Franciscan sisters, five Franciscan Friars (from different orders: Friars Minor, Friars Minor Conventual, Friars Minor Capuchins, Third Order Regular, and Atonement Friars), and four lay people.
The Franciscan Action Network was formed in 2007 in Baltimore Maryland by a group of more than 150 Franciscans who gathered from across the United States. It has grown to include membership of over 50 Franciscan groups. While Catholics make up a majority of FAN, its membership also includes Episcopal, Lutheran, and Ecumenical Franciscan groups.
FAN promotes the positions of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), including advocating for immigration reform and a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, legislation to reduce greenhouse gases and mitigate climate change, and economic policies aimed at assisting the middle and lower class. [3] FAN also maintains a "pro-life" stance on abortion and its members participate at the annual March for Life in Washington, DC.
In 2012, the FAN initiated the Franciscan Earth Corps (FEC), a ministry aimed at encouraging young adults to participate in FAN advocacy activities. FEC provides training and resources in sustainable living projects, spiritual reflection, retreat, community building, and advocacy work. [4] In 2013, there are Franciscan Earth Corps chapters in ten cities, mostly located in the Eastern and Midwestern United States.
Following the teachings of St. Francis of Assisi, who called Franciscans to be migrating people of prayer, [5] FAN directs a significant part of its efforts to promoting immigration reform, [6] advocating for a clearly defined pathway to US citizenship which prioritizes family unity. To this end, FAN collaborates with the Justice for Immigrants Campaign of the USCCB and the Interfaith Immigration Coalition.
The FAN has stood in resistance to the possibility of a registry of all Muslims living in the United States. They have also opposed the travel ban against several Middle Eastern countries as proposed by President Trump and his administration. [7]
In accord with their understanding of the teachings of St. Francis of Assisi, patron saint of those who promote ecology, FAN works with other Franciscans to bring public officials into conversation about action to mitigate climate change. [8] [9] FAN members participate in public protests on this issue. [10] This advocacy has led to criticism from other Catholic groups. [11]
FAN works with the USCCB's Anti-Trafficking Services Program and is a member of the Coalition of Catholic Organizations against Human Trafficking. FAN also collaborated with Franciscans International and the Franciscan Federation in a project to review the issue of human trafficking in the 2013 United Nations review of the United States. [12]
FAN promotes peace by offering resources on civil dialogue, working for legislation to reduce gun violence, and addressing arms issues such as nuclear weapons. [13]
Advocacy is an activity by an individual or group that aims to influence decisions within political, economic, and social institutions. Advocacy includes activities and publications to influence public policy, laws and budgets by using facts, their relationships, the media, and messaging to educate government officials and the public. Advocacy can include many activities that a person or organization undertakes, including media campaigns, public speaking, commissioning and publishing research. Lobbying is a form of advocacy where a direct approach is made to legislators on a specific issue or specific piece of legislation. Research has started to address how advocacy groups in the United States and Canada are using social media to facilitate civic engagement and collective action.
The Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA) is an American Jewish nonprofit organization that deals with community relations. It is a coordinating round table organization of 15 other national Jewish organizations, including the Reconstructionist, Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox congregational movements, as well as 125 local Jewish federations and community relations councils. The JCPA describes itself as "the representative voice of the organized American Jewish community."
The World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) is an interdenominational organization of evangelical Christian churches, serving more than 600 million evangelicals, founded in 1846 in London, England, United Kingdom to unite evangelicals worldwide. WEA is the largest international organization of evangelical churches. The headquarters are in Deerfield, Illinois, with UN offices in New York City, Geneva, and Bonn. It brings together 9 regional and 143 national evangelical alliances of churches, and over one hundred member organizations. Moreover, the WEA includes a certain percentage of individual evangelical Christian churches. As of March 2021, the Secretary General of the WEA is German theologian Thomas Schirrmacher.
The United Nations Association of the United States of America (UNA-USA) is a nonprofit grassroots organization dedicated to promoting political and public support for the United Nations among Americans. A program of the United Nations Foundation, its mission includes advocating for greater U.S. leadership at the UN, improving and enhancing the UN system, and implementing the Sustainable Development Goals and the UN Charter in both the U.S. and globally.
Interfaith dialogue refers to cooperative, constructive, and positive interaction between people of different religious traditions and/or spiritual or humanistic beliefs, at both the individual and institutional levels.
The Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) is a national nonprofit, nonpartisan Quaker organization. As a 501(c)(4) advocacy organization, FCNL and its network lobby Congress and the administration to promote peace, justice, and environmental stewardship. It was founded in 1943 by members of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers).
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is the episcopal conference of the Catholic Church in the United States. Founded in 1966 as the joint National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB) and United States Catholic Conference (USCC), it is composed of all active and retired members of the Catholic hierarchy in the United States and the territory of the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The consistent life ethic, also known as the consistent ethic of life or whole life ethic, is an ideology that opposes abortion, capital punishment, assisted suicide, and euthanasia. Adherents oppose war, or at the very least unjust war; some adherents go as far as full pacifism and so oppose all war. Many authors have understood the ethic to be relevant to a broad variety of areas of public policy as well as social justice issues.
The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, formerly called the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, is an umbrella group of American civil rights interest groups.
Franciscans International (FI) is a non-governmental organization (NGO) with general Consultative Status at the United Nations. The organization operates under the sponsorship of the Conference of the Franciscan Family (CFF) and serves all members of the Franciscan family, as well as the global community by bringing spiritual, ethical, and Franciscan values to the United Nations and international organizations". The organization has headquarters in New York City, Geneva, and Bangkok.
Sojourners is a progressive monthly magazine and daily online publication of the American Christian social justice organization Sojourners, which arose out of the Sojourners Community. It was first published in 1971 under the original title of The Post-American. The magazine and online publication feature reporting, commentary, and analysis on Christianity and politics, the church and social issues, social justice, and Christian living. Articles frequently feature coverage of fair trade, interfaith dialogue, peacemaking, and work to alleviate poverty. The offices of the magazine are in Washington, D.C.
Faith in Action, formerly known as Pacific Institute for Community Organization, is a national network of faith-based community organizations in the United States. The organization is headquartered in Oakland, California, with additional offices in San Diego and Washington, D.C. The organization believes in a society free of economic oppression, racism and discrimination. Its stated mission is "to increase access to health care, improve public schools, make neighborhoods safer, build affordable housing, redevelop communities and revitalize democracy."
Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking (CAST) is a Los Angeles-based anti-human trafficking organization. Through legal, social, and advocacy services, CAST helps rehabilitate survivors of human trafficking, raises awareness, and affects legislation and public policy surrounding human trafficking.
Chab Dai is an organization founded in Cambodia in 2005 by Helen Swornthat focuses on abolishing sexual abuse, human trafficking, and exploitation. It aims to bring an end to trafficking and sexual exploitation through coalition building, community prevention, advocacy and research. While the organization was founded in Cambodia, Chab Dai also has additional offices in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. In August 2023, they joined other Anti-Trafficking Organizations in a statement about the factual inaccuracies of the movie Sound of Freedom (film)
Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP) is a US 501(c)(3) non-profit advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C. As a coalition of Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant churches, CMEP states that it works to influence American policy in ways that will bring justice and peace for all people and countries in the Middle East. In 2010 Churches for Middle East Peace had over 100 partner churches, which are religious orders, congregations, church committees, regional church bodies, and church-related organizations such as peace fellowships that commit to working for Middle East peace, and can agree with CMEP's mission and views.
Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc.(commonly referred to as CLINIC) is the US's largest network of non-profit immigration activist programs. In its 1986 pastoral statement "Together a New People", the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) observed that the church's ministry to immigrants reflects the "biblical understanding of the justice of God reaching out to all peoples and rectifying the situation of the poor, the orphans, the widows, the disadvantaged, and especially in the Old Testament, the alien and the stranger." Two years later, USCCB established CLINIC as a legally distinct 501(c)(3) non-profit organization to support a rapidly growing need for community-based programs dedicated to serve indigent and low-income immigrants. CLINIC's network originally comprised seventeen diocesan affiliates and has since increased to over 200 Catholic and community-based immigration programs with 290 field offices in 47 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. In addition, the network affiliates employ roughly 1,200 Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) accredited attorneys who serve over 600,000 low-income immigrants each year. CLINIC affiliated agencies represent low-income immigrants without reference to their race, religion, gender, ethnic group, or other distinguishing characteristics.
T'ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, often referred to as T'ruah, is a left-wing nonprofit organization of rabbis who act on the Jewish imperative to respect and protect the human rights of all people in North America, Israel, and the Palestinian Territories. Approximately 2,000 American and Canadian rabbis and cantors, very predominantly non-orthodox in denomination, are affiliated with T'ruah. T'ruah was founded as Rabbis for Human Rights-North America (RHR-NA) in 2002. On January 15, 2013, RHR-NA ended its formal affiliation with Rabbis for Human Rights in Israel, and was renamed T'ruah. The name T’ruah is based on one of the sounds of the shofar acting as a call to take action.
Faiths United to Prevent Gun Violence is a United States faith-based, interdenominational gun control advocacy organization.