Labor Day Resources

We invite you to use these resources for worship and sermon preparation on or around Labor Day Weekend:

United Methodist Pastor and ICWJ Board Member Marianne Cotter compiled these intriguing historical resources for Labor Day this year. We focused on the Lutheran, UCC and Methodist traditions only because of limited time and resources. We encourage members of other traditions to use resources from our national office http://www.iwj.org/resources/labor-day-weekend-resources

Please let us know by emailing Becky@workerjustice.org if you use these resources!
Consider taking a special collection at your Labor Day Service to support the Interfaith Coalition for Worker Justice of South Central Wisconsin

UPDATE OCTOBER, 2012: Here are links to sermons given Labor Day Weekend, 2012:

Rabbi Renee Bauer at First Unitarian Society http://fusmadison.org/media/2012-09-02-organized-labor-rb.mp3

John Matthews Executive Director of MTI and Pastor Phil Haslanger Memorial United Church of Christ Here’s the link.

Resources for Lutherans

1991 Resolution on Worker’s Rights http://www.elca.org/What-We-Believe/Social-Issues/Resolutions/1991/CA91,-p-,06,-p-,35-Workers-Rights.aspx

1999 Social Statement of ELCA “Sufficient, Sustainable Livelihood for All”:http://www.elca.org/What-We-Believe/Social-Issues/Social-Statements/Economic-Life.aspx

Lutheran Resources for Worker Justice (Edited by Wayne Stumme) http://www.wpusa.org/Interfaith-Council/Resources_Lutheran.pdf

Resources for Reformed Church (UCC)

The Good Samaritan and Social Redemption – Sermon by Alfred Nevins Sayers from The Reformed Church Pulpit, edited by Frederick K. Stamm New York The MacMillan Company 1928

“Christianity’s Stake in the Social Situation – Sermon by Harry Emerson Fosdick from The Hope of the World New York: Harper and Brothers 1933)

A New Heart for the Nation Sermon by Washington Gladden 1918

Resources for United Methodists

Read the Social Creed in worship on Sept. 2^nd (Paragraph 166 of the 2008 Book of Discipline) along with Companion Litany to Social Creed. The 2008 Social Creed Litany complements the current Social Creed first approved in 1972. It is the living product of collaborative consultations in the Philippines, Norway, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the U.S. Neal Christie, Assistant General Secretary for Education and Leadership Formation at the General Board of Church and Society, along with his colleague Liberato Bautista were the lead staff members in the creation of the 2008 Social Creed litany. For more information, go to http://www.umc-gbcs.org.

Use the 1908 Methodist Social Creed in worship. Methodist Resources for Labor Day

Read Walter Rauschenbusch’s “Prayer For Immigrants” or “Prayer For Employers” (1910 Pilgrim Press) in worship. Rauschenbush was a leader of the Social Gospel movement. Though he was a Baptist, many of our Methodist, Evangelical and United Brethren forebears shared his Social Gospel sentiments. Methodist Resources for Labor Day

Include paragraph 73B of the Social Principles in your Labor Day worship (in written or oral form): “Collective Bargaining. We support the right of public and private employees and employers to organize for collective bargaining into unions and the groups of their own choosing. Further, we support the right of both parties to protection in so doing, and their responsibility to bargain in good faith within the framework of the public interest.”

Select from the sermon resources in the attached Methodist resource document in your Labor Day message. These connect the social issues in the period leading up to the first Methodist Social Creed with our current situation.

1. 1. Sermons and the shaping of northern Methodist identities 1885-1905 by Kevin Newburg Drew University 2009.
  2. City Missions and Social Problems by Frank Mason North The Methodist Review March/April LXXV 5^th Series Vol. IX p. 228
  3. Suggestions for Social Topics: Some Remarks on the 8 hour day” by Richard Ely Christian Advocate November 1, 1891; 66;46.

Consider taking a special collection to support the Interfaith Coalition for Worker Justice of South Central Wisconsin, see www.workerjustice.org or contact Rabbi Bauer at director@workerjustice.org. Or collect for the national Interfaith Worker Justice’s the Worker’s Rights Center Advance Special #3020441 For more information go to http://www.umcmission.org/Give-to-Mission/Search-for-Projects/Projects/Interfaith-Worker-Justice.

For Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, and Muslim resources for Labor Day:

http://www.iwj.org/resources/labor-day-weekend-resources