Justice and Witness Ministries (JWM) is one of five covenanted ministries of the United Church of Christ. JWM is responsible for national office ministries related to four areas: economic justice; "human rights, justice for women and transformation;" "public life and social policy;" and "racial justice".
The justice page of the UCC homepage reports the statement that "Doing justice, seeking peace and building community are central to the identity of the United Church of Christ," although no formal resolution of synod has ever made this declaration of denominational identity.
In addition to its offices in Cleveland, JWM also maintains an office on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.[1] JWM is also affiliated with:
The current Executive Minister for Justice and Witness Ministries is Ms. M. Linda Jaramillo.[5]
The JWM has four teams:
Bernice Powell Jackson was the Executive Minister of JWM from the creation of the post in 1999 (during the UCC National office reorganization) until 2005. Prior to leaving the UCC, Bernice Powell Jackson was elected in 2004 as the President of the North American Region of the World Council of Churches http://www.wcc-usa.org/about-us/us-board/bernice-powell-jackson.html https://web.archive.org/web/20060704010219/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1058/is_14_121/ai_n6145293 .
JWM regularly sponsors General Synod resolutions, especially ones dealing with perceived justice issues of the day. JWM also maintains an office called "Minister for Children, Families and Human Sexuality Advocacy" that promotes the Our Whole Lives sex education curriculum.
Their web presence is as follows:
In addition to is internal activities JWM has allied with organizations outside the UCC and endorsed legislation and political positions. Such positions include the following:
Given that the United Church of Christ has no explicit political orientation, the statements and actions of the type issued by JWM has been criticized by conservatives within the UCC.