Online Worship Notice

Throughout DC’s shelter-in-place order, we’ll be hosting online worship every Sunday. Praise and worship starts 9:45am; Preaching and prayer begins at 10am.

We will attempt to livestream the service again online at Facebook.com/stlukescalvary.

If you have internet access, we encourage you to try there first.

If the facebook stream is not playing, please access worship via the following zoom link:
https://zoom.us/j/3626271076

You can also call in by dialing:
1-301-715-8592
After dialing in, enter the meeting number:
362 627 1076 then press #.
When asked for your participant ID press # again.

Evening prayer begins every weekday at 6pm.

Wednesday bible Study begins at noon.

The call in details for all these services will be the same as for Sunday worship. These details will not change.

We appreciate your patience in working with us to navigate these technical issues.

Calvary Calls On Our Members to

Submit testimony to DC City Council 

Regarding funding for police and incarceration

June 1st – 16th 2020

The DC City Council is voting on a proposed budget for Metropolitan Police (MPD) and a new jail, in the midst of a pandemic and a $700 million dollar city budget deficit. As we mourn the deaths of Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, George Floyd, Finan Berhe and countless others, we know that DC’s police department has murdered many Black people. We need to city to prioritize community investment, over a police force that terrorizes DC’s Black community.

We’re asking you to speak out against the following proposed DC budget highlights:

1. A 3.3% increase in the MPD budget, totaling to $578 million
2. $5M for a new DC Jail in FY25 (full cost of the facility is ~ $500-600 million)
3. 11.4% budget decrease to the Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement

Before June 16th 2020 we need you to submit public testimony to demand that Council:

1. Defund MPD.
2. Do not fund the building of a new jail.
3. Maintian current funding levels for the Office of Neighbornood Safety and Engagement

There are three ways to submit testimony:

1. Upload a 3-minute video of your testimony to the Judiciary Committee’s Dropbox
2. Submit voicemail testimony to the Committee’s Voice Mail at (202) 350-1362.
3. Email written testimony to judiciary@dccouncil.us.

Testimony Script/Talking Points:

1. Introduce yourself, include your full name and how it’s spelled
2. Say why this matters to you
3. State your demand (Additional police and funding for police will not enhance public safety in the District and will actually make us less safe, we must reprioritize where we put our money.)
4. Expand on the demand: The problem is harm done by the MPD and community violence especially homicides (Racially biased stop and frisk continues despite court injunctions. Officers do not use PPE during stops, risking the spread of COVID-19. MPD killed 3 Black men during a 5 week period in 2018. There has been no accountability or information shared regarding these killings. Gun violence and murder have increased in the District, despite ballooning police budgets. We cannot police our way out of violence.)
5. Expand on the demand: The solutions are reallocating MPD funds to pay for non-police resources. The Office of Neighbornood Safety and Engagement is one such resource that provides non-policing responses to violence in DC.

Additional Resource

More resources for developing your testimony can be found at this link.

Calvary Episcopal Church Vestry Regarding DC’s 2021 Budget

Esteemed Members of the DC Council,

We, the Vestry and Pastor of Calvary Episcopal Church, writing on behalf of our congregation, urge the DC Council to:

-NOT increase funding for the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) in the 2021 Budget.

-NOT allocate any funding toward the building of a new DC jail.

-NOT decrease funding to the Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement.

Recent events and public demonstrations have brought to light many concerns and problems regarding policing in the District, most especially in the relations between the Metropolitan Police Department and the Black community of this city. These problems have led to the deaths of Black residents in the District.

The issues involved are complicated, deserving careful consideration and deliberation. It would be irresponsible to reward MPD with additional funding until these issues are resolved. It would be irresponsible to allocate funding for a new jail, without further research as to whether such a jail would, in fact, promote the safety and well-being of District residents. It would be especially irresponsible to undertake this additional spending, totaling roughly $23 million, when the District faces a projected budget deficit in excess of a billion dollars.

At the same time, we believe the District must maintain its current commitments to non-policing solutions for violent crime, including its investment in the Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (ONSE). The total current allocation for ONSE is less than one third the total proposed increases toward MPD and jail spending. Nonetheless, the proposed budget would reduce ONSE’s allocation by 11.4%, for a savings of less than $800 thousand; a pittance compared with DC’s total budget, and a drop in the bucket when measured against the projected deficit. Council must maintain ONSE funding at current levels.

Calvary Episcopal Church has deep roots in the City. We’ve been an anchor institution of the H St. corridor for 120 years. Most of our members grew up in the neighborhood. Many, including our pastor, live and work in the District. We love this city, and as people of faith, we take seriously the prophet Jeremiah’s call to “Seek the welfare of the city where I [God] have sent you.” It is clear that allocating additional funding to MPD and the jail, without consideration or accountability, is not in the interest of the City’s welfare. It is clear that divesting from community based solutions to violence is not in the interest of the City’s welfare. We urge you to reconsider.

Sincerely,

The Vestry,  and Pastor of Calvary Episcopal Church,

Washington, DC