Newsletter November 1994

Dear Friends,

After 16 years at CCNV, many have asked about the circumstances of my leaving.

Upon Mitch Snyder's death, CCNV was incorporated without consensus. My responsibility had been to run the shelter. Most of the incorporaters having not lived at the shelter, but wanting control, brought in police and eventually forced my removal. The members of conscience dispersed. To expose this internal dissension so soon after Mitch's death would have only hurt those that we serve.

We immediately started ABRAHAM HOUSE and moved back to the ZACCHAEUS SOUP KITCHEN -- the original CCNV soup kitchen run by the OLIVE BRANCH (see brochures). Here we have reestablished advocacy sustained by an intentional community of conscience.

In addition to operating the soup kitchen, we have, with the help of the WORLD CUP, deepened our relationship with the children of SE, D.C.( Abraham House) and the Latino commmunity -- all of whom suffer from a shortage of affordable housing.

Children isolated by violence in torn neighborhoods are slowly meeting one another. They have been able to share meals on exciting trips that included Adventure World and World Cup matches.

Meanwhile, a set of 14 new exercise machines were donated. We are seeking the $3,000 needed to dismantle and transport them. We are also thankful for the childrens' christmas gifts and computers that were donated and upgraded for the AH tutorial program. We look forward to our first newsletter via desk top publishing.

At the soup kitchen, we are constantly reminded that charity without justice is oppression and have continued our advocacy for the homeless and affordable housing. Our work in the Latino community enabled us to sensitize Secretary Henry Cisneros of the gross overcrowding that we witness there (see National Mortgage News; THE LITTLE WAY, Spring 1994).

As an extension of our work in the Latino community, two of our members are now in Los Angeles organizing sit-ins against proposition 187 which seriously threatens the civil and human rights of that community.

Please make donations payable to the Olive Branch.

For the community,

Harold Moss