DescAttendees of this event will leave better informed about affordable housing and related housing concerns, learn how to get involved, stay informed and hold municipalities accountable. Individuals will also gain a better understanding of their role in ensuring enough affordable housing is built so that everyone in the community has a place to call home.

Panelists include Lorissa Lucianna and Michael Callahan from NJ Department of Community Affairs. Linda Flores-Tober from The Elizabeth Coalition to House the Homeless will also be speaking. Lastly, Catherine Hart from Housing Authority of the City of Elizabeth, Diego Arias from Fair Share Housing and Phil Kandl from Union County Department of Economic Development will share their perspectives.ription goes here

Beginning on Thursday, Dec. 12th, Zion will partner with Bridges Outreach to perform Outreach Runs for people experiencing homelessness in the community. We’ll meet every Thursday from 7-9pm in the parking lot of the church where we’ll distribute winter wear items, hygiene kits, and pre-packaged food. These runs are for anyone experiencing housing insecurity in any way. Bridges Outreach will have their Social Workers and Case Managers on site to assist people in need. To volunteer please click the button below.

Each year compassionate members of the community gather to remember people who are, for the most part, forgotten, our un-housed siblings. Clergy, Community Leaders, and Concerned People gather to remember, name, and pray for our un-housed people who died on the streets.

Join us at Calvary Lutheran Church, 108 Eastman St., Cranford at 7pm on Dec. 19th to remember the forgotten, light candles to beat back the dark on this near longest night, and pledge to advocate for the un-housed in our communities so that next year there may be less names to read at the Homeless Vigil.

Bernie Wagenblast interviews Rev. Carmine Pernini about the 2024 Homeless Person’s Vigil which will be held at Calvary Lutheran Church, 108 Eastman St., Cranford, NJ.

Housing Laws in NJ are changing in 2025. The Union County Interfaith Coordinating Council along with Community Access Unlimited will host a panel of experts who helped craft the new Affordable housing Laws to discuss what the law was, how it has changed, and what our communities can do to help enforce Affordable Housing Laws to ensure that our communities are inclusive and welcoming of all people.

Zion Lutheran Church, Rahway and Pastor Carmine Pernini will participate in the 10th annual Union County Day of Prayer: Inclusion Amidst Diversity. This Interfaith Day of Prayer is a place where everybody can feel part of a community that is greater than themselves. Participants from Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, and Sikh traditions get together to pray, teach, and reflect on our shared humanity and innate dignity. This year’s Day of Prayer will be at St. Helen’s Roman Catholic Church, 1600 Rahway Ave., Westfield at 7pm. All are welcome!

Zion, Rahway is hosting a FreeMarket where gently used items will be given away to the community for free! The event will be on Saturday, Oct. 26th from 11am-3pm.

On Tuesday, February 27th, 2024, Rev. Carmine Pernini offered the Benediction at Gov. Murphy’s Budget Message at the General Assembly Chamber of the NJ State House. Rev. Pernini asked God to continually raise the voices of people suffering to ears of elected officials so that their cries may be heard and legislation enacted to alleviate their suffering.

— TAPintoRahway 3/17/23

— TAPintoRahway 1/26/23

As children go back to school, Zion invited kids from the community to have their backpacks blessed for the new school year.

RAHWAY, NJ — This year's Union County Homeless Persons Memorial Vigil took place on Thursday at Zion Lutheran Church in Rahway. It came amid rising homelessness in the county and the state – a result of the pandemic and an end to the moratorium on evictions.

"Each year the UCICC holds an event with service providers who work in the areas of homelessness [and] housing as well as religious leaders from the community that memorializes homeless people who have died over the course of the year," said Reverend Carmine Pernini, of the UCICC and pastor of Zion Lutheran, an organizer of the event.

"UNION COUNTY, NJ — For the past nine years, the Union County Interfaith Coordinating Council (UCICC) and Community Access Unlimited (CAU) have hosted the Union County Day of Prayer. The event is a celebration of diverse faiths and traditions located throughout Union County. Hosted at a new site each year, the range of faith traditions includes, but is not limited to, Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. This year’s Day of Prayer took place on Thursday, November 9, at 6 p.m., hosted by Santa Isabel Lutheran Church, located at 908 E. Jersey Street in Elizabeth.

The 2023 Union County Day of Prayer was special. As a result of the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, hostility and tensions have affected congregations across the United States, even right here in New Jersey. There is a sizable population of Palestinian immigrants and refugees in the state as well as over 600,000 New Jersey residents who are Jewish. The events “over there” spill over, manifesting themselves as domestic issues “over here.”

Representatives from Muslim and Jewish congregations attended the event and spoke passionately about their laments, fears, and concerns. One individual who is Muslim and from Palestine spoke through tears about the loss of his mother to bombs which occurred the week before. In the same breath, he offered prayers for Israel and Jewish individuals, calling for peace."

RAHWAY, NJ — On Thursday, December 22, Rahway's Zion Lutheran Church, located at 215 Elm Ave., is holding its Winter Clothing & Accessories Distribution, which will also included donations of stuffed backpacks and food. The event will run from 1-4 p.m. and is being organized in cooperation with the Elizabeth Coalition to House the Homeless.

There will also be social workers on the premises who can connect the homeless and hungry with social services and other programs.

On Monday, April 30, 2018, I was asked to accompany Bayron, a man seeking asylum in the US, to his Immigration Court hearing at the Rodino Federal Building, Newark, NJ. Bayron came to the US in 2016 across the Mexico/US border in Texas on foot with a toddler, fleeing violence in Honduras, widely known as one of the homes of the infamous gang, MS-13. The menace of MS-13 is regularly invoked as a warrant to deport not just gang members, but any undocumented immigrant. Bayron has no criminal record, yet he is but one of the hundreds of thousands of deportees that, largely based on public discourse about MS-13, have been rounded up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Before entering the federal building, we prayed...

TRENTON) – Assembly Democrats Britnee Timberlake, Annette Quijano and Benjie Wimberly issued the following statements Wednesday after (A-3115), legislation they sponsored, was signed into law. The law mandates that the Attorney General handle the investigation and prosecution of a crime involving a person’s death by a law enforcement officer acting in the officer’s official capacity, or while in custody, and requires the trial to be held in a venue outside of the county where the incident occurred.