JoniWoolridge Charalambous

Dr. Brandon Sr.

“From its inception through the impact of Mary Lumpkin to the impact of our alumni change agents, such as Go. L. Douglas Wilder, and (the late) Rep. A Donald McEachin and many more national and local leaders, our Founder’s Day celebration is an im portant time where we come together to reflect on how far we’ve come and how we have limitless potential to go even further.”

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Religious leaders sue to block Missouri’s abortion ban

By Jim Salter

The Associated Press ST. LOUIS, Mo.

A group of religious leaders who support abortion rights filed a lawsuit Jan. 19 challenging Missouri’s abortion ban, saying lawmakers openly invoked their religious beliefs while drafting the measure and thereby imposed those beliefs on others who don’t share them.

The lawsuit filed in St. Louis is the latest of many to challenge restrictive abortion laws enacted by conservative states after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June. That landmark ruling left abortion rights up to each state to decide.

Since then, religious abortion rights supporters have increasingly used religious freedom lawsuits in seeking to protect abortion access. The religious freedom complaints are among nearly three dozen post-Roe lawsuits that have been filed against 19 states’ abortion bans, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.

The Missouri lawsuit brought on behalf of 13 Christian, Jewish and Unitarian Universalist leaders seeks a permanent injunction barring the state from enforcing its abortion law and a declaration that provisions of its law violate the Missouri Constitution.

“What the lawsuit says is that when you legislate your religious beliefs into law, you impose your beliefs on everyone else and force all of us to live by your own narrow beliefs,” said Michelle Banker of the National Women’s Law Center, the lead

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“MAKE IT HAPPEN” Pastor Kevin Cook attorney in the case. “And that hurts us. That denies our basic human rights.”

Missouri Senate President Pro Tem Caleb Rowden, a Republican, called the lawsuit “foolish.”

“We were acting on the belief that life is precious and should be treated as such. I don’t think that’s a religious belief,” Mr. Rowden said.

Within minutes of last year’s Supreme Court decision, thenAttorney General Eric Schmitt and Gov. Mike Parson, both Republicans, filed paperwork to immediately enact a 2019 law prohibiting abortions “except in cases of medical emergency.” That law contained a provision making it effective only if Roe v. Wade was overturned.

The law makes it a felony punishable by 5 to 15 years in prison to perform or induce an abortion. Medical professionals who do so also could lose their licenses. The law states that women who undergo abortions cannot be prosecuted.

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of the faith leaders by Americans United for Separation of Church & State and the National Women’s Law Center, said sponsors and supporters of the Missouri measure “repeatedly emphasized their religious intent in enacting the legislation.” It quotes the bill’s sponsor, Republican state Rep. Nick Schroer, as saying that “as a Catholic I do believe life begins at conception and that is built into our legislative findings.”

Sharon

Good

Joni Woolridge Charalambous left us peacefully early Sunday morning December 25, 2022. Joni was born to John C. Woolridge Sr. and Alice T. Woolridge on November 26, 1967, in Evanston, Illinois. A loving and resilient child who didn’t think twice about speaking up in protest for what she believed in. She graduated from Armstrong-Kennedy High School in 1985 in Richmond, Virginia and moved on to receive her Bachelors in Communications from Old Dominion University. The adventure had only just begun. From traveling the world to counseling at schools and prisons, volunteering at churches and the Ronald McDonald House. Her heart always expanded to those outside of herself. She could make a group of people laugh within a matter of seconds. She sang and danced her way through the storm.

Joni was preceded in death by her father, John C. Woolridge, Sr. and leaves these memories to be cherished by her children, Christian, Stelios and Alexandra Charalambous. Her mother Alice T. Woolridge, brother John C. Woolridge, Jr., sister Briana Woolridge, uncle Joseph A. Woolridge, three aunts, Barbara Flippens, Hazel B. Monroe (Rudolph), Annie Williams (James) and a host of loving relatives and friends who will miss her greatly.

j P����� 51:1-2

“Have mercy upon me, oh God, according to thine loving kindness; according to thine multitude o� thy tender mercies blo� ou� my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sins.”

Thank you Father God for allowing Joni to be with us for 55 years.

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