Kane and DuPage County locations will be hosts to town halls on the SAFE-T Act and ending cash bail. The public is invited. Admission and parking are free.
Parkview Community Church, 764 St. Charles Road in Glen Ellyn, will be host to the DuPage town hall from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 15.
The Kane event will be held from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 23, at Society 57, 100 S. River Street in Aurora.
Advance registration is requested.
Register at: actionnetwork.org/events/dupage-county-pretrial-fairness-town-hall.
Rev. John Bell, pastor at Wesley United Methodist Church in Aurora, said Sunday, Oct. 9, “We care about homelessness and food insecurity as people of faith.
“We should also care about money bond because it keeps people poor, homeless, and food insecure.
“This is about doing good, doing no harm and staying in love with God.”
Rev. Bell was the emcee at a September 29 press conference by suburban clergy and lay people in downtown Aurora to correct misinformation about the SAFE-T Act.
Coordinated by the Peoples’ Lobby of Chicago, the event was held outdoors at Aurora’s Water Street Mall.
In addition to Pastor Bell, speakers were the Rev. Patrick Fish, pastor, St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, Aurora; the Rev. Nathan Perrin, pastor, Lombard Mennonite Church; the Rev. Cheryl Lynn Cain, pastor of multicultural ministries, Church of the Good Shepherd, Joliet; and James Baugh, Wheaton, a Lombard Mennonite congregant.
Other clergy attending were the Rev. Jeffry Bross, Prairie Conference central district superintendent, UMC Northern Illinois Conference; and the Rev. Tammy Scott, pastor, Sugar Grove UMC.
Laypeople represented Wesley UMC, St. Mark’s Lutheran, and Lombard Mennonite Church.
—Al Benson