wfn.org | Covenant to Overcome Poverty -- NCCCUSA Story

[CAROL_FOUKE.parti@ecunet.org (CAROL FOUKE)]

National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA
Contact: NCC News, 212-870-2227
Web: www.ncccusa.org; e-mail: news@ncccusa.org

NCC2/16/2000                FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ECUMENICAL COMMUNITY'S LEGISLATIVE ADVOCACY PRIORITIES
COMPLEMENT CALL TO RENEWAL'S "COVENANT TO OVERCOME POVERTY"

 February 16, 2000, WASHINGTON, D.C.- Legislative
advocacy priorities for the ecumenical community's joint
efforts this year complement the Call to Renewal's "Covenant
to Overcome Poverty," said the Rev. Dr. Robert W. Edgar,
General Secretary of the National Council of Churches.

 When Dr. Edgar stands with other national Christian
leaders on the East steps of the U.S. Capitol this morning to
launch the covenant and campaign, he will bring a commitment
to work to overcome poverty especially through advocacy for
the Hunger Relief Act and for minimum wage/living wage
legislation.

 And he will express the NCC's particular concern for
children in poverty, a concern highlighted in the "Covenant to
Overcome Poverty."  One in every five children in America -
one in every three children of color -is growing up in
poverty in America, the covenant notes, and this in the
strongest economy in the wealthiest nation in history.

 Work for passage of the Hunger Relief Act and of minimum
wage/living wage legislation - along with a commitment to work
together against gun violence, to address AIDS in Africa and
to advance the Jubilee 2000 debt relief campaign - were
identified in mid-January by an NCC-convened consultation as
priorities for their joint public policy advocacy work in the
Year 2000.

Participants included some 70 representatives of
denominational and ecumenical legislative and social policy
offices, representatives of state ecumenical and interfaith
agencies and staff of the NCC and its Church World Service and
Witness Unit.

The five priorities along with specific action steps will
be brought to the NCC's Executive Board meeting in New York
City February 28-29 for endorsement.

 Today's event at the U.S. Capitol concludes the four-day
annual summit of Washington, D.C.-based Call to Renewal, an
alliance of faith-based organizations uniting to overcome
poverty.
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