wfn.org | Oldenburg is passionate as children's advocate

[PCUSA NEWS <PCUSA.NEWS@ecunet.org>]

Note #6068 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

29-June-2000
GA00120

	Oldenburg is passionate as children's advocate 

	First "Embracing the Child" luncheon is rousing success

	by Midge Mack

LONG BEACH, June 29 - Many Assembly attendees now know that PCHARM stands
for Presbyterian Children's Homes and Related Ministries, a dedicated group
of child advocates engaged in broad ministry areas. Work is being undertaken
through today's homes for children, and a partnership of child and family
caring organizations that operate under a covenant agreement with a synod or
presbytery of the PC(USA). Twenty eight agencies are represented in the
association.

	At its first General Assembly luncheon, enthusiastic Emcee Chuck Mendenhall
of the Presbyterian Children's Home in Austin, Tex. reviewed the goals of
the association:
		
	* to provide a focus for children's issues within the denomination
	* to serve as a faith-based resource for churches, families and children
	* to provide opportunities for collaboration between Presbyterian child and
family caring agencies, and
	* to serve as a national resource on children's issues 

	Featured speaker the Rev. Douglas Oldenburg, moderator of the 210th
Assembly, spoke with a passion  for children that he attributes to the
promise he made to Presbyterians when he stood for the moderator's election,
to watching a child die in Haiti, and to his own serious  Bible scholarship.

	While God commands us to love all equally but to  focus concern on those
with greater need," he said, "our children have the greater need."   He
quoted statistic after appalling statistic about the poverty and hunger of
children in the richest country in the world.  Less is also done here for
children than for elderly and other groups.  "This is not only immoral, it's
dumb," he continued.

	What can we do?  "We can do so many things if we first over come our
'poverty of will,'" Oldenburg told his audience, naming such things as

	* supporting Presbyterian  programs that serve children's health and
educational needs
	* becoming public policy advocates for children in our communities 
	* fully funding Head Start and other public programs for children 
	* becoming advocates for gun control and for getting guns out of our homes 
	* reaching out to kids who are marginalized economically and socially 
	* training our own children in non-violence 
	* tutoring in schools, churches, or homes 
	* reinforcing the importance of marriage and baptismal vows 
	* spending more time with our own kids and any with whom we have contact 

	"When will be teach our children what they are?" he asked, "That they are
unique, each is a marvel, and each can become whatever he/she wants to be.
Jesus taught it, 'that whoever welcomes a child welcomes me.' Children are
Jesus representatives."

	"Hear it my friends," he concluded, "what a high and holy spiritual calling
it is to be an advocate for kids."

	Following his speech, Oldenburg was presented with the first Children's
Champion Award by Charles Baker of the Presbyterian Child Welfare Agency in
Buckhorn, Ky. He was then joined at the podium and given a PCHARM T-shirt by
Stu Bear, mascot of the Presbyterian Health, Education & Welfare
Association.

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