wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] March will protest violence against women

[PCUSA NEWS <PCUSA.NEWS@ECUNET.ORG>]

Note #8699 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

05179
April 1, 2005

March will protest violence against women

Presbyterians to remember 400 killed along U.S.-Mexico border

by Evan Silverstein

LOUISVILLE - The Advocacy Committee For Racial Ethnic Concerns (ACREC)
announced that it will join a march on Sunday from El Paso, TX, to Ciudad
Juarez, Mexico, to call attention to the violence being committed against
women along the U.S.-Mexico border.
	
The committee reported on the upcoming event in its report to the General
Assembly Council (GAC) during the Council's regular meeting here Thursday.

	The "Save the Women" march is sponsored by the Presbyterian Church
(U.S.A.); the U.S. presbyteries of Tres Rios and Sierra Blanca; the Chihuahua
Presbytery of the National Presbyterian Church of Mexico; and Pasos de Fe
Border Ministry.

	Young women have been disappearing in Ciudad Juarez, just across the
border from El Paso, for more than 10 years, but local and national
authorities are only now beginning to react to the problem. 

	As many as 400 women have been murdered over the past 12 years and
thousands have disappeared, according to a brochure promoting the march. 

	"We are going to gather in a church in El Paso, and we are going to
try to be that voice for the voiceless," said Judith Pingel, ACREC's chair.
"We're going to march across the border and participate in a worship service
with the ministers of Mexico to bring awareness to the entire problem. That's
just an example of how we're trying to be that prophetic voice."

	According to the brochure, the march will demonstrate solidarity with
and compassion for the victims' families; focus international media attention
on the need for justice; and be a "witness to the resurrection in a time of
loss and sorrow."

	Preaching at the event will be the Rev. Jorge Lopez Perez, president
of the National Presbyterian Church of Mexico, and the Rev. Jean Marie
Peacock, vice-moderator of the General Assembly of the PC(USA). There also
will be testimony from victims' family members, and music by the combined
choirs of Ciudad Juarez and El Paso-area churches.

     Participants will gather at 11 a.m. at First Presbyterian Church of El
Paso for lunch, then will be shuttled to the Cordova Bridge ("Free Bridge")
where the participants will cross over the Rio Grande into Ciudad Juarez.

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