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07136 March 9, 2007
Call to action
Ecumenical Advocacy Days to address peace, justice issues in the context of the world's children
by Toya Richards Hill
LOUISVILLE - Addressing world issues like poverty, hunger and war as they relate to children is the focus of the annual ecumenical gathering that unites human rights advocates and faith leaders in Washington, D.C. to learn and lobby.
Ecumenical Advocacy Days for Global Peace with Justice is taking place March 9-12 under the theme, "and How are the Children." More than 1,000 people are gathering in Arlington, VA for training on advocacy and policy issues, and ultimately to trek to Capitol Hill for meetings with members of Congress or their staffs.
Theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, "The test of the morality of a society is what it does for its children," said Leslie Woods, associate for domestic poverty and environmental issues for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Washington Office. "Children are the most vulnerable and probably the most valuable asset a society has."
Advocacy Days, co-sponsored by a range of faith-based and policy advocacy organizations including the PC(USA), Church World Service and the World Council of Churches, will address world issues through the lens of children via eight different track options: Africa, Asia, eco-justice, Latin America, domestic, jubilee and economic justice, global security and the Middle East.
The movement to cancel Africa's $200 billion-plus debt burden, continued attacks on ethnic communities by the military regime in Myanmar/Burma, the effects of global warming, and alternatives to a reliance on military solutions to assure national security will all be among the critical issues participants will explore through issue briefings and other activities.
Conference-goers also will hear from various national and international speakers, including Marian Wright Edelman, founder and president of the Children's Defense Fund; the Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, stated clerk of the PC(USA) and president of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches; and Mercedes Roman, an Ecuadorian sociologist whose life's work has been women and children's rights.
Woods, who is leading the event's domestic track and is the newest member of the PC(USA)'s Washington Office, said the hope is that participants will go away with knowledge, strong relationships built and an "awareness that will grow in them."
Hopefully they will "feel empowered and feel angry and take it home and keep on working on at home," she said. "We would love for participants * to continue touching base with their members of Congress. To make sure that the legislators are hearing from their constituents that children are a priority and the Congress needs to make them a priority."
Among the things Advocacy Days participants will be asking members of Congress to do during office visits set for March 12 will be congressional action in 2007 that ensures affordable, comprehensive, accessible and quality healthcare for all children living in the U.S.
"This faith community thinks that it is a moral imperative that all children in this county have access to comprehensive, affordable health care," Woods said.
In terms of international issues, Advocacy Days participants' requests of legislators will include comprehensive, mandatory and aggressive anti-global warming legislation and an adoption of new "spending for Peace, Not War" priorities.
"We've tried to group the international issues around the issues of resources for peace," said Catherine Gordon, associate for international issues for the PC(USA)'s Washington Office and a member of the planning team for Advocacy Days.
"The whole idea of human security within the value of building a secure world for our children," said Gordon, also a member of the Advocacy Days executive committee.
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