wfn.org | Newsline: Christian Citizenship Seminar studies modern-day slavery

[CoBNews <CoBNews@brethren.org>]

Newsline: Church of the Brethren News Service, News Director Cheryl Brumbau gh-Cayford, 800-323-8039 ext. 260, cobnews@brethren.org

CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP SEMINAR STUDIES MODERN-DAY SLAVERY

(June 4, 2009) Elgin, IL -- This year's Church of the Brethren Christian Ci tizenship Seminar, held April 25-30 in New York and Washington, D.C., drew  94 senior high youth and advisors from 10 states to study the eye-opening r ealities of modern-day slavery.

The issue came before the full church last summer, when delegates to the 20 08 Annual Conference overwhelmingly approved a statement to "reaffirm our d enomination's historic opposition to slavery."

Anna Speicher, a Church of the Brethren member who has written a dissertati on on the abolition movement, reviewed that history for the seminar partici pants--and said all that good work is only a beginning. "You're already way  ahead of the game right now. You know it's not over," said Speicher, who i s also director of the Gather 'Round curriculum for Brethren Press and Menn onite Publishing Network.

Speicher noted that while slavery is illegal in every country worldwide, it  is often underground and thus hard to see. It exists in many forms and und er many different names, such as debt bondage, human trafficking, sex traff icking, and forced labor. It can be found in many places including the Unit ed States, where an estimated 14,500-plus slaves are trafficked in each yea r.

Other speakers addressing the seminar included Roni Hong, herself a victim  of slavery in India as a child; Lariza Garzon, who works with undocumented  farmworkers in Florida; staff from the World Council of Churches US Confere nce and the National Council of Churches, who organized a conference on mod ern-day slavery last year and adopted a resolution; and staff from advocacy  organizations Free the Slaves and Global Centurion.

Youth carried their stories and experiences to Capitol Hill during the seco nd half of the seminar. Some groups were able to meet their representatives  or senators personally, while others raised the issues with aides--particu larly urging full funding for the recently renewed Trafficking Victims Prot ection Act. Worship and debriefing times during the week offered additional  outlets to process the heavy topic.

Participants were encouraged to take the issue back with them, brainstormin g ideas for speaking up and taking action after they returned home. "We're  beginning to make progress, but there's so much more to be done," said Laur a Lederer, vice president of Global Centurion. "I'm more hopeful now that I 've been before. There's a new human rights movement springing up all aroun d the world."

The Christian Citizenship Seminar is sponsored annually, except in National  Youth Conference years, by the Church of the Brethren's Youth and Young Ad ult Ministry; go to the youth ministry page at www.brethren.org for details . An article on the 2009 seminar will be in the June issue of "Messenger."

The Church of the Brethren is a Christian denomination committed to continu ing the work of Jesus peacefully and simply, and to living out its faith in  community. The denomination is based in the Anabaptist and Pietist faith t raditions and is one of the three Historic Peace Churches. It celebrated it s 300th anniversary in 2008. It counts some 125,000 members across the Unit ed States and Puerto Rico, and has missions and sister churches in Nigeria,  Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and India.

(Walt Wiltschek, editor of the Church of the Brethren's "Messenger" magazin e, provided this report.)
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>For more information contact:

>Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford
>Director of News Services
>Church of the Brethren
>1451 Dundee Ave., Elgin, IL 60120
>800-323-8039 ext. 260
>cobnews@brethren.org