CALLING PRESBYTERIAN JUSTICE ADVOCATES TO WASHINGTON

TWO BIG EVENTS IN ONE WEEKEND!

COMPASSION PEACE AND JUSTICE TRAINING

MARCH 23, 2012

8:30 am – 5:00 pm

New York Avenue Presbyterian Church
Washington, DC

Theme: Presbyterians and Economic Justice

In these difficult economic times which further divide our nation and world between the “haves and the have not’s,” it is necessary for Presbyterians to lift up the ministries that address these growing economic disparities. The ministries of Compassion, Peace and Justice of the PC(USA) are coming together for the 2nd Annual CPJ Training Day in Washington, DC, to educate Presbyterians on the role that the PC(USA) is playing in helping people to overcome and survive these difficult times.  CPJ Training Day is hosted by the Presbyterian Office of Public Witness; Presbyterian Hunger Program; the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program; Self-Development of People; Presbyterian Disaster Assistance; the Presbyterian Ministry at the UN; Mission Responsibility through Investment; Environmental Ministries; Presbyterian Health, Education and Welfare Association; and Child Advocacy.

Register at www.pcusa.org/washington

ECUMENICAL ADVOCACY DAYS

March 23-26, 2012
Doubletree Hotel – Crystal City, VA

EAD is a three-day training event on justice and political advocacy. It is an interactive educational training event that prepares people to go back into their community to be informed and active advocates for justice. Our informal surveys in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) have suggested that Presbyterians know a great deal about mission, but not very much about advocacy. Therefore, we partner with over fifty interfaith and ecumenical groups in Washington, DC, to provide this training for persons in local communities.

Register for both events@ www.pcusa.org/washington

COMPASSION PEACE AND JUSTICE TRAINING

Preacher

J. Herbert Nelson, II       
Director,
PC(USA) Office of Public Witness
Washington, DC








Panelists

Shannan Vance-Ocampo
Pastor and Member of
Presbyterian Peace Fellowship

Valéry Nodem,
Associate for International Hunger
Presbyterian Hunger Program

Leslie Woods
Representative for Domestic Poverty & Environmental Issues
PC(USA) Office of Public Witness

Ralph Clingan
Retired Theologian, Author and Seminary Professor
 

Compassion Peace and Justice Training Day
WORKSHOP TOPICS AND LEADERS

•   Faithful Living in a Global Economy

Explore how our faith in God calls us to live better and love deeper within the context of a global economy. The workshop includes biblical and theological reflection and practical “how to” ideas for practicing faith in everyday life, including opportunities to engage your congregation, family and community.

Leader: Melanie Hardison, Associate, Enough for Everyone, Presbyterian Hunger Program

  

•  Eco-Justice: How Economic and Ecological Health are Entertwined

In his workshop, we will look at how a concept of “eco-justice” encompasses ecological, economic, and social justice for all people on a thriving earth. Particular attention will be given to how environmental racism and classism affect economic well-being, for individuals and communities.

Leader: Rebecca Barnes-Davies, Associate for Environmental Ministries

•   The Millennium Development Goals: Where are we? Where might we go?

The eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – which range from halving extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education, all by the target date of 2015 – form a blueprint agreed to by all the world’s countries and all the world’s leading development institutions. They have galvanized unprecedented efforts to meet the needs of the world’s poorest. With three years to go until 2015, how are the countries of the world doing? What might come next? How can Presbyterians be involved?

Leader:  Ryan Smith, Presbyterian Representative to the United Nations, Presbyterian United Nations Office

•   The Economic Implications of Occupation

The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has repeatedly called for an end to the occupation of the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem. What are the economic implications of the occupation – for Palestinians, for Israelis, for the United States? How can we respond?

Leader: Mark Koenig, Director, Presbyterian United Nations Office

•   The Economic Crisis Report Going to the General Assembly: Jobs, Families, Neighbors, and the Future

This workshop looks at the current crisis, longer term trends, and a strong set of remedies being recommended to the General Assembly. Let by the ethicist and economic development specialist who co-chair the study team, the focus will be on achieving justice in the report’s four basic areas. Moral as well as economic arguments will be provided, recognizing the influence of market categories and claims even when a range of government roles are accepted. Participants will also be asked what measures they would want to see in church policy and witness. 

Co-leaders: Gloria Albrecht and William Saint, Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy

•   Single Payer Health Insurance: What Happened? Is There Anything We Can Do?

Author of the 2008 General Assembly overture calling for a national single payer health plan will examine the specifics of the Affordable Care Act and lead a strategy session on how to defend and improve it through citizen advocacy.

Leader: Rev. Dr. Bebb Wheeler Stone, President, Presbyterian Health Education and Welfare Association

•   Peace and the National Budget

What does our budget reveal about our national priorities?  How is our nation's understanding of and commitment to peace borne out in the federal budget?

Leaders: Presbyterian Peacemaking Program and Leslie Woods, Representative for Domestic Issues, Presbyterian Office of Public Witness

•   Trade Justice

While trade issues sound very far removed from our lives, global trade impacts the lives of people in explicit ways – jobs, environment, wages, labor, safety – both here and around the world. Our partners identify flawed approaches to trade as a cause of poverty in their communities and seek our support to reform trade policies.   Even in today’s complex, globalized world, Biblical principles can guide our lives.  We will look at trade through a number of lenses, including the extractive industries.

Leaders:  Alexa Smith, Associate for National Hunger Concerns and Catherine Gordon, Representative for International Issues, Presbyterian Office of Public Witness

•   Food Sovereignty versus Food Security: The Difference? Does it Matter? Yes!

The sharing of food is a sacred act in Christianity and all faith traditions. Add to this the commandment to love neighbor near and far and we are called to create food systems that reflect the sacredness of food, care for creation and justice for all people involved in the food chain.

 

 What does this look like on the ground? Where is this holy food vision sprouting? The Presbyterian Hunger Program will share examples, and hear your stories, about positive initiatives and movements to build sustainable, just and sacred food systems.

 

And we’ll answer the questions in the workshop title. . .

Leader: Andrew Kang Bartlett, Associate for National Hunger Concerns

•   Affordable Housing in your Community

Church-Based Community Organzing is active in creating housing trust funds (at the city, county, and state levels) that renovate and build thousands of units of affordable housing, in working with homeowners facing foreclosure and workout efforts, and bringing power to bear to shape policy and funding priorities of various levels of government. This workshop will include a primer on the practices and history of community organizing and then look at some current efforts around affordable housing.

Leader:  Trey Hammond, Coordinator for Congregation-Based Community Organizing, Presbyterian Hunger Program

•   Putting Peace in the Protest

With Occupy Wall Street and other popular protests around the world, we'll look at ways to ensure that our protests are peaceful.

Leader: Presbyterian Peacemaking Program

•   Achieving Economic Justice through Disaster Assistance

Practice has shown that the poor and marginalized are disproportionately impacted by disaster. As disaster impacts communities, some people are well provisioned and prepared and able to respond and recover, relying on their own resources and capacities. On the other hand, some people impacted by disaster, either lose the resources they might have had prior to the disaster, or may not have possessed the needed resources before the first sign of disaster.

 

When we are called to respond following disaster, when we seek to assist the least of these, the people most in need of our assistance, most in need of our walking alongside, were often predisposed to vulnerability or already vulnerable due to injustice. They were frequently the people suffering from injustice prior to the added burden of the disaster.

 

As our long-term recovery efforts reach families impacted by disaster, as we host volunteers to rebuild houses, these families have come to our attention because they have nowhere else to turn, they may well not be able to return to their house without our assistance, without our volunteers.

By heeding the call to provide disaster assistance, we are addressing the most basic issues of economic justice.
Leader:  Rick Turner, Hospitality Associate and John Robinson, National Associate, Presbyterian Disaster Associate, Presbyterian Disaster Assistance