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Advocacy Training Weekend
Washington, D.C. April 5-8
This dynamic weekend in Washington, D.C., incorporates two complementary events: Compassion, Peace, and Justice Training Day on Friday, April 5, and Ecumenical Advocacy Days, April 5-8. The ministries of Compassion, Peace and Justice of the PC(USA) are coming together for the 3rd Annual CPJ Training Day to educate Presbyterians on the work of the PC(USA) in the face of injustices in global food systems. Following CPJ Training Day, the ecumenical community will gather during Ecumenical Advocacy Days to seek the abundance and equality that we find reflected in the biblical image of God’s great banquet table. Inspiring speakers will offer a faith-based vision for fair and humane food policies and practices, along with grassroots advocacy training, all culminating with Monday’s Lobby Day on Capitol Hill. For more information on both events, email catherine.gordon@pcusa.org.
The 3rd Annual Compassion, Peace and Justice Training Day Program Booklet is available! Download the event’s schedule, workshop descriptions, speaker bios, and much more!
Looking for a snapshot view of the schedule at the 3rd annual Compassion, Peace and Justice Training Day, find it here!
Compassion Peace and Justice Training Day - April 5 – “Presbyterians for Food Justice”
Find more information and register
Ecumenical Advocacy Days April 5-8 - “At God’s Table: Food Justice for a Healthy World”
For more information and register
Holy Discontentment Advocacy Resource
We’ve updated and newly published our old “How to Be an Effective Advocate” resource.
Download the new resource, “Holy Discontentment: Lifting Your Voice for Effective Advocacy.” In this resource, we outline the tools in the advocate’s toolbox, discuss their effectiveness, and give suggestions on truly effective advocacy strategies. Now, with a newly updated section on using social media as an advocacy tool!
2013 OPW Issues Brochure
The Office of Public Witness annually sets issue priorities based on directions from the General Assembly and taking into account issues that may see action from Congress or the Administration. Download the 2013 Issue Priorities Brochure.
Advocacy as Discipleship
Guns and our Culture of Violence March 2013
The Office of Public Witness quarterly publishes “Advocacy as Discipleship,” a publication that provides background information to advocates on why we, as Christian Citizens, engage in public witness ministries. The first quarter publication in 2013 is by the Reverence J. Herbert Nelson, Director for Public Witness – “Guns and Our Culture of Violence.” Download here.
Respectful Dialogue Initiative (RDI)
Our next step: Challenging the current tide of political divisiveness
While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father. "This," he said, "is what you have heard from me.” (Acts 1:4)
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Office of Public Witness (OPW) is committed to partnering with congregations, sessions, and other governing bodies committed to engaging in effective advocacy work. I have visited 44 presbyteries in the past two years to deliver this message and explain the work of the OPW. During this period, Presbyterians expressed in open forums and private conversations their deep frustration with the vitriolic rhetoric emanating from Washington politicians of all political parties. It is clear that there is little hope for the Washington political establishment to rehabilitate itself. The simple reason is that “negative advertising wins campaigns.” It is incumbent upon persons in local communities to call for civility through challenging three basic assumptions: 1) politicians are more powerful than local communities; 2) partisan politics is a permanent determinant of political power that cannot be challenged; 3) politics is too divisive for our congregations to discuss.
The new Washington Report to Presbyterians is here!
Download the latest news from the Office of Public Witness, including:
- A Lenten Call: Petition to Reduce Gun Violence
- Welcome to Advocacy Training WeekendCompassion, Peace and Justice Training Day
- Ecumenical Advocacy Days
- Meet our Spring Interns and Emerson Hunger Fellow
- God is Love: A Statement on Gun Violence
- Presbyterians and Food Justice
- Witnesses to AIDS
- and much more!
See past issues of the Washington Report.
Advocacy as Discipleship – Raise Hope for the Congo
“The Democratic Republic of the Congo has suffered from regional conflict and a deadly scramble for its vast natural resources for more than a century. Congo’s natural resources and the world’s voracious appetite for them have been the principal force behind atrocities and conflict throughout Congo’s violent and tortured history. In fact, the mineral wealth in eastern Congo today is financing multiple armed groups who use mass rape and other forms of violence as a calculated strategy to frighten, coerce, and control local populations…” Read more, download the full resource
Second Tuesday with Bill Somplatsky-Jarman
On Tuesday, June 12, the Rev. Bill Somplatsky-Jarman, Coordinator of the PC(USA) Mission Responsibility Through Investment Committee, spoke at our monthly Second Tuesday briefing on the issue of faith-based investing and the Israel-Palestine conflict. Listen to his presentation here.
Save the date!
Ecumenical Advocacy Days and Compassion, Peace and Justice Training Day
April 5th- 8th, 2013
Washington, DC
The theme for the upcoming Ecumenical Advocacy Days will be “At God’s Table: Food Justice for a Healthy World.” What does God’s table look like? What are the injustices underlying the availability of food? What does healthy really mean? How can we transform our world to better reflect God’s table of abundance and equality
What is the Office of Public Witness?
When Jesus was asked to state the greatest commandment, he replied, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart ... And a second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself." In this complex age, one way we love our neighbors is to help shape the laws and policies that define how we live together in God's world.
Second Tuesdays
The Office of Public Witness offers assistance to Presbyterians who wish to visit their Members of Congress in Washington. A special program of issue briefings and congressional visits is offered to groups of Presbyterians on the second Tuesday of each month.
The next Second Tuesday will be on May 14, 2013. There will be no Second Tuesday event in April.
Learn more about legislation and advocacy
How to Be an Effective Advocate
Our lawmakers' votes are influenced by their personal views, their party's positions, the advice of staff, friends and lobbyists. But the single most important influence is constituent opinion.
List of Presbyterians in the 113th Congress
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