January 11, 2013 marks Human Trafficking Awareness Day. 2013 marks the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. Because of the groundbreaking work of our ancestors, slavery was outlawed in the United States. However the legacies of chattle slavery continue to haunt our society even as we turn to face a new form of slavery: human trafficking.
You can learn what the United Nations is doing on human trafficking by going to UN GIFT (UN Global Initiative to Fight Trafficking). To find out more about a specific country, you can access the US State Department’s Trafficking In Persons Report.
Resources for Worship and Reflection:
- A reflection from the Rev. Dr. Arlene Gordon, honorably retired teaching elder in the PC(USA) and president of the National Black Presbyterian Caucus
- Sermon seeds for the lectionary passages for Sunday, January 13, 2013
- A prayer
- A minute for mission
- Hymn suggestions
- 2013 Mission Yearbook- Human Trafficking Awareness
- Learn more what products of slavery are produced with child and slave labor through this interactive website from Anti-Slavery International. Estimate your “slavery footprint”.
We hope that you will share with us how you have used these resources and what you are doing in your congregation or presbytery to draw awareness to human trafficking and how we can work to prevent it. Drop us a line at HTRoundtable@pcusa.org.
You can support the Human Trafficking Roundtable by giving a gift.