World's Children the Focus of Faith-based Advocacy Gathering

January 26, 2007

Participants at the 2006 Ecumenical Advocacy Days. Photo: Rick Reinhardt

"And How are the Children?" is the theme of the fifth annual Ecumenical Advocacy Days for Global Peace with Justice conference to be held on March 9-12, 2007 in Washington, D.C.

More than 1000 people of faith from throughout the United States and representing a wide array of Christian communions will gather in Washington, D.C. for worship, fellowship, witness and learning together about how U.S. domestic and international policies impact the lives of children here and abroad. U.S. participants will be joined by faith-based peace and justice activists from throughout the world.

Advocacy Day participants will also receive training in advocacy on behalf of policies that better meet the needs of the world’s children. The gathering will conclude with meetings on Capitol Hill where participants will ask their Congressional representatives to make the needs of children the center of the 2007 legislative agenda.

Church World Service has been a primary sponsor of Ecumenical Advocacy Days since its inception in 2003 and is represented on the Advocacy Days Leadership Team and Executive Committee, as well as several “track” committees. This year CWS will bring partners from sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and Asia to speak on topics including trade justice, debt cancellation, water, and human rights.

Ecumenical Advocacy Days for Global Peace with Justice is a movement of the ecumenical Christian community, and its recognized partners and allies. The annual gatherings include plenary sessions and workshops organized into eight tracks: Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, the United States, Global Economic Justice, Environmental Justice, and Global Security issues. In 2006 more than 950 grassroots advocates, policy experts, politicians, theologians, organizers, and students to shape a new positive, progressive religious vision for U.S. policy.

Ecumenical Advocacy Days is grounded in biblical witness and the shared religious traditions of justice, peace and the integrity of creation. Its goal, through worship, theological reflection and opportunities for learning and witness, is to strengthen the Christian voice for a more just and peaceful world and to mobilize for advocacy on a wide variety of U.S. domestic and international policy issues.

For more information and to register, visit the Ecumenical Advocacy Days web page at http://www.advocacydays.org/index.php .