Back to most recent news releases • Browse archive: 2005 • 2006 • 2007 • 2008 • Email this story

Church World Service partners to share expertise at Ecumenical Advocacy Days

February 11, 2008

Washington, DC -- Church World Service global partners from Latin America and Africa will join U.S. faith-based activists and speakers from five continents for Ecumenical Advocacy Days www.advocacydays.org, March 7-10, in Washington, D.C. Participants will explore new visions of personal, national, and global security and equip themselves for advocacy around U.S. public policy.

"Claiming a Vision of True Security," the theme for the 2008 gathering, promotes the idea of the real or "true" security that would result from racial, social, and economic justice; from peace building and sustainable development; and from poverty reduction, as opposed to the false sense of security brought about through the unwarranted exercise of power and force.

The nation's largest annual gathering of Christian peace and justice activists will feature workshops (www.advocacydays.org/tracks) examining a range of domestic and global challenges to achieving sustainable security in North America, Asia and the Pacific, Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East.

Church World Service has invited several of its global partners to participate. These partnerships amplify the ecumenical voice advocating for public policies that support the most vulnerable and marginalized people of the world. The gathering itself brings together the agency’s global partners, member denominations, U.S. constituents, and people from various regions of the world for collective ecumenical witness.

Among the expert guests invited by the New York-headquartered humanitarian agency are Anglican Bishop Julio Murray, president of the Latin American Council of Churches (CLAI), who will speak at the Latin American/Caribbean plenary session, and Francis Ng'ambi, who will speak at the Africa plenary session..

Murray, an Episcopal bishop from Panama, is the first president of CLAI who is of African descent.

Ng'ambi is an economist and project officer for Economic Dimensions (Budget, Debt & Trade), of the Economic Justice Network of the Fellowship of Christian Councils in Southern Africa.

Other workshops will focus on the impact of global warming and the global economy and on conflict prevention and nuclear disarmament as alternative paths to human security.

Deborah Katina of Kenya and Elias Szczytnicki of Peru will lead a workshop on water as part of the economic justice discussions at the gathering.

Katina, a member of Church World Service's Education and Advocacy program committee, is coordinator of Yang'at, a CWS partner in Kenya's arid northwest that empowers women by improving access to water.

Elias Szczytnicki is Director of the Latin America/Caribbean chapter of Religions for Peace, a Church World Service partner in that region.

Dr. Benjamin Lartey, General Secretary of the Liberian Council of Churches, will be part of a panel examining the nexus between conflict, natural resources, and large and unjust debt burdens in Liberia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Participants will learn the advocacy skills necessary to have an impact on public policy decisions that affect people in the U.S. and around the world. The four-day event will culminate with lobbying visits to Capitol Hill, where the faith community will offer lawmakers their input on issues discussed at the conference.

Church World Service, which sponsors the event along with many of its member denominations, expects hundreds of people from throughout the United States and representing a wide array of Christian communions to participate.

For more information or to register for Ecumenical Advocacy Days visit www.advocacydays.org.

Church World Service is the relief, development, and refugee assistance ministry of 35 Protestant, Orthodox, and Anglican denominations in the United States.

Media Contact:
Lesley Crosson, CWS/New York, 212-870-2676;
Jan Dragin, 781-925-1526;

Back to most recent news releases • Browse archive: 2005 • 2006 • 2007 • 2008 • Email this story