Finding the Path to Jubilee
Ecumenical Advocacy Days for Global Peace and Justice
LOUISVILLE — The second annual “Ecumenical Advocacy Days for Global Peace and Justice” has been slated for March 6-8 at the Doubletree Hotel-Crystal City in Arlington, VA. Events include lectures, small group activities, discussions and meetings with U.S. Congress members and their foreign policy staffs.
The ecumenical gathering will follow the theme, “I Will Feed Them With Justice,” a reference to Ezekiel 34:16: “I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with justice.”
Tracks on Africa, Israel/Palestine, Korea and Latin America that address critical issues on nuclear disarmament, Jubilee and economic justice, have also been prepared by representatives to several of the participating organization.
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The Latin America track will be lead by keynote speaker Rev. Milton Mejia, executive secretary of the Presbyterian Church of Colombia. A day prior to the ecumenical meeting, Mejia will attend the Presbyterian Church USA mission network gathering to strategize with other Presbyterians worldwide.
The mission network gathering takes place at the same place on March 5, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Through this meeting, the Rev. Jo Ella Holman, the PC(USA)’s associate for ecumenical and mission partnerships, said the Presbyterian Church (USA) intends to create the “nucleus” of a mission network to Colombia.
According to Holman, any individual Presbyterian interested in working on Colombian issues are welcome to join. Holman also noted that individual Presbyterians have visited Colombia in delegations representing Witness for Peace and the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship.
“The situation in Colombia is so volatile and deep, and the Presbyterian Church of Colombia has asked us to accompany them in this time,” she said.
A mission network, Holman said, will allow Presbyterians to implement strategies for long-term involvement and to coordinate planning.
Advocacy Days is also open to any individual interested in an ecumenical involvement to solve world problems. The event is sponsored by a large array of churches and faith-based coalitions, including Church World Service, Bread for the World, Churches for Middle East Peace, the Episcopal Church USA, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Friends Committee on National Legislation, Lutheran World Service, the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns, the PC(USA), the Reformed Church in America, the United Church of Christ, the United Methodist Church General Board of Church and Society, and the Washington Office on Africa.
For more information or to register online, visit the Ecumenical Advocacy Website at www.advocacydays.org
