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Ecumenical Advocacy Days March 25-28
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The United Methodist General Board of Church & Society (GBCS) is involved in presentations during the 9th annual Ecumenical Advocacy Days conference for global peace with justice March 25-28. Theme for this year’s event, which starts Friday and ends with visits to members of Congress on Monday, is "Development, Security & Economic Justice: What's Gender Got to Do with It?"
Besides workshops and speakers on advocacy, time has been allotted on Saturday, March 26, for members of denominations to meet over lunch from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m.
A prayer vigil on Capitol Hill is being planned for noon on Monday. Its focus is to implore Congress not to balance the budget on the backs of women and children. Ecumenical Advocacy Days attendees will receive copies of prayers in advance of the vigil.
Maternal health
Members of GBCS’s staff will facilitate a workshop “Maternal Health & Millennium Development Goal #5: How can the church respond?” on Saturday at 10:45 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. The workshop’s featured presenter is Beatrice Gbanga, medical coordinator for the United Methodist Sierra Leone Conference. GBCS staff members Katey Zeh, coordinator of the agency’s Healthy Families, Healthy Planet initiative, and Linda Bales Todd, director of its Louise & Hugh Moore Population Project, will take prominent roles in the workshop.
United Nations Millennium Development Goal #5 to improve maternal health and reduce maternal mortality by 75% is lagging behind, according to the workshop’s description. This workshop will focus on the barriers to achieving better maternal health worldwide and how churches are responding. Participants will hear maternal health stories from the Global South and learn ways to advocate for maternal health in their congregations and denominations.
Gender, Race & Mass Incarceration
GBCS is co-sponsoring a workshop “Gender, Race & Mass Incarceration” that will be Saturday, 2:45 to 4:15 p.m.
African-American women make up the fastest-growing population in the U.S. prison system, which has grown by 600% in the past 30 years. Unjust sentencing policies combined with racial profiling have essentially created a mass incarceration among African Americans. The workshop will examine mass incarceration's impact, and will highlight injustices the U.S. system imposes on too many women of color.
Presenters Kemba Smith Pradia, the Rev. Sala Nolan Gonzalez and Lorraine Stutzman Amstutz will discuss theological and policy justifications for adopting an alternative model, centering on Restorative Justice. A photographic exhibit, “What Will Happen to Me? When a Parent is In Prison” by Howard Zehr and Amstutz will accompany the workshop.
Gonzales, is minister for Criminal Justice & Human Rights, Justice & Witness Ministries, United Church of Christ. Her portfolio addresses human rights and criminal justice issues, including political imprisonment, the death penalty, youth incarceration, reentry from prison to community, and patterns of systemic injustice. Amstutz is co-director of the Office on Crime & Justice for Mennonite Central Committee. She has co-authored a curriculum “Victim Offender Conferencing in Pennsylvania’s Juvenile Justice System,” The Little Book of Restorative Discipline for Schools, and is author of The Little Book of Victim Offender Conferencing.
Pradia received nationwide attention when President Clinton granted her clemency after serving 6.5 years of a 24.5-year sentence as a first-time, non-violent drug offender. Her story has been featured on CNN, Nightline, Court TV, The Early Morning Show and Donahue. She also has been featured in publications such as The Washington Post, The New York Times, Glamour, andPeople.
Biblical witness and shared traditions
More than 700 persons of faith from across the country will visit Capitol Hill for Ecumenical Advocacy Days. Policy makers, expert speakers and representatives from global regions will join church leaders and grassroots activists will lift up vital issues of U.S. and global economic justice, safety and security, and sustainable development.
Ecumenical Advocacy Days is a movement of Christian denominations and more than 40 recognized partners and allies. It is grounded in biblical witness and shared 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 of citizens mobilized for advocacy on a wide variety of U.S. domestic and international policy issues.
Registration and more information, such as other speakers and schedule of events, is at Ecumenical Advocacy Days. Student scholarships are available.
Date: 3/9/2011
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