Advocacy & Social Justice

Collaboration stokes fire for faith-based advocacy

After a two-year hiatus, a collaboration between the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and Columbia Theological Seminary recently resumed with students traveling to the Presbyterian Ministry at the United Nations (PMUN) and the Presbyterian Office of Public Witness (OPW) to learn about effective environmental advocacy.

Eliminating the prison industrial complex

A desire to see the prison industrial complex replaced with a more equitable and caring system has brought together a group of like-minded people who are having meetings and raising funds to be donated to organizations that work with incarcerated individuals and their families.

‘Prisoners are not slaves’

What keeps you hopeful?  That’s a question Presbyterian News Service posed to the Rev. Dr. Chris Hedges, Minister of Social Witness and Prison Ministry at Second Presbyterian Church in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Hedges has been teaching courses in a college degree program offered by Rutgers University in the New Jersey prison system since 2013.

The thread of bondage

As they did earlier this year, three thought leaders in the Synod of the Sun joined their hearts, minds and voices this week while recording the most recent edition of Sunspots, the synod’s podcast. Listen to their conversation here.

Raising their voices against gun violence

The Rev. Jimmie Hawkins of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) was among thousands of people who attended the March for Our Lives rally in Washington, D.C., last weekend to persuade elected officials to take meaningful action to stop the gun violence that’s ravaging the nation.

Presbyterian advocacy director part of White House reproductive rights meeting

Wednesday afternoon, the Rev. Jimmie Hawkins represented the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) at the White House for an ecumenical roundtable on reproductive rights. The meeting was a chance for faith leaders from several faith traditions and denominations to talk with the White House Office of Public Engagement about what they are hearing from their communities and activities they are engaged in regarding reproductive rights.