Peace & Justice

Church collaboration offers arts and science literacy camps for low income children

A four-church collaboration in Milwaukee, Wisconsin is giving 150-200 children an opportunity to learn about the arts and sciences. Tippecanoe, Grace and North Shore Presbyterian Churches have joined with the Hephatha Lutheran Church to sponsor an eight-week “Arts and Science Literacy Camp” specifically for low and middle income families.

First Presbyterian Church in Dallas works to help city heal

The emotional wounds from last week’s shootings in Dallas are still fresh for residents as well as for government and spiritual leaders. Since Thursday, faith leaders have prayed and mourned with the community and have begun discussing the best way for the city to heal and to bridge gaps.

Pedal for Protein prepares for its third fundraiser to battle hunger

For the third year in a row, a group of avid cyclists between 30 and 70 years of age will take to the California roads this September to combat hunger. The Pedal for Protein ride is scheduled for September 18-22. The Presbytery of the Redwoods launched the ride two years ago to help community food pantries provide protein-rich foods to families in need.

SAFSF forum addresses race, class, gender and power in food system

The Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems Funders (SAFSF), an organization that promotes the sustainability and the well being of people, animals, and our planet through food and agriculture systems, held its 14th annual forum recently in Louisville, KY. Its work closely aligns with the Presbyterian Hunger Program (PHP). PHP Associate for National Hunger Concerns, Andrew Kang Bartlett, who serves on the SAFSF Steering Committee, helped introduce this year’s forum and was among an extensive list of speakers during the three-day event.

3 and 32 and 30

Don’t worry that title is not a new form of math. It’s a framework to understand the Presbyterian Church’s role in the advocacy initiative to say “no child soldiers”. The Optional Protocol on the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict is an international treaty that prohibits the exploitation of children as soldiers.

Clean up continues following West Virginia flooding

Controlled chaos. That’s how Joan Stewart, executive director of the West Virginia Ministry of Advocacy and Workcamps—the long-term recovery response arm of the Presbytery of West Virginia—describes flood-damaged communities nearly two weeks after record flooding. The water has receded, but the clean up is just ramping up.

SDOP disburses more than $120,000 for self-help projects

The Presbyterian Committee on the Self-Development of People (SDOP) approved grants totaling $124,000 to fund several self-help projects in the United States and abroad. The national committee met recently to approve funding for the projects, funding which is made possible through the One Great Hour of Sharing.