Nearly 400 people took part in Tuesday’s Office of Public Witness webinar offering listeners, among other suggestions, tips on how to respond to people seeking asylum or refuge in the United States — and ways to lobby their member of Congress to alter the laws and budgets that impact people fleeing their country for a new life in the U.S.
The causes of the refugee crisis along the United States’ southern border and its many communities — as well as actions Presbyterians and others can take to help stem the crisis — were among the topics of a Friday webinar put on by the Presbyterian Mission Agency’s Office of Public Witness.
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s Office of Public Witness has issued an Action Alert, calling on Presbyterians to urge their representatives and senators to help reduce tension and avoid conflict in Iran.
Angela Nichols of Columbia, Maryland stood in the sanctuary of New York Avenue Presbyterian Church shortly before dinnertime Friday and marveled at the amount of information she had received.
Now that they’re both about three years into their work leading, respectively, the Office of Public Witness in Washington, D.C., and the Presbyterian Ministry at the United Nations in New York City, the Rev. Jimmie Hawkins and Ryan Smith say they’ve found ways to work around a White House that often doesn’t welcome their input.
In early October 2018, two dozen members of the Congo Mission Network (CMN) converged on Washington, D.C., to advocate for U.S. support for democracy in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The gathering, which preceded the annual CMN meeting, sought to raise the DRC’s profile prior to presidential elections in that country on Dec. 30. The CMN members sought U.S. assistance to strengthen democratic institutions in the Congo and to avert a humanitarian disaster by mobilizing resources to assist parts of the DRC that have been affected by corruption, conflict and natural disasters.
The Food Center at Morrisville Presbyterian Church in Pennsylvania opened more than two decades ago as an emergency resource. As the federal government shutdown dragged into its fourth week, volunteers there realized a new emergency was developing.
“Ron Workman, who is our treasurer, is the one who suggested we might want to look into offering food to furloughed federal employees,” says Carol Romano, operations manager for the food bank.
The Universal Day of Prayer for Students has been celebrated since the late 19th century. But the events of last February have given this year’s observance a special sense of urgency in the eyes of the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship.
As people from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador continue to make their way to the Mexico-U.S. border, a delegation of Presbyterian ministers and leaders headed to McAllen, Texas this weekend as part of the Interfaith Caravan of Hope.
Representing the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is a bit harder these days for the Rev. Jimmie Hawkins, director of the Presbyterian Mission Agency’s Office of Public Witness in Washington, D.C.
