Today, we present our ELCA Advocacy Update for the month of June. Please read below for important information on ELCA Advocacy efforts in Washington, across the country and throughout the world. Please also visit our blog for more information on advocacy efforts from our Lutheran State Advocacy offices.
ELCA Advocacy Update – June 2015
ELCA Advocacy, Washington D.C.
Report on Central America: This month, ELCA Advocacy completed a report on the findings from a recent trip taken by ELCA leaders to El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala to better understand what drives so many children and families to flee their homes. This report, titled “Our Communities in Crisis,” takes a faithful look at the root cause of Central American forced displacement and the repatriation of children and families after the summer of 2012. Take action today by urging President Obama to speak out for the protection of those fleeing violence and persecution in Central America – visit our Action Center now to send a message to the president.
Global Food Security Act: Recently, members of the House and Senate reintroduced the Global Food Security Act – an act that will enhance international development programs and investments, such as Feed the Future. ELCA Advocacy is taking action to help promote food security by urging members of Congress to pass this legislation. Learn more about Feed the Future and our efforts to support responsible international development in our Global Food Security Act fact sheet.
Green Climate Fund: ELCA Advocacy announced its support of the Green Climate Fund last month. This international initiative mobilizes support for developing nations struggling to combat the growing effects of climate change. The consequences of climate change fall hardest on our brothers and sisters throughout the world who are least able to adapt because they live in communities already struggling with poverty and hunger. You can learn more about the fund at our ELCA Green Climate Fund Fact Sheet.
Financial debt in Nepal: Jubilee USA Network, an alliance of organizations and faith communities of which the ELCA is a member, is spearheading an international effort to support Nepal’s recovery efforts by cancelling the country’s overwhelming debt. ELCA Advocacy joined Jubilee USA in urging the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to provide immediate debt relief to Nepal so that the government can redirect these funds toward recovery and rebuilding efforts. Take action on this issue by visiting our Action Center.
Lutheran Office for World Community, New York, N.Y.
Peace Not Walls conference call with Presiding Bishop Eaton: LOWC joined other staff in planning for a conference call held on May 19 by ELCA Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton and Global Mission Area Program Director Cindy Halmarson with ELCA members with a keen interest in the Peace Not Walls campaign. It was an opportunity for those listening to hear about the Presiding Bishop’s recent January visit to the region and her perspectives on the current situation there.
U.N. Post-2015 Development Agenda: The fifth session of intergovernmental negotiations for the Post-2015 Development Agenda took place between May 18 and 25 in New York. There appears to be emerging consensus that the High-Level Political Forum, created at the Rio+20 conference in 2012, will be the venue for follow-up activities once the agenda is adopted. Consensus has not yet been reached on the means of implementation for the goals or on the relationship of the findings of the August Financing for Development conference to the Post-2015 Agenda. A “zero-draft” of the outcome document, which would be considered at the late September U.N. Summit to the Adopt the Post-2015 Development Agenda, is to be released on June 1.
Visitors: LOWC has hosted a variety of visitors in recent weeks. These included Caroline Tveoy, Lutheran World Federation World Service Program officer for the Middle East and North Africa, based in Geneva, who stopped in New York to discuss the ELCA’s Peace Not Walls campaign while in transit to Haiti. The Manhattan Ministerium of the Metro New York Synod visited to learn about LOWC’s work. The Rev. Joachim Tröstler of the North Elbian Evangelical Lutheran Church is on sabbatical and was interested in comparing the linkages between ministry with migrants and congregational-based community organizing in Germany and in the United States and how the issues are handled at the United Nations. Lastly, a group of Upstate New York Synod participants in a Peace Not Walls-related visit to the Holy Land stopped by on their way to the region.
Lutheran State Advocacy Efforts Across the Country
Find out all about the vast and incredibly important work of Lutheran advocates across the country by visiting our ELCA Advocacy Blog.
Our ELCA advocacy initiatives are made possible through support from ELCA World Hunger. Please donate now to ensure that we can continue to work for systemic change that truly supports our brothers and sisters facing poverty and hunger.
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