Today, we present our ELCA Advocacy Update for the month of April. Please read below for important information on ELCA Advocacy efforts in Washington, across the country and throughout the world. To read the full version of the update and for more information on advocacy efforts from our Lutheran State Advocacy offices, visit our blog!

Advocacy Update - April 2017

ELCA Advocacy, Washington D.C.

EASTER: The Easter message “Jesus is Risen!” is an invitation to a new hope. It declares the Good Friday landscape of shadow, suffering and death as a persistent, but not a final, reality. Easter proclaims God’s power to write a new future for our lives and our world, a reality marked by love that transforms and reconciliation beyond what divides us. Advocacy can be an act of this Easter hope, witnessing to the God of resurrection when we speak to new possibilities for our life together. Lutherans highlight this hope in the descriptions below, as we speak to the suffering in the South Sudan, advocate for climate justice and give testimony for just and humane policies towards migrants and refugees. 

ADVOCACY CONVENING: ELCA Advocacy hosted our 2017 Advocacy Convening in late March. This event brought together bishops, local community leaders, and faith partners in Washington, D.C. Convening participants, joined by religious representatives attending LIRS’ Lutheran Immigration Leadership Summit, urged lawmakers to welcome and protect vulnerable refugees and migrants. Through ELCA World Hunger and AMMPARO, our church is working for just and humane policies toward migrants in and outside the U.S. You can learn more and send an advocacy message to your elected officials at the ELCA Advocacy action center.

CLIMATE CHANGE EXECUTIVE ORDER: On March 28, President Trump signed an executive order to review the Obama administration’s climate change initiatives. The order would rescind various guidance documents, including key parts of the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan (CPP), and other memoranda. The review will likely lead to significant revisions or a full recension of the CPP that could adversely impact our nation’s progress in combating climate change.

The implementation and objective of the Clean Power Plan was a top ELCA Advocacy priority in 2014. Last month ELCA Advocacy released a statement on the executive order shortly after it was signed by the president. The statement encouraged the administration to re-examine its actions and remain true to its earlier stated commitments to stewardship, sustainability and justice.  

SOUTH SUDAN: The United Nations formally declared that several regions of South Sudan are undergoing severe famine—its first case of making such a declaration since 2011. Across several neighboring countries, an estimated 7 million people are said to be affected by the famine, and more than  100,000 in South Sudan are reported to face imminent starvation. 

Famine, coupled with the ongoing civil war, has taken a disastrous humanitarian toll across the region—with countless civilians being displaced or targeted for attack. International aid is essential to address the critical situation in South Sudan. Advocates can  take action on the issue at advocacy.ELCA.org and learn how the ELCA is responding in the region through Lutheran Disaster Response.

HEALTH CARE UPDATE: The work on improving the Affordable Care Act continues. Click here to hear from Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton on this important issue. Thank you for your continued engagement!

STUDENT GROUPS: Throughout March, a number of student groups from campus ministries visited the Advocacy office. After presentations that focused on the Lutheran values that underpin advocacy, groups went on congressional office visits. It has been tremendously encouraging that so many young adults are invested in learning more about what the ELCA is saying about social and political realities.  

Lutheran Office for World Community

CSW61: The sixty-first session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) took place at the United Nations Headquarters in New York March 13-24. The theme was “Women’s Economic Empowerment in the Changing World of Work,” with the emerging focus area on empowerment of indigenous women.

Our Lutheran delegation consisted of 22 delegates, including a LWF Women in Church and Society representative from the Costa Rican church. From the ELCA, we had representatives from ELCA World Hunger, Justice for Women Program, American Indian and Alaska Native Ministries, International Leaders program and Young Adults in Global Mission.

LOWC participated in the planning and execution of various projects and side-events throughout CSW, including Ecumenical Women’s Orientation Day, a Strategy and Advocacy Roundtable hosted by Faith and Feminism Working Group, and a Public Witness event to link up to end gender-based violence, organized by Ecumenical Women and co-sponsored by U.N. Women, UNICEF and the U.N. Interagency Task Force on Religion and Development.

CSW ended with the adoption of  the agreed conclusions. The conclusions highlight barriers women face, such as unequal working conditions, gender stereotypes, occupational segregation, unequal pay, sexual- and gender-based violence etc. Countries committed to implementing economic and social policies that will lead to women’s economic empowerment.

Lutheran state advocacy efforts across the country

Find out all about the vast and incredibly important work and top priorities of Lutheran state advocacy networks across the country by visiting the ELCA Advocacy Blog.

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