ELCA NEWS SERVICE

March 15, 2007  

Lutherans Advocate for Children's Issues at Ecumenical Advocacy Days
07-035-AL

     WASHINGTON, D.C. (ELCA) -- More than 1,000 U.S. church
members, including more than 100 members of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), participated in the Ecumenical
Advocacy Days for Global Peace with Justice conference here March
9-12. Under the theme "...and How are the Children?" participants
learned about issues affecting children around the world and had
the opportunity to make their voices heard on Capitol Hill.
     Workshop tracks covered issues affecting children
domestically and internationally. Featured workshop sessions
focused on unaccompanied children crossing borders; fixing the No
Child Left Behind Act; the dangers of global warming on children
now and in the future; the effects of the current Middle East
conflict on the region's children; the impact of current U.S.
security policies on children; the ill effects of free trade
agreements on poor workers and families in Latin America; and
escalating violence and human rights abuses in Burma and the
Philippines.
     Amy Santoriello, a student at Luther Seminary, St. Paul,
Minn., who served on the planning team for the event, praised the
conference's focus on children's issues. "My background is in
education, and I do not believe our children are our future; I
believe our children are our now, and we need to take care of
them now because they are paying the price already for things
other generations have done," she said.
     Plenary speakers for the event included the Rev. John L.
McCullough, executive director and CEO, Church World Service; the
Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church
(U.S.A.); the Rev. Bob Edgar, general secretary, National Council
of Churches USA; Mercedes Roman, coordinator for the Global
Network of Religions for Children, Latin America and the
Caribbean; and Marian Wright Edelman, founder and president of
the Children's Defense Fund.
     "Marian Wright Edelman has been a hero of mine, probably
since the age of 14, so when I found out she'd be speaking at
Advocacy Days, I was quite ecstatic," said Angela Shubert, a
student at Augustana College, Sioux Falls, S.D., who attended the
event. "She was eloquent, she knew her stuff, and it was just
really great that this conference could bring someone of that
esteem here."
     Participants spent the final day of the event on Capitol
Hill, where they met with the staffs of their congressional
representatives to press for greater U.S. support for three key
domestic and international issues focused on children:
reauthorization and expansion of the State Children's Health
Insurance Program (SCHIP); comprehensive, mandatory and
aggressive anti-global warming legislation; and calls for
Congress to adopt new "Spending for Peace, Not War" priorities.
     The ELCA hosted several events at the conference, including
a hospitality suite during registration time and a luncheon where
participants could meet staff from the ELCA churchwide office,
Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, and Lutheran World
Relief.
     Lutheran participants were also invited to a dinner,
sponsored by ELCA Global Mission and held at Lutheran Church of
the Reformation on Capitol Hill.
     ELCA participants included several students from ELCA
colleges and seminaries, including Augustana College, Luther
Seminary, Lutheran Theological Seminary of Philadelphia and
Lutheran School of Theology at Gettysburg, Pa. About 200 of the
Advocacy Days participants were students and young adults between
the ages of 18 and 30.
     "As a student entering into professional ministry, I think
it's important that we remember that, yes, there is a separation
between church and state; but there should never be a separation
between church and community," said Santoriello. "If we are
taking our role seriously as Christians, we need to concentrate
on Christian witness and advocating for those who have no voice."
     "I think that the people from our generation are starting to
realize that this is the world that we live in; and we won't be
grown-ups when we graduate from college, we won't be grown-ups
when we get our first job or move into our apartment," said Ellie
Kunkel, a student at Augustana College, who attended the event.
"We are grown-ups, or we are mature twenty-somethings, at least,
when we start acting like it, and when we start taking
responsibility for this world we live in," she said.
     Ecumenical Advocacy Days for Global Peace with Justice began
in 2003 as a gathering of 400 religious advocates concerned about
U.S. foreign policy in Africa and the Middle East. Event sponsors
for 2007 included the ELCA, Episcopal Church, Lutheran World
Relief, National Council of Churches, Presbyterian Church
(U.S.A.), United Church of Christ, United Methodist Church and
dozens of other faith-based organizations.
---
     Audio of comments by Ellie Kunkel is at
http://media.ELCA.org/audionews/070314a.mp3  ELCA Web site. 
     Audio of comments by Amy Santoriello is at
http://media.ELCA.org/audionews/070314b.mp3 on the ELCA Web site.
     Audio of comments by Angela Shubert is at
http://media.ELCA.org/audionews/070314c.mp3 on the ELCA Web site.

     Information about Ecumenical Advocacy Days is at
http://www.advocacydays.org/index.php on the Web.

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or [log in to unmask]
http://www.elca.org/news
ELCA News Blog: http://www.elca.org/news/blog