Millie Millar's son Gary said it was our "best ever!" Many thanks to ALL our participants, and to our superb team of Cathy Sarkisian, Stephen Iverson, and Hallie Foster (M.C. and joke master) who make this happen every year! Much appreciation to the behind the scenes prop master, Mark Sarkisian. 

Jessie Gauna's spirited solo performance of God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen delights the audience

And Grandma Millie's Soul Food Jamboree is welcome here ANY time!

Photos From the Christmas Love Pageant!

Fellowship time is organized by your Deacons, but we rely on everyone pitching in to help. While each Parish is assigned a month for Fellowship, that time may not be convenient for your schedule. So now you can sign up online! Just click here and pick a Sunday that's most convenient for you.

December - Parishes: Patti Eisinger and Carolyn Goodman

January 2015 - Parishes: Cat Caldwell and Nancy Elberg/Frankie Eakes

February 2015 - Parishes: Laura Taylor and Patti Eisinger

March 2015 - Parishes: Nancy Elberg/Frankie Eakes and Patti Eisinger

Sign up now before the good slots are all taken!

Dear Friends of Justice Advocacy Work and Ministry:

I am thankful for your support of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Office of Public Witness in Washington, DC. We could not do our work without you. I am writing you to give a few updates on our work this past year and a brief look forward.

Youth and Young Adult Emphasis

In 2014, we completed a three-year initiative to focus on youth and young adults. Thousands of youth and young adults were impacted by our efforts. We will share an impact study with the denomination during the first quarter of the year. Due to the great success of our three-year commitment, we are launching a second phase of our initiative with more of an emphasis on justice advocacy training and leadership. Training young adult justice advocates and activists to engage in coalition- and movement-building in local communities will be the new emphasis of this work. This process is already being implemented through our Internship, Summer Fellowship and Young Adult Volunteer initiatives and will continue to grow.

See our theological basis for work with young adults published in the First Quarter 2012 Advocacy as Discipleship publication, "A New Organizing Model: Young Adults are Essential for a new Era of Political Advocacy." 

Compassion, Peace and Justice Training Day and Ecumenical Advocacy Days

The U.S. makes up only five percent of the world's population, and yet we incarcerate a quarter of the world's prisoners. With private, for-profit prisons that incarcerate, but fail to rehabilitate, the United States' "justice system" fails to achieve justice on multiple levels. A failing public education system, eroding worker protections, and a minimum wage that traps families in poverty has left persons vulnerable to the desperation and behaviors that lead to incarceration. Militarized police forces that racially profile, while killing innocent children of color, further exacerbate a problem where private investors are permitted to profit from the incarceration of human beings.

We erect fences to keep persons from crossing our borders while creating the very economic and political turmoil, oppression and violence that leads people to migrate in the first place. We use our purchasing power to support companies that employ slave labor and buy products that contain conflict minerals. It is time to build a movement to achieve systemic changes that releases the prisoners (literal and figurative) from the bondage of unjust laws and leadership.

Two events comprise our Advocacy Training Weekend. "Compassion, Peace and Justice (CPJ) Training Day" is a one-day Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)-focused training event that provides interaction and information regarding the work of the denomination. Held at New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, DC, on April 17, 2015, together we will share worship, fellowship, education, networking, and training in order to better engage Presbyterians in the work of building a movement for justice.

CPJ Training Day precedes Ecumenical Advocacy Days (EAD), which brings together 56 ecumenical organizations to sponsor a "how-to" advocacy-training event. Together, "we will confess our personal and corporate failure to break the chains of poverty, racism, and greed institutionalized in our laws, economy, and social behaviors that collude to perpetuate human exploitation and strip people of their civil and human rights." Advocacy Days will take place April 17-20, 2015.

Join the Advocacy Training Weekend beginning with Compassion, Peace and Justice Training Day on Friday, April 17, 2015, at New York Avenue Presbyterian Church and stay the whole weekend for Ecumenical Advocacy Days, which will start on Friday evening, April 17, at the Doubletree - Crystal City, VA (just across the river). The weekend will conclude with lobby day on Capitol Hill on Monday, April 20, 2015.

We have drawn over 300 Presbyterians to these events each year since 2011. We are hoping to bring more in 2015. Please register today and share the information found about the Advocacy Training Weekend with your friends, church groups, Presbyteries, Synods and other congregations in your community. 

Register for CPJ Day - https://ww2.eventrebels.com/er/Registration/RegistrationForm.jsp?ActivityID=12137&ItemID=46607

Register for EAD -- https://co.clickandpledge.com/advanced/default.aspx?wid=32582

Celebrating Advocacy Victories

• Celebrating the great news on US-Cuba relations! Thanks to all of you who have been responding to our action alerts on this issue!  http://officeofpublicwitness.blogspot.com/2014/12/pcusa-office-of-public-witness.html
• After 100 days in Sanctuary at University Presbyterian Church, Luis Lopez Acabal returned to his home and family on Friday, December 12!  Read more on our blog.
• Both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate have passed the ABLE Act, which will "unlock the doors of financial freedom" for people with disabilities and their families, who must either be independently wealthy or live in poverty in order to receive the support and services they need. The President is expected to sign this bill into law - perhaps the most important stride forward in legislation for people with disabilities since the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) itself. Read more from our partners at the Interfaith Disability Advocacy Coalition's (IDAC) Facebook page.

I give thanks each day for the way God has blessed this ministry and for you, who are our partners in ministry and mission. May the joy and peace of this season be yours and may we move into a New Year with hope and thanksgiving.

Sincerely,

J. Herbert Nelson, II