We’re excited to sponsor and participate in Ecumenical Advocacy Days, a gathering of hundreds of people of faith for advocacy and education. This year’s theme is Confronting Chaos, Forging Community.

At Ecumenical Advocacy Days’ fifteenth national gathering in our nation’s capital, we will focus on the challenges of, and solutions to, racism, materialism and militarism.

Learn more about Ecumenical Advocacy Days.

FCNL Workshops

Solidarity with Refugees: Countering Nationalism and Fear

Saturday, April 22 at 2 p.m.

The world is simultaneously experiencing the largest displacement crisis in recorded history and the politicization and dehumanization of refugees. The executive order suspending refugee resettlement and banning travel for individuals from some Muslim-majority countries is having a major impact. Anti-refugee, anti-immigrant, and anti-Muslim groups have joined forces to advance national, state, and local administrative and legislative proposals to deny safety to refugees based on their nationality and religion, place refugees under continual surveillance, and divide communities. This strategy session will help participants plan concrete ways to counter hate, educate communities, and urge their policy makers to affirm the importance of refugee resettlement and declare that their communities are welcome to all.

Speakers

• Yasmine Taeb, Friends Committee on National Legislation
• Mustafa Nuur, Deputy Chairman, Somali Community of Lancaster, Pennsylvania
• Jen Smyers, Church World Service

Impunity and Destruction on Border Militarization

Sunday, April 23 at 2:00 pm

Over the past two decades, the U.S. government has built hundreds of miles of fencing and deployed a massive enforcement regime on our southern border. Communities on both sides of the border and migrants have endured the painful reality of unchecked and unaccountable enforcement in the region, including cross-border shootings and abuses that remain in impunity. In this workshop, we will discuss the harmful impacts of militarization of the border region, as well as how faith communities and allies can advocate to ensure that the rights and dignity of those who live, travel through and seek safety in the border region are protected.

Speakers:

• Hannah Evans, Friends Committee on National Legislation
• Jennifer Johnson, Southern Border Communities Coalition
• Moderator: Rebecca Eastwood, Columban Center for Advocacy and Outreach