Swords into Plowshares

Help take on conflict minerals

Urge Your Representative to Cosponsor the Conflict Minerals Trade Act

The Conflict Minerals Trade Act of 2009, H.R. 4128, introduced in the United States House of Representatives by Congressman Jim McDermott (D-Washington), would help develop the means to ensure that the multimillion dollar trade in minerals from eastern Congo stops financing deadly conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo and surrounding countries.

Raise Hope for Congo reports that: "The trade in Congo’s conflict minerals, namely tin, tantalite, tungsten and gold, which are used in electronic devices such as cell phones and laptops, is a major source of funding for armed groups in eastern Congo who commit atrocities against civilians. If passed, this bill would create a system of audits and import declarations that would distinguish those goods imported into the United States that contain conflict minerals. The resulting transparency would be an important step forward in helping break the links between the mineral trade and human rights violations in Congo."

Call or write your Representative and urge him/her to cosponsor the Conflict Minerals Trade Act HR 4128. Email your Representative. Call U.S. Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask for your Representative’s office.

Of course this legislation (and other legislation in the United States) alone will not end the conflict in eastern Congo. But, if enacted, this bill would be a crucial step toward creating an enforceable means to ensure that the trade in Congolese minerals contributes not to war, but to peace. U.S. legislation could also serve as a model for legislation in other countries.

International Religious Freedom Reports

Each year the State Department of the United States issues a report on International Religious Freedom. This annual report is submitted to Congress in compliance with Section 102(b) of the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998. It provides information with respect to matters involving religious freedom internationally and it includes individual country chapters on the status of religious freedom.

Of interest to Presbyterians in the 2009 Report on International Religious Freedom may be the reports on -

Colombia

Israel and the Occupied Territories

Pakistan

The Philippines

Sri Lanka

Sudan

The full report covers many other countries.

Not finished with your shopping?

Still looking for a gift for that someone special?

Consider a gift that works for peace. Support the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program. There are several options. Give to:

Peacemaking Offering - provide basic support for the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program's ministry

Conference scholarships - help persons attend events sponsored by the program

International Peacemakers - bring sisters and brothers in Christ to the United States to share about their ministries

Build a Culture of Peace & Nonviolence - support faith-based nonviolence training and peace building efforts for youth and young adults

Presbyterian United Nations Office - enable the Presbyterian UN Office to represent the church at the UN to interpret to the church the work of the UN

HIV/AIDS & Peacemaking - address the root causes and impact of HIV/AIDS

2010 Peacemaking Seminar

2010 Peacemaking Seminar
Re-membering Peace: Still the Believers’ Calling
August 25-29, 2010
Ghost Ranch, Abiquiu, New Mexico

In 1980, the 192nd GA of the UPCUSA adopted Peacemaking: The Believers’ Calling [PDF]. In 2010, the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program invites you to join us among the mesas of northern New Mexico as we practice the art of storytelling — weaving our stories of peacemaking together, discovering how we are already intertwined and bearing witness to our being knit together into Christ, who is our head. We will bring back together — re-member — those who have gone out to proclaim the good news of peace over the last 30 years (Isaiah 52:7, Nahum 1:15). In this seminar, we will live out the practice of anamnesis: remembering the places where the triune God has led us in the past, in light of our present realities, and looking with hope towards the future of peacemaking.

Join at Ghost Ranch for a time of re-membering:

• Retell the Presbyterian stories of peacemaking.
• Recognize the current strands of peacemaking throughout the church.
• Renew our commitment to follow Jesus, living out the believers’ calling for this day and generations to come.

Within the cloud of witnesses, in a homecoming of peacemakers, seminar participants will re-member — retell the stories of our Presbyterian heritage of peacemaking.

Bearing witness to the ways in which we are knit together into Christ, we will re-member — weave together the many ways in which we continue to make peace in our world.

Strengthened by our gathering, we will re-member — renew our covenantal responsibility to go out into the world, living out the believers’ call, looking towards the needs of peacemakers yet to come.

The 2010 Peacemaking Seminar is designed for young adults and adults. Registration is limited. For more information contact Dayna Oliver.

If you cannot attend the 2010 Peacemaking Seminar, consider making a gift so that someone else can.

Report 1 from our folk in Copenhagen

Check out the first report on the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen written by Bill and Carol Somplatsky-Jarman, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) staff members who are attending the event. Thanks to the Environmental Ministries Office for posting their reports.

They reflect on the role of youth at the conference and offer a number of web pages

And remember the invitation to sound bells, drums, gongs, conch shells (and other instruments that call people to worship) for climate justice on December 13 for

Advent devotion - December 10, 2009

Scripture: Matthew 23:13–26

If you have ever played a game with a child who makes the rules as the game progresses, you know the child almost always wins. I certainly cannot speak for all situations, but when you create the rules, you usually have a good chance to play the part of the boastful winner, at least for a short time.

In the interactions between Jesus and the Pharisees, two things become clear. First, rules are important to the Pharisees. Second, they are most happy when those rules ensure their authority as religious leaders. When Jesus enters the scene in Matthew, however, the Pharisees and their rules quickly look foolish.

In all of their concern for swearing by the gold of the sanctuary and the gift on the altar, the Pharisees have entirely missed out on the command to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly in faith. Not only have they diluted the power of faith, but they have made obtaining this diluted faith more difficult at the same time! Faith is rarely easy, but it is frequently simple. Faith is as simple as hoping and waiting for the arrival of a child, as simple as being born in a manger in the midst of a very complicated world, as simple as laying down your net, even as simple as doubting and believing anyway.

Prayer

God of hope and light, teach us to be still as we wait for a simple beginning. Call us to believe in the grace that is born in a manger. Amen.

Jessica Hawkinson, associate for international relations and education
Presbyterian United Nations Office
Compassion, Peace and Justice
General Assembly Mission Council, PC(USA)
New York, New York

Order Proclaiming the Good News of God's Peace.

December 10 is Human Rights Day.

A prayer for December 7

God of the ages, in your sight nations rise and fall, and pass through times of peril. On this day we remember with gratitude those who died in defense of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and all those who gave their lives in this nation’s defense during the ensuing conflict. Hasten the day when there will be no more war, and all your children will learn to live together as brothers and sisters in peace.  For your own Name’s sake.  Amen.

Pearl Harbor Survivors Association

Toward a mine-free world

Good news from the Cartagena Summit on a Mine-Free World!

The summit closed with more than 120 governments adopting the Cartagena Action Plan (read the plan in draft form [pdf], a detailed five-year plan of commitments on all areas of mine action including victim assistance, mine clearance, risk education, stockpile destruction and international cooperation. Good news!

The summit brought the announcement that four  countries - Albania, Greece, Rwanda and Zambia - are now mine-free. And that's not good news, that is great news! This is a significant event for all these countries - in Rwanda, for example, 80% of the land is used for agriculture.

The United States remains among the 39 countries that have not yet signed or ratified the Mine Ban Treaty [pdf]. Not good news.

But, the head of the U.S. delegation to the Cartagena Summit on a Mine-Free World informed participants that the Obama administration has begun a comprehensive landmine policy review. That is good news.

And it is a reminder that the effort to create a mine-free world will continue.

Register now for Ecumenical Advocacy Days

2010 Ecumenical Advocacy Days

March 19-22, 2010 - Washington DC

A Place to Call Home: Immigrants, Refugees, and Displaced Peoples

Register Now

March 19 - 22, 2010  in Washington D.C.

"and Jesus said to him, 'Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.'"   -Luke 9:58

Jesus had no place to lay his head. Neither do tens of millions of migrants, refugees and displaced persons. Be a part of an action weekend addressing this global injustice. Join hundreds of faith-based advocates in taking action on U.S. legislation that will welcome immigrants, protect refugees, and prevent displacement of millions.

Participants will worship, study and dialog together. There will be special events for Presbyterians and other denominations as well as times for people to meet and plan in state groups.

On Monday, participants will visit Capitol Hill to advocate for our members of Congress to remedy these global injustices. 

The conference will be held at the DoubleTree Hotel in Crystal City, VA just outside Washington, DC.

Learn more and register now for this important faith-in-action event.

Let mutual love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.  -Hebrews 13:1-2

Sound the bell, drums, gongs or conch shells

International leaders will meet in Copenhagen from December 7-18 to create a new international agreement to lower greenhouse gas emissions that will replace the Kyoto Protocol when it expires in 2012. To show your support for climate justice, ring your church bells (or hand-bells or drums or gongs or conch shells) 350 times at 3pm on December 13, which will be at the height of the climate legislation in Copenhagen. The World Council of Churches is sponsoring this activity to create a chain of prayer and music around the globe to support climate legislation. Register your event. The National Council of Churches in Denmark has produced a liturgy [pdf] to accompany the bell-ringing.

Why 350 times?

350 refers to 350 parts per million: This is the safe upper limit for CO2 in our atmosphere according to many scientists and climate experts. For all of human history until about 200 years ago, our atmosphere contained 275 ppm of CO2, but now the concentration stands at 390 ppm.  Unless we are able to rapidly reduce CO2 levels again, we risk reaching tipping points and irreversible impacts such as the melting of the Greenland ice sheet and major methane releases from increased permafrost melt.