Member Church News: Youth Leaders, Indigenous Initiatives, Women’s Advocacy

For the first time in its history, the United Reformed Church Youth Assembly has an all-female leadership team.

Santa Fe church confirmation class says, “Protect the Dreamers:” A group of young teens from the United Church of Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA, in a public expression of faith, is calling on the United States Congress to protect the “Dreamers” and drop the border wall. Their words, published by the Santa Fe New Mexican newspaper on 22 January, are fueled by personal experience and cut right to the heart of the immigration debate.

Canadian leaders of the Christian Reformed Church in North America, which has been praying and advocating for equitable funding for Indigenous education for children for more than six years, say they are cautiously optimistic about the results of meetings held last week in Ottawa at which a plan to address equity for Indigenous children was unveiled.

An Indigenous outreach ministry in Winnipeg, Canada, offers a heart-warming, positive experience of being at home.

Group calls for healing and repentance, offers resources for study and action: The Advocacy Committee for Women’s Concerns and Presbyterian Women of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) have issued a joint statement on sexual injustice in response to national attention being focused on the topic.

A senior delegation of Uniting Church of Australia and church agency leaders is visiting China on the invitation of the China Christian Council.

Focusing on the theme “Lord, Send Your Light and Truth to Lead Us,” the Asian Ecumenical Youth Assembly initiated by the Christian Conference of Asia and jointly organized with local hosts Gereja Masehi Injili Minahasa (GMIM) and the Communion of Churches in Indonesia, is scheduled to take place in Manado, North Sulawesi, Indonesia from 6 to 13 April 2018.

The National Council of Churches in India has shared resources to participate in the 2018 World Day of Prayer, prepared by sisters in Suriname.