OPW at GA

The Office of Public Witness at the 221st General Assembly

OPW Staff and Summer Fellows in the GA Exhibit Hall

The staff members of the Office of Public Witness were busy at the General Assembly (GA), which took place June 14-21, 2014, in Detroit, MI. While Director for Public Witness J. Herbert Nelson and Representatives Catherine Gordon and Leslie Woods attended the GA as resource people for various committees (5 committees amongst us), our Summer Fellows served the Assembly as Student Assistants. Three of them were assigned as committee assistants, so if you visited or served on the committees on Middle East, Marriage, or Mission Coordination, you probably met them! And our recent seminary intern, Sabrina Slater, represented Princeton Seminary as a Theological Student Advisory Delegate.

It was a busy week for us. Even as we supported the commissioners, advisory delegates and corresponding members with our prayers and expertise, J. Herbert Nelson also made five speaking appearances. We had a great time connecting with old allies and new partners for justice all over the place – from the Exhibit Hall to the committee room to the Plenary floor. Here are just a few highlights:

GA Plenary

The Rev. J. Herbert Nelson addressed the General Assembly during the Friday afternoon plenary. In his address, he reminded us of the long Presbyterian tradition of engaging in public life, from John Calvin’s advocacy with the leaders of 16^th century Geneva, to John Witherspoon who signed the Declaration of Independence, to Stated Clerk Eugene Carson Blake who marched with the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King. He quoted current Stated Clerk Gradye Parsons who wrote in 2009 “So, on one hand, it would appear that those of the Reformed tradition have been defenders of the role of government, and on the other hand, disturbers of governments.” Rev. Nelson remarked, “this paradoxical call places us in a significant position to love our nation while possess a willingness to make it better.” Nelson concluded his remarks to the GA by saying, “We cannot remain silent in these troubling times. The world needs the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to stand up and be the Church. Join me in making a difference in this sin sick world. We can do it together.  Thank you and God Bless!”

New Education Initiative

J. Herbert Nelson and Frank Dimmock

Compassion, Peace and Justice Ministry, together with World Mission, announced a new “Educate a Child, Change the World” initiative that seeks to provide quality education to one million children worldwide by the year 2020. This joint partnership was approved the General Assembly and launched at a lunch event where Frank Dimmock, World Mission’s catalyst for poverty issues, and J. Herbert Nelson, each discussed the critical issues of education as a tool to create equality. Education transforms lives,” Dimmock said, “empowering girls and women particularly … for leadership … for economic opportunity … for better health.” The children who be reached by the education initiative “are children of God and our children,” Dimmock continued, “providing them a quality education is not just the right thing to do, it’s the smart thing to do.” Both speakers emphasized the fundamental truth that “every child can learn.”

CPJ Meal and the Reverend William Barber

The Reverend Dr. William Barber

At the Thursday evening meal, Compassion, Peace and Justice Ministry welcomed the Reverend William Barber, President of the North Carolina NAACP and leader of the growing Moral Monday movement. Barber, whose presence is powerful and inspiring, challenged us to take the on the special interests that use private money to create public power. He said, “Never before have we seen so much money spent to oppose equality.” He went on to profoundly disturb us with the observation that “we live in an age when corporations are treated like people and people are treated like things.” Barber challenged the church, at large: “if we claim to believe in the triune God, then we have to oppose the triune evils of racism, classism, and militarism… how can we oppose Rome when we have become Rome?” We left the evening feeling energized, but convinced of just how much work there is still to do in the cause of God’s justice in our public places. “Never forget,” Barber said, “when you pray ‘God bless America,’ that God is not the property of just one nation.”

Gratitude for the General Assembly

The Office of Public Witness gives thanks for the work of the General Assembly, for the commitment of the Commissioners and Advisory Delegates who did the hard work of discerning the will of the Spirit, and for all the OGA event planners, student assistants, volunteers, and COLA folks without whom the Assembly would not have been possible. As the voice of Presbyterian public policy, tasked with representing the social witness policy of Presbyterian General Assemblies, the Office of Public Witness pays close attention to the GA. We have come home with a lot of new work to do! Join us in the struggle for compassion, peace, and justice in our public lives.

More Time For Schools To Participate in Free Meal Program

USDA Extends Community Eligibility Deadline for Upcoming School Year

By Anne Fyffe

It is not too late for eligible schools in your community to notify their state agencies that they want to participate in Community Eligibility and provide free breakfast and lunch to all of their students for the 2014-2015 school year!

In mid-June, USDA Food and Nutrition Service announced an extension of the deadline for local educational agencies to elect to participate in Community Eligibility from June 30, 2014 to August 31, 2014!

Take Action: Find out if your schools are eligible here! For more links, scroll down.

Community eligibility is an opportunity for schools in areas that experience high levels of poverty to provide free breakfast and lunch to all of their students. A win-win for students and schools, community eligibility removes the families' and schools' burden of submitting paper applications to enroll students in school meal programs and works to ensure that all children in high-poverty communities receive two healthy meals a day, enabling them to pay better attention in class and perform better academically.

The PC(USA) is continuously a leader in the fight to end child hunger and has long recognized the "importance of federal nutrition programs as part of the path to ending hunger in our nation" (General Assembly Minutes, 1996, p.784). Community eligibility is one such program that will go a long way in providing healthy meals for children and ending hunger.

Take Action!

Here's what you can do now, before the August 31st deadline for school districts to notify their state agency that they want to participate in CEP for the 2014-2015 school year:

• Check out our original post: Community Eligibility can make a positive impact in your community by serving more meals to hungry kids.
• See if your School District is eligible: Check out the list of eligible schools in your state!
• Contact your school's Administration: If your school is eligible, contact the administrators in your school district and ask them if they plan to participate in CEP next year.
• Write an op-ed: Create some public discussion in your community around CEP by clicking here!
• Learn more about community eligibility: Utilize these CEP resources from FRAC.

J. Herbert Nelson Addresses 221st General Assembly

Remarks Given by the Reverend Dr. J. Herbert Nelson, II

221^st General Assembly

Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Meeting

Detroit, Michigan

June 20, 2014

Good afternoon. I am J. Herbert Nelson, Director of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Office of Public Witness in Washington, DC. Your Office of Public Witness is responsible for advocating the social justice policies approved by each General Assembly that has implications for the federal government. Presbyterians’ work in justice advocacy began with the founding of Presbyterianism in Geneva, Switzerland, by a lawyer named John Calvin who advocated for public education. Calvin believed so strongly that the Church of Jesus had a role to correct, influence and transform government that upon his death, he willed his writings to governmental leaders of Geneva, Switzerland, rather than the Smithsonian Institute of his day. He did this simple act to underscore his commitment to the belief that given the moral and ethical latitude of political leaders, their thoughts ought to be reminded of the mind of Christ in their deliberations.

A Scots Presbyterian Clergyman John Witherspoon was a signatory of the Declaration of Independence. He was the only active clergyman to sign the document.

In 1963, African American Presbyterian Pastors and Women’s Rights Advocates led student and community movements across the country. We are often reminded of the role that Reverend Eugene Carson Blake, Stated Clerk of the United Presbyterian Church played in assisting White clergy of all denominations to engage the struggle for racial and gender justice. His monumental moment was on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial when he stood with Dr. King in the March for Jobs and Justice, known today as the 1963 March on Washington, to declare that the White Church is late in coming to this movement, but he made it clear “we are here now.”

As Gradye Parsons suggest in his writing Presbyterians and Politics: Disturbers of Government, “So, on one hand, it would appear that those of the Reformed tradition have been defenders of the role of government, and on the other hand, disturbers of governments.” This paradoxical call places us in a significant position to love our nation while possess a willingness to make it better.

The biblical mandate for our call to justice as a denomination is found in the words of Jesus’ emancipation address when he entered the temple at the beginning of his ministry and gave voice to the power of his commitment to justice and liberty for all when he read “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, To set free those who are downtrodden, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.” This liberating, agitating and elevating personal mission statement from the reading of Isaiah sets the tone for discipleship and provides the basis for our work in Washington, DC.

We give thanks to God for the revamping and revitalization of our Summer Fellowship and Intern Programs, where we are engaging young people in the work of justice advocacy. Four of our summer fellows have been working at this General Assembly in your committees and on the floor.  Additionally, we are excited about our partnership with the Young Adult Volunteer Program and Hunger Program that will bring one or two Young Adult Volunteers to serve in our office for the next two years. These training opportunities for young people could not be done without your gifts and financial support.

On yesterday we launched a new initiative with World Mission to educate children. I firmly believe that given our Presbyterian heritage in education, if there is PC(USA) congregation in town or on the corner no child should enter school without knowing their colors or numbers or how to spell their name! If there is PC(USA) congregation in town or on the corner no child should attend school from K – 12 and not be able to get a high school diploma! Our commitment to partnering with other entities of the Church extends to joining the Peacemaking Program and Presbyterian Disaster Assistance in an effort to eradicate Gun Violence in the United States. Presbyterian congregations across this country have screened the movie ‘Trigger’ and developed action plans to address a policy entitled Gun Violence and Gospel Values approved by the 219^th General Assembly (2010). We are training Presbyterians to go back to their local communities become change agents in the political realities they face every day. Over three hundred Presbyterians have come to Washington, DC annually for our annual Compassion, Peace and Justice Training Day and Ecumenical Advocacy Days. These persons are engaged in advocacy training with skills to return home and make a difference in their local communities through engagement with policy makers.

Friends, we face a time when our voting rights are being suppressed; a time when corporations are paying millions to CEO’s who have failed at their job, while people in our nations are working hard every day. In this country of opulence there are people working overtime and still don’t make enough to pay their bills and feed their children. We live in a nation that chooses war over peace and power over partnership. We live in a nation where leaders would rather shut down the government than make a righteous decision.

I’m so glad Jeremiah did not bow to the temple priest who locked him in the stock room. He declared that he thought about turning back during his detention. However, something within him allowed him to say, ‘I can’t turn back. What I feel inside is like a fire shut up in my bones. He continued to proclaim God’s liberty and truth. If that does not convince you, I’m so glad Isaiah called the exiles back home; I’m so glad Micah made it plain when responding to the question, What does the Lord require? He said, to do justice, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God!” And Jesus demonstrates this call in his earthly life and reminds us in Matthew 25: 41-45 "Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.' "They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?' "He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'  

We cannot remain silent in these troubling times. The world needs the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to stand up and be the Church. Join me in making a difference in this sin sick world. We can do it together.  Thank you and God Bless!  

More Meals for Hungry Kids

Community Eligibility: Fighting Child Hunger and Building Stronger School Meal Programs

By Anne Fyffe

Kaylee, a nine-year-old from Texas, speaks honestly to the importance of free meals at school when she says that "when I go home, we don't have that much food...when I come here, I can eat." Kaylee is just one of nearly 32 million children who rely on free or reduced-price school meals every day at school.

The Presbyterian Church (USA) has a long tradition of advocacy on behalf of children and is committed to the goal of ending childhood hunger. The PC(USA) recognizes the importance of federal nutrition programs, including school lunch and breakfast programs, as part of the path to achieving this goal (General Assembly Minutes, 1996, p.784).

Community eligibility is a new opportunity for schools in areas that experience high levels of poverty to provide free breakfast and lunch to all of their students. The community eligibility provision (CEP) was previously only available in 11 states, but beginning in the 2014-2015 school year, all schools nationwide that meet the 40 percent "identified student" threshold will qualify to participate in this option. You can find a list of eligible schools here. The deadline for school districts to notify their state agency that they want to participate in CEP for the 2014-2015 school year is June 30, 2014.

Take Action: Find out if your schools are eligible here! Click here to write an op-ed to your local newspaper in support of community eligibility. For more links, scroll down.

How Community Eligibility Works

Community eligibility is a win-win for students and schools. Designed to help schools in high-poverty areas, it ensures that all children have access to healthy food at school. Community eligibility removes the families’ and schools’ burden of submitting paper applications to enroll students in school meal programs in high-poverty communities. Instead, schools are reimbursed through a formula based on the number of "identified students" who participate in additional federal benefit programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP; formerly the Food Stamp Program) or Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) cash assistance, among others. Typically, more than 75 percent of students who go to schools that qualify for community eligibility receive  free or reduced-price meals, so this is a great opportunity to make sure that 100 percent of children are getting the food they need to thrive.

Benefits for Children, Schools, and Communities

Community eligibility has been successful in increasing the number of students eating meals each day and in changing the way that schools provide food service, according to the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC). School districts can increase meal program participation, bring staff costs down, eliminate bad debt from unpaid student meal fees, and cut down on administrative costs associated with printing and processing paper applications.

School food service workers will no longer have to confront, and sometimes take food away from children who have unpaid fees on their accounts and administrators and families will no longer have to bear the burden of submitting paper applications. Most importantly, this program removes the stigma of receiving free meals at school and children will no longer have trouble paying attention in class because they are hungry.

Schenectady City School District, NY is one example of a school district that has successfully implemented community eligibility district-wide, making both breakfast and lunch available to all children at no charge, and as a result, they experienced growth in both their breakfast and lunch programs. They also attribute the changes in their nutrition programs to substantially improving their attendance rates. Larry Spring, superintendent of Schenectady City Schools, sees community eligibility as an opportunity to level the playing field for all students and address issues such as racial inequality and food insecurity as part of a larger city-wide equity agenda.

Take Action!

Here's what you can do now, before the June 30th deadline for school districts to notify their state agency that they want to participate in CEP for the 2014-2015 school year:

• See if your School District is eligible: Check out the list of eligible schools in your state!
• Contact your school's Administration: If your school is eligible, contact the administrators in your school district and ask them if they plan to participate in CEP next year.
• Write an op-ed: Create some public discussion in your community around CEP by clicking here!
• Learn more about community eligibility: Utilize these CEP resources from FRAC.

Source: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

     

      Anne Fyffe is a Summer Fellow at the Office of Public Witness. She will graduate from The Ohio State University in August with a degree in Public Affairs and hopes to begin seminary in 2015.