Advocacy at Second

As followers of Christ, we are called to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, welcome the stranger, visit the prisoner, and care for the sick. Second Presbyterian has long been engaged in ministries of compassion through such mission efforts as Walk-In, Assisting Families of Inmates, the Child Care Center, Micah Project, and CARITAS. As followers of Christ,we are also called to work in the public realm to build a more just society, seeking to eliminate the root causes of poverty, violence, injustice and inequality. To find new ways to engage members of Second in the public policy forum, the Mission Council has formed a new Advocacy Committee. This committee began its work in July 2011 and has selected three issues we hope to focus on over the coming year. 

  • First, Second plans to join RISC (Richmonders Involved in Strengthening our Community) to work with members of many other congregations around Richmond on local issues of concern to the faith community. You will be hearing much more about RISC and the opportunities RISC offers for advocacy. 
  • Another concern we'd like to struggle with as a congregation is the problem of gun violence, a concern rising directly out of Alex's ministry in Blacksburg with the police and families and victims of the Virginia Tech murders. 
  • Finally, we hope to find ways to be faithful advocates of the vulnerable with regard to our state budget—working in these difficult economic times to ensure that the budget isn't balanced by slashing the safety net for our children, the poor, and the elderly and disabled, and encouraging our legislators to find ways to enhance revenues as an alternative to deep budget cuts.

The Advocacy Committee will be looking for engaging ways for our congregation to learn about how we can become effective advocates and offering opportunities to educate ourselves on these difficult policy issues. We also will be exploring ways to join our voices with those of other congregations and other groups to express our concerns on behalf of those who are vulnerable and often voiceless. We know that these are complicated issues on which people of faith can—and will—disagree, so we want to be sure that we offer opportunities for serious reflection and respectful discussion.

UPCOMING EVENTS - JANUARY

Advocacy Sunday School Class in January: 

“What Does the Lord Require of Us? God’s Call to Both Charity and Justice.” Come explore this challenging question during the four Sundays in January beginning January 8th. This Sunday school class will focus on the biblical mandate to“do justice” and will explore Second’s three areas of focus for advocacy—RISC, the state budget, and gun violence. This will not be a lecture series, but will include some panel discussions and time for interaction and reflection.

RISC Events

♣ Tuesday 1/17 6:30 research committee meeting on the affordable housing trust fund issue.

♣ Monday 1/23 at 6:30 research committee meetings on the jobs and poverty issue. People are currently researching questions and statistics around problems concerning the difficulty of ex-offenders finding jobs as well as the lack of job training/job readiness in general. The 1/23 meeting will present the research and begin the task of finding a reasonable partial solution which RISC can take on.

State Budget and Better Choices for Virginia

The General Assembly begins January 11th and the state budget will be in the forefront of our concerns. We will work with Better Choices for Virginia to advocate a balanced approach to balancing the budget through revenue enhancements as well as budget cuts. There will be two particular opportunities for you to voice your concerns about the state budget or about other bills before the General Assembly.

♣ On Tuesday January 17th, the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy will host a “Day for All Peoples” at the General Assembly.

♣ On Tuesday February 7th, Second will host a Presbyterian Day at the General Assembly. Each   event will include pointers on how to be an effective advocate at the General Assembly and will offer an opportunity to voice your concerns by joining with others to visit your legislators. We will meet at church for briefing and update on advocacy issues active in the GA, then visit GA legislators and sit in on part of the session before returning to Second. Registration details can be found on the Presbytery of the James website or at the link from below:

https://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/7352/p/salsa/event/common/public/?event_KEY=45997

Gun Violence

♣ Monday January 16th at 2:00—the Virginia Center for Public Safety, a group that advocates better gun laws, will hold a rally at the Bell Tower in Capitol Square.


There are many resources already available to educate ourselves about these and other public policy issues and effectivemethods to address those issues. One of the jobs of the Advocacy Committee will be to find ways to find and sharesome of these resources. Here's one example:

Advocacy PC(USA)

Presbyterian Office Of Public Witness: Advocating for Justice, Peace and Freedom

Did you know that the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) maintains an office in Washington D.C. that is dedicated to public policy information and advocacy?  Its purpose is to advocate, and help the church to advocate, the social witness perspectives and policies of the PCUSA General Assembly.  Our reformed theology teaches us that because a sovereign God is at work in all the world, the church and Christian citizens should be concerned about public policy.  One of the most important roles of the Public Witness Office is to provide ways for all Presbyterians to express their concerns to people in government in a timely and effective manner.  Presbyterians can sign up for email alerts, receive educational reports on various issues, or join or "follow" the Office on Facebook, Twitter or YouTube.  To read more about the Public Witness programs and to sign up for email alerts, visit the website at: http://gamc.pcusa.org/ministries/washington