– September 4, 2013 –

WASHINGTON – Ecumenical Advocacy Days (EAD) announced today the theme for its 12th annual national gathering in Washington, D.C. on March 21-24, 2014. On the heels of 50th Anniversary of The March on Washington, EAD’s theme, Jesus Weeps: Resisting Violence, Building Peace, will guide the weekend event of nearly 1,000 Christian advocates by the image of Jesus weeping over a capital city that turned from the true way of peace (Luke 19:41-42). The annual event will be held at the DoubleTree Crystal City Hotel, just across The Potomac River from Capitol Hill, and at The Church of the Reformation, on Capitol Hill. Registration is now open through EAD’s website.

“Through prayer, worship, speakers, and advocacy training, EAD participants will discover a faith-based vision for national policies that ‘guide our feet into the path of peace,’” said Douglas Grace, director of Ecumenical Advocacy Days. Participants will explore Resisting Violence, Building Peace during plenary sessions, luncheons, denominational gatherings, a banquet dinner and through more than fifty issue specific workshops. “We will confront and imagine how to transform the violence in our world, and together, EAD participants will take a unified and coordinated message of justice, hope and peace to meetings with their Senators and Representatives on Capitol Hill during Monday’s Congressional Lobby Day.”

The EAD 2014 theme description highlights several troubling “violent” statistics that will be engaged during the March 2014 national gathering:

• Nearly 3,000 children in the U.S. killed by guns each year;
• A quarter of U.S. women experiencing domestic abuse at some point in their lives;
• A decade of war, nearly 1,000 civilians killed by drones, and Pentagon spending dominating our federal budget over poverty protections, healthy job creation, economic revitalization and true international human security;
• More than 45 million people worldwide uprooted from their homes by persecution and armed conflict; and
• Deadly conflicts over natural resources erupting around the world.

However, the description counters, “As people of hope, we are consoled by the promise that ‘justice and peace shall embrace’ (Psalm 85:10), and are reminded that justice requires peace-making and that peace requires justice-making.” Grace noted, “Seeking and advocating for global peace through justice is at the heart of who EAD is and what EAD 2014 will attempt to accomplish.”

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Ecumenical Advocacy Days is a movement of the ecumenical Christian community, and its recognized partners and allies, grounded in biblical witness and our shared traditions of justice, peace and the integrity of creation. Through a high-impact national gathering weekend, EAD’s goal is to strengthen the Christian voice and to mobilize for advocacy on specific U.S. domestic and international policy issues.