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Better Together

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Better Together provides a space to share experiences with – and strategies for engaging – three critical global issues that PC(USA) global partners are challenging us to address together as the body of Christ.  These three issues are 1) addressing root causes of poverty, especially as it impacts women and children; 2) sharing the Good News of God’s love in Jesus Christ; and 3) working for reconciliation in cultures of violence, including our own.  The purpose of Better Together is to feed a conversation to shape concrete action strategies at the October 2012 “Dallas II: Better Together” consultation and beyond. 

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Posts with tag: poverty

October 9, 2012

Unity, Justice, and Witness

These were the questions of earlier generations, and they are also our questions today. In time, ecumenical Christians came to believe that “we belong together,” and that unity, justice, and witness are streams of the same river...

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October 6, 2012

Breaking the bonds of poverty

Both Dessa and Cobbie Palm, mission co-workers to the Philippines, were born there as well. In her keynote at Dallas II Friday, she spoke about how the Filipino word “kapwa” literally means “fellow human being,” but actually bears a more profound moral kinship. Kapwa informs the way Christians should treat one another.

Dessa spoke about how, in the 1930s, an accord was signed by the U.S. and the Philippines on sugar trading, engraving the Filipino economy in a triple dependency: on monocrop culture, on sugar trading and industry, and on the U.S. as a single market. Fifty years later, the …

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October 3, 2012

Better Together? Indeed We Are!

Seeing the crisis of contaminated water, Living Waters for the World jumped off into the deep end. One of our earliest discoveries was ‘clean water is medicine.’ We’ve seen what happens when a community is empowered, taking charge of their own clean water needs, then one of the ‘root causes’ of poverty begins to loosen its grip.

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October 1, 2012

Pastors Ministering In the Midst of Poverty

There is great potential for growth in the church in Congo. Training and empowering pastors to minister well to their people in this environment of significant material poverty is a challenge.

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September 24, 2012

What Good Is A New House?

Presbyterians from our Presbytery show up for a week at a time to walk alongside, offer our support, and get to know the family who is receiving the new home.

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September 17, 2012

Addressing Poverty through Partnership

In July 2012 we sent down a CKD “Research Team” that was not a team of experts but rather people who had a heart for this issue and wanted to learn more. This ended up being a real strength...

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September 6, 2012

A Holistic Understanding of Effective Mission

Rebecca Barnes-Davies, PC(USA) Associate for Environmental Ministries, offers up some helpful resources on ways in which environmental degradation impacts women and children, poverty, and increased violence in communities.

In 1990, the PC(USA) adopted a policy that emphasizes justice, sufficiency, and sustainability priniciples. It can be read here.

Resource on children's health and the environment: Read more.

Resources from the National Council of Churches Eco-Justice Programs

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August 27, 2012

Rethinking the term "Success"

As the PCUSA focuses its efforts on poverty reduction, a question needs to be asked: What is poverty?

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July 30, 2012

Addressing the Structural Causes of Spiritual Poverty

Clotilde Loza reflects on supporting women in Bolivia as they strive to rise out of a system of inequality.

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July 4, 2012

Dallas II - Part 1: background for the consultation from Presbyterian World Mission

For the past two years Presbyterian World Mission (PWM) has been undergoing a process of strategic planning in light of the changing circumstances in the world and of new developments within our own denomination. In the course of its research and deliberations, PWM has decided to narrow its mission focus to three critical global issues, which can be summarized as addressing poverty, engaging in witness, and working for reconciliation in cultures of violence. It has also concluded that for maximum effectiveness its work should be done in collaboration with the broader Presbyterian family...

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