By Yeo Jin Yun

The keyword that hooked me to participate in Ecumenical Advocacy Days (EAD) the first time around was the word Advocacy.  As a Peace and Conflicts Studies and Asian Studies double major looking forward to graduation, I knew that the advocacy world could be a potential career path for me, and I excitedly said yes to Ecumenical Advocacy Days.  Not only would the EAD programming provide the necessary education so I knew what to advocate around, but it would also provide me with a basic 101 on advocacy and lobbying.  Unfortunately, my small college group had to skip the final lobby day due to our school schedule.  It was an anticlimactic end to my EAD experience, but it planted a seed for my interest in advocacy work.

Six years later, I’ve been serving as a Global Mission Fellow US-2 at MFSA, an organization dedicated to the work of advocacy, and this past spring, I was able to have my second round participating in Ecumenical Advocacy Days.  Due to the pandemic, this year’s event was all virtual.  Initially concerned about spending four days on a platform similar to zoom, I was pleasantly surprised by my overall positive experience.  As a shy person, having intentional virtual meeting rooms for folks to connect and work together was a blessing.

There was a time for denominations to gather together, and I was able to have conversations, albeit short, with other United Methodists who have been doing the work of advocacy and specifically the work surrounding climate justice, the 2021 EAD theme.  Hearing from other folks and their years long, sometimes decades long, work surrounding climate justice was not only encouraging but was also a moment of recognizing the responsibility I hold to continue the work.  My brain immediately went to Hebrews 12 and being surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses and our call to run with perseverance the race set before us.

In addition to hearing the stories and learning from other United Methodists, I was able to meet several times with the Michigan lobby group.  As I shared before, I hadn’t been able to participate in the lobby day from my first time at EAD, and I was nervous to open the virtual meeting room doors of the Michigan lobby group.  Upon clicking on the link, I was met with smiling faces and welcome from Lutheran, Catholics, and Mennonites.  Besides one other person and myself, everyone had had experience prior to this year’s EAD lobbying.  I felt like an amateur and unqualified to be part of the group, but as we began planning and strategizing our meetings with the staff people for US Senators Debbie Stabenow and Gary Peters, I was energized by the synergy from the teamwork and felt assurance.  Though we ended up only being able to connect with one of the offices and recorded our talking points to send to the other office, the experience connecting and collaborating with the Michiganders to advocate on behalf of climate justice was invaluable.

I’d like to believe that the small seed that was planted during my first EAD has grown several, deep, anchoring roots in the soil made up from the encouragement and examples of fellow justice-seekers, the power of collaboration and coalition work, and the conviction to seek and speak truth to power.  Out of all the roots, perhaps the most central and important one that I’ve recognized is the call to put faith into action.   As a hopeful future seedling, I know I have much to learn and grow as one of God’s advocates in the Church and the world, and this past EAD has reconfirmed and cemented my belief and faith that advocacy is an integral and necessary part of our lives as Christians: faith requires action and the work of advocacy.  For Christians, the work of advocacy isn’t an option or something to add on as an extra like guac; the work of advocacy is a pre-requisite to love as God loves.

Ecumenical Advocacy Days (EAD) 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,” and the goal of EAD is that “worship, theological reflection and opportunities for learning and witness” will “strengthen our Christian voice” and “mobilize for advocacy on a wide variety of U.S. domestic and international policy issues.”  Learn more about Ecumenical Advocacy Days and connect with your MFSA chapter for opportunities to advocate, educate, and raise awareness on the injustices impacting our world and church today.