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In the month of March, the World Council of Churches is encouraging its fellowship and partners to join the Lott Carey “31 Days of Prayer for Women’s Empowerment,” which is also the 9th Anniversary Global Women’s Prayer Guide. The guide features 31 days of prayer for incarcerated women and girls around the world.

In a video released on 22 October, Elizabeth Eaton, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and Susan Johnson, national bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, are promoting awareness of domestic violence and offering support.

More than 1,000 attendees at the 15th Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Churchwide Assembly have formally endorsed the Thursdays in Black campaign for a world free from rape and violence.

Evelyn L. Parker, a member of the WCC Commission of the Churches on International Affairs, has been selected for a 2019-20 Fulbright U.S. Scholar grant.

World Council of Churches (WCC) representatives involved in the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women say its outcomes reflect many of the pressures affecting efforts towards gender equality globally and call for churches to be active agents for justice in the lead-up to a critical UN review in 2020.

At the swimming pool in Maxine Ankrah’s home town when she was growing up, there was a sign that stated, “Whites Only.” Also, churches there were separated by colour. She did not grow up in apartheid South Africa, but in the “deep South” of the United States of America before the Second World War.

Ending racism both in the USA and worldwide will require reexamining history - or even learning it for the first time - taking stock of the present, and changing our laws and ultimately our behavior, said Lisa Sharon Harper, founder and president of Freedom Road, a consulting group that helps communities strengthen their capacity to build a just world.

Dr Ulysses Burley III is serving as a WCC delegate to the 62nd Commission on the Status of Women at the United Nations in New York City (CSW62), being held 12-23 March. Dr Burley, from Chicago, is a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. He currently serves on the WCC-Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance HIV Access to Treatment Working Group.

As the 62nd session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSWS62) was underway this week in New York City, Rev. Canon Terrie Robinson encouraged faith leaders to see their positive role in speaking out for gender justice in their communities.

Traveling from Tanzania, Esther Ngulwa brought a sense of hope regarding gender equality as she spoke on 10 March, two days before the start of the 62nd Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW62) in New York City.

Bishop Mary Ann Swenson has a unique position in observing and advocating for women’s rights or, as she would quickly clarify, “the fair treatment of human beings” no matter what their gender. As bishop-in-residence at the Hollywood United Methodist Church, she ministers to church members who were not only present at this week’s Golden Globe Awards – they were the nominees. And, as vice-moderator of the WCC Central Committee, she is part of a global parish, traveling to communities far removed from the privilege of Hollywood, where violence occurs against women who are seen by their own communities as having no voice and no rights.

Douglas Leonard, from the Reformed Church in America (RCA), was announced as the new coordinator of the Ecumenical United Nations Office (EUNO), a joint working space of the World Council of Churches (WCC) and ACT Alliance, in New York.

The Racial Justice Accompaniment Visit to the USA is a continuation of the WCC’s long history of racial justice work. As part of the Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace, the WCC wishes to listen to and express support for people and churches in the USA, and to encourage the efforts of member churches and ecumenical partners in the US, as well as other justice-seeking movements on these issues.

The 60th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women had “the elimination and prevention of all forms of violence against women and girls” as its review theme.

The United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) is taking a new turn in its 60th Session by relating its goals to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).

An American mission agency is inviting people worldwide to pray for women throughout the month of March. The Lott Carey Global Prayer Partnership for women’s empowerment has gathered 31 prayers from its international mission partners and Americans that it hopes will inspire acts of support for women’s concerns.

The United States-based organization “Black Methodist United” has released three documents to help churches and communities confront racism by taking deliberate action.

A gender advisory group representing member churches of the WCC has begun working by developing procedures and policies to help the WCC in accomplishing gender justice in institutions, communities and societies – an objective lying at the core of its vision of a “pilgrimage of gender justice”.

Religion is a double-edged sword for women healing from violence and trauma, yet they find their way out of pain in amazing ways, say two scholars whose work investigates and analyses this.