Arlington Church participates ‘beyond the signature’ with CWS Journey for Justice Challenge

By Marcia Sowles

On May 8, Church World Service (CWS) held a webinar titled “Beyond the Signature” to highlight the steps that congregations that signed the Ash Wednesday Declaration can take to advocate for and support refugees and immigrants. The webinar reviewed the actions taken by the US administration against immigrant and refugees and offered suggestions on ways that congregants can respond.

One suggestion from CWS was to join its “Journey for Justice Challenge,” a one-month commitment to walk/run 43.7 miles in recognition of the 43.7 million refugees around the world. The challenge is designed to bring attention to the federal actions that threaten refugees and immigrants and to raise funds to support refugees both here in the US and abroad. The one-month challenge is from May 20 to June 20, which is World Refugee Day.

As a member of Arlington (Va.) Church of the Brethren and a volunteer legal advisor to the Church of the Brethren’s Office of Building and Policy, I was one of the panelists for the webinar. I discussed Arlington Church of Brethren’s plans for participating in the Journey for Justice Challenge.

Our congregation plans to meet the 43.7-mile goal in two ways:

First, on Saturday, June 14, the congregation’s team will walk collectively 43.7 miles along a pubic trail near our church. Each member of our team will walk a share of the 43.7 miles according to his/her ability.

Second, our team members will walk individually over the 30-day period with each member logging their miles, which will be added up for our grand total in the challenge.