Washington, D.C. Office

Also known as the Office of Pub­lic Wit­ness, our Wash­ing­ton D.C., Office is the pub­lic pol­icy infor­ma­tion and advo­cacy arm of the Gen­eral Assem­bly of the Pres­by­ter­ian Church (U.S.A.). Its task is to advo­cate, and help the church to advo­cate, the social wit­ness per­spec­tives and poli­cies of the Pres­by­ter­ian Gen­eral Assem­bly. The church has a long his­tory of apply­ing these bib­li­cally and theologically-based insights to issues that affect the pub­lic — main­tain­ing a pub­lic pol­icy min­istry in the nation’s cap­i­tal since 1946.

Reformed the­ol­ogy teaches that because a sov­er­eign God is at work in all the world, the church and Chris­t­ian cit­i­zens should be con­cerned about pub­lic pol­icy. In addi­tion, Pres­by­ter­ian fore­fa­ther John Calvin wrote, “Civil mag­is­tery is a call­ing not only holy and legit­i­mate, but by far the most sacred and hon­or­able in human life.”

A pres­ence in Wash­ing­ton, D.C.
Min­istry in Wash­ing­ton offers a chance to trans­late the church’s deep con­vic­tions about jus­tice, peace and free­dom from words into real­ity. The polit­i­cal process is where deci­sions are made that help or harm peo­ple; deci­sions that help to make the kind of world God intends.

Office of Pub­lic Wit­ness staff mem­bers visit national policy-makers and their staff, write let­ters, make phone calls and occa­sion­ally tes­tify before Con­gress or facil­i­tate the tes­ti­mony of church lead­ers. This involve­ment helps to clar­ify the moral and eth­i­cal issues at stake in pub­lic pol­icy. The goal is to make clear to peo­ple in gov­ern­ment what the Gen­eral Assem­bly is con­cerned about, why, and what can be done to respond to those concerns.

By adopt­ing a study enti­tled, “Why and How the Church Makes a Social Pol­icy Wit­ness”, the 205th Gen­eral Assem­bly (1993) empha­sized the impor­tance of the church’s social wit­ness poli­cies and pro­grams. Along with affirm­ing that God alone is Lord of the con­science, the study affirms “the respon­si­bil­ity and author­ity of the church to make a social wit­ness pol­icy which guides that wit­ness. The church, if it is to remain true to its bib­li­cal roots, the­o­log­i­cal her­itage, and con­tem­po­rary prac­tice, must not fall silent. It must speak faith­fully, truth­fully, per­sua­sively, humbly, boldly and urgently.”

Over 60 Years …
In 1936, the for­mer United Pres­by­ter­ian Church in the USA devel­oped the Depart­ment of Social Edu­ca­tion and Action. Pres­by­te­ri­ans have always been known as polit­i­cal advo­cates; how­ever this new Depart­ment cre­ated the first orga­nized national effort. Know­ing the value of Wash­ing­ton rep­re­sen­ta­tion, the Depart­ment hired Fern Col­born in 1946 to main­tain an office and a sec­re­tary on Eleventh St. NW in Wash­ing­ton, DC. This became the first Pres­by­ter­ian Wash­ing­ton Office. Since then, the Wash­ing­ton Office has been led by sev­eral direc­tors and many ded­i­cated issue staff.

Make a Dif­fer­ence … Enroll as a Pres­by­ter­ian Advo­cate!
An impor­tant part of the Office of Pub­lic Wit­ness min­istry is to pro­vide ways for all Pres­by­te­ri­ans to express their con­cerns to peo­ple in gov­ern­ment in a timely and effec­tive man­ner. Toward this end, Pres­by­te­ri­ans can join the Wit­ness in Wash­ing­ton Weekly (WiWW) pro­gram of pub­lic pol­icy advo­cacy. Once sub­scribed to WiWW, Pres­by­te­ri­ans will receive a weekly email mes­sage on issues in Wash­ing­ton. Par­tic­i­pants receive action bul­letins, spe­cial action alerts, the­o­log­i­cal and Gen­eral Assem­bly guid­ance, and the bimonthly Wash­ing­ton Report to Pres­by­te­ri­ans. When some­one makes a per­sonal com­mit­ment to WiWW, he/she joins with many other Pres­by­te­ri­ans work­ing to seek jus­tice and peace in our nation and world. To sub­scribe to either WiWW the weekly mes­sage or the online ver­sion of the bi-monthly Report to Pres­by­te­ri­ans from Wash­ing­ton, visit our sub­scrip­tion page.

What Does Scrip­ture Say About Jus­tice?
Through­out the Bible, scrip­ture reveals God’s will to do jus­tice. The Hebrew prophets con­tin­u­ally remind God’s peo­ple “…What does the Lord require of you but to do jus­tice, and to love kind­ness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8). The prophets give spe­cific warn­ing to those who seek only their own well-being and ignore the well-being of the mar­gin­al­ized and oppressed. Israel’s fail­ure to be just and right­eous is clearly seen as dis­obe­di­ent to God and the rea­son for national decay and destruction.

Jesus fre­quently wit­nessed to the pri­or­ity of the poor in the reign of God. He chal­lenged the rich young ruler, he sharply crit­i­cized the hard-heartedness of reli­gious lead­ers, and he taught that those who reached out to mar­gin­al­ized per­sons were serv­ing him (Luke 18:18–25, Matthew 19:16–24 and Luke 10:25–37). In addi­tion, Christ speaks of the account­abil­ity of nations to do jus­tice in Matthew 25 and states, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are mem­bers of my fam­ily, you did it to me.”

Visit the D.C. Office website.