After trying to organize Disciples clergy to participate in the Standing Rock March in Washington, D.C, last spring, Rev. Laurie Feille, with the help and blessing of the Upper Midwest Region created Disciples Public Presence. Months after the Standing Rock March, we heard from clergy and laity across the country that if they had known about the March they would have attended. We realized then that we did not have a broad base way to get the word out about justice and advocacy issues. We created a Facebook group in April 2017 and in June we named the group Disciples Public Presence. During General Assembly we opened the group to Disciples beyond the Upper Midwest Region.
Today we have an advocacy platform that allows us to send action alerts and contact our elected officials. We have posts on a variety of justice issues and we have over 700 members. Our Facebook group is a place to promote marches, rallies, letter writing campaigns and other opportunities for advocacy from across the country. It is a gathering place to discover Disciples who are engaged in justice work and to learn about the issues that impact our communities. We also highlight the important outreach efforts that many of our churches engage in as ways to have a Disciples Public Presence. We believe that a Disciples Public Presence is needed in this world and want to make it easy for Disciples across the country to engage in the opportunities in a variety of ways.