Northwest

Ignatian advocacy summit

About

The Northwest Ignatian Advocacy Summit will bring together Jesuit students, parishioners, priests and other leaders to use the power of our collective voices to put our faith into action. 

Held from February 27, 28, and March 1, 2025 at Seattle University, the event will focus on standing with Native peoples in collaboration on care for common home. Built around the pastoral cycle, it will include direct encounter with creation and those being most impacted by climate change, social and pastoral analysis, skill training and direct collective action with public officials.

Students: Participating students will engage in 3 days of relationship building, formation and common prayer culminating in a collective action on held Saturday morning. Details and Registration Here.

Adults: Parishioners and community members are invited to join students for evening programming and the Saturday townhall, including:

  • Thursday Evening: Covenant of the Salmon People Film Screening Film Screening and discussion with the film makers.

  • Friday Evening:

    • Dinner for Parish Social Ministry Leaders

    • Intergenerational Conversation on Faith and Justice with Jesuit students, JVs and more

  • Saturday Morning Public Witness on Salmon Watershed Protection and Native Leadership

Details on adult programming and registration here.

What?

The Northwest Ignatian Advocacy Summit will bring together Jesuit students, parishioners, priests and other leaders to put our faith into action.  Held from February 22 - 25 2024 at Seattle University, the event will feature voices and speakers highlighting the experiences of those in the West. The three days would invite participants a format of 1) Day One: local immersion and experience; 2) Day Two: Analysis; and 3) Day Three: Collaborative Direct Action.

Objectives:

  • Develop educational practices, workshops and keynotes that invite students to take lead in discerning, planning, and taking advocacy steps that center on the circumstance, need, and reality of those whose political power is diminished in our local communities in the West.  

  • Situate the unique history and practice of Ignatian Advocacy as a means of cooperation and collaboration in our region by galvanizing collective impact in response to the plight of the marginalized.

  • Provide an example of collaboration that propels students to think of their place within a wider network of faith and justice engagement beyond their institution.

  • Train, establish and animate advocacy praxis in which participants engage with their local political powers in solidarity with those in need.

Who?

The event is organized by:

  • Jesuits West

  • Seattle University

  • The Intercommunity Peace and Justice Center

  • Gonzaga University

  • Jesuit High School, Portland

  • Seattle Prep

  • Jesuit Volunteer Corps Northwest

  • St. Joseph Parish Seattle

  • Gonzaga Prep, Spokane

  • Bellarmine Prep, Tacoma

This program will be led by secondary and university students in schools in the Jesuits West Province along with Jesuit Volunteers who will serve as intergenerational facilitators.

Parishioners, Jesuits, spirituality center members and other adult Ignatian leaders are invited to participate! Students will be reaching out to local Jesuit works in the fall to set up intergenerational dialogue in preparation for the summit and adults are invited to summit programming Thursday evening through Saturday morning. There will also be a variety of ways for your institution to get involved in your local area before and after the event itself. Contact Luke Lavin at Seattle University to help set up a dialogue in your region or to get more involved. LLavin @ SeattleU.org

The event is appropriate for all Jesuit school students regardless of previous experience in justice work! It will hopefully be a great first step into advocacy work.


Event Schedule from 2024

February 22nd

  • 12pm -1pm Registration & Lunch & Opening Prayer

  • 1:00pm - 2:30pm Large Group Workshop: Identity Development - Who are we, what is bringing us here? 

  • 2:30pm - 3:00pm Break

  • 3:00pm- 4:45pm Large Group Workshop: Storytelling

  • 4:45pm Transition to Dinner 

  • 5:00pm-6:00pm - Dinner Large Group 

  • 6:15pm - 8:00pm  Covenant of the Salmon People - Movie showing and Q & A


Friday, February 23rd - Seattle U

REFLECTION

  • 8:30am - Light Breakfast Fare Served (LeRoux, STCN 160) 

  • 9:00am - Welcome back, grounding for the day, opening prayer? Relational exercise? (LeRoux, STCN 160)

  • 9:30am - 12pm: Large Group Workshop - Historical/Social Analysis: Root Causes & Power Map of Issue (LeRoux, STCN 160)

  • 12:00 pm - Lunch / Break 

  • 1:30pm-3:30pm Taking Action 

    • Advocacy Meetings

    • Town Hall Prep

    • Sustainability on Campus- Tacoma Bellarmine - Field Trip (Tacoma, WA) - Mary

  • 3:30pm-5:00pm Break

  • 5:00pm-6:00pm Youth Dinner and Reflection on the Day

  • 5:15pm-6:30pm Parish Leader Dinner

    • Are there resources IPJC can share in that space

    • What action items can adults take coming out of this

    • Focusing on how we empower directly impacted voices: Indigenous folks and youth.

  • 6:30pm-8:00pm Intergenerational Conversation


Saturday, February 24th

  • 8:30 Light Breakfast Fare Served (STCN 160)

  • 9:00 am - Town Hall Prep - Framing, Context, and Plan (STCN 160) 

  • 10:00 am - TOWN HALL: Environmental Justice -  Dam Removal - Congressional Delegation from WA (STCN 160(

  • 11:30 am - Reflection and Closing Ritual (Chapel)

  • Light snacks provided for folx headed out 



Day 3:  Mass Public Action / Public Witness