Advocate for women’s empowerment embraces her call as a ‘hope-bringer’
Gifts to the Peace & Global Witness Offering help young women like Adriana Soto Acevedo address gender inequality
LOUISVILLE — Standing strong with the great throng of advocates gathered for the world’s largest conference on women earlier this year, Adriana Soto Acevedo hungrily soaked up every experience.
“I was a sponge,” said the 25-year-old, who attended the 69th session of the United Nations’ Commission on the Status of Women at the U.N. headquarters in March. “I went there to absorb and learn.”
Soto Acevedo, who attended CSW69 as a delegate affiliated with Iglesia Presbiteriana en Arecibo in Puerto Rico, the Presbytery of Philadelphia and Princeton Theological Seminary — where she will complete her Master of Divinity and Master of Arts in Christian Education and Formation degrees next year — said she was unprepared for how demanding the gathering would be.
“Whenever I think about ‘advocacy,’ I think of a person sitting or standing and talking about a topic like women’s rights,” she said, “but part of doing that work is informing yourself. I can’t just go out there and talk. I first need to have some informed space to learn about the problems that many women are facing all around the world.”
CSW69 — the U.N.’s largest annual gathering on gender equality and women’s empowerment — gave her just that opportunity.
Attending events on such key themes as cultivating male allyship and improving access to feminine hygiene products, clean water and sanitation facilities, Soto Acevedo received an exhaustive education in only 10 days’ time.
“I learned that while we’ve done a pretty good job of saying how men have failed to include us in equal rights, we have not been very good at including men in our own empowerment as we continue to fight for our own rights,” she said. “I know that feminism is good not only for women, but also for men. When men take on roles that are normally associated with being a woman, it helps and enhances men’s health. It was beautiful to learn that by empowering men, women are being empowered at the same time.”
Having already served the church extensively at the congregational, mid council and national levels — including as a deacon, a Young Adult Advisory Delegate, co-moderator of a Special Committee of the 225th General Assembly (2022) and a member of the Nominating Committee for the General Assembly — Soto Acevedo said she sees herself as a “hope-bringer.”
“Because peace is hard to grasp at the moment, I think that hope is more what we need, because hope is found in the relationships that we make with one another,” she said. “It’s more tangible for me. My goal is to connect with people and find the hope and the humanity in each person that I encounter.”
Bringing hope through acts of solidarity and advocacy is just what the Peace & Global Witness Offering has sought to achieve for more than 40 years. The annual Offering enables Presbyterians of all ages to promote the Peace of Christ by addressing systems of injustice in their communities and across the world.
The annual Offering, which is highlighted during the Season of Peace, Sept. 7–Oct. 5, is traditionally received on World Communion Sunday, which falls this year on Oct. 5.
Peace & Global Witness is unique in that half of the Offering is directed to efforts at the national church level for peacemaking and global witness work around the world — like CSW69 — while 25% is retained by congregations for local peace and reconciliation work, and 25% goes to presbyteries for similar ministries on the regional level.
With a passion for community, social justice and theology, Soto Acevedo has already been able to tackle some of Puerto Rico’s social problems — such as colonialism, sexism, racism, homophobia, poverty and climate change — through both church and secular organizations.
Yet after an event like CSW69, she admitted to the need to take it all in — and, even more importantly, to exercise self-care — before taking further action.
“The older delegates and those who had been there before reminded us to breathe, eat, take care of ourselves and explore New York,” said Soto Acevedo. “They encouraged us to rest because it’s a really important part of the work that we’re doing. So, to have that space where it was women empowering each other but also taking care of one another in the process was very beautiful.”
Soto Acevedo is certain to change the world, although perhaps not right away.
“If you go to an event like CSW69 and realize you’re learning things that are new and you [and you] just go out and say things without researching and processing it all, you’re doing a disservice to the work that you’re hoping to do,” she said. “Now is my time to soak it all in, to preach about CSW when I go back to Puerto Rico, and to meet with our presbytery’s Presbyterian Women, who partially funded my going.”
As did the Peace & Global Witness Offering.
“In this often-hopeless world of lies, our job is to crack little rays of hope by connecting with one another, by learning of the struggles we each go through, and by being there for each other,” she said. “I want to continue to discover the ways I can bring more care to our overworked pastors and our dwindling congregations. By bringing hope, I want to pursue what makes for peace.”
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