Baptist Advocacy Update November 2025

To love God with not just our hearts and souls, but also with our minds, we encourage any opportunity to grow in our understanding. For the month of November, I encourage you to look at two important initiatives that our wider Baptist family are championing – initiatives that will help you and your church families stay informed, educated, and empowered to make a difference.

 

Ethical Fashion – Ending Worker Exploitation

The first is to share Baptist World Aid’s brand new podcast Behind the Barcode, from our colleagues Hannah and Kat from the Ethical Fashion team.

Baptist World Aid have regularly published Ethical Fashion reports and guides to give Australian consumers information on how their favourite brands rank on critical issues like worker exploitation, sustainability, wages and human rights abuses. While previous editions of the Ethical Fashion Report (now in its 10th edition) have highlighted progress in this space, the rise of ultra-fast fashion brands present new challenges. The textiles industry remains a hotbed for worker exploration and environmental damage, and those who are looking to make a difference may not know where to start.

Complementing the team’s existing efforts in advocacy and education, Behind the Barcode blends thoughtful discussions and expert interviews to challenge and equip all listeners to make a difference.

For those looking to engage more with ethical fashion;

• Listen to all 6 episodes of Behind the Barcode on Youtube, Spotify, Apple or wherever you get your podcasts by following the link here.
• Speak out to your MP now by following the link here.
• Give here via the BWAA Swaptober website to support the work of the Ethical Fashion team, or here to direct your funds to where they are most needed.

 

Stand with Myanmar

Our second update is that our wider Baptist Family are hard at work sharing the Stand with Myanmar campaign, and we will be facilitating a critical time of sharing and fellowship on November 22.

Regular eNews readers will know of the humanitarian crisis in Myanmar at the hands of their own government. Since the military coup in 2021, thousands have been killed, over 20,000 are imprisoned and over 3 million are internally displaced. The devastating cuts to aid stemming from the dismantling of USAID has left 85% of the refugee camps on the Thai border without adequate medical supplies.

To address this problem, delegates from Baptist churches across the country, including from the Burmese diaspora, gathered in Canberra from October 27-29 to bring this urgent matter to the attention of the Federal Parliament, and to petition the Australian government to provide funds, enact sanctions and secure further humanitarian visas.

For those who want to hear more about Myanmar, join in prayer and hear about our delegates’time in Canberra, we would encourage you to attend and promote our Stand with Myanmar event on November 22, Saturday at Mount Pleasant Baptist Church. Presentations from various churches and leaders across the Burmese diaspora in WA. Speakers will include those with longstanding advocacy for Myanmar, including Rev. Tim Costello, Senator Dean Smith, and BCWA’s own Pastor Cung Uk Lal. The event is free with registrations via this link. We would love to see you there.

And as always, please consider supporting the work that Baptist World Aid and Baptist Mission Australia are doing in Myanmar through a financial donation.

As we seek to grow in our understanding of God, and as we pursue justice in God’s name, please keep those affected by worker exploitation and the violence in Myanmar in your prayers.