In This Month's Issue:
STORIES
Intercultural Training for Mission
The Mission of a Camp Counselor
“Member Mission from Monday – Saturday”
“When the Members are the Missionaries”
“Finding Our Daily Missions” Sermon
Watch Member Mission Presents on YouTube!
YouTube: Have You Seen?
Gloria Helps a South African Province
Be an editor . . .
Rewrite the following comment on General Convention from a newsletter to avoid a possible note of “our club is safe” toward a note of a communion on mission to make the world a more caring and fair place.
“I feel good about the Episcopal Church and believe we have a good future!”
Maybe, “I feel good about the Episcopal Church’s part in God’s mission to make the world a better place!”
How would you do it, would-be editor?
November 2009
Member Mission Newsletter #76
Forming Leaders for Every Member to Be on Mission
(Click here for a printable version)
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STORIES
Intercultural Training for Mission
Thirty-seven people from five Christian communions gathered at La Casa de Maria Retreat and Conference Center, in Montecito, California, to participate in Member Mission training from October 11-16, 2009. Eight professional trainers led the group through a process of questioning, reflecting, and sharing with one another. The trainees were almost equally divided between African-Americans, Asian-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, and Caucasians and included a seminary student from Cameroon and a pastor from Tanzania. The diversity among the trainees was rich and offered beauty, spiritual and intellectual depth, and, perhaps most of all, joy in their time together. It also reminded all of some of the depths of what it means to practice hospitality with all people.
From left to right: Herbert Lester, pastor, Blakemore United Methodist Church, Nashville, TN;
Clemence Leonie Ngijoe-Yanke, student from Cameroon at the Church Divinity School of the Pacific, Berkeley, CA;
Hilario Cisneros, pastor, Diocese of Nevada; Ann L. H. Moczydlowski, a priest in the Diocese of Washington, DC (Hidden—Raggs Ragan, rector, St. James Episcopal Church, Tigard, OR).
From left to right: Amado Yoro, lay leader, St. Paul's Episcopal & Philippine Independent Church, Honolulu, Hawaii;
Zoila Manzanares-Cole, Hispanic Missioner, Christ Church Cathedral (Episcopal), Indianapolis, IN;
Patricia Terry, lay leader, St. Cross Episcopal Church, Hermosa Beach, CA;
Hilario Albert, rector, St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, Port Chester, NY.
Ema, a seventh grade Mexican whose family had just moved into an all Anglo community, was ridiculed on the school bus so much she could not make friends. She told her parents. Her parents kept their cool and advised the principal of Ema’s plight. The principal kept his cool. He told a teachers’ meeting of the situation. Then, he found ways to discuss the situation with all of the students and the parents over the rest of the school year. The next fall, Ema often came home saying, “I made a new friend today, too!” Ema, her parents, the principal, the teachers, the students, and their parents – all were part of God’s work of care and justice whether they knew it or not.
The Mission of a Camp Counselor
Last summer after her second year of college, Bea worked at a summer camp. She made sure the kids in her cabin were safe and got to where they should go. During the day, she led activities for groups ranging from 4-9, to teens, to those with special needs. She, also, took her turn as a lifeguard.
Where did you see God in your work?
God was in the little things during the day: helping a camper in difficulty; seeing them help each other; issues were prayed about and then talked about; and Compline or a Taize form ended each day.
How did God help you in your work?
God gave me more patience. I sensed God walking beside me during the day. When problems arose, I felt closer than ever. God helped me to have fun with the kids as well as to run drills for emergencies. My favorite time was Christian education when “games” based on favorite foods helped us to talk about how to relate to God – we are marshmallows shaped by what is around us; God (graham crackers) and friends (chocolate).
God’s Green Market – a Church’s Mission
Low-income Port Chester, NY lies between two wealthy communities – Rye, NY and Greenwich, CT. Its people need free access to vegetables. St. Peter’s responds by sponsoring God’s Green Market. They pick up the vegetables from the local Council of Community Services and give them away at their church weekly from July 1 to September. They do the same monthly during the rest of the year through God’ Green Thumb at the church. The vegetables are grown on the farm of a priest who receives help in labor and funds from St. Peter’s. The people who come have only one cost – one $5 payment for a bag to use over and over thereby avoiding the waste of plastic or paper bags. St. Peter’s also works with a medical group to offer services like blood pressure readings monthly. St. Peter’s belongs to the Council and its rector, the Rev. Hilario Albert, serves as one of its directors.
Contact: The Rev. Hilario Albert; machoh@aol.com; 914-939-1244
RESOURCES
Newsletters:
“Member Mission from Monday – Saturday” – from the 11/09 newsletter of Christ the Lord Episcopal Church, Pinole, CA; The Rev. Susan Champion, vicar; after her participation in a Member Mission Leadership Institute, 10/11-16/09. (Click here to read more.)
“When the Members are the Missionaries” – from the 11/01/09 edition of St. John’s Parish Newsweek of St. John's Episcopal Church, Clayton, CA; The Rev. Peter Champion, rector; about his participation in a Member Mission Leadership Institute, 10/11-16/09. (Click here to read more.)
Sermon:
“Finding Our Daily Missions” – The Rev. A. Wayne Schwab; Old Donation Episcopal Church, Virginia Beach, VA; Pentecost 16, 2009 – Proverbs 31:10-31; Psalm 1; James 3:13-4:3, 7-8a; Mark 9:30-37 (Click here to read the sermon.)
Member Mission Leadership Training Institute – Trainers’ Manual – 10/11-16/09 – a few extra copies are available for leaders who want to explore how to train the members in their daily arenas as today’s primary missionaries; those with skills in process and experiential learning will be able to adapt the sessions to their unique situations. Request from membermission@aol.com; $15 includes shipping.
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FOR MEDITATION
Andrew Bacevich, a retired colonel and now professor on international relations at Boston University, reflects on our over-reliance on the use of military solutions to issues of foreign policy. In The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism, this “soldiers soldier” for 20 years in the US Army, writes: “We believe we can have whatever we desire without personal sacrifice.” We assume our political leaders “will take any means necessary – probably military – to ensure [we] live happy consumer-driven lives.”
We do not need the right president so much as we need a new citizenry. “As citizens of a free society we need to evaluate our values more consciously. . . Thinking we are free, we can succumb to a form of totalitarianism, being slaves to appetites and urges that are not connected to a larger purpose.” Bacevich affirms theologian Reinhold Niebuhr's social critique that democracy exists as much to constrain as to liberate: “Man’s capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man’s capacity for injustice makes democracy necessary.” [From The Christian Century, 8/11/09. pp. 26-29]
A challenge: Will our opinions, our conversation, our letters-to-the-editor, and our voting express allegiance to the larger purposes of peace and justice for all?
YouTube Brings You Members on Mission
Watch our newest Member Mission Presents video:
Click the link above to watch this story and learn more about the personal impact of Member Mission.
Watch Member Mission Presents on YouTube!
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God is most interested in how we live from Monday to Saturday.
Sunday – all of church life – helps us to do it better.