Member Mission Newsletter #43 – Wider World Missions
November 2006
Election day just passed surely highlighted the mission field of the wider world for each of us.
With the pressures off, here are some resources for in-depth reflection on the wider world – conditions in the society,
culture, economy, or government of our county, state, nation, or world or the environment.
This month
A WIDER WORLD STORY
• One way to explore wider world issues
SOME WIDER WORLD RESOURCES
• Christian Principles in an Election Year [for post-election study]
• “America 101" – a presentation by Bill Moyers
A WIDER WORLD MEDITATION
• A Franciscan Blessing
SOME MORE STORIES
• A family agrees on a church home
• Mission statements for church groups
• Missions discerned – ongoing support started
A WIDER WORLD STORY
One way to explore wider world issues
At St. Mark’s, Milwaukee, WI, Janet Martin uses the set of four DVD’s from Trinity Institute’s “Anatomy of Reconciliation Conference” held January 2006 to open discussion on national and worldwide issues. This Fall, a group meeting Wednesdays for adult formation – “Wednesday Witness” – is working on four units of three sessions each built around each of the presentations. Supper is followed by the evening session. A first session listens to a presentation. Since the theologians are quite heavy, a movie on the theme forms the second session. A third session is given to reflection on the theme. Some 15 - 20 participate on average. Janet is careful to invite people to the sessions whom she knows will be interested in a particular topic. The “curriculum” looks like this.
• Sister Helen Prejean works on capital punishment in her presentation. This connects with a constitutional amendment on the death penalty on the November ballot. The second session views “Dead Man Walking.” The third session is given to reflection in small groups.
• Miroslav Volf’s presentation on forgiveness and nonviolence will lead to viewing the movie, “Munich.”
• James Alison, a Roman Catholic priest, discusses his relationship with the church as a person who is homosexual. The movie to follow is HBO’s “The Laramie Project” in which citizens are interviewed as to how their community could be one in which a homosexual young man could be beaten to death.
• Gwendolyn Zoharah Simmons reflects on her long history in civil rights, human rights, and peace work. The movie to follow is “Malcolm X.”
The next study cycle will probably be based on Desmond Tutu’s book, No Future Without Forgiveness.
For the DVD’s of the Trinity Institute, go to http://www.trinitywallstreet.org/institute/content/conference/2006/2006_Media_Order_Form.pdf; cost $95.95. For more information on the Trinity Institute of 2006 itself, go to http://www.trinitywallstreet.org/institute/?webcast
Contact: Janet Martin, 2727 E. Belleview Place, Milwaukee, MI 53211; 414-961-2465; crablake@sbcglobal.net
SOME WIDER WORLD RESOURCES
Christian Principles in an Election Year [for post-election study] – “The National Council of Churches USA has released 10 principles for evaluating candidates that it hopes all Christians – from liberals to conservatives – will study and apply in this election year. . . ” With the results in, we all need to be part of discussion groups and one-to-one conversations on where we go from here. The NCC writes: “Our Christian faith compels us to address the world through the lens of our relationship to God and to one another. Public discourse is enhanced as we engage civic leaders on the values and ethics affirmed by our faith. At the same time, religious liberty and the integrity of our democracy will be protected as candidates refrain from using faith-based organizations and institutions for partisan gain. We offer these ten principles to those seeking to accept the responsibility that comes with holding public office.” For these ten principles, go to http://www.ncccusa.org/news/04christianprinciplesstory.html; and for a PDF copy, go to http://www.ncccusa.org/electionyearprinciplesguide.html
“America 101" – a presentation by Bill Moyers, president of the Schumann Center for Media and Democracy, veteran journalist, and former staff person for President Clinton; to the Council of Great City Schools, an organization of the nation’s largest urban public school systems; October 27, 2006 in San Diego, CA. Allowing for his bias, he cited central issues for the USA at all levels of public life that can make for informed and lively group discussion. The full text is available at http://www.tompaine.com/print/america_101.php. His theme is loss of the social contract from the Constitution’s “We the people . . . ” saying that the nation is meant to be a shared project, not a country where the “winner takes all.” A sample follows:
• education – public schools are underfunded and still segregated;
• power grid – maintenance is down and blackouts threaten;
• internet – our broadband speed is down from 4th to 12th among nations;
• public sector spending – decline of 38% from 1980 to 1999;
• federal debt – if current practices continue, debt will rise from $8.5 to $46 trillion in the next few decades;
• isolated leaders – gated communities with private security patrols isolate leaders from the rest of society; and the
• income gap – J. P. Morgan said bosses should get only 20 times more than their workers; today’s CEOs earn 262 times what the average worker gets.
He comments: “What these 30 years of redistributing wealth upward have done to America is documented in a growing literature on inequality and its social consequences. But the spiritual costs – lost moral confidence in democracy, failing empathy, growing distrust and division – may be greater. . . [So, teachers of urban schools] Teach your kids they don’t have to accept what they have been handed. Teach them they are not only equal citizens under the law, but equal sons and daughters – heirs, everyone – of that revolution, and that it is their right to claim it as their own. . . They are waiting for this message; the kids in your schools have been made to feel as victims, powerless, ashamed, inferior, and disenfranchised. Tell them it’s a great big lie – despite their poverty, circumstance, and the long odds they’ve been handed, they have the power to make the world over again, in their image.”
A WIDER WORLD MEDITATION
A Franciscan Blessing:
May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half truths, and superficial relationships, so that you may live deep within your heart.
May God bless you with anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that you may work for justice, freedom, and peace.
May God bless you with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation, and war, so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and to turn their pain into joy.
And may God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in this world, so that you can do what others claim cannot be done. Amen
SOME MORE STORIES
A family agrees on a church home
When the Rice’s left Trinity Church and Plattsburgh, NY to move 49 miles to Saranac Lake in 2004, Emily, then a sixth grader, was quite disappointed to leave her friends behind. In time, her expressions of disappointment quieted. A year later, a strong opponent of homosexuality announced a visit to Plattsburgh to protest the city’s gay mayor. The Rice’s came back to Plattsburgh for a weekend to join a demonstration in support of all homosexual people. They returned to Trinity for worship that Sunday. As Jim puts it, “That Sunday was for us a wonderful experience of what a family the congregation is and how worshipful, yet informal, the atmosphere is without being particularly uptight about who’s genuflecting or what prayer might be skipped in the liturgy.” So all three, Emily, Laura, and Jim, decided to make the hour-long drive to Trinity every Sunday. Enthusiasm for Sunday worship has returned and so has the sense of being sustained for the week ahead. Emily is happy to have returned to her “church home;” is an acolyte; is part of the Sunday School; and is eager to make the trip every Sunday. Incidentally, much earlier, at three, Emily had clung to her dearly loved grandfather’s leg as he preached at a family reunion. Returning home, she asked to go to church and that moved Laura and Jim, not church members at the time, to search for and to resume participation in church life.
Mission statements for church groups
Pat Cleghorn, pastor of St. Luke’s Church, Dryden, ON, Canada, liked the idea of each church group writing its own mission statement and being sure that it reflected member mission. Practice in this task had been part of a member mission workshop for churches in the Southern Region of the Diocese of Keewatin, September 16, 2006. At the next meeting of Anglicans Working Together, the chairs of all parish units, she asked each group to write or rewrite its mission statement. She is looking forward to their responses.
[Here is the practice session from the September workshop:
Managing the change we seek
Imagined setting It is so easy for any activity to become an end in itself. Here are the purposes of various groups in your church. You are working with them to find the part they can play in supporting the daily missions of every member. See yourself preparing to meet with them about how they could more closely support the daily missions of each member. Come up with a rewording of their purpose to offer them that could connect what they do more closely with the daily missions of each member. First, be sure you grasp the positive values of what they are trying to do and that it is reflected in your proposal. Second, try to reword their purpose and work in the direction of member mission.
a. “We work to welcome newcomers in ways that make them feel at home here quickly.”
b. “The worship committee plans worship that involves and inspires.”
c. “The adult class on Sunday morning presents the faith and history of our communion in a clear and interesting way.”
d. “The half-day retreats on Saturday are meant to be a haven from the busy world.”
e. “The buildings and grounds committee seeks to keep our facilities in top working order.”
f. “The hospitality committee tries to nurture a warm fellowship among our members.”
Theological assumptions guiding member mission had been summarized as follows earlier in the workshop. Participants were asked to refer to them as needed during the practice.
1. God is most concerned about how we live from Monday to Saturday; Sunday is to help us to do it better.
2. God in Jesus Christ is already on mission in every area of life to make life more loving and more just. Wherever you find love and justice, God is at work. Wherever you find love and justice needed, God is already at work there to bring them.
3. In baptism, we joined Jesus in his mission and Jesus has given the Holy Spirit to all of us to guide and to empower us for our share in his mission, in God's mission of love and justice. See John 20:21-23.
4. Each of us is called to discover our part in Jesus' mission in each area of daily life – our home and friends, our work, our local community, the wider world, our leisure and our church.
Each table group was given one of the purposes; each person wrote out their own proposal; the proposals were shared in each group; and each group selected their choice to share with the whole group; the whole group responded with comments and suggestions.]
Contact: The Rev. Pat Cleghorn, St.Luke’s Anglican Church, 50 Van Horne Ave., Dryden ON P8N 2A9, CANADA; 807-223-6413; stlukes@mail.drytel.net
Missions discerned – ongoing support started
Five members of St. Philip’s-in-the-Hills, Tucson, AZ convened to discern their daily missions using Part One of a draft copy of the Workbook. Missions discerned, they swapped their "road maps." A road map is a chart developed for the Workbook which summarizes the three key parts of each daily mission – the vision or goal; the teammate/s; and the mission or what actions to take. Each will pray for the other four people daily using each person's road map as a guide to what to pray for. They now meet monthly for each to share what has been done in each daily mission field. Enthusiasm and satisfaction continue to be high.
Incidentally, they became each other’s teammates because they found that each person’s daily missions included one of the others in some way. Further, they found that some handled the worksheets and charts quite easily because they were accustomed to this kind of note keeping. Others found that talking their way through the charts worked best for them.
Contact: Donna Cosulich, 4632 E Camino Primeria Alta, Tucson, AZ 85718-3551; 520-529-2874; dbc@mycidco.com.
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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.
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