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Reports from the Witherspoon Conference
BECOMING NEIGHBORS:
An Invitation to Global Discipleship
A Witherspoon conference on global mission and justice
September 16 - 19, 2007, Louisville, Kentucky
A first installment reporting on our conference, with more
to come.
by Doug King
[9-24-07]
Called to mission in an age of Empire
The Witherspoon Society conference was held earlier this week, from
September 16 to 19 at the Hampton Inn in downtown Louisville, near the
offices of the Presbyterian General Assembly. While the registered
participants were not as many as we had hoped, the group was augmented by a
number of people from the Louisville area who dropped in for at least part
of the event, and enriched it by their own contributions.
Your WebWeaver has been occupied with other things since
returning home Wednesday evening, but I want to give you a brief report now,
and add to it in the days to come both with my own observations and the full
texts of many of the presentations.
Were you there??
Your additions and comments are welcome!
Just send a note.
The first installments of our report include:
Sunday evening:
Mission volunteers talk of practicing global discipleship
Evening worship:
prayers for peace
Monday morning:
Current mission movements, including the New Sanctuary Movement (Trina Zelle),
the Campaign for Fair Food (Noelle Damico), the National Sweat-Free
Consortium (Andrew Kang Bartlett), and a more general look at "World Mission
in an Age of Empire" (Hunter Farrell, new director of the PCUSA's World
Mission program area).
Monday afternoon: The New Social Creed – a panel with
Chris Iosso, Elizabeth Hinson-Hasty and Gene TeSelle, and comments by
the Rev. Roberto Jordan.
Monday evening: Worship, with the Lord’s Supper and a
sermon by the Rev. Roberto Jordan.
Tuesday morning: A Challenge from Accra – discussions
of the Accra Confession by the Rev. Dr. Clifton Kirkpatrick and the Rev.
Dr. Setri Nyomi
Tuesday afternoon: The Accra Confession and
"Covenanting for Justice," by Roberto Jordan.
Reports still to come:
 | An example of the Covenanting for Justice in the
Economy and the Earth Project, by Christi Boyd and Valéry Nodem of the
Joining Hands Network in Cameroon. |
| Tuesday evening: small group discussions following
the Open Space Technology model. |
| Wednesday morning: reports from small groups, and
closing worship, a service of commissioning. |
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Sunday evening
We began Sunday evening by looking at
the practice of global discipleship, seen through the experience of two
Young Adult Volunteers in Mission, and one former "YAV" who is now serving
as a (presumably not-so-young) Presbyterian Volunteer in Mission.
Practicing Global Discipleship
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Libby Hunter |
Libby Hunter
and Kori Phillips spoke in
a dialogue about their one-year experiences as YAVs – Libby in Northern
Ireland and Kori in Lima, Peru. Both described their shock at "confronting
adversity." Libby found herself dealing with two pleasant teen-age boys, one
Catholic and one Protestant, who revealed hostility toward one another that
was beyond anything she had ever seen before. As Kori walked along the
street in Lima, she passed a man lying by the road, apparently having given
up on life. She could do nothing.. Talking with one of the staff of the Joining Hands Network of Peru,
she heard him explain that "poverty is our common problem here."
Both of them, working mostly with young people, found
themselves being "changed from the inside out," as they helped high school
students produce a play, or helped one young woman, who had been silent for
two days in a center for sexual victims, finally begin to tell her own
story.
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Kori Phillips |
They wrapped up their dialogue by saying, "God calls us
every day to reach, to cross boundaries." And that’s clearly just what they
did – and did well.
Click here
for the full "script" of the presentation by Libby and Kori.
Shannon O’Donnell then spoke out of her experience in Jerusalem
during the past year as a Volunteer in Mission. The Witherspoon Society has
become a partial sponsor of her work, and she has generously shared
thoughtful reports with us through these months – and will continue to do
so. She served earlier as a Young Adult Volunteer in Thailand, then for some
time on the staff of the Worldwide Ministries Division in Louisville, and
came to feel "called to the Middle East." For the past year she has served
on the staff of the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center in
Jerusalem.
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Shannon O'Donnell |
She revealed something of the tone of life in Jerusalem (a.k.a
"Occupied Palestine") by telling of a time when boys on a bus finally
screwed up their courage to ask her "Why are you here?" She thought
explaining liberation theology (the core of Sabeel’s mission) might be a bit
too much for 6-year-old boys, so she simply said, "We’re here to work for
peace." Their response was immediate: "You should just go home. You can’t do
anything here." So "part of our job," she said, "is to help the people
interpret the chaos around them."
She met some South Africans in Palestine who were part of
the Ecumenical Accompaniment Program there. She asked them how the situation
in Palestine compared with the situation in South Africa. The answer was
pretty simple: "Here it’s much worse."
Prayers for Peace
Following these three very personal presentations, we were led in Evening
Prayers by the Rev. David Gambrell, who is the associate for worship in the
Office of Theology and Worship of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). This
worship was designed to be Witherspoon’s small part in the round-the-clock
peace vigil that has been initiated by the
Christian Peace Witness for
Iraq.
Gambrell opened the service by announcing:
The focus for tonight’s service is peace. The
Presbyterian Peacemaking Fellowship, in coordination with a number of
other churches and organizations around the country, has called for
ongoing vigils for peace in Iraq, beginning today, September 16. So
tonight, we join our hearts and minds with those praying for peace
across the nation and around the world. May peace prevail on earth, and
may justice come for all.
Gambrell then led us in a reading of "Psalms for Peace,"
with excerpts from Psalms 120 and 46, which combined the sharp realism of
lament with the solid assurance of hope:
In our distress we cry to you, O God:
Answer us when we call!
Deliver us, O Holy One, from lying lips;
save us from deceitful voices!
For too long we have made our home
among those who hate peace.
We are for peace,
but when we speak, they are for war.
Silent reflection.
God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear,
though the earth should change,
though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea.
The nations are in an uproar,
and the realms of earth are shaken.
But the Holy One is with us,
God is our refuge and strength.
Come now and look upon the works of the Holy One;
see what awesome things God has done on earth.
God makes war to cease in all the world,
breaking the bow and shattering the spear.
Be still, then, and know that I am God.
The Holy One is with us,
God is our refuge and strength.
Monday morning
Current Mission Movements
Monday morning, following morning prayers, we heard four
lively reports on current mission movements. As Co-Moderator Jake Young said
in introducing the speakers, we were clearly beginning the conference with
"praxis," and then moving to hear and think about the theological "theory"
which is reflected in the mission actions.
Three specific movements were represented, along with
Hunter Farrell’s more general look at "World Mission in an Age of Empire."
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Trina Zelle |
The Rev. Trina Zelle,
also a Co-Moderator of Witherspoon, is now serving as staff for
Interfaith Worker Justice in Arizona.
She spoke first on the
New Sanctuary
Movement, and
began by telling a bit of her own story, and how it has led her to this form
of ministry. Years ago during the U.S. war (well, "low-intensity conflict")
in Central American, she was living in Northfield, Minnesota, where she
became aware of Rene Hurtado, a Salvadoran who was in sanctuary at St. Luke
Presbyterian Church, near Minneapolis. Since then, through pastorates in
Hawaii and Arizona, she has seen many dimensions of immigration. September
11th then, as she put it, "provided cover for a new initiative
against the working class," because the labor movement has generally been a
movement of recent immigrants, except for the craft unions. Now the strength
of the union movement is coming largely from the immigrants from Latin
America. And while "nativists" resent the new immigrants, the people who
hold power and wealth want them here as a source of cheap labor with minimal
rights.
Currently the Administration’s campaign against
immigrants, she explained, is directed at the "best," most established
immigrants. Many of them are being picked up for minor offenses, and sent to
prisons – private, for-profit prisons at that – and then deported.
The New Sanctuary Movement is looking for "poster child"
immigrants, who can bear witness to the plight of many innocent immigrants.
Faith communities are being sought who could provide sanctuary for some of
these people – a safe place to stay while their situations become better
known around the country. But, she said, "we find that churches today – both
evangelical and progressive – respond with ‘Why should we do anything about
this?’ So we’re aiming lower: simply asking people to sign letters asking a
sheriff not to set up a ot line through which people will be encouraged to
report their neighbors."
Finally, she said, this is a pastoral challenge to our
churches: "How can we really care about these people, while ‘using’ them for
our own economic interests?"
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Noelle Damico |
Trina Zelle was followed by the Rev. Noelle
Damico, who is serving as the PC(USA) liaison to the
Coalition of Immokalee Workers,
speaking about the broader Fair
Food Campaign. This effort began as a campaign by the farm
workers – mostly immigrants from Haiti, Guatemala and Mexico – to gain fair
compensation for their work in the Florida tomato fields – wages which are
still the same as those paid in 1978. Last spring their agreement with Taco
Bell was extended to all YUM brand companies, and now McDonald’s has gone
even further, creating an independent group to monitor the fulfillment of
their agreement with the workers. This movement, said Damico, is growing
into an effort to transform the U.S. food industry – fast-food corporations,
grocery chains, and more.
And the system needs transforming, she said. Farm workers
are not covered by the National Labor Relations Act, so they have no rights
to organize, to register complaints, to bargain. "There is slavery
here," she said. "People have no control over their own lives, no rights,
and they are constantly subjected to violence and intimidation. ... So this
is about survival and decency and the ending of horrendous violence."
She noted that this is not a question of "illegal
immigration." Certainly undocumented workers can be exploited more easily
than those with papers, but she cited a study by the Pew Foundation showing
that only about 14% of the farm workers are undocumented. But the problem
comes from the pressure on fast food and grocery corporations to compete and
to cut costs; the easiest way they can do that is by cutting prices they pay
the growers that supply their food. And growers then cut the easiest place
they can: the least powerful part of the system: the workers.
Damico talked about the success of the Taco Bell boycott,
which started this whole process of change. It succeeded, she said, because
two critical groups acted: students, who form the major market for fast food
companies, and people of faith, who provided a "moral power" in support of
the struggle. "We brought pressure," she added, "by boycotting, by writing
letters, and by getting out of our comfort zone and marching" to
press the corporations and their stock-holders directly. And she noted that
the decision of the Presbyterian Church in Louisville to take part in the
action with YUM brands was a crucial element in the success of that effort.
Finally she described "three theological points that have
come out of our mission work:"
- God is sovereign over the world, and not the markets.
So "justice can be good business" in a very new way.
- Our choices matter. We are stewards, and have been
empowered by God to make choices – even hard choices. And sometimes we
have to say No in order to affirm what we really believe – or the
holders of power won’t think we’re serious.
- The church must not be neutral when people are being
violated and exploited. "If we had stayed neutral," she added, "YUM
Brands would have felt no pressure to negotiate. Being neutral simply
allows the status quo to continue."
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Hunter Farrell |
The Rev. Hunter Farrell was the third
presenter in this series, speaking on a broader topic: "World Mission in
an Age of Empire." His talk provided a great introduction to him in his
role as the newly
appointed director of the PCUSA's World Mission program area. He
had been back, he noted, just 63 days after 10 years in Lima, Peru, where he
worked with the "Joining Hands Against Hunger" program, which is affiliated
with the Presbyterian Hunger Program. He began by relating the story of his
own growth in understanding of the meaning of mission, and then described
his experience in La Oroya, Peru, as an example of the new meaning of
mission today.
He spoke of growing up in a "mission-oriented church,"
where mission meant "crossing the tracks, but coming back to our own safety
zones." He eventually attended Fuller Seminary, where, he said, "I never
heard a lesson or a sermon about justice. This was a term that was vaguely
unknown, or suspect."
Once he took a Latin American friend to his church in
Dallas for Christmas Eve. As is the custom there, he said, even in Dallas
the women attended this service all wearing "some kind of animal" for the
special occasion. His friend observed the display of furs, and walked out.
Farrell caught up with him and asked what was wrong. "I don’t think we
worship the same God," came the reply. Other such experiences have led him
on a long journey, to the point where now he says, "We’re tumbling into a
new age of Empire, and we need to give voice to a new awareness of the
threat of Empire."
"World mission today is sexy," he said, with 1.2 million
Americans going overseas this year in some kind of short-term mission
experience. But what are we doing, he asked, to help these people as they
encounter people who are "different" – with dark skins, poor, and all the
rest? What are we doing to help them understand why these people are
poor? These mission travellers will too likely think that "if they’re poor,
it’s because they don’t work, they’re lazy ..." And that view, he said,
"fits so neatly into the theology of Empire."
"Does this Emperor of mission," he asked, "have
any clothes on?"
Having told a bit about his growth in understanding
mission, Farrell went on to tell of his more recent involvement in it. In La
Oroya, in the mountains above Lima, a U.S. multi-metal smelting operation
has left 97% of the children with lead poisoning. And the differences
between the owner and the workers is stunning. In any 24-hour period, said
Farrell, the owner, in his new home on Long Island with its 100-plus
bedrooms, will make about $400,000. In those 24 hours, 1,000 tons of toxins
will rain down on the children of La Oroya. In such a situation, he added,
"If we can’t speak the truth to power, we have no right to say anything."
Farrell and the Joining Hands program have worked to
gather data on the growing incidence of cancer in La Oroya. They tested 99
children, and found that all 99 had cancer. The University of St. Louis
public health experts (who’ve dealt with the same problem much closer to
home) sent a team, and Joining Hands set up an "interfaith" meeting (which
means Catholic and Evangelical/Protestant there). The Catholic archbishop
was encouraged to join in, thus giving the effort real legitimacy.
This effort has gained world attention – from NPR, BBC,
CBS, the New York Times, and even the Peruvian press. So people are
beginning to see that an outraged is being committed on Peruvian children
"by a Yankee business."
So, said Farrell, "world mission is a sexy enterprise. But
if people don’t have an encounter with justice, we’re not being faithful to
God’s mission in this world." He then spoke of an all-church gathering on
world mission, which is being planned for January 16-18 in Dallas. Through
this gathering, he said, "we must ‘get it’ that we must step out of our
comfort zone, seeing world mission as something that’s not just ‘out
there,’" but that it involves all of us and the structures of power and
wealth within which we live.
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Andrew Kang Bartlett |
Andrew Kang Bartlett presented the
final glimpse of a creative venture in mission, as he told about the
National Sweat-Free Consortium.
Bartlett, who is on the staff of the Presbyterian Hunger Program in
Louisville, began by saying that interdependence is the reality in our
globalized world. As Christians, he said, we manifest our love by how we
treat each other. And even this year, which marks the 200th
anniversary of the end of the Atlantic slave trade, we find ourselves still
confronting slavery in many forms.
The sweatshops, which produce many of the clothing and
other items that we use every day (and that we buy because we like their low
prices, are one major form of that slavery.
Sweat-Free Ts is one specific program that helps
Presbyterian congregations and other groups find and purchase t-shirts that
are sweatshop-free. The program also helps to educate church members about
sweatshop conditions where most of our clothes are produced.
Sweat-Free Ts is part of
Enough for Everyone, a PC(USA) program
that offers hands-on options for congregations to
participate in the global economy in faithful, just and responsible ways.
Enough for Everyone is a joint effort of the
Presbyterian Hunger Program,
Presbyterian Peacemaking Program,
Self-Development of People,
Women's Ministries,
Presbyterian Women,
Environmental Justice,
Justice and Compassion
and the
Stewardship Office.
This effort has energized people on many campuses and in
some cities, leading some cities and states to adopt sweat-free procurement
policies. Bartlett described their effort as urging producers "to compete
for the high road, rather than the race to the bottom."
The question now is how to get independent verification of
procurement practices and producers. A consortium is needed for this, which
would pool resources to provide independent monitoring of practices, and
could focus on three principles: public disclosure, independent
investigations, and rewarding fair practices.
Concrete action is
needed. The Sweatfree Consortium is a promising initiative to bring justice
to the garment industry and beyond. We can encourage our mayors and
governors to
join the Sweatfree Consortium and to institute sweatfree procurement
policies. He also asked the Witherspoon Society to endorse the Consortium.
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