Witherspoon dinner

214th GA -- Witherspoon Award Dinner

Witherspoon Dinner honors Kathy Lancaster

by Doug King
[6-21-02]

Around 100 Witherspooners and others found their way to one of the Hyatt Regency halls for our awards dinner and annual meeting.

The Rev. Vicky Moss opened the dinner with the invocation, after which the group shared a meal with pork (not chicken!!) as the meat. And cheesecake (not key lime pie!!) as the dessert.

Witherspoon President Jane Hanna then presented the annual Andrew Murray Award for Christian service and witness reflecting Witherspoon's commitment to justice and peace, to Kathy Lancaster, who recently retired as editor of Church & Society magazine and Director of the Criminal Justice Program in the Division of National Ministries of the PC(USA).

Her address, which she titled "Use Words if Necessary," offered glimpses of Witherspoon's past and its mission, and presented us with challenges to live out the Gospel in our lives and our communities. The full text of her address is below.

The organization's Annual Meeting followed the close of the dinner. The Volunteer of the Year Award was presented by Doug King to Harold Barton, former Treasurer of the Society and long-time campaigner for all sorts of efforts for peace and justice. These have included Habitat for Humanity, peace delegations to Central America and well as local groups working for peace in that area, and much more. Harold was unable to be with us, but a plaque is on its way to him.

Witherspoon Society at the General Assembly, June 18, 2002

USE WORDS IF NECESSARY

KATHY LANCASTER

Jim Chatham, the pastor of Highland Presbyterian Church in Louisville, where Lew Lancaster and I worship, is retiring the end of August. In mid-May he began a series of twelve sermons in which, he told the congregation, he would preach about everything he wanted to say to us before he left. Laughter in worship is a healthy sound, and we did.

Jim's approach is not what I'm about this evening. Actually, I'm intending to tell you things that you already know. And in my remarks, please understand that my use of the pronoun "you" is plural. Sorta like the New York locution of "youse guys" or the Southern "you-all." Guilt by association is at work here: while some of you in the room this evening may not be card-carrying members of the Witherspoon Society -- yet -- you are in this room, so in at least one brief shining moment I'm referring to all of us as Witherspoon members.

Perhaps you're familiar with the thought, "I don't know who discovered water, but it wasn't a fish." Meaning, of course, that water is a fish's natural and only habitat, and without being in it a fish would die.

Like unto that is my thought, "I don't know who discovered social justice advocacy, but it wasn't a Witherspoon Society member." Meaning, of course, that social justice advocacy is Witherspoon's natural and steadfast habitat, and without being a justice advocate a Witherspoon member, and the Society, would die. At least spiritually.

We might have a choral reading of the Witherspoon Society Mission:

We are a society of Presbyterians who seek justice in response to the God who calls us through the power of the Holy Spirit into wholeness. We seek to build a community that will reflect the radical vision of the Gospel of Jesus the Christ in a world increasingly broken.

And it goes on from there to include in the mission definition, nurturing the church's prophetic voice and advocating for peace, justice, the integrity of creation, and the full inclusion of all God's people in church and society. Stay in that water, and live!

But of course reciting the Society's Mission Statement is not the same as doing justice-seeking advocacy. It's a good first step, but just the beginning of the journey. It reminds me of that hard saying in the letter of James:

Be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. . . . If a brother or a sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill," and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead. (James 1:22, 2:15-17)

So, how do we turn these good words into good actions? The good news is: you/we are already doing just that. And you know that already!

Before I remind you of what I see as the contemporary justice-loving activities of Witherspoon and other outposts of the church, I need to move back in history a bit. Although I didn't have the wit to join Witherspoon when it was formed in the early 1970s, I did become a member around 1976, as I recall. I've recently done an archaeological dig in my Louisville home, as I moved my life and a lot of books and papers from the Presbyterian Center to our house in Butchertown, and I've encountered layer after layer of pages relevant to the last 25-plus years of my being. Including, you can imagine, some related to Witherspoon. So I was pleased to look at an early membership directory and reminisce about the 35 individuals and 1 congregation listed as members in Hudson River Presbytery.

From my own files and the Witherspoon Society's incredibly wonderful Web site -- including (and sometimes most-needed) the "Just for Fun" page -- I've found several items that are appropriate to the Society's chronology:

From "A Stern Prayer for Parlous Times," written around 1972 by one of the founders, Joe Dempsey, these words:

We pray today for grace and love
that we may be at last some peace
in Christ's tired flesh his church

From a May 1979 paper issued from Kansas City by the Society's leadership: The paper is titled "A Call to Journey through the Wilderness" and is an evaluation of the United Presbyterian Church as "endangered by misplaced faith and narrow vision," pointing to the decade's "loss of courage and coherence in the church's social witness at every judicatory level." The full report is somber, it makes for uncomfortable reading. And Witherspoon then, as now, was clearly prophetic and confrontational.

Again, recently posted on the Web site, a statement issued in 1985:

The Witherspoon Society was founded in 1973 by Presbyterians concerned that the United Presbyterian Church not lose sight of its prophetic role and social justice commitments as it worked its way through a major structural reorganization. In the mid-1980s we experience a gentle sense of deja vu as we observe an even more fundamental reorganization as reunion with the Presbyterian Church U.S. produces a new Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Our concerns remain the same: that Presbyterians and their Church continue to hear and heed God's call to empower the powerless; to speak of God's justice and mercy to a world in need of repentance; to raise to the consciousness of the Church the concerns of the poor and the disenfranchised; to call the Church to reformation when it falls short of God's demand for right relation in its own life. . . . The Witherspoon Society finds itself in the role of "loving critic" of our Church and its policies.

And the thoughtful listing of the church's contemporary concerns in 1985 is -- no surprise -- very similar to those of the present-day Mission Statement.

Well, this archaeological dig approach to a review of history could go on, with treasured copies of Network News and its report on the third National Gathering of the Society, March 1992 in Louisville titled "A World in Crisis: Where Is the Church?" Or the April 1998, 25th Anniversary Gathering in Nashville, tornadoes and evaluations/reevaluations and all. But by now you undoubtedly get the drift of history and, perhaps, find it demonstrating that inescapable cliché, "The more things change, the more they stay the same."

Yes, the church is in crisis: witness the yet-again downsizing and reorganizing at the national level, with its attendant pain, trauma, and grief for the victims as well as the survivors. Witness the ongoing concerns for ordination standards, confessional statements, eligibility for salvation -- justice issues all.

Yes, the world is in crisis: witness the daily events that -- pre- and post-September 11 -- chill our souls as they grab our headlines and TV updates. Witness the intractable hatreds between and among nations and, within the United States, which form an unwavering phalanx of social injustice soldiers.

At this General Assembly, as at virtually all of the 26 I've attended, we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses as breakfast, luncheon, and dinner speakers, as well as Commissioners speaking in committees and in plenary sessions, that I am not going to recite any more of the church's, and the world's, woes. I am, as you may have heard me mention, going to tell you what you already know. For this I turn to the thought attributed to St. Francis:

Preach the gospel at all times. Use words if necessary.

(If I were footnoting my remarks, I'd mention that the Franciscans' Web site publishes the Order's conclusion that the quotation is "very Franciscan in its spirit, but not literally from St. Francis." They do point out that in his Rule of 1221 he "told the friars not to preach unless they had received the proper permission to do so. Then he wrote, 'Let all the brothers, however, preach by their deeds.'")

So let us consider by what deeds -- by what words if necessary -- we are preaching the gospel in these parlous times. Here are just a handful that occur to me. Please understand that I am well aware of the many aspects of justice, and the many justice-doers, that I'm leaving out here. So I pray you forgive me in advance for my sins of omission. I count on your having your own examples to amplify my modest and very focused list.

	Let's start, of course, with the Witherspoon Society. And -- while again avoiding a choral reading of Network News -- we might attend to the article beginning on page 10 of the latest (Spring 2002) issue, highlighting the Confession of 1967 as a "revitalized opening of possibilities" for healing and reconciliation in this denomination and the wider church and world. And recognize Doug Ottati's keynoting of Sunday's luncheon, with his powerful call to theological understanding and action.
	Also in the latest Network News, starting on page 3, Doug King's musings in "The Editor's Spot" about restorative justice. That subject, in word and in action, has been the prevailing theme of the Criminal Justice Program of the PCUSA, since the General Assembly action in 1988, and its application is increasingly widespread in the religious community. I'm thrilled by the unanimous action of the National Issues Committee to recommend to the full General Assembly the Restorative Justice Resolution, and pray that the Assembly will concur.
	And here comes a radical thought: "A Call to Civility," instigated last August and signed by many individuals and organizations, including Witherspoon, and published on page 22 of the present Network News. The call is related directly to the abuse with which Moderator Jack Rogers has been treated during his year just ended, and it is a living witness to preaching the gospel by the action of protest, of speaking and living in peace and against attacks.
	Moving beyond the Witherspoon Society (dare I?), there are a great cloud of witnesses to justice-seeking, embodied in the people, programs, and offices of the General Assembly Council. Here I will focus on only one small portion of those offices. I will, of course, always count the Social Justice Program Area of National Ministries Division among those witnesses -- not just because of its title, not just because of the space I inhabited there for many years -- but because, office by office, each Social Justice staff person is, or was, there to do justice. Even now with reduced staffing strength, important justice works are being done with and for folks all over the PCUSA and beyond.

Works like Church & Society Magazine, now happily continuing with Bobbi Wells Hargleroad, the recently called and freshly inspired Editor, continuing "the journal of just thoughts," putting into readers' hands a comprehensive guidebook and stimulus for doing the work of care-team ministry, or in earlier issues combating homelessness, or working to challenge racism in the global village. And, certainly, the important focus on the Confession of 1967 in the May/June 2002 issue now available.

Also in Social Justice, such diverse subjects as environmental justice, economic justice, health care justice, justice for children for a year and a decade, and more. And the myriad of networks -- people in direct ministries -- of the Presbyterian Health, Education, and Welfare Association. All this in Social Justice, even now at a loss without the dedicated service of Carol Davies, who for 13 years was the real mainstay of criminal justice work; she was among the necessary retirees last month.

For more than 25 years my ministry and criminal justice concerns were intrinsically bound. While I pray that the "use words if necessary" value was part of my work, I want to mention just three examples -- all related to capital punishment -- where that value was demonstrated by others. Examples could be multiplied many times!

Example 1: You may recall that Timothy McVeigh was executed last June 11, while the General Assembly was in session in Louisville. A clergy couple related to the Theology and Worship office were convinced that the church should prepare for that event in a prayer service that Sunday evening, Execution Eve, and they brought it about. The Presbyterian Center chapel was filled. Others commemorated the government's death-dealing action that Monday morning during the G.A. Breakfast.

Example 2: New York State reinstituted capital punishment statutes in the 1990s. One afternoon I received a phone call from a pastor in upstate New York who had just learned that the death house was going to be half a mile from her church. Her action initiative was to seek resources and advice about how best to lead her congregation in ministering with that new reality.

And Example 3: Another pastor, in New Jersey, felt intensely about the injustice of executing anyone, let alone a man on Florida's death row whose mother was related to the caller's New Jersey congregation. Her simple request? How could she go about writing the Pope, seeking his intervention to forestall the execution? And she (the pastor) did, and he (the Pope) did. Although it (the state of Florida) didn't, and went ahead with the killing, the group that formed around the concern, Friends of Pedro, carry on their justice-seeking work in New Jersey to this day.

Preaching the gospel in just these three ways reminds us of the power of the people in ministry.

And this morning I received yet another and very welcome example. Strolling through the Global Marketplace, at the Peru Textiles space I was greeted by DeLynn Powers: she wanted to say thank you because, when she was serving in Quito, Ecuador, she wrote my office for materials in Spanish through which she could emphasize criminal justice concerns. So we sent her our free Program Guides for Criminal Justice Sunday in Spanish, and the free book Restorative Justice in Spanish, and she put them to work where she was. She was still grateful. I was so glad she had asked for them!

The church goes on, even (or especially?) in these parlous times. The world goes on, even (or in spite of?) these parlous times. And my folder of preparation for these remarks carries story after story of preaching the gospel, only occasionally in necessary words, from many people and programs and offices and congregations, throughout this church and many others. As I look for words of hope to leave us with this evening, I am led to a collection of hopeful numbers that may remind us that people in this church are still preaching the gospel, sometimes by giving to justice-seeking programs. As you know, the PCUSA has four special offering opportunities each year. Reviewing the receipts just for 1998 through 2001, each offering is higher in 2001 than earlier. And for two offerings that's even (or especially?) after September 11.

In chronological order, here's what they look like for 2001: One Great Hour of Sharing, including Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, received more than $18 million. The Pentecost offering (sent to the General Assembly, above giving to middle governing bodies and congregations) was $627,000-plus. The General Assembly portion of the Peacemaking offering was more than $1,250,000. And the Christmas Joy Offering attracted nearly $5,800,000. So Presbyterians are increasing their giving to these special justice-action endeavors, to a 2001 total of nearly $26 million. Even in tangible justice giving we can find hope and we can experience the gospel.

Many more examples abound, and I hope you think about your own list and experience in this context. Yes, there are diminished ranks of people with justice-doing titles and responsibilities and opportunities in the PCUSA national offices. And that is certainly true in synods and presbyteries too, of course.

But what you - what we - already know is that the real people on the ground, the people in the pews and pulpits, the followers of Jesus Christ throughout this church - and, of course, Witherspooners everywhere - are doing justice, preaching the gospel at all times and using words only when necessary.

I propose that we close this evening with the Affirmation of Faith from the Service of Prayer for Justice and Peace, from the Worship Book of Scotland's Iona Abbey. Perhaps the Witherspoon Society, which lives in the natural and steadfast habitat of social justice advocacy, will hear it and adopt it as written for us.

In the midst of hunger and war,
we celebrate the promise of plenty and peace.

In the midst of oppression and tyranny,
we celebrate the promise of service and freedom.

In the midst of doubt and despair,
we celebrate the promise of faith and hope.

In the midst of fear and betrayal,
we celebrate the promise of joy and loyalty.

In the midst of hatred and death,
we celebrate the promise of love and life.

In the midst of sin and decay,
we celebrate the promise of salvation and renewal.

In the midst of death on every side,
we celebrate the promise of the living Christ. AMEN.

[From the Service of Prayer for Justice and Peace, © The Iona Community from the Iona Abbey Worship Book, published by Wild Goose Publications, Iona Community, Fourth Floor, Savoy House, 140 Sauchiehall St, Glasgow G51 3BA, UK]