This page lists all our reports and commentary from August, 2007

Click here for the reports on the seminars on Building a Culture of Peace, The Israel/Palestine Conflict, and Advocating for Peace and Justice.

And click here for the earlier reports on The Presbyterian Church and the UN, Earth-Honoring Faith, Building a Culture of Peace, Peacemaking 401, and Speaking Truth to the Powerful and the Not so Powerful.

Building a Culture of Peace

Sara Lisherness, until recently director of the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program, and Jay Rock, Coordinator for Interfaith Relations of the PC(USA), led this group in exploring some of the many forms that peacemaking can take, and the ways the peacemaking journey can shape our personal lives.

The Israel/Palestine Conflict

Marthame and Elizabeth Sanders served in mission from 2000 through 2003 in the northern West Bank town of Zababdeh.  Out of that experience and their continuing involvement in that area, they helped the seminar group in building skills to respond to comments and "hard questions" about the Israel/Palestine situation and other difficult issues in the church and the society today.

Advocating for Peace and Justice

The Rev. Dr. Chris Iosso, Coordinator of the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy, helped this group gain a sense of how the church is currently thinking about issues such as the Iraq war, the New Social Creed which is now being drafted, the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and much more.

For a separate page of earlier reports >>

February 22 to March 7, 2008

Apply now

Contact Amanda Craft at acraft@ctr.pcusa.org for more information.

Participants in this travel/study seminar will:

Find an application form and more details at http://pcusa.org/peacemaking/ya/ya.htm#seminar

More Light Presbyterians comments with regret about the decision, and offers further thoughts on the conviction that "love matters most."

On the same web page you will find a long AP report, and more.

A very brief AP report begins:

A veteran Presbyterian minister was found guilty of violating church law for officiating the weddings of two lesbian couples, the minister's defense team said Friday.

According to her defense team, the Permanent Judicial Commission of the Synod of the Pacific ruled 6-2 that while the Rev. Jane Spahr of San Rafael "acted with conscience and conviction," her actions were still at odds with the church's constitution.

The ruling reverses a decision by the PJC of the Presbytery of the Redwoods in March 2006, which said that she acted within her rights as an ordained minister when she married two lesbian couples in 2004 and 2005.

Sources in That All May Freely Serve are saying that her case will probably be appealed to the PJC of the General Assembly.

Presbyterian News Service reports that the Presbyterian Health, Education and Welfare Association (PHEWA) is partnering to establish a grassroots faith-based community organizing initiative aimed at revitalizing a notoriously dangerous New Orleans neighborhood.

Christ and Empire – looking beyond Christ and Culture

a book review by Gene TeSelle 

There’s been much discussion these days about "the new American Empire" and the need for Jesus’ followers to stand against it as he stood against the imperial powers of his own time. This new book looks at the relation between "Christ and empire" with depth and a recognition of the always ambivalent relationships between faith and political power.

Joel Hanisek, the PC(USA)  Presbyterian representative to the UN, reports on the seminar he led:  Discover the Vision: The Presbyterian Church and the United Nations

John Preston, one of the Seminar leaders of the seminar on Earth-honoring Faith, adds this comment to our earlier report on that seminar, specifically about the importance of worship in an "earth-honoring faith" 

For the index page listing all our reports from the "Week of Peace" >>

If you’re thinking of joining the Witherspoon conference on global mission and justice, in Louisville, Sept. 16-19, TODAY -- TUESDAY AUG. 21 -- IS THE LAST DAY TO MAKE ROOM RESERVATIONS AT OUR SPECIAL CONFERENCE RATE.

The conference will be held at the Hampton Inn in downtown Louisville, near the offices of the General Assembly. The address is 101 East Jefferson Street, Louisville, KY 40202.

Phone: 502-585-2200
Fax: 502-584-5657

Website: Go to www.hamptoninn.com , then enter Louisville, KY, in the form, and you should get a list of hotels, with the downtown one first.

Gordon Shull responds to Gene TeSelle's essay on  "The 'Social Creed' after One Hundred Years"  He begins:

In a time when political as well as religious leaders equate their wisdom and will with the will and wisdom of God, a social creed must affirm the value, nay the necessity of humility on the part of leaders in political as well as religious institutions. As Reinhold Niebuhr put it in 1948, "The future of the world literally depends, not upon the display of our power (though the use of it is necessary and inevitable) but upon the acquisition of virtues which can develop only in humility." (Reinhold Niebuhr on Politics, p. 271.)

Christiane Amanpour of CNN begins a three-part series tonight on violence and religion. The report is called God's Warriors. Here is a preview in which she interviews a youth leader in San Francisco who calls his ministry Battlecry.com. Tonight Jewish Warriors. Muslim Warriors on Wednesday and Christian Warriors on Thursday. All reports at 9 pm Eastern Daylight Time.

Mike Bennefiel offers a very thorough and helpful summary of the seminar entitled "Peacemaking 401,"  which was led by Rick Ufford-Chase, Executive Director of the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship.

NOTE:  The "new social creed" will be one main focus of the Witherspoon conference on global mission and justice, coming up Sept. 16-19 in Louisville, KY.

More from the Ghost Ranch "Week of Peace"

What went on in the Seminars?

Starting today, we'll be bringing you brief reports of the seven different seminars that ran through the "Week of Peace," each of them written by a person who took part in that seminar.

by Doug King, your WebWeaver 

We’ve posted a number of specific items from our week at Ghost Ranch from July 30^th to August 5^th. But now that a couple weeks have passed, I’d like to look back briefly at the week, asking what made it so good for many of the people there, and what impact it may have in the longer term.

Rick Ufford-Chase, now serving as the Executive Director of the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship, called it a "cowboy camp meeting" for peace, justice and care for creation. That it was. According to Jim Baird, Director of Programs at Ghost Ranch, it was the largest single group seminar ever at Ghost Ranch, with some 125 people registered.

Well, it’s time to get a move on!

After August 15, the registration fee will be considered "late," and will rise from $190 to $210.  And after that date, we can no longer guarantee a room for you at the conference hotel, the Hampton Inn.

For a sample of what you’ll gain by being there, take a look at the four sermons preached by the Rev. Dr. Roberto Jordan, a leading drafter of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches that has led to their project, "Covenanting for Justice in the Economy and the Earth."

One of the concerns shared during the Ghost Ranch Week of Peace focused on the privatization of US fighting in Iraq.

One current report by AP begins:

ELCA assembly passes on to a task force the issues of homosexuals' ordination and blessings for same-sex unions.

A national assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America urged its bishops Saturday (August 11) to refrain from defrocking gay and lesbian ministers who violate a celibacy rule, but it rejected measures that would have permitted ordaining gays churchwide.

Still, advocates for full inclusion of gays were encouraged, calling the resolution a powerful statement in support of clergy with same-sex partners. The conservative group Lutheran CORE was critical of the vote, saying bishops would now feel more secure in ignoring denomination policy.

The 538-431 vote came on the final day of a weeklong meeting in Chicago -- and after emotional debate over how the denomination should interpret the Bible on homosexuality. 
The report in the LA Times >>

The Associated Press reports that two American Bar Association committees have recently stated that "President Bush’s recent order on CIA interrogations of terror suspects should be overturned because it still allows harsh treatment in violation of international treaties." The ABA, meeting this week in San Francisco, is expected to adopt a resolution reflecting the views of the two committees.

"Nobody owns water.
Drink some, and try to keep it."

This little thought comes from the poet Alberto Rios, who grew up in Nogales, AZ, on the border between Arizona and Sonora, Mexico. He grew up between between worlds, cultures, languages – which "showed me how to look at everything in more than one way" – and that ability is, he says, what made him a poet. This line is part of his "Words over Water" project around Tempe Town Lake, which consists of bits of thought like this one, inscribed on 600 granite tiles placed in a line six miles long around Tempe Town Lake.

I discovered this tidbit on the PBS News Hour ,with Margaret Warner interviewing the poet.

To read a transcript of the interview >>

Presbyterian-founded group says new guidelines won’t stop torture

Presbyterian News Service reports that the Presbyterian-founded, church-backed National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT)  is speaking out against a new executive order from President Bush that broadly outlines the limits of how suspects may be questioned in the CIA’s terror interrogation program.

The order, which Bush signed last month, bans torture, cruel and inhumane treatment, sexual abuse, acts intended to denigrate a religion or other degradation "beyond the bounds of human decency." It pledges that detainees will receive adequate food, water and medical care and be protected from extreme heat and cold.

It does not, however, say what techniques are permitted during harsh questioning of suspects.

That’s become a matter of debate in the United States and elsewhere, including with NRCAT, a coalition of more than 125 religious organizations, including the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), that has called on the U.S. government to forswear the use of torture without exception.

The group recently issued a statement saying that said that as people of faith, "who value our common humanity and our religious responsibility to treat all people with decency and the due process protections of civilized law, ... we urge" President Bush to:

• Immediately stop the use of interrogation techniques that are "cruel and inhuman."
• Disclose what alternative interrogation techniques are used. Close all secret prisons.
• End the rendition of suspects to countries thought to use torture.
• Provide the International Red Cross access to detainees held in U.S. custody.

The statement also called on Congress to prohibit the use of any CIA funds for programs or activities that fail to treat all persons detained with "decency and the protections of due process."

Commenting on a recent essay by your WebWeaver, Gordon Shull of Wooster, Ohio, sent this note:

I liked your comments, Doug - they reminded me of a comment by E. Stanley Jones, who was given to neat aphorisms:

"Religion that doesn't begin with the individual, doesn't' begin. Religion that ends with the individual, ends."

I don't remember where he wrote that, but the words themselves are not easy to forget!

-Gordon Shull

Globalization has been a matter of concern to the Witherspoon Society for some years. It was a focus of much discussion at the Ghost Ranch Week of Peace, and will again be discussed at the coming Witherspoon conference in Louisville, Sept. 16-19.

Fortress Press, Minneapolis, provides a preview >>

Challenged by God and sharing fearlessly

For more about the Creed, and earlier drafts of it >>

For background, see Gene TeSelle’s recent article in Network News. Click here, and go to pages 9-10.

I missed your discussion but have read some of your materials. I appreciate the retention of distinctive Christian statements that reflect the origin of our belief. It seems to me, however, that the draft is light on a couple items.

If we want to change the situation in a fallen world we must proclaim Jesus’ identity and teaching. In particular we must pledge ourselves to love God and to love people created in His image. These two OT commands are reiterated by Jesus in the NT. In the draft there is an agenda but no personal pledge of specific things that a signatory/ adherent pledges to do. It seems that those who hold to this pledge will get government and society to do things but not do anything personally.

Here I suggest that there be a commitment to begin with ourselves and then involve others. That I will love everyone as I love myself. That we will pray for Divine blessing for the poor and oppressed. That we will pray for eyes to see and ears to hear what God would have us to perceive and do. That we will donate at least a third of our giving to the cause of alleviating the plight of the poor. That we will spend at least two hours each week as volunteers working to assist the socially marginalized. That I will teach my children that the greatest in the Kingdom of God are those who serve. That I will seek to encourage others to follow the example of Jesus who gave His life in the service of others.

Sincerely,

Robert W. Smith

We invite you to add your thoughts on the Creed and this response to it.
Just send a note!

The waters of baptism help us understand the "tipping point" in humanity's relationship with nature.

Dr. Larry Rasmussen looks through the Christian rite of baptism to help us understand the water that renews and sustains all of human life -- and shows how we are now at a "tipping point" in the relation between human efforts at domination and the realities of "the great economy of creation."

If you were there, you may want to read the full texts of the sermons that were presented, and we'll begin posting them today.  If you weren't there, we hope you'll get some taste of what went on there.

Each evening the Seminar participants gathered for worship, which was planned by the Rev. Dr. Tom Driver, emeritus professor at Union Theological Seminary in New York, and a capable group working with him.  The preacher evening was the Rev. Dr. Roberto Jordan of Argentina, who chaired the committee that drafted the Accra Confession of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches in 2004; the one exception was the service on Thursday, for which the preacher was the Rev. Dr. Larry Rasmussen, also emeritus professor at Union Seminary.

Because of great interest from many of the seminar participants, we will present these sermons in full as quickly as we can.

Roberto Jordan describes us as “challenged by God,” and called to interpret the signs of our times

Jordan says we are challenged by God to "worship totally" – which for Isaiah means doing justice

In his second sermon, Roberto Jordan looked at Isaiah 58, with the insistence to the people who are so diligent in this worship that " ‘You do not worship (=fast), you serve your own interests, you oppress your workers, you quarrel and fight, you strike with wicked fist.’ But who are those who do this? They are the powerful, who oppress. Doesn’t all this seem to bring us back to Exodus 3, and the groaning of the people in Egypt? God heard a cry and came down so as to rescue the people.

Conversion to what the New Testament calls "fullness of life" demands that we ask painful questions about our own society. "Today," he said, "these questions point to structural sin and not only personal sin:

The Ghost Ranch Week of Peace is drawing toward its close this evening, and today in various ways we remembered the anniversary of the dropping of the first atom bomb on Hiroshima, on August 6, 1945.

The evening worship was a commemoration and a time of new resolve, on which I’ll report more as soon as I can (along with many other things).

But for now -- one moving moment came when the Rev. James E. Atwood, retired PC(USA) missionary to Japan,shared reflections from his visit to Japan in 2005 for the 60th anniversary of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. (For an earlier and longer version >>)

I spent nine years as a missionary in Japan (1965-1974). In August, 2005, I returned, on a peace pilgrimage, attending 60th-anniversary memorials of the two bombs that, in the words of Albert Einstein, "Changed everything except the way we think." In their wake, Einstein added, "We drift toward unparalleled catastrophes."

I love the Japanese people. I salute the courage of the United Church of Christ in Japan as it continues to repent its complicity with Japanese militarism in World War II. I grieve over the use of atomic weapons on the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I am impressed that the Japanese people love their "Peace Constitution."

I had to add my voice for peace in a day when the whole world is threatened with nuclear extinction — yet few really want to talk about it.

I was privileged to represent the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship in an eight-member delegation from the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR), a group formed to support those in Japan and the United States who resist calls for the repeal of Article IX of the Japanese constitution.

That provision, written by representatives of American Occupation Forces in the early days of Japan’s post-war reconstruction, reads:

1. Aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order, the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as a means of settling international disputes.

2. In order to accomplish the aim of the preceding paragraph, land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained. The right of belligerency of the state will not be recognized.Our own country is still deeply divided over the use of these horrible weapons.

As doves circled over the assemblies in Hiroshima in 2005, I was glad to be standing with thousands of others and making the vow: "No more Hiroshimas. No More Nagasakis. No more nuclear weapons. No more war."

Dear Lord, let it be so.

Praying at Los Alamos

Earlier in the day, about 30 seminar participants traveled from Ghost Ranch to Los Alamos, site of the development of those first nuclear bombs. There we joined in an action of prayer and protest which was organized by Paz Christi, as it is each year. (And for how many more years??)

"A Week for Peace, Global Justice and Creation"

I arrived at Ghost Ranch Monday evening to find green grass, water in lakes and streams -- something I've never seen here before.  And there were over 100 people gathering for a week of seminars, worship, conversation -- and struggling with issues of peace and justice and caring for creation.

Monday evening saw all the week’s participants gathering for orientation (with the reminder that at an elevation of 6,500 feet, everyone needs to take time to adjust, drink lots of water, and all the other eternal verities of Ghost Ranch). A couple hours later, trudging up the long hill to my cabin at the tippy-top of the Mesa, I realized that those verities are still true.

GA actions ratified (or not) by  the presbyteries   

A number of the most important actions of the 219^th General Assembly are now being sent to the presbyteries for their action, to confirm or reject them as amendments to the PC(USA) Book of Order.

We're providing resources to help inform the reflection and debate, along with updates on the voting.

Our three areas of primary interest are:

If you like what you find here,
we hope you'll help us keep Voices for Justice going ... and growing!

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PVJ's Facebook page

Mitch Trigger, PVJ's Secretary/Communicator, has created a Facebook page where Witherspoon members and others can gather to exchange news and views. Mitch and a few others have posted bits of news, both personal and organizational. But there’s room for more!

Voices of Sophia blog

Heather Reichgott, who has created this new blog for Voices of Sophia, introduces it:

John Harris’ Summit to Shore blogspot

John Shuck’s Shuck and Jive

Got more blogs to recommend?