This page lists reports and commentary from March, 2007

From the Stated Clerk of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

The Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick has sent letters of appreciation to government and church leaders in Northern Ireland in the wake of this week's agreement by the Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Fein to form a power-sharing government.   The news report plus the text of his letter >>

"A big step forward has occurred – and a long journey remains."

Rev Doug Baker, PCUSA Regional Liaison for Ireland and the United Kingdom, offers an update and analysis on the important steps that have been taken toward peace between the Protestant Democratic Unionist Party and the Roman Catholic Sinn Fein.

The Friends Committee on National Legislation has created and gathered very helpful resources on the proposed Federal Budget and questions of what priorities will shape it over the coming months.

The huge proportion of the budget that will go to military programs is given careful analysis.

National Network of Presbyterian College Women announces a national Leadership Event, July 25-29 in Washington, DC   

They say:

The National Association of Evangelicals recently affirmed its stance on caring for the environment—indirectly rebuffing complaints that its vice president for governmental affairs, Richard Cizik, is too engaged in environmental issues—and endorsed a statement condemning torture.

Focus on the Family chair James Dobson and two dozen other evangelical leaders had asked the NAE board to oust Cizik because of his "relentless campaign" against human-induced global warming. Other signers of the letter included Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council; Gary L. Bauer, onetime Republican presidential candidate and now head of Coalitions for America; and Paul Weyrich, a veteran political strategist.

If you’re struggling with what to say to your congregation as we all confront the mystery and majesty of these days, you might find some help in these readings. If you have other good sources to suggest (for Easter, too!), please let us hear from you.   Just send a note.

For Palm Sunday / Passion Sunday

Daniel B. Clendenin looks at Palm Sunday through Luke’s Gospel, seeing the political dimensions of Jesus’ actions and his arrest as a subversive.

He concludes:

On Palm Sunday Jesus invites us to join his subversive counter-procession into all the world. But he calls us not to just any subversion, subversion for its own sake, or to some new and improved political agenda. Rather, Christian subversion takes as its model Jesus himself, "who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross." Dying to self and the many demons of egoism, and living to serve others, will prove itself as sufficiently and radically subversive. And so Paul instructs us in his epistle for this week: "have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus."

The full essay >>

For Good Friday: "The Ones at the Foot of the Cross"

Preaching on Good Friday in 2003, the Rev. Dr. I. Carter Heyward focused on Jesus words of forgiveness from the cross. Among many good things she says is this:

Forgiveness is a psycho-spiritual, social, and political leap out of the past -- its wrongs and wounds -- into the shaping of the present and future. It is a refusal to get stuck in resentment over what has been done in order to generate creative energies for living today and tomorrow. Forgiveness usually has at least as much to do with the desire and capacity of those who've been wounded to move forward as with the desire or need of those who have inflicted the injury.

Heyward’s sermon >>

a sermon following the Christian Peace Witness in Washington

On the Sunday morning following the Christian Peace Witness, Rick Ufford-Chase, now executive director of the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship and one of the organizers of the Witness, preached at New York Avenue Presbyterian Church, just a few blocks from the White House.

He led the congregation in reflecting on the Witness as an expression of hope in the midst of a society and a time dominated by fear, and imagined some of the ways that new hope may take form in the months and years ahead.  He concluded:

We have a choice. We can opt – on this morning – to continue to live into the bland and uninspiring work of institutional maintenance that characterizes so many of our churches today. We can choose to continue our commitment to place a theological veneer over a culture of emptiness, unfulfilled promises, and fear. We can choose, if we wish, to continue to create churches that bless our affluence and our power based on a corrupted reading of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Or . . .

We can choose on this day to dedicate all of our lives to the creation of a new movement of followers of Jesus Christ who know that we are called to transform the world. Someday, this weekend could be understood to have been the tipping point. The choice is ours.

This short speech was delivered in the House of Representatives by Rep. John Lewis of Georgia, on March 19, 2007.

This message is from Bob Leslie and Shelley Ritchie, accompaniers with the Presbyterian Church here in Barranquilla, Colombia.

What follows is a rough translation of a document we received late last week concerning death threats in a town of Uraba called San Jose de Apartado, an area controlled by paramilitaries and which has suffered a lot of the last years.

A note from Michael Adee, National Field Organizer for More Light Presbyterians, with a call for your participation, your voice and prayers

Calling for Justice and Equality

Clergy committed to spiritual and civil equality for LGBT persons and their families from all 50 states will converge upon Washington, DC to rally and lobby Congress on Capitol Hill on April 17.

The Presbyterian presence at the Peace Witness in Washington

Christian Peace Witness – in Colombia too

This is Bob Leslie writing from Barranquilla, Colombia.

I am here as an Accompanier with the Presbyterian Church (USA) through the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship. I just wanted to add a special note to Witherspoon website about an event that occurred here at the IPC (Presby. Church of Colombia) Seminary in Barranquilla last Friday night.   The rest of his report >>

Ending the war is a moral, not a political issue
Thousands of FaithfulAmericans urge lawmakers to end war now  

Thousands of members of FaithfulAmerica.org, the online community of the National Council of Churches USA, are urging their Members of Congress to take the moral step to end the war in Iraq. "The moral imperative to end this horrendous war should far outweigh any political compromise," says the FaithfulAmerica.org letter to Representatives.    More >>

From the Pentagon to California, antiwar protests sweep across the country

ANSWER - Act Now to Stop War and End Racism – reports on the "March on the Pentagon" protest on Saturday, March 17^th and on related protests held around the country.

We're encouraged to send them letters of support

Marilyn White, of the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship, has just sent this note:

Dear friends,

Several of the "SOA 16" report to prison today, including two of our 4 Presbyterian POCs. Due to their shorter sentences, many of them have been assigned to jails instead of camps - this is a hard life, and mail is SO important. Graymon is only 20 years old, and will be serving his 30 day sentence in a county jail. Many of you know Phil from the Colombia Accompaniment program - he will be at the LA MDC for 2 months. The other two Presbyterians, Julienne Oldfield and Don Coleman, will report in April. Please take a few minutes to write them!

Peace, Marilyn

PHILIP E. GATES #92947-020
MDC LOS ANGELES
METROPOLITAN DETENTION CENTER
P.O. BOX 1500
LOS ANGELES, CA 90053
        See his recent note about facing time in prison >>

GRAYMON WARD
VANCE COUNTY JAIL
516 BRECKENRIDE ST.
HENDERSON, NC 27536

Former GA moderator "was an educator through and through"

Isabel Wood Rogers, lovingly known by generations of students at Union Theological Seminary-Presbyterian School of Christian Education as "Dr. Izzie," died March 18 of cancer. She was 82.

Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick said of Rogers: ""Her leadership did not begin or end with the assembly, as she continued to be a voice for social justice concerns – the environment, women's issues, and inclusive language for God and the people of God, as well as the gifts of all of God's people."

Reflections on the Christian Peace Witness, Washington, DC, March 16, 2007
from Doug King, your WebWeaver

Last Thursday evening (though it seems like weeks ago) I joined about 35 others from the Presbytery of Greater Atlanta for a bus ride to Washington, DC, to join the Christian Peace Witness that you’ve been reading and hearing about for the past few weeks.

I want to share a few of my own impressions, and provide links to some of the accounts that have been printed or posted by others.

This event differed from most of the protests that many of us have joined over the years, because it was very explicitly Christian. The center-piece of the event was not the procession to the White House, not the arrests of the dozens who committed acts of civil disobedience (or as Rick Ufford-Chase is teaching us, acts of "divine obedience"), but the 90-minute service of worship at the National Cathedral. The reason, as the Rev. Jim Wallis explained at the end of the service, was that a number of religious leaders felt the need for a clear statement that many Christians see the war as wrong, precisely because the Administration and so many Americans, along with many Muslims and others around the world, have tended to view it as some kind of "Christian" enterprise.  The rest of the story >>
 

"Letting Go of Fear" -- a sermon

John Shuck was one of the many Presbyterians at the service and procession, and preached about his experience on Sunday morning. Focusing on "letting go of fear," he describes nonviolent action as a loving way of acting against the fear that has ruled our nation for the past few years. This kind of action, he concludes, may hold the only real hope for peace. "It was a witness to love that is always at work to reunite that which has been torn apart. If asked if I thought standing there would do any good, that the President would suddenly change his mind and change course, I would have to say, probably not. If asked if my standing there would change the world from fear and violence to love and peace, I would have to say, probably not. But I stood there not to change the world, but so that the world would not change me."

Thousands of Christians from around the country, including numerous Presbyterians, are expected to descend on Washington D.C. this week to demand an end to the war in Iraq.

The Christian Peace Witness for Iraq, to be held on Friday (March 16), will include worship, public prayer, and a candlelight vigil outside the White House that could land some demonstrators in jail.

More than 3,500 Protestants and Catholics, including clergy and other church leaders, have already registered for the one-day, nonviolent, anti-war witness. The event will begin with an ecumenical worship service at the Washington National Cathedral at 7 p.m.

The witness is partly the brainchild of Rick Ufford-Chase, executive director of the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship (PPF) and moderator of the 216th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in 2004.

from your WebWeaver, Doug King

The progression through the three readings led me ...

PC(USA) mission volunteer visits West Bank town of Hebron

"I would rather live in the refugee camp than here"

by Shannon O’Donnell  

I never imagined I would have such a thought. I was traveling with a group of international participants that Sabeel was hosting for the spring "Witness Visit." We went all over the West Bank, met with mayors, priests, political leaders, and regular people to hear about their current reality.   The rest of her report >>

Also from Shannon O'Donnell:  Meeting the Real Holy Land.

Another recent report from Shannon has been published in Network News, describing her experience at a Palestinian farm and vineyard outside Bethlehem, where she finds a project dedicated to "prepar[ing] young people for a positive contribution to their future and culture by bringing values of understanding and tolerance into their life experience."  Click here for the PDF version of Network News (Winter 2007), and jump to page 5.

We received this good note yesterday from Dean Lindsey, a Witherspoon member in Salem, VA

In reference to the recent article "Is it Time for a Presidential Apology?" I would like to mention an outstanding book by Psychiatrist Aaron Lazare called On Apology. It's the kind of book that any preacher could use as the basis for three or four good sermons. Lazare analyzes why we have trouble apologizing and what makes for both good and bad apologies.

For instance, apologies that are conditional, make excuses or shift blame simply cannot hit the mark. Examples would be "I am sorry if my remarks hurt your feelings" or "I am sorry that I hit you, but I thought you were planning to hit me." However, a genuine apology – ordinarily it is simple and to the point – is a completely cleansing and freeing thing both for the person who apologizes and the one who receives the apology.

Phil Gates, one of the Presbyterians arrested during the witness against the School of the Americas last November, will enter prison on March 21^st. He sends a letter about ways people can support him and the other 13 who will be entering prison on that day.

By Daniel Malotky, Associate Professor of Religion and Philosophy, and Director of Ethics across the Curriculum at Greensboro College.

President Bush has acknowledged on several occasions that mistakes have been made in Iraq. His statements, however, have been framed to present him as a strong leader who is willing to take responsibility for his actions. None of his public remarks has constituted an apology, and he scrupulously avoids any suggestion that the invasion as a whole was a mistake.

In these non-apologies, we confront the tragic gap between the ideal and the real. Repentance is at the heart of the faith this president so publicly espouses; the intersection of spirituality and morality, for Christians, lies in the ironically positioned capacity for admitting one's moral failure. The redemption that the President surely desires is only possible by shedding the sense of his own — and, by extension, America's — inherent righteousness by admitting wrongdoing.

A message from Michael Adee, National Field Organizer of More Light Presbyterians

Karen Thompson said she is sad, but not bitter that the Presbyterian Church is still struggling with sexuality issues in ordaining ministers. God led her to the seminary, she says, though now she'll be answering his call to serve elsewhere

Please join us in prayers of blessing for Karen Thompson, Austin Theological Seminary graduate, who is leaving the Presbyterian Church (USA) to follow God's call to serve as a pastor in another denomination, the Metropolitan Community Church.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) says it will launch in June an international, ecumenical peace initiative for peace in Israel and the Palestinian territories. An initial meeting will occur June 17-21 in Jordan.

"The initiative is a major step toward the WCC’s goal of mobilizing churches around the world for peace with justice in the Middle East," the WCC said in a March 7 statement. "Its launch will take place during this year's observances of 40 years under occupation
for Palestinians."

Who Are You to Challenge Me?  

Senior GAC leadership complete with appointment of Karen Schmidt

The slate of top-level leaders in the newly-restructured Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) General Assembly Council (GAC) is now complete with the hiring of Elder Karen L. Schmidt as Deputy Executive Director for Communication and Funds Development.

Schmidt, a Presbyterian elder from Glen Ellyn, IL, has more than 25 years experience as a senior executive with Fortune 500 and other high-powered companies. She is a member of First Presbyterian Church in Glen Ellyn, IL, pastored by conservative evangelical leader the Rev. Jerry Andrews.

In his new book, CIA analyst, distinguished scholar, and best-selling author Chalmers Johnson argues that US military and economic overreach may actually lead to the nation's collapse as a constitutional republic. It's the last volume in his Blowback trilogy, following the best-selling "Blowback" and "The Sorrows of Empire." In those two, Johnson argued American clandestine and military activity has led to un-intended, but direct disaster here in the United States.

In an interview with Amy Goodman, Johnson summarizes his argument from the book.

Johnson says early in the hour that he is serious about the subtitle of his book:

This is not just hype to sell books - "The Last Days of the American Republic." I'm here concerned with a very real, concrete problem in political analysis, namely that the political system of the United States today, history tells us, is one of the most unstable combinations there is - that is, domestic democracy and foreign empire - that the choices are stark. A nation can be one or the other, a democracy or an imperialist, but it can't be both. If it sticks to imperialism, it will, like the old Roman Republic, on which so much of our system was modeled, like the old Roman Republic, it will lose its democracy to a domestic dictatorship.

More >>

An environmentalist leads us on a new path through Lent

The Rev. Peter Sawtell, the Executive Director of Eco-Justice Ministries, is posting a very provocative and helpful exploration of what he calls the four core norms of an eco-justice ethic: solidarity, sustainability, sufficiency, and participation.

The one for this week, on sufficiency, asks "How much is enough?" – "one of the central questions for those who seek eco-justice in the world."

The current meditation, on Sufficiency, is entitled "Enough, Already."

The first meditation, on Solidarity, bears the title "All In It Together."

The second, on Sustainability, he calls "Nothing Left for the Kids"

The final one, due out in a couple weeks, will deal with Participation.

We recently posted a report by Geoff Browning on a conference held in the San Francisco Bay Area on the topic, "Finding Our Voice: The Conference for Progressives Constructively Addressing Anti-Semitism."  Sponsored by a number of Jewish organizations, it focused largely on what was described as "the New Anti-Semitism."

Gerrit Dawson, a CoModerator of the New Wineskins Association of Churches, has sent a word of thanks to Gene TeSelle for his recent article on the New Wineskins movement

Becce Bettridge, Director of the Network of Presbyterian Women in Leadership, attended the recent New Wineskins Association of Churches' Convocation in Orlando, Florida. As she summarizes her experience, "New Wineskins [has] issued their strategy for congregations to leave the PCUSA and join with the EPC (Evangelical Presbyterian Church). New Wineskins perceives this realignment as an opportunity for PCUSA congregations to be united with a denomination they consider to be a more faithful body of believers. As I engaged in conversations with members of the EPC and listened to speakers representing the EPC, I found myself asking questions about the ordination of women as officers in the proposed New Wineskins-EPC churches."

In response to this experience, she wrote an essay entitled "Has anyone asked the women?"

Peacemaking Update for 4 March 2007

There are (as usual) many good and important events and resources listed in the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program's latest update.  Among the major ones:

2007 Peacemaking Program Intergenerational Conference
Jesus: Proclaiming Peace
July 3-8
Montreat, NC


A WEEK OF PRAYER FOR CHRISTIANS IN THE MIDDLE EAST
Between Easter (April 8) and Pentecost (May 27)
Presbyterians are invited to celebrate a Week of Prayer and Witness with Christians in the Middle East. Resources to observe the week are available at http://pcusa.org/worldwide/middleeast

Justice in a Global Economy: Strategies for Home, Community, and World Edited by Pamela K. Brubaker, Rebecca Todd Peters, Laura A. Stivers

Published by Westminster John Knox Press, July, 2006. List Price: $19.95 (Paperback)

In addition to the editors, contributors include John B. Cobb Jr., Wylin Dassie, Mary Elizabeth Hobgood, W. Anne Joh, Shannon Jung, Daisy L. Machado, Marcia Allen Owens, Larry Rasmussen, and Carlton Waterhouse.

A Presbyterian congregation's property is held in trust for the use and benefit of the whole denomination. Read about challenges to this policy in the March cover story.

Film review: Amazing Grace

Ed McNulty reviews Amazing Grace, a film study of William Wilberforce, a man deeply involved in the movement to abolish the slave trade in the British Empire in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.   Read the review of Amazing Grace

Michael Jinkins writes that we are one body, not because we find each other’s views congenial, but because God has called us together. [Learn more.]

The Church in Society:  "Where is forgiveness?"

Vernon Broyles III, former associate for corporate witness in the PCUSA's National Ministries Division, offers monthly commentary on the issues that shape today's world, in a column titled The Church in Society.

In this month of Lent he asks about the meaning and necessity of forgiveness.

Comparing the execution of Saddam Hussein with the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission process in South Africa, he says that "only through the awful, painful gift of the victims of brutality and their families to reach out to the perpetrators with grace rather than vengeance, could the healing of that society have ever reached the stage it is now, imperfect though it still is."

So, he concludes, "Where violent people need to be restrained, so be it. But let us ask our leaders to seek a new spirit of openness that leads to reconciliation among warring peoples and a new opportunity for the healing and rebuilding that must come before attaining true peace."     The full short essay >>

A 'tidal wave of justice' began years ago, now continues through Coalition of Immokalee Workers

An article by Ronald A. Wells, titled "A ‘tidal wave of justice’," tells of minister Chris Hartmire's ground-breaking efforts in the 1960s, which set the stage for the church's support of farm workers. It mentions the more recent support for the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and the Alliance for Fair Food to promote socially responsible purchasing practices among major retail food corporations.

This is obviously a development of concern to all of us in the Presbyterian Church (USA), and one which calls for thought and reflection on all sides.  We offer here, for starters, three essays on this movement for separation, along with a brief sketch of the background of the matter.

Some of the contents:

Urges 'direct, unconditional talks' between the U.S. and Iran  

Sharon Youngs, Office of the General Assembly communications officer, sent this news release on March 1:

Amid growing tensions between the United States and Iran, Clifton Kirkpatrick, Stated Clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), sent letters late last week to Presidents George W. Bush and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, encouraging them to hold "direct, unconditional talks" between the two nations.

The Stated Clerk joins a chorus of religious leaders worldwide who are appealing for the direct talks amid deepening concern after the passing of the deadline for Iran's compliance with United Nations Resolution 1737 to end its move toward the development of nuclear weapons capability.

Late word yesterday of the possibility of direct talks happening next month is "very encouraging news to receive," said Kirkpatrick.

In his letters, the Stated Clerk lifts up the decades-long commitment of the General Assembly to "the preferential use of nonviolent means for conflict resolution and social change."

Farmworkers protest decision outside hamburger company's HQ 

Fast-food giant Burger King has told the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) that it will not pay a penny more per pound to farmworkers harvesting its tomatoes.

The CIW, a Florida-based group of farmworkers receiving support from the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and other faith groups, is calling on some of the nation's largest fast-food companies to do their part to improve wages and working conditions for the laborers who pick their tomatoes.

PC(USA) General Assembly Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick said in a statement to Burger King in January that workers who pick tomatoes in Florida for Burger King continue to face poverty wages and exploitative working conditions.   "They still lack rights enjoyed by workers in other industries," Kirkpatrick wrote.

Kirkpatrick said in his letter that Burger King is "morally and ethically" obligated to correct the deficiencies because the company profits from the exploitation of the workers.

The Best of the Temptations  

On the first Sunday of Lent, Lisa Larges preached a profound – and funny – sermon on Luke’s account of the temptations of Jesus. She began by lamenting what so many are experiencing these days: that it seems the Presbyterian Church would rather be right than be in love. 

She went on to explore Satan’s temptations of Jesus as inviting him to escape his human vulnerability – and he refused, because for him the Scriptures were about loving and being loved, not about being right and being invulnerable. That view of Scripture she offered is what the church needs now, for itself and for the well-being of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people who are still seeking a place within that church.

Larges has just been named the Minister-Coordinator of That All May Freely Serve.

Stunning Reversal for Former Veep