Day 3: Collaborative Efforts: Assets

Our speaker this afternoon was Steve de Gruchy, Head of the School of Religion and Theology, University of KwaZulu-Natal. He spoke to us about the theological underpinnings of the MDGs and the various kinds of partnerships we ought to enter into. He described them as marriages and asked us to think of new marriages that might be designed, and reminded us that from marriages often come children. There was one bit of advice he gave us which stuck with me:

Start with assets.

Immediately I realized, duh, this is basic community organizing. That as we identify concerns in our communities, we start to confront them by analyzing our assets and the power we can access. "Start with assets" he advised, "and then go to needs." For a firm foundation, we should build on what people/communities do have, not what they don't.

As I thought about how that might apply to peacework and the MDGs, I thought about how our Creating a Culture of Peace curriculum uses popular education to do just that sort of thing, to draw out from individuals and groups their own power to effect the creation of communities of reconciliation. I thought about the powerful affect of drawing on the legacy of Dr. King and the civil rights movement as guides for our own approaches. God calls us to live out of gratitude for our abundance, rather than timidly stepping into the world afraid that we might give away what little seems to be ours. Our truth is that when God calls us to this work, God has equipped us for it, and guides us through it (if we pay attention!). We are never left alone to accomplish God's mission and the work of reconciliation is particularly rooted in a ministry of collaboration.

Thanks be to God for all the people God brings us into mission with!

Day 3: Collaborative Efforts

Dear readers, if any of you ever plans a conference, please do this: 1) fill it with all the amazing things you want people to hear and do, with speakers, committee mtgs, tea breaks, meals. 2) cut 25%.

In the few opportunities that I've had in between our sessions to speak with people, I've had the most amazing conversations. I attended a session today to hear a case study of MDG work being done in Zambia. It was interesting and a lot of thought went into preparing it. We listened for 2 hours, having already been to a 2 hour session and heading to another. At the end of it I was able to talk to the young man sitting next to me. He was Henry from Tanzania, and is involved with an HIV/AIDS ministry there. He shared with me the kind of work he does and the kind of difficulties that are involved with it. He described the great partnerships in his diocese with ERD and Carpenters Kids through the Diocese of New York. (The New York program is of interest to me as a model for how the KY partnership with Hannah Ministries could grow.)

Later I had a conversation with another new friend about the complicated issues involved in a US response to the MDGs. 'Don't we have our own problems?' people often ask. As we discussed this we were joined by a young man from Southern Malawi who added much to our discussion and shared with us information about the MDG work being done in his own diocese.

These conversations are at least as valuable as the formal sessions, and I hope to find myself in many more of them.

Day 2: Being the Church: Mission

Just a little prayer book definition for you:

What is the mission of the Church?
The mission of the Church is to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ.

How does the Church pursue its mission?
The Church pursues its mission as it prays and worships, proclaims the Gospel, and promotes justice, peace, and love.

Visit the MissionWorks website.

Day 2: Being the Church: having fun together!

So, I'm not a great photographer...but this a photo from the bonfire that was built just outside our dining 'huts' tonight. Following a great dinner with an amazing group of people, I sat with some friends at the bonfire and watched my fellow Anglicans dancing along to marimbas and bongos. Ok, ok, I danced a little too. Unfortunately for my Canterbury Cards there is no evidence.

Maybe the best way to be the Church is to have a little fun together.

Day 2: Being the Church

Today we heard perspectives on what it means to be the Church engaged in mission, and what our mission might look like. I've included below some highlights from both the Archbishop of Cape Town and Canterbury, as best as I can recreate from my scribbled notes. I hope the texts will be made available sometime, as I'm sure my outlining does not do their thoughtful, passionate words justice.

Before I get to that I will share one line that has stuck with me all day, a line which didn't come from the mouth of an Archbishop. In fact, it came out of the mouth of someone who was a participant in an ERD malaria program, as recounted by Abigail Nelson, part of the ERD staff. Part of the program's success is its education component. Abigail relayed to us that many--millions--of cases of malaria could be avoided each year simply by educating people about how the disease (and mosquitos) work. Following one such program that shared information about how mosquito nets can be effective in preventing malaria, a woman asked:

Why didn't anyone tell us this before?

This question is heartbreaking, not because of any intentional deception or even apathy, but because it is rooted in the reality that we, as a family of human beings, have yet to be able to find a way to live together in a way that would make such an oversight impossible. How is it that no one told these millions dying from malaria that the simple act of hanging (a very inexpensive) net would save their lives? How is it that we can receive dozens of duplicate forwarded emails about some danger that is actual only an internet hoax, but we cannot get the simple, but life-saving, facts about malaria to our brothers and sisters who are most vulnerable to the risk? It is only because we operate from the (to paraphrase Archbishop Williams) 'fundamental untruth, unreality' that 'one group can flourish at the expense of another' rather than embracing God's truth that 'no community is protected from the loss or trauma of others.'

There are many things we don't tell each other, and many things we allow to happen to each other simply because we deny the reality of the Christ in all persons, the reality that each of us is a part of the one body. If we lived that reality--if we lived as though your life was my life--wars would cease, food would be shared, and everyone would know that a $3 mosquito net can save your life.

____________________

God's world crying out to Him
An address by the Archbishop of Cape Town

This morning we heard from Archbishop Ndungane about his vision for the Church's mission. He described it as a process of 'comprehensive salvation', asking us to resist over spiritualizing the promise of abundant life, but instead understanding the implications of the gospel in our real, daily, enfleshed lives. "The gospel," he explained, "is not the Word made text!" Rather, of course, it is the Word made known in Jesus Christ. He went on to say that the Church is called into being by mission for the sake of salvation, as a fire exists by burning. Archbishop Ndungane reminded us that we are agents of transformation to restore all people to God and each other in Christ, and that mission "is an activity that transforms reality" and that mission itself "must constantly be transformed." God's world is crying out to Him and through the mission of the Church, God is acting.

Ndungane described how it is important for Christians to be concerned with holiness but that we must be mindful that our quest for personal holiness does not occur "at the expense of God's mission in God's world." We must live out the whole whole breadth of God's creation and trust that God will overcome the differences we have. He admonished us to live our lives in service to one another, standing for the "equitable sharing of God's abundance" so that their is sustainable life for all. God provides "for our need, not our greed" Ndungane said. "But we operate out of the fallacy that there is shortage." That fallacy, he explained, leads us to exploit one another often.

"We are all neighbors now. Our lives are intimately caught up with one another. God's world cries out to Him, and God hears, and God acts."


_________________

Knowing the Lord: Giving the Poor a Fair Trial
An address by the Archbishop of Canterbury

Archbishop Williams also addressed us this morning, exploring several biblical texts which call us into service of the poor and the other in order to "know the Lord." It was a lengthy talk, worth every second, but I will only recount some highlights:

• Williams reminded us that "to know" in biblical terms is to describe an intimate knowledge. "To know" is not simply the exchange of acknowledgements, but the establishment and expression of a profound relationship.
• Through his study of the Hebrew Scriptures, the Archbishop asserts that "to know the Lord" is to "give the poor a fair trial." Through our "fairness to the poor" we are obeying the essence of the law, which is to 'do justice.' Living that way assures that "no one is forgotten, no one is invisible. The whole community is responsible to God, to each other, and for each other.
• In the New Testament, Williams sees that "in Jesus the final purpose of God is reavealed, not as an idea, but as a human being creating community. Jesus reshaped what it means to be the people of God. Those who thought they had no destiny under God are touched, received, affirmed by Jesus." Again, no one is forgotten, no one is invisible.

Archbishop Williams then began to offer questions we might all ask ourselves:

• What does the end of the world look like? Is it the images of popular fantastical apolyptic movies and books? Or is it not a comforting, rapturous end for the righteous but rather a world "where Jesus is"? A world where the future, the end, is near because Jesus is near? "We are part of the end of the world, where God's purpose defines the boundaries of human living." This kind of Christian community has heard the promise and is committed to living to it, but not just for those who have heard, but for all those who might ever hear it.
• Who is being forgotten? "The diminishment of any human being leads to our own diminishment." Living out this principle in our community is "a sacrament, because every action in which God's justice becomes manifest is sacramental as it shows God's future." As we gather at the table, "we are each there waiting on the other, everyone attending to the reality of others." To the church in the West/North +++Rowan asked: "Have you understood that you are deprived, dehumanized by some being allowed to remain invisible? To be a perpetrator of injustice is to be a victim as well."
• In 200 years, about what will people ask "How did they miss this?"

TEAM Conference Opening Eucharist

[Ed. note: I uploaded photos!]

Hi friends,
Well, the internet is a little spotty. I will try to get new posts to you as much as possible! Hopefully I will have more luck with uploading photos later, too.

Tonight we were joyfully and graciously welcomed by All Soul's Parish in Tsakane, Gauteng for the opening Eucharist (see photo at left). The parish runs a very effective HIV/AIDS ministry and day care center and showed us tremendous hospitality. As we arrived by buses, the community was gathered around singing, waving TEAM flags, dancing, and just generally doing all they could to welcome us. The 2 1/2 hour Eucharist was amazing, something like I had never experienced before. To look around and see the very diverse faces of my Anglican brothers and sisters reminded me of why those relationships are so important: that's what the kingdom of God looks like. All these faces gathered together worshipping the living God, embracing our differences as opportunity rather than obstacle.

Yesterday, when our flight began the descent into Jo-burg, a brief introductory video appeared on the screens in front of us. It relayed the beauty, warmth, and prophetic history of this place. There was a line that stood out to me: Welcome to South Africa, where 9 indigenous languages are still spoken, none of which has a word that means "stranger".

As we arrived and then worshipped together in Tsakane, I could not imagine that any of us was considered a stranger by the people there. We were treated, in fact, like highly honored guests. (I was even asked for my autograph by a young girl! See our photo at the right.) As the Archbishop of Canterbury preached on the parable of the lost sheep, describing how none of us is whole without the other, that in the heavenly choir God listens not for who is the loudest, but to the voice which isn't being heard, I gave thanks for all those voices I have already heard here in South Africa, voices that even in the short time I've been here have brought me to a new understanding of our global relationships and our mission of reconciliation.

One of those voices came from a conference worker who met us at the airport and sat next to me on a bench as we waited for our shuttle. Her name was Mami Carole. (Since I'm Amy Carol, we felt a kinship immediately!) She told me she was from Soweto and wanted to know what I knew about it. I had just seen a documentary about Mama Jackie's school there, so we chatted about that. We talked about the history of violence there and its ongoing legacy. "It's just that people are so poor" she said. "The poverty destroys people." After we talked about why our group was here, she shared with me the story of watching her closest brother die from AIDS at the age of 30. We talked about the complicated web of poverty, violence, HIV, hunger. "But," she said, "it's not all bad in Soweto. There are very good things there." Having spent only a few minutes with Mami from Soweto, I had no doubt about the very good things there.

This work, all of it--the MDGs, Creating a Culture of Peace, trying to be a global church--this work is not about fixing a problem. It's about finding transformed wholeness by seeking and serving Christ in all persons; it's about living into our baptismal reality of being One Body; its about listening for the lost voice in the midst of an often cacophonous choir so that God's beautiful chorus might be heard.

Michael Ramsey on the Ministry of Reconciliation

From one of the books on my reading list below Glory Descending: Michael Ramsey and His Writings:

"The ministry of reconciliation is part of the life of a reconciled and reconciling church. This means a Church aware that it owes its own existence to the reconciliation of the Cross, and has its worship ever deepened by that awareness. It means also a Church which prays for the world, with the question, 'who is my neighbor?' ceaselessly in heart and mind and outgoing action. Within this reconciling prayer and action is Christian concern about relations with people of other races and religion, about poverty and hunger in the world, about cruelty and injustice, and about weapons of destruction. Within the confession of our sins there will be included sins of attitude, complacency or idleness of thought. We are not sinning if we are unsure of the answers to hard questions: we are sinning if we do not think or care. All this is part of a renewed ministry of reconciliation in
the life of the Church."

-Be Still and Know, 1982