General Assembly 2006

Peacemakers Anne Barstow and Tom Driver receive the Andrew Murray award    [7-3-06]

One feature of this year’s Witherspoon Awards Luncheon was a double-header. Anne Barstow and Tom Driver, a couple both of whom have long been active in working for peace in the U.S. as well as in Colombia, Haiti, and Central America, received the Andrew Murray Award in recognition of their courageous work, especially in acting as accompaniers to people whose lives have been under threat because of oppressive (and often U.S.-supported) regimes.

by Doug King

The Witherspoon Society’s Award Luncheon, held on Sunday June 18, drew about 170 people – some drifting in a bit late as they returned from worship services at churches around the Birmingham area.

The keynote speaker for the luncheon, the Rev. Eugenia Gamble, was introduced by a long-time friends, the Rev. Luanne Griguoli-Pasto of Nipomo, California. Griguoli-Pasto suggested that Gamble’s "passion for justice" must come partly from her parents, but that ultimately it comes from "her deep and contagious faith in Jesus Christ." In spite of struggles with health problems since childhood, "she has made a powerful witness for Christian in mission, stewardship, visioning and redevelopment, to name a few."

Gamble told the story of a congregation she called "extraordinary" – First Presbyterian Church of Birmingham. This congregation, she said, has been showing deep compassion to its community by providing hospitality and a safe place to the people in its downtown neighborhood, just a few blocks from the Convention Center where the General Assembly is meeting this week.

The congregation, founded in 1872, has a long history of involvement in the community. During the time of the Civil Rights movement, the church made a choice for "opening its doors to all of God’s people." With that great step forward, "half of God’s people who were already there the members went out those same doors, never to be seen or heard from again," added Gamble.

But the church has remained faithful to its mission calling; in 1981, after a very cold Christmas time in which numerous people froze to death on the streets at night, the church determined to provide shelter for people who needed it.

Shelters were started for both men and women, which eventually developed into a shelter for women; when Gamble arrived in 1996, the shelter had been operating for a number of years, providing shelter for around 15 women and their children, and sometimes as many as 30 or more women and their children, "on pallets in the basement of a 125-year-old building."

Knowing that more needed to be done, the people formed First Light ministry. But the church has developed other ministries too: a child development program; a youth service corps, which brings affluent white youth from the suburbs into contact with young people in the neighborhood; a tutoring program; Habitat for Humanity and water purification projects in Oaxaca, Mexico; and most recently a visiting chaplaincy program, called Ruth and Naomi, aimed at providing care for the elderly in the community who are most at risk, providing hospice care. They people involved in this ministry had contact last year with more than 6,000 people.

Then she turned back to First Light, the church’s shelter for homeless women and children. In 2005, she said, the program provided shelter, often for a long term, to 1,346 individuals, for a total of some 15,000 "bed nights." Some 85% of these people are mentally ill, and over 50% are recovering or active addicts. Last year 1500 people gave some 7500 volunteer hours to staff this mission of caring. The program provides shelter, often long-term, as well as counseling, art and music programs.

She paused then to say "thanks" to Presbyterian Women, whose Birthday Offering provided a grant of $250,000 which gave us the assurance that we were doing what God wanted us to do.
At this point, Gamble paused to show parts of two videos about First Light – primarily, she said, because "I wanted you to see their faces" – that is, the see the faces and hear the voices of some of the women who have been helped there. "It is in those stories, and in those eyes, and in those faces, that God reaches out and says to us ‘Who’s hurting here? Did you visit me, did you comfort me, di you dare for me?’ So I wanted you to see their faces."

Then she noted that people are always asking "how we did it" – how a congregation, with just 90 in worship on Sunday morning, provides the money and the people to make this program work. She wanted to do this, she said "In order to encourage you to continue doing what you are doing, but also to look beyond yourselves to learn what else you might be called upon to do in your local community."

She then offered a few lessons she has learned from the experience of raising the support – amounting to $2,500,000 – for the First Light project:

"Money doesn’t grow on trees, but God ain’t broke neither."

"We had to take time to ask for, and to receive, God’s vision for us." The question to ask was not what needed doing by us, but rather "what God was doing in and for the people we wanted to help." That helped us to focus, "rather than just scattering ourselves everywhere."

They had to be certain to "put first thing first," which meant that the people in the congregation had to continue growing spiritually and in Biblical understanding, and had to have compelling worship, and had to learn about giving before they went out asking for more giving for the community.

And they had to "put together a team of people with various skills and expertise to think things through." One good thing about having such a team, she noted, is that "everybody’s not hysterical at the same time."

They "hired an MBA to talk to CEOs." Others in the congregation, with business experience, also helped greatly.

They weren’t prepared for the competitiveness among congregations, which were all seeking funds and were bothered by the major efforts for First Light. They had to help other people understand that they were complementing other programs, not competing with them.

Such a group needs a leader or two who can be a "public face" – well known in the wider community, able to work with the media and to contact political leaders.

They also needed to learn to recognize that "God owns the project and we don’t" – so eventually the leadership team had to tell me that "I had done my part and it was time for me to let go."

They learned, too, that they could work well with secular and ecumenical agencies without giving up their own Christian convictions. That can be done, she said, "as long as we do it respectfully, intentionally, and humbly."

She concluded by asking the question, Why did we do it? The answer: "How could we have notdone it? It was just what was presented to us to do. The need was there, and the people with passion were there, and God made it clear to us that if not now, when? If not us, who? And so we did it. And I am so proud of the people in this room, and honored to have been associated with this congregation."

And then she added: "Sisters and brothers in Christ, be who you are: Be love in skin. Be the body of Christ in your community and in your world."

And then came her words of challenge and blessing, that she used to use at First Church. It’s adapted, she said, from an old monastic benediction:

May God bless you with discomfort
with easy answers and half truths and superficial relationships,
so that you will live deeply
and from the heart.

And may God bless you with anger
at injustice, oppression, and the exploitation of people,
so that you will work
for justice, freedom and peace.

And may God bless you with tears to shed
for those that mourn,
so you will reach out your hand to them
and turn mourning into joy.

And may God bless you with just enough foolishness
to believe that you can make a difference in this old world,
so that you will do those things that others say
cannot be done.

The grace of our Savior Jesus Christ,
the amazing love of God,
and the communion of the Holy Spirit,
be with you this holy day,
and forever.

Amen. And thank you.

Whole Gospel Congregation Award

Following Eugenia Gamble’s address, Witherspoon’s Whole Gospel Congregation Award was presented to the congregation by Witherspoon treasurer David Zuverink.

He read the citation:

The Witherspoon Society presents the Whole Gospel Congregation Award to the First Presbyterian Church, Birmingham, Alabama, in grateful recognition of its effective commitment to ministry to all the people of its urban community.

June 18, 2006

The award was acknowledged by Joan Witherspoon-Norris, a member of First Presbyterian Church, who said "I was asked to accept this award because my name is Witherspoon, not because I’ve had much to do with the great accomplishments of this congregation."

Then she told a bit about her own experience of the church: