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Reporting on ...
BECOMING NEIGHBORS:
An Invitation to Global Discipleship
by Doug King [10-4-07]
From the Witherspoon
conference
Called to mission in an age of Empire
The Witherspoon Society conference was held
from September 16 to 19 at the Hampton Inn in downtown
Louisville, near the offices of the Presbyterian General
Assembly. While the registered participants were not as many as
we had hoped, the group was augmented by a number of people from
the Louisville area who dropped in for at least part of the
event, and enriched it by their own contributions.
Practicing Global Discipleship
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Libby Hunter and
Kori Phillips |
We began on Sunday evening, Sept. 16, with
three mission volunteers telling us of their own practicing of
global discipleship.
Libby Hunter
and Kori Phillips spoke in
a dialogue about their one-year experiences as YAVs – Libby in Northern
Ireland and Kori in Lima, Peru.
Click
here for a short report, or see
the full script
of their presentation.
Shannon O’Donnell
then spoke out of her experience in Jerusalem during the past
year as a Volunteer in Mission, where the Witherspoon Society
has been a partial sponsor of her work on the staff of the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center in
Jerusalem.
Prayers for Peace
Following these three very personal presentations, we were led in Evening
Prayers by the Rev. David Gambrel, who is the associate for worship in the
Office of Theology and Worship of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). This
worship was designed to be Witherspoon’s small part in the round-the-clock
peace vigil that has been initiated by the
Christian Peace Witness for
Iraq.
Current Mission Movements
Monday morning, following morning prayers, we heard four
lively reports on current mission movements. As Co-Moderator Jake Young said
in introducing the speakers, we were clearly beginning the conference with
"praxis," and then moving to hear and think about the theological "theory"
which is reflected in the mission actions.
Three specific movements were represented: the New
Sanctuary Movement (Trina Zelle), the Campaign for Fair Food (Noelle
Damico), and the National Sweat-Free Consortium (Andrew Kang
Bartlett). Hunter Farrell, the new director of the PCUSA's
World Mission program area, offered a more general -- and very personal -- look at "World Mission in an
Age of Empire."
The New Social Creed
Monday afternoon we focused on the New Social Creed
which is being drafted to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of the
so-called Social Creed of the Churches, which was adopted in 1908 at the
founding of the Federal Council of Churches. Currently the Methodists and
the Presbyterians, as well as the National Council of Churches, are
drafting a new, updated version of the Social Creed,
responding to the new concerns of the 21st century.
To help us think about this important new statement, a
panel including Chris Iosso, Elizabeth Hinson-Hasty and Gene
TeSelle, all of whom have been involved in the Presbyterian
drafting team, helped us understand the process and the content of the
draft. After some question-and-answer exchange,
the Rev. Roberto Jordan, a pastor from Argentina, was invited to
share
his perspective in light of his experience in the drafting of the Accra
Confession, which was intentionally written for the World Alliance of
Reformed Churches to reflect the perspective of the Global South on today’s
issues.
Evening Worship: Celebration of Communion, and a sermon by
Roberto Jordan on "Becoming Neighbors"
Our time of worship on Monday was
centered on the celebration of Communion, in what worship leader David
Gambrell called a "Word and Table Service."
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Roberto Jordan |
The service opened with a responsive
reading of Micah 6:8:
God has shown us what is good.
What does the Holy One require?
To do justice, to love kindness, and to walk
humbly with God.
The Rev. Roberto Jordan
preached the sermon, taking the conference theme seriously by challenging us
to think in new ways about
"Becoming Neighbors."
To be neighbors, he said, is to
be shaped by our sisters and brothers in the community of faith
– with no person being above another person, no nation being
superior to another nation. Each of us has a different function,
different gifts, and it’s that variety of gifts (and our respect
for each other’s gifts) that makes the church a dynamic movement
rather than simply an institution. Only when we begin to
practice this kind of "closeness" with those who are different
from us will we be truly practicing neighborliness.
A Challenge from Accra for North American
Churches
Tuesday morning saw us shift our attention to the very important
statement issued by the General Council of the World Alliance of Reformed
Churches meeting Accra, Ghana, in 2004. A recently published pamphlet with
the text of the Accra Confession introduces it by explaining that the
Confession was "based on the theological conviction that the economic and
environmental injustices of today’s global economy require the Reformed
family to respond as a matter of faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ. The
Accra Confession calls upon Reformed Christians around the world to engage
injustices in the world as an integral part of their churches’ witness and
mission."
We heard first from the Rev.
Dr.
Clifton Kirkpatrick, Stated Clerk of the PC(USA) and current President of the World
Alliance of Reformed Churches, and then from the Rev.
Dr. Setri Nyomi, who
is the General Secretary of the World Alliance, and is originally from
Ghana.
Cameroon: Living out the Accra Confession
Later Tuesday morning, Christi Boyd and Valéry Nodem, of the Joining Hands Network in Cameroon,
described how the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon is taking the lead in the struggle
for justice – social, economic and environmental -- as one
expression of the commitments made by those who shared in
Covenanting for Justice in the Economy and the Earth. They
work with
RELUFA, the Network for the Fight Against Hunger, which is a
national network of Cameroonian churches, along with ecumenical
and secular non-profit organizations, working since 2001 to take
common action against hunger, poverty, and social, economic, and
environmental injustice.
They described
ways
U.S. Christians can help in their struggle, especially by
supporting the "Publish What You Pay" campaign.
More on the Accra Confession
and "Covenanting for Justice"
Roberto Jordan considers the Accra
Confession from the perspective of Latin America
Following the presentations Tuesday morning
on the Accra Confession, and on the way some of its ideas are being put into
practice the Cameroon, we heard again from Roberto Jordan, offering his
perspective as an Argentine citizen and one of the drafters of the
Confession, on both the Confession itself and the wider framework of ideas
that accompany it.
"Open Space Technology" -- time (and space) for
do-it-yourself
small
group discussions
Tuesday afternoon, following Roberto Jordan’s
challenging discussion of the Accra Confession and the new
"Covenanting for Justice in the Economy and the Earth" program,
we made use of the
Open Space Technology method for creating small group
conversations about a variety of topics that were announced and
led by conference participants.
Closing worship – commissioned for justice
Wednesday's closing worship, again led by
David Gambrel, was designed as a service of commissioning, with
the readings based mainly on the Accra Confession which had been
the centerpiece of our time together and now provided a
direction for our going forth.
Were you there??
Your additions and comments are welcome!
Just send a note. |
The
Witherspoon Conference
on global mission and
justice