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Mission Yearbook
There is a significant difference between being born “white” and “whiteness,” according to author Kerry Connelly, and she discussed that and other white supremacy concepts during a recent webinar presented by the Presbyterian Outlook and sponsored by the Presbyterian Publishing Corporation.
The Rev. Dr. Diane Moffett, president and executive director of the Presbyterian Mission Agency, welcomed more than 230 attendees to a recent Matthew 25 online event focused on eradicating systemic poverty within the U.S.
Using a question-and-answer format, a longtime Presbyterian pastor and an inquirer in Sacramento Presbytery offered a workshop during the recent Intercultural Transformation Workshops.
Early in 2019, a crop of strange, new signs started springing up everywhere across the yards and businesses of rural, predominantly white Macomb, Illinois, like so many cornstalks in Iowa’s neighboring fields.
Esparto, California, is surrounded by some of the most productive and lush farmland in the nation, producing vast crops of vegetables, fruits and nuts. Yet the town does not have a grocery store that sells fresh produce. For Countryside Community Church, which describes itself on its website as “an old church with a new vision,” this gap became an opportunity to live out its call as a Matthew 25 congregation.
In a lecture series sponsored by Union Presbyterian Seminary and the Center for Social Justice and Reconciliation, the Rev. Dr. James Forbes spoke on “COVID-19: A Parable of Plagues before Deliverance.” Forbes, considered to be among the most significant prophetic voices in our nation, is pastor emeritus of The Riverside Church and professor emeritus at Union Theological Seminary in New York, and has for decades helped frame the nation’s theological sense of justice.
The past year has been this odd dance of ever-changing realities and downright monotony. We have completely shifted how we live. From shopping to Sunday school, nothing is the same. All the while, this new way of living has meant staring at the same walls, the same Zoom screen and the same people day after day. Waking up to wonder what crazy thing happened while I slept, while at the same time realizing that today’s schedule will essentially look like yesterday’s, has pretty much sucked the creative lifeblood right out of me.
Six months had passed since our elders transitioned to more prayerful session meetings. I was checking in with Vic, one of our crustier members who had resisted the change. “So, how are you dealing with the new meeting style?” I asked.
It humbles me the extent to which our Roma friends and colleagues practice hospitality, always laying a table for us with whatever they have. They are among the poorest of the poor, marginalized by a society that feels threatened by an alien culture living in their midst. I don’t use the word alien as a negative, just a reality. They are a people with deep traditions, a strong sense of family and community, their own language, their own music, their own style of dress. They do not wish to be assimilated, but they do wish to live in peace with their neighbors, if it is only possible. Often, should a job be posted, as soon as a Roma man or woman applies, it is not available. The Roma are also subject to violence (pogroms) and blamed for any bad incident that takes place in a community. It is assumed that they will steal what is not nailed down.
Henry owned a parcel of land. He had bought a 100-by-100-foot lot in a dangerous part of town years ago hoping to make a profit when the neighborhood improved. For a time, he lived in the vacant building on the lot to chase away squatters and even got beat up a few times. Henry was a big man. What I remember most about Henry was the way he walked, with a purposeful stride, wearing a white button-down shirt with the sleeves rolled up. My partners and I had gone to see him about buying that piece of property. He was a tough negotiator, but eventually we came to an agreement.
