Fridays for the Future: Youth Lead in Climate Crisis

Greta Thunberg, 16-year-old Swedish climate activist, led a group of young people to the White House lawn this Friday insisting those inside act like grown-ups to do something about the global climate crisis. These past months Greta has been leading a global movement of school students to make a statement every Friday: “Fridays for the Future.” She has galvanized the world’s young people who know action must be taken now. She spoke this summer at the World Economics Forum in Switzerland and is looking forward to the United Nations General Assembly next week in NYC.

When asked in a television interview aired Friday night on Public television why she thinks there is so much inaction on the climate crisis, she said she thinks that human beings often are of two minds morally, saying they are concerned about an issue, but they “go along” with society which they see is not doing anything to change.  When asked what has led her to step forward, she replied that she believes it is due in part to her being on the autism spectrum. “I don’t usually follow society coding, but go my own way.”  She speaks in a very intelligent, sophisticated manner about the need for both individual action and systemic policy change.  Her passionate, persistent activism is inspiring youth around the world and adults as well to become more aware of and feel the urgency of the climate change crisis.

Finally: Ordination for Deacons, Beyond Classism Toward Partnership

By one little word the ELCA in assembly changed the entrance rite for ministers of Word and Service—Deacons—to “ordination.” I celebrate that decision. The vote wasn’t even close. We have come a long way, but it has taken a long time.

Let me go back before the ELCA came into being. I served on the “Design Task Force on Specific Ministry” (1983-4) We presented a model to the proposed new church on the “Public Ministries of the Church” for the “Office Word and Sacrament” and the “Office of Word and Service.” I remember drawing the parallel chart. The two ministries were to be side by side. The proposal was not accepted

After the beginning of the ELCA, January, 1988, the “Task Force on the Study for Ministry” was formed. I also served on that (for five years) and on the subcommittee which designed diaconal ministry. Diaconal ministers would be called to serve inside the structures of the church and called by the church to serve in the world outside the structures of the church. For many years we had faithful diaconal ministers, associates in ministry and members of the ELCA deaconess community.

Meanwhile I also served on the Anglican-Lutheran International Commission which produced the Hanover Report “The Diaconate as Ecumenical Opportunity.” (1996)

I had the privilege of teaching M.A. in Diaconal Ministry students at Wartburg Seminary for many years, seeing them flourish in their service in the world and yet never quite understood or fully accepted in the church on whose behalf they served. (“Why don’t you want to be a pastor?”) We still had a ways to go to fully catch the vision of the being the church for the sake of the world.

As the ELCA studied uniting the three “lay” rosters into one, I prepared a paper, “Diaconal Ministry from the Open Tomb to the Open World.” Jesus was a diaconal minister. Faithful diakonia is theologically grounded in a theology of the cross, facing the great wounds of the world, and a theology of the resurrection: death no longer has dominion.

I celebrated the ELCA’s 2016 decision to adopt a unified roster of “Word and Service” using the term “Deacon.” Deacons are now serving as hospital chaplains, musicians, congregational administrators, in disability ministries, in urban education and food ministries, as lawyer, college president, and so much more.

Finally, would “Pastor” and “Deacon” be side-by-side in collaborative ministry? However, the word “ordination” remained difficult. It was the entrance rite, not the essence of service, but it would take more time to move beyond systemic hierarchical and classism biases.

Finally, in 2019, the ELCA made a bold “new” and yet very New Testament decision with global and ecumenical support. Within the one ministry rooted in baptism, some are called to the ministry of “Word and Service” and some to the ministry of “Word and Sacrament,” side by side. Partners in the Gospel.

School Bussing: History Presents a Racial School Integration Challenge Today

School Bussing! The Kamala Harris and Joe Biden interchange caught people’s attention. The issue itself, however, is not just old history but a contemporary challenge. Will all children have equal, excellent education together in their community public schools?

Sixty-five years ago the U.S. Supreme Court declared the doctrine of “separate but equal” unconstitutional (Brown vs. the Board of Education) and invalidated racial segregation in public schools, paving the way for integration in nearly every aspect of American life.  That was 1954.

For years, however, thousands of neighborhood schools remained segregated due to demographics; children who lived in predominantly black neighborhoods still did not go to the same schools as white children, and vice versa.

In the 1968-69 school year in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school system in North Carolina, 14,000 of the 24,000 black students had attended schools that were at least 99 percent black. The NAACP challenged the school board and won the case in 1969: the school district must use bussing to achieve racial diversity in its schools. On April 20, 1971, the United States Supreme Court upheld the use of bussing to achieve racial desegregation in schools.

There were plans that called for the bussing of black students to suburban schools as well as the bussing of white suburban students to city schools throughout the country. Many of us who lived through that era remember school bussing of black children to white schools.  However, in most places white parents were enraged at the thought of bussing their children to predominately black schools.  Our family was living in a predominately black and Hispanic neighborhood at the 1970’s. Our children were the only white children in the school and so it remained.

This was also the time when four million whites moved from cities to suburbs.  Between 1960 and 1977 this white flight contributed to nearly all-white suburbs and predominantly black inner cities. White fear of people of color! Anti-bussing activism drew on the “dangers” of racial integration. Opposition to bussing was about preserving racial divisions.

School bussing was a predominant racial issue in the 1970’s.  In 1974 a second Supreme Court decision declared that integration plans could not extend beyond district boundaries and its ruling continues to shape American schools to this day. Although our society in many respects has become more integrated, in many other ways we returned to separate and unequal.

We know that today schools are more segregated by race, class and economic status than they were 65 years ago.  In intervening years people have chosen alternatives to public schools, citing all sorts of reasons. Meanwhile public school resources and teachers’ pay suffer. Some people raise the false alternate question, “Which is more important, “achieving diversity or raising academic standards?” Both of course. (That question assumes we lower standards by having white people join people of color in living and learning together.)

The issues of fear, discrimination by race and class, and the economic gap, remain.  And so does the challenge: for all children to have equal excellent education together in public, community schools. This is our nation’s need.

Note: The National Education Association (NEA) hosted its annual assembly in Houston July 5 with the “Strong Public Schools Presidential Forum” with Democratic presidential candidates as the centerpiece of its meeting.

I Don't Lose Power When You Are Empowered

“When you are fully empowered, I do not lose power but

am empowered as well.”

North Iowa Area Community College announces the following class by Dr. Norma Cook Everist: “Power and Partnership: Personal and Social Power in the Workplace” Tuesday, May 28

Join us for an interactive seminar to build productive relationships.

We will explore together the power cycle which is real,

strong and so commonplace that we may not even notice it.

Once we do, there is opportunity for change as we develop

skills for what we can actually say, and do in difficult situations.

Participants will be invited to enter the conversation from wherever

they are as we open ourselves to ongoing growth, working

toward more just, equitable partnerships in the workplace.

You can find out more information about this course by contacting

Jamie Malek at 641-422-4076 or

Jamie.Malek@niacc.edu.

"We Know you are a Great Country and that You Can Change"

Last week I had the privilege of speaking (via Zoom) with a class on leadership at the Presbyterian College, University of McGill School of Religious Studies in Montreal, Quebec.  At the end of our engaging conversation on the book, Transforming Leadership (Everist and Nessan) which the students in Montreal had been using as a textbook, I mentioned the Parkland school shooting and how much we could learn from Canada in terms of gun violence. In poignant words they responded with care but also with concern. “We know you are a great country and that you can change.”

Likewise, the Australian delegation, including the prime minister, visiting the United States this week, also noted their care and concern for the United States. They noted how after the horrendous Port Arthur massacre in 1996 that country adopted sweeping reforms to that country’s gun laws.

After a massacre at Dunblane Primary School, Scotland, in 1996, there have been no school shootings in the UK. Gun restrictions now are much, more strict. Children feel safe in school.

Today Dick’s Sporting Goods, one of America’s largest sporting goods retailers, is immediately ending its sales of assault-style weapons and high capacity magazines. They will also require customers buying firearms to be at least 21 years old.  Many businesses are ending their relationships with the NRA. People can make change happen.

This is a great nation, but not one without flaws. To admit that amidst our prominence we have things to learn from other countries may be our most hopeful promise. Those who may admire us also see our glaring, deadly, problems. We can change! They see this. I was humbled by those words from the class in Montreal.

And we hear that from the students in Parkland, Florida. Do you notice they do not refer to their school as just “Douglas High?” That made me wonder just who was this woman after whom the school was named

 Marjory Stoneman Douglas (April 7, 1890 – May 14, 1998) was an American journalist, author, women's suffrage and civil rights advocate, and conservationist known for her staunch defense of the Everglades against efforts to drain it and reclaim land for development. She became a freelance writer, publishing over a hundred short stories. Her most influential work was the book The Everglades: River of Grass(1947), which redefined the Everglades as a treasured river instead of a worthless swamp. Its impact has been compared to that of Rachel Carson's influential book Silent Spring (1962).

Marjory Stoneman Douglas lived to 108 and received numerous awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Perhaps the students returning today to the high school named in her honor have received some of her eloquence, persistence, and outspoken political advocacy for the public good.  We can learn. We can change.

Even the Smallest Children Lead the Liturgy

Silently the children entered the sanctuary. First came the pre-school children, then grade by grade through 8th, over 200, all sizes and tones of colors, came for Friday morning mass at Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church.  A sixth-grade boy announced the service was beginning. His class would lead today. The entire parish school takes turns leading week by week, including the kindergarten. This was the people’s mass and all were totally engaged. It was a full hour-long service with children leading every part, except for the presiding/preaching priest.

The reverent silence quickly turned to the beautiful sound of children’s voices filling the sanctuary: opening hymn, confession, Kyrie, Gloria, lessons, sung Psalm verses.  The music of the liturgy was central. There was singing and signing, all by heart, coming from the heart.

Numerous sixth grade children had carefully prepared their leadership roles of reading lessons, composing prayers, providing the choir for the day, (I understand when younger children lead, reading may be a bit slower, but lead they do!) In communal worship, all take their part. No one is mere audience.

The Liturgy is the work of the people. This reverence was not duty but the rhythm of joy. When it came time for the Eucharist, all knelt, the eyes of the youngest barely peering over the top of the pew in front of them. And then they came forward, many crossing their arms for a blessing, older children to receive the bread, and older still for bread and wine.  But all were part of this most holy communion.  And this most holy community.  

Four, Three, Two Days to Iowa

To Iowa? That sounds like travel not time. We know what the media means. Or do we? I live in Iowa. So, a few things I would like to say “on the way to Iowa” from one who is already here: Misconceptions about Iowa; Curiosity about a Caucus; Disbelief about Participatory Democracy; and Even the children, Especially the children.

First, people in Iowa do not use hay bales for chairs. Iowa is not totally flat. (We live in hilly Dubuque, on the bluffs of the Mississippi.) You don’t drive through miles of corn at this time of year. We are covered with snow.  Iowa is an urban as well as a rural state.  Most important, Iowans are diverse in religion (no, not all Evangelicals), ethnicity, race, age, occupations, sexual orientation, and more. Iowans are well educated and informed.  Iowans, both rural and urban, have a global perspective. And Iowans take their responsibility of being the first-in-the nation caucus state very seriously. 

Second, my friends from Michigan to North Carolina to Australia are curious about the Iowa Caucus. They ask, “What really goes on there?” So I try to explain, “Where do you vote?” One responds, “At the high school about 2 miles from my home.” I go on, “Imagine that everyone who votes there all day long comes together at, 7:00 p.m.  Imagine that instead of going into a private voting booth, you all sit together in the auditorium and talk to each other in a civil way.  You have a conversation about important issues. You listen to one another.” (No, people do not wave banners and shout at each other, and senselessly follow the loudest leader.) It’s well organized and orderly. My friend is incredulous. Anyone can attend.  The caucus is open to the public and the press.  You can register as a Republican or Democrat that night, but that does not obligate you to vote that party ticket in November. Observers who are not eligible to vote because of age or residency in another state or country, watch and learn.  It’s fascinating.

Third, Caucus night is about participatory democracy. When international students from the seminary where I teach observed 4 and 8 years ago, they were amazed that people could express their political views in public without fear of losing their jobs, or worse.  That is still true here, and I trust it will continue, even with the proliferation of gun violence in our society. The first amendment is as important as the second. We need people of all faith traditions to participate: institutional separation and functional interaction. Faith leaders should not tell people how to vote but encourage people to vote and be engaged in working for good government for the welfare of all.

Participatory democracy is about much more than casting a vote for a candidate, although that is what will be reported in the news, even before caucus-goers enter the building from the parking lot. It is about being a participant rather than a spectator. Republicans begin with a straw poll and then in precincts build a party platform and choose delegates.  Democrats begin with preference groups, test for numeric viability, realign, count, and then discuss issues. They choose delegates to the county and state conventions, “regardless of race, sex, age, color, creed, national origin, religion, ethnic identity, sexual orientation, gender identity, or economic status.”

Fourth, even children in Iowa are informed participants. Eight years ago when our granddaughter, Jennaya, was 3 ½, and reporters were swarming all over Iowa, a Washington correspondent in an ice cream shop, possibly running out of adults to interview, asked Jennaya, whom she was for.  Jennaya spoke right up, “I like Hillary, but I think I’m going for Barack Obanga.” She has followed the political process ever since.  Iowa schools provide opportunity to discuss government and the political process and take straw polls.

Our son, Joel Everist, sent a picture this morning, of Jennaya, now 11 and her brother, Jackson, 9, with Bill Clinton, who spoke in Mason City, Iowa, last night. Joel told how Jennaya and Jackson suffer from diseases with no cure. “We thank the Clintons and President Obama for their work to ensure access to healthcare throughout their lifelong battles. We stand with Hillary Clinton who stands to protect, continue, and improve healthcare coverage for all. The future must be inclusive, not exclusive.”  Jennaya texted to me, “Bill Clinton talked about how Hillary says ‘What can I do to help?’” What that must mean to Jennaya who faces surgery next month!

So, come to the real Iowa!  Especially the children, but all of us need not to passively be led by the most outrageous angry rhetoric, but to think carefully and participate actively in building an inclusive democracy.

Integration or Apartheid for Us and Our Children?

Children return to school after their holiday break. Congress returns to Washington with a shift in power. Commentators refer to this administration’s remaining two years in office as “lame duck” although since the November elections President Barack Obama’s actions have proven he intends to do everything he can for the good of the American people and for the world.

So what needs to be done? The news, of course, focuses on who will be in the pool of candidates for the 1916 presidential elections. Jeb jumps in and Hillary supporters urge her to run. Meanwhile, the issues of race and class linger. They not only linger, but surround us with complex issues that need more than a “conversation.” Who will be shot next? Whom can we blame? We need community policing.

All of which brings us back to those children, those millions of children returning to schools across this nation, an issue that few are addressing. Most people realize that the election of Obama in 2008 did not usher in a post-racial era. We have seen the central agenda of many in Congress has been and no doubt will continue to be to undermine anything he might accomplish. The proliferation of deaths and the lack of trust between citizens and police have finally brought to light our racial divide. Facts show the economic growth during the Obama administration but a gap grows between the wealthiest and those who remain poor. We are a nation divided by race and economic class

.

And what about the children? More than 60 years after Brown v. Board of Education (1954), in which the Supreme Court declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students to be unconstitutional, school systems across the south—and not only in the south—are re-segregating. From the time of the mid 1960’s Civil Rights legislation which forced school boards to find ways to integrate schools, through the seventies and eighties and into the nineties, children learned together, learned from and about one another. Although of course things were not perfect (many white parents moved their children to the suburbs or to private schools), millions of school-aged children of all backgrounds and colors sat together in integrated schools. And it made a difference!  The progress of children of color did not come at the expense of white children.  Attending integrated school made people more likely to understand one another and later work together and live together in integrated communities.

But then things began to change, at first here and there, and then in many places, particularly around the year 2000.  Court rulings were relaxed or reversed. Often for fear of economic decline in municipalities, and, yes, because racism and classism don’t easily go away, school boards, found ways for white children, or children from higher income families to go to  schools with children like themselves, or at least where they did not fear they might become the minority.

What about children today? Many children attend schools that look as if Brown v. Board of Education never happened. Perhaps we are even now back to 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson which legally sanctioned separation by race. Jonathan Kozol’s 2006 New York Times best-selling book, The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America makes a strong case for how far back we have gone, as do many other articles by writers such at Nikole Hannah-Jones, an investigative reporter at ProPublica.

It’s not the same as pre-1954. Ironically, thousands of black children again go to almost completely black schools; it’s just that those schools are now named Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. And before 1954 under strict segregation African-American children from the poorest homes may have gone to school with African-American children of professional parents.  Today apartheid schools (where white population is 1% or less) intertwines race and poverty. And the resource gap between schools is huge.

So here we are, with an economic gap the nation is not seriously trying to solve, particularly when those at the top do not want to. And here we are, in a precarious situation in cities, small and large across this nation, with guns aimed at each other. Arne Duncan, we have argued under your leadership as U.S. Secretary of Education about “No child left behind” and “core curriculum” What will you say about the fact that according to a ProPublica analysis the number of apartheid schools nationwide has mushroomed from 2,762 in 1988 to 6,727 in 2011? Two years left in this administration. Don’t blame public schools or teachers. Our children cannot wait another generation for integration.  This country cannot wait for a way to live together and learn with one another. 

Aimee: A Caretaker of Creation

Picture the scene outside six months ago. If you were in the Dubuque area or anywhere in the northern United States or Canada then you surely have not forgotten how high the snow was the first of February and how many nights temperatures fell below zero all winter long.

Spring came slowly. I watched through March and April and into May to see which perennials, bushes and trees had made it through the hard winter. Our Red Bud tree had only a few flowers, but the leaves finally came. Some of our shrubs which each year had borne the weight of heavy snow, this year had dead brown sections. Our dogwood tree bore no leaves at all.

For years I had nurtured a small evergreen volunteer in a large pot, taking it in during the winter. But last summer, when our 4-year-old granddaughter, Aimee, was visiting from Phoenix, we boldly planted it in the backyard. Covered with snow all winter, now its needles were totally brown. There was absolutely no sign of life; but I could not bear to discard it. Not yet. Aimee would be visiting again this summer. So I waited, and then, in June, new green life pushed through at the ends of its branches, beyond the brown needles.

In mid-June, when I had determined it was time to cut down the obviously dead Dogwood, my husband saw oh-so-small new leaves on the tree.

A hard winter indeed. We have a God of Creation and persistent renewal, giving life amid signs of death. Human beings experience the destructive forces of tornadoes, hurricanes, tsunamis, forest fires, drought and flood.  How can we understand a God of creation in the midst of destruction? Yet many of us believe that the Creator God is also the Renewing God who loves the Creation and calls us to be stewards of the earth, not to dominate and use it only for personal benefit.  We who are part of creation are called to be caretakers. Yes, first conservation. (Some remember when only a handful of people recycled.) Yes, interest in ecology. And yes, the seriousness of climate change. We, who seemingly have so little power or control are participants. I believe the Creator God loves the creation and calls us to watch for the redbuds, and to participate in the renewal of the earth.

Aimee visited again this summer. She saw the brown dead needles and the new green life and said, “The sunshine came!” Together we tended the young tree, still alive. 

60th Anniversary of Brown and the Absolute Necessity of Public Schools

I was a high school sophomore, my sister a senior, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 9-0 in favor of Brown vs. the Board of Education declaring “separate but equal” invalid.”  Because of my father’s death four years before, my sister and I received social security benefits.  Our mother worked a low-paying job, but we had public education. Both of us became valedictorians, and went on to a public community college. I eventually earned a Ph.D. An excellent public high school where all were included in a small city of 30,000 made that possible. Today that school is still excellent, open to all, but the state first cut 1 million from the school budget, then two million and this year 3 million more.

Brown opened the doors but there was resistance from the beginning. Prince Edward County, Virginia, in 1959, rather than integrate its schools, closed its entire public school system, creating private schools to educate its white children, supported by state and county tax funds. No provision was made for educating the country’s black children. Some students missed part or all of their education for five years.

Brown 60 years ago, 10 years before the passage of the Civil Rights Bill, was a turning point towards dismantling Jim Crow.  In 1954 the white majority accepted white supremacy and racial bias; today the majority reject it and are appalled (surprised, calling it a “generational thing”) by racist remarks by an NBL owner. But asking if someone is a racist misses the deeper issues.

Between roughly 1965 and 1980, some progress was made in integration, mainly by court order, but “by all deliberate speed” was slow, and now has reversed. We see once again closing of public schools.  Although the “appearance is race neutral,” the reality is not, Attorney General Eric Holder has noted. The 49 elementary schools closed in Chicago were mostly black. Likewise in New Orleans and Newark and across the country school districts, counties and states, under the wording of “school choice,” are taking public funds and giving them to private school movements. The remaining schools in predominantly African-American, Hispanic and poor neighborhoods are labeled underachieving and subject to being closed next. Some poor neighborhoods have become school deserts. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan says it’s de facto segregation , about housing, where people choose to live.  The problem is that some people have money to choose and many do not.  

It’s a matter of worth: some children being named--or forgotten, dismissed--as “worthless.” Economic inequality is defended on the belief that some children are worth more than others. Some say that children from poor families ought to clean their school buildings to work for their lunch. Apartheid thinking says, “You are not who we think should succeed in school.” This is directly contrary to our American promises and to our laws.

We need to strengthen public community schools as places for all children to learn together whatever their abilities, disabilities, social-economic, racial or ethnic background. Dismantling  public (“government”) schools hurts everyone. It will not do, for “my child” to have a “good” education, but not the child of my neighbor, next door, across town, across the country. As economic inequality grows, we become isolated and fear the neighbor.

There are of course examples of progress, where people in suburbs and cities have conscientiously joined together to cross racial and economic boundaries to create excellent multi-cultural schools. But still the opportunities are not equal.  One half  to 3/4 of African-American and Hispanic children attend schools in which the majority of students are classified as low income.

    

First Lady Michelle Obama speaking to Topeka high school graduates said, "I think it's fitting that we're celebrating this historic Supreme Court case tonight, not just because Brown started right here in Topeka. . . but because you all are the living, breathing legacy of this case." She added, “Many districts in this country have actually pulled back on efforts to integrate their schools and many communities have become less diverse.” She told them never to be afraid to talk about the issues, especially race, because it is the only way we will heal the wounds of the past.

Cheryl Brown Henderson, daughter of one of the plaintiffs said this weekend that Brown opened doors but that we didn’t have reconciliation.  Where’s the courage to have reconciliation among the races? 

Wartburg Seminary where I teach is a Lutheran Christian graduate school. Some "Christian" schools contribute to segregation or exclude children with disabilities.  However we ELCA Lutherans do not promote separatism and welcome people with special needs.  Our Lutheran (ELCA) church body has a social statement, “Our Calling in Education,” which makes a strong case for supporting public schools, even while having many Lutheran pre-schools, day schools, some high schools and many church-related colleges.  We realize the necessity of also contributing to the tax base for education for all, not just "our own." 

I, a young white woman 60 years ago, rejoiced at the passing of Brown: separate is not equal.  The challenge is greater today: excellent public education for all everywhere. 

Who Is at the Front of the Room? “Higher” Education

Picture this scene at Wartburg Theological Seminary where I am blessed to teach.  Classes start early.  Alert, eager, engaged, we dig into studies together. Although I may sit at the front of the room, ten minutes into the hour, it’s not just my wisdom students copy down, but some new theological insight we discover together that none of us would have thought of on our own.  Next is chapel, followed by time in the refectory  to connect. One hears a buzz about global concerns, new student projects, meetings. By noon conversation has turned into action perhaps in the Dubuque community, perhaps in the broader church and world. 

Learning together, life together, all over the place.  Yes, students respect the faculty.  Likewise faculty respect students, their ideas, gifts and experiences.

Wartburg is a strong academic institution. And a strong learning community. The two go together. When any environment is merely hierarchical, assuming knowledge is inside only one person--the professor/teacher, pastor/priest-- teaching and learning are limited.

Appropriate teaching authority lies in setting the stage for people, the body of Christ Christians would say, to be learning around the Word of God together.

Only God is the Almighty One, so for me to “Lord it over” my students (Oh, did I say “my”?) is to confuse roles. That is not to say we professors abdicate our responsibility to teach, and to read, research, and publish. And there’s accountability, mutual accountability.  But students do not write a paper merely for the professor, rather, as adult learners, they study, read and write for their own growth and therefore learn in order to serve as ministerial leaders in the church and world.

Teaching and learning in community is extraordinarily challenging.  It’s much easier to deliver a lecture or preach a sermon while others remain quiet, “at our feet,” so to speak. But Jesus taught “on the way,” on the road, in the midst of people’s real lives, real needs. He interacted with them.

We are called to teach, believing the Holy Spirit resides in each person. That opens us to receive a student’s new insight, questions, comments, living examples. We learn from those whom others might discount.  We learn across gender, socio-economic, racial boundaries. 

No one student is at the head of the class. In fact, the shape of the class and learning itself changes. Amazing what we can learn together. This is higher education.

How Do We Turn Worry and Resignation Into Caring Enough to Change?

 So what’s there to worry about? The U.S. government may—or may not—shut down.  October 1 state exchanges for the Affordable Care Act open, but most Americans do not understand them. Scientists release a report with overwhelming evidence that human beings are causing Global Warming, but it’s a beautiful day outside.

When issues are immeasurably large and my daily life is what’s real to me, what do I dare worry, or care, about?

Friday afternoon my husband and I drove twenty minutes down the Mississippi River from Dubuque to Bellevue, enjoying the early fall beauty of the bluffs. After indulging in a dark chocolate ice cream cone we wandered up the main street. I noticed a woman sitting in a chair in the street—well, at the edge of the street. “What’s this about?” I wondered, until I spotted other people standing across the street. “There must be a parade coming,” I thought. I love parades! I asked the woman what time it would start. “Shortly,” she said.

We stayed. We joined in the Homecoming Parade, cheering on the Bellevue football team, the coaches in their lead car, the school board in theirs, the band, the king and queen. Then came the juniors’ and sophomores’ floats and even one carrying the middle school student council. We clapped even louder. Some moms, on their feet cheering, offered us their folding chairs. We became part of their community. Life was real and very local last Friday, even though we had been strangers an hour before.

Friday night The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously to secure and destroy Syria's chemical weapons stockpile.

President Barack Obama spoke by telephone with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, in what was the first communication between the leaders of the two countries since the Iranian Revolution in 1979. Afterwards Obama said, "Resolving this issue [Iran’s nuclear program] could serve as a major step forward in a new relationship between the United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran, one based on mutual interest and mutual respect."

That phone call took place Friday afternoon, about the time we were cheering on young people we didn’t know marching in a parade in Bellevue. We and they may have had more to cheer than any of us knew at that moment. Potential for the future, for all the world’s youth.

So what do we dare care about?

A week earlier my husband and I drove about twenty minutes north from Dubuque, this time into Wisconsin. We entered a store and commended the shop keeper for her “No guns allowed on the premises” sign on the door. I asked what reactions she had received and she replied that some people never noticed and some people laughed.  Laughed? Saddened, I reiterated my appreciation and told her of our fledgling Culture of Nonviolence Coalition in Dubuque. The next day in Dubuque I told a shop keeper about the sign and asked if she had considered one. She said, “It wouldn’t do any good. Gun laws won’t change in my lifetime.”

Resignation rather than daring to care and caring enough to change.  Government shut downs, global warming, mass shootings. This is the new normal. President Obama, speaking at the memorial after the Naval Yard mass shootings: “I fear there's a creeping resignation. That these tragedies are just somehow the way it is. That this is somehow the new normal.”

Both the cause and the result of resignation to the new normal is, “Just take care of yourself.” I expect the government to be there for me, until I personally am inconvenienced. I expected I could go about my daily life locally, safely, until one day I was not safe. Rather, what if I thought, “I need to care about the ongoing threat of government shut-downs and refusal to raise the debt ceiling for the sake of the rest of the people, including the world’s people.”? And, “I need to sign up for health care—and get a flu shot--for the sake of my neighbor.”

The disconnect between the personal and communal, between the local and global leaves us sitting in the street alone. We are the government. We are the human beings called to be stewards of the environment. In our lifetime, we can change things. We are actors in our own drama, participants in our neighbor’s parade.

One small group of obstinate people cannot really shut down the government any old time they want to  if we claim in the words of the Declaration of Independence, that “WE hold these truths…” and really do mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”

Clearly, we care. The question is do we care enough. I think we do. I think those middle school student council members riding in the Homecoming parade do. How can we help them and all of us really be “we the people,” that no one can shut down?

Reflect on this Sunday's appointed texts: Psalm 146; 1 Timothy 6:6-19; Luke 16:19-31

One Teacher, One Book, One Pen, Can Change the World

The Pakistani schoolgirl who was shot by the Taliban for attending classes, July 12 addressed hundreds of young people at the United Nations, urging them and world leaders to work towards free education for all girls and boys in every nation in the world.  She spoke in the name of the world’s religions calling for peace, education, and equality.

“Let us pick up our books and our pens. They are our most powerful weapons. One teacher, one book, one pen, can change the world,” Ms. Yousafzai said, in an impassioned address.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had named July 12 – Ms. Yousafzai’s 16th birthday – ‘Malala Day’ in honor of her heroic stand to ensure education for all. The meeting, which featured nearly 1,000 youth leaders, was addressed by former United Kingdom Prime Minister Gordon Brown, in his capacity as UN Special Envoy for Global Education.

 One teacher, one book, one pen, can change the world.

Malala, who was shot in the forehead and face, told the gathering that the Taliban’s attack on her nine months ago changed nothing in her life, except that “weakness, fear and hopelessness died.”

“The extremists were, and they are, afraid of books and pens,” she said. “The power of education frightens them. They are afraid of women.” She urged worldwide action against illiteracy, poverty and terrorism.

This call to action was delivered just as the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural organization (UNESCO) Education for All Global Monitoring Report, launched a new policy paper spotlighting that globally, the number of children not allowed or able to attend school has fallen from 60 million in 2008 to 57 million in 2011. However, 28 million children out of school live in the world’s conflict zones, and more than half of those are women and girls.

Watch the video of her inspiring speech at this U.N. website:
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=45395&Cr=education&Cr1=#.UeGuF74o6M8

Common Service: A Queen, a Nun, and all of Us

"I declare before you all that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service and to the service of our great Imperial family. God help me to keep my vow," said Queen Elizabeth II on her first official state visit so many years ago. This week, 2000 people filled Westminster Abbey in London to celebrate the 60^th anniversary of her coronation June 2, 1953.

A week ago, in East Dubuque, Illinois, population a little less than 2000, Sr. Mary Owen Haggerty was remembered for her years of faithful service. Born in 1927, just a year after Queen Elizabeth, the Sister also served for some sixty years, as part of the Dominican Order of Sinsinawa, WI, within sight of East Dubuque. Hundreds gathered to share memories the night before her funeral, not just nuns, but nieces and nephews and all sorts of people from the Tri-States of Iowa, Illinois and Wisconsin and as far away as Colorado and Connecticut.

Queen Elizabeth served the Commonwealth.  Sister Mary Owen served the common health. The Queen has served faithfully, consistently, responsibly, day after day, year after year, with modest warmth and wisdom.  So did the Sister. And the world changed around them both.

Sister Mary Owen took her vows before Vatican II. Her church, her religious order, its form of governance, her garb all changed. But her arenas of service only grew. About 25 years ago, in her early 60’s, while attending a Rural Ministry Conference here at Wartburg Theological Seminary in Dubuque, Sr. Mary Owen approached Pastor Burton Everist of Grace Lutheran Church in East Dubuque and asked him if she could be his parish health nurse.  She writes in the book Ordinary Ministry: Extraordinary Challenge, (Everist, Abingdon, 2000) that she had offered her services two different times to Roman Catholic churches in the area. “I thought I was making them an offer they couldn’t afford to pass up, but they did.”

Pastor Burton Everist did accept and she was called to be parish health minister at Grace Lutheran, where she served for many years. Three years later Wesley Methodist Church in East Dubuque invited her to be their parish health minister, too. She visited people in the hospital, health care facilities and in their homes, providing consultation, support, a listening ear, care, friendship, prayer, and often a piece of Sinsinawa home-made pie. The Lutherans and Methodists would ask if she would stop by and see their Roman Catholic friends (the majority faith group in the area), and so Sister became the de facto parish health minister for all of East Dubuque.  She wrote that she sometimes served as "'minister-in-the-cracks' to those people who are between churches, because I have become acquainted with them in their time of need."

Sister Mary Owen had at one time been nursing director at Rosary College (now Dominican University) in River Forest, Illinois, had served with Hospice of Spokane, Spokane, Washington, and loved her frequent trips to offer health care in Jamaica.

And across the river in Dubuque, Iowa? Here, too, the sister simply served—bread.  One saw her every Saturday morning at the Dubuque Farmers’ Market, (in continuing existence since 1836), selling Sinsinawa bread, and simply talking with people. One might see her when the market opened in the spring asking an elderly man how he was doing, and then taking him aside to talk when he told her his wife had died during the winter. And so she served, day by day, faithfully into her 86^th year. The card with her picture each of us held as we told stories in the Gathering Room at Sinsinawa quoted Meister Eckart, OP: “There’s no such thing as my bread; all bread is ours, and is given through me and to me through others.”

Common health of a community.  A Commonwealth of nations.  Of course one cannot push the comparison too far. But I keep seeing the common faces of these two women and that strengthens me because of what they have “in common,” a deep, faithful commitment to service.  

I know, Elizabeth II is no commoner, but she does now pay taxes like any other British citizen. She took her vow: “The things which I have here before promised, I will perform, and keep,” before many British colonies became independent nations. Her nation, the constitutional monarchy, her church, her garb, her arenas of service have changed, and, if one thinks of power in terms of well-being, I think her service has grown.  

People ask, “Can women have it all?” That is an imposed question which seems to fit neither the queen nor the nun. I think rather the question should be, “Do we have a call?”  And that’s a question for me, too. 

Perhaps these two women touch me in particular because June 5, 1960, 53 years ago this week, I was consecrated as a Lutheran deaconess, vowing a life of faith and service to Christ. Across these decades my life, too, has changed beyond imagining.  Marriage and ministry now possible together. Ordination. Becoming a pastor and then a professor and writer. But the commitment to faith and service remains the same, just with broader arenas.

The Queen and the nun: Service, commitment.  In each of their lives and ours there are pressures and challenges, suffering, and joy, all of it, yes, all of it. The calling takes us further and further out into the world, whether across oceans or the Mississippi River, to reach out across borders and boundaries and to be drawn close by those we love.

God Doesn't Say, "See You Next Fall"

“See you next fall,” one church member says to another at the end of May.  After all, the summer season is beginning.  The expectation is that many pews will be empty as people leave for vacation.  People often live down to our expectations.

Not unlike expecting a half-full church the week after Christmas or Easter.  Perhaps it is not the same in Judaism or Islam the week after a high holy day or during the summer season.  I cannot authoritatively speak to that. But I do know that in none of the world’s great religions do I hear of God taking the summer off.  So why do we?

Lest I be misunderstood, I have nothing against vacations! Everyone, including clergy, paid and volunteer staff, needs vacation time. We have a God of Sabbath rest.  And a God of the mountains, lakes and sky.  The Creator God re-creates us through recreation.

But God doesn’t say, “See you next fall.”  And thank God for that, because although people need a break from routine, think what it would be like to have a God absent from our lives, from the world, for three months.  During the summer, people will have joys to share with their faith community, discernments to make, suffering to endure, grief to bear.    Babies will be born and people will die, perhaps some suddenly, shockingly.  We will need each other. We need to worship together, to hear words from a holy book, places to talk about the ordinary and unimaginable happenings in the world, a faith community with whom to pray.

Many congregations provide creative ways to carry out education and worship: alternative times of the week, outdoor services, family vacation Bible Schools, multigenerational learning opportunities, service trips, mission projects.   I trust these alternatives will be offered not out of frustration, but joyful expectation. We need to expect each other to come. And someone might just come for the first time.

Kevin, a single father, brought his three-year-old daughter to church one summer Sunday.  Although unaccustomed to weekly worship, she participated fully in listening, singing, and praying.  Kevin asked afterwards about Christian education for her. He was told to come back in the fall when things would start again.  

I need to see you this summer.  You need to see me.  Company in town? Bring them along! Our joy will be complete.  God doesn’t take a vacation from us.  Thank God.

Dignity? Violence? What Images Do We Have of Ourselves?

 

A joint session of Congress met Friday, January 4, to certify the results of the U.S. presidential election held last November 6^th.  Tellers read the results of the states and the District of Columbia one by one:   “The certificate of the electoral vote of the state of Connecticut seems to be regular in form and authentic and it appears therefrom that Barack Obama of the state of Illinois received 7 votes for president and Joseph Biden from the state of Delaware received 7 votes for vice president…” “The certificate of the electoral vote of the state of Kansas seems to be regular in form and authentic and it appears therefrom that Mitt Romney from the commonwealth of Massachusetts received 6 votes for president and Paul Ryan from the state of Wisconsin received 6 votes for vice president.”   No guns. No violence. It was dignified, even inspiring in its quiet way. The outcome, of course, had been known; the win was substantial: 332 votes for Obama/Biden to 206 for Romney/Ryan.

Three Fridays before a different set of numbers.  Guns. Violence. We know those numbers, too: 20 children, 6 adults killed in Newtown Connecticut.

The Task force on gun violence President Obama appointed, being led by Vice President Biden, is to address the issues of mental health resources, keeping society from glamorizing guns and violence, as well as tightening gun laws. Will they as a task force, will Congress, will we as a nation truly engage the images we shape for ourselves and change what needs to be changed? 

The issues are complex. Granted. I offer no simple solution. But I do know this: “What was the motive?” isn’t the only question.   Real life violence is not merely a mystery novel.   Surely each of us is a mixture of motives not easily decoded. And the question, “What ‘triggered’ the assailant?” with its ironic verb, only conceals long term causes.

Likewise we must not be satisfied with “studies-do-not-show” arguments meant to settle the issue.  In the field of statistics there is a vast difference between “cause and effect” and “correlation.” And even when studies show “no direct correlation,” usually only one or a very few factors can be researched in any given study.  We need to look honestly at the image of guns and violence in our society, and really see the formative effect of having guns in the home and of our addiction to ever more violent films and games. Games also play us.  Statistics provide some information, but not enough understanding.

What shapes us as individuals and as a people may be hard to quantify but is observable. How are we formed? What environments, images and actions will we choose?

On another Friday, Dec. 21, President Obama spoke at the Memorial Service for Senator Daniel Inouya at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C.   The heart of his message was an ordinary yet profound story of his traveling at the age of 11 with his mother, grandmother and sister on vacation on the “mainland,” watching television in motels at night when the networks were all showing the Watergate hearings. Barack Obama remembers as a boy seeing Senator Inouya, from his home state of Hawaii, with dignity and wisdom playing a part in restoring democracy to a nation on the edge. Obama said, looking back, that those images began to shape his formation of being a public servant.

Formation may include one event (in my case the death of my father at age 11), or many, of vacations with family, or no vacations, living on one street or another, what we see on the way to school.  We are shaped by one another, and formed in community.  In a culture which statistics show is becoming “spiritual but not religious,” the images these past weeks of the power of faith communities and interfaith services should not be underestimated.  Faith communities to have a role in creating places of love and care and inclusion.  Acceptance, respect, care. We can choose these.

What we see and experience has a formative affect on who we become, what we do, our purpose and mission in life. There are enough real-life struggles of poverty, illness, abuse, that we need each other in order to create supportive, nurturing communities, not invest in violence or commit ourselves to combative ways of relating.

The news image that we saw Jan 4 was not that this democracy once again made a transition, as it does every four years, without guns, without violence, but “Republicans getting their troops ready for battle for three more fiscal fights.”  We heard this might “sideline” other concerns such as fixing immigration and infrastructures, working on clean energy production and climate change, as though this is all a sporting event with eyes fixed only on the final minutes of the game. The Violence against Women Act was allowed to expire. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor flatly refused to bring the Senate bill to a vote unless stripped out was protection for Native American women raped on tribal lands by non-native men. Violence is accepted; dignity denied. What are our commitments and their formative effects? How are we shaping each other?

Where do we go after the Shootings in Newtown?

At the one week anniversary of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary, a community school, the church bells toll across the country, and the media satellite trucks slowly leave Newtown. Where will they go next?  Will we as a nation continue to focus our attention on the epidemic of gun violence or has our addiction to violence grown so serious that we cannot even recognize it?

President Obama spoke compassionately and eloquently at the Interfaith Service last Sunday and again to the Washington Press on Wednesday. 

An impertinent reporter’s question made the evening news.  Coverage did not include the president’s words that in the 5 days following the massacre, people had died all over this land each day: a police officer gunned down in Memphis leaving four children without their mother; two killed in Topeka; three people shot inside a hospital in Alabama; and a 4-year-old victim of a drive-by shooting in Missouri.  “Where have you been?” we should ask ourselves.  Where have the cameras gone since Newtown?

The memorials have been helpful for a grieving nation. Here in our town our church held a prayer service open to the public and all sorts of people, previously strangers to one another, came. The nation has learned how to bring candles and Teddy Bears to memorials.  What else can we do well together?

PBS New Hour shows in silence at the end of broadcasts the names and pictures, as “they became of available,” of military personnel killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. This week  they showed in silence the names and pictures of those killed at Sandy Hook Elementary.  What would it mean if every week they showed the names and pictures, as they became available, of those killed by gun violence in this nation?

Where will the cameras go to help us not to forget, to help us recognize our own addition to gun violence and to give us the courage to act?

To South Chicago? To Midwestern smaller cities? To the mountain states? Everywhere!  

I’ve listened this week to stereotypes of “other” parts of the country.  “Rural” to some implies people who love having guns.  “Urban” or “Inner City” implies “dangerous,”  non-white.  And yet the mass shootings at schools have as often been by white males in suburban or ex-urban  settings.   

Our family lived for nine years in an inner city area in Connecticut, our children attending a community school. The school was at that time “legally condemned” which meant they did not have to provide a safe playground or music, the arts, physical education, etc.  So we in the neighborhood worked together to provide these things for everyone’s children.   While schools and school safety has increased in some places since then, the gap between the rich and the poor has intensified.  Do you “move to a safe place where there are ‘good’ schools”?  We’ve learned that gun violence happens everywhere. And we need  good,  safe community schools for everyone’s children wherever they live.   President Obama has continued to say, “all children.” 

It will take all of us, President Obama said, mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, law enforcement officers, mental health workers, pastors, gun owners, all of us.  It will take courage. What images have we seen? Yes, we are told we see “guns flying off the shelves” at Walmart.   But I’ve also heard of buy-backs going on all across the country: a city in New Jersey; a small town in Illinois; local neighborhoods; even churches and stores.  Thousands of guns have willingly been turned in.  Will news cameras show us this? 

We have to believe that this nation that has 5% of the world’s population and ½ the guns can change if we want to be an example in the world. We have to believe that we can cure ourselves from the epidemic of gun violence that plagues this country. And we can start, as President Obama said, with what the majority of Americans want, banning the sale of military-style assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition clips.  He called on Congress to confirm the appointment of a director for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, something they have refused to do for 6 ears.

Or we could go the other direction, buying  bullet-proof backpacks for our children, arming teachers. Foolish!  The epidemic grows. Fear begets fear.

Guns beget guns.

And ads for semi-automatic weapons to the contrary, guns don’t make men more manly.  The power to shoot more and faster does not make one stronger or wiser.  Men also beget life. It’s not about shooting,  but nurturing life.   Can we shape communities of compassion and care, claiming together the blessed power of giving and preserving life, all life, everywhere? What will we see?

LIVING IN COMMUNITY WITH OUR ABILITIES AND DISABILITIES

It was a November evening, 1982, while my husband, Burton, and I were delivering Thanksgiving baskets in downtown Dubuque when I suddenly felt overwhelming fatigue. I became ill with what at first seemed like flu but from which I never recovered. The illness, later diagnosed as myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS), has many physiological and neurological complications. Today, still with no known cause and no known cure, it affects hundreds of thousands of people worldwide.

I have a disease; I am not my disease. How do I mark the 30^th anniversary of living with a chronic illness?  With sadness or celebration? A good way is to have a convocation on “Living in community with Our Abilities and Disabilities.” Many people with CFS become homebound, isolated, but supported by the caring and respectful community of Wartburg Theological Seminary, I have been able to continue fully serving here and in the broader church and world.

Once a month for many years Wartburg holds a convocation, following a shortened Thursday worship service. At the November convocation student speakers  were people who have some sort of disability, or who have a friendship with a person who has a disability.  Lisa Heffernan, WTS M.Div. Senior began, “We share these stories and perspectives to encourage the community to think about how we all live together in this community as people with and without disabilities. Our definition is broad: we will be talking about disabilities in terms of physical and visible disabilities (like mine), physical disabilities that are unseen, and disabilities or conditions that can either be considered mental, cognitive, or emotional. Not only that, but we will be also talking about specific issues that come along with different disabilities and how we might view them within our life together at WTS. The question we might consider is: How do we as a student body, staff, and faculty live together faithfully in this place, with our gifts and limitations, recognizing each person as a child of God and a vital part of the body of Christ?

My own experience and view as a person with a physical and visible disability has greatly changed and improved since coming to seminary. In this place, I am accepted and valued as the person God created me to be—completely and fully. Before coming here, I never had the experience of being in a community where people would seek to have me involved in all aspects of life, no matter how tricky doing so might be. The best brief examples I can give are the time that my class was having a gathering at Pulpit Rock our middler year…on the 2^nd floor. Without me even having to ask them to do so, 4 of the guys in my class lifted me up those steps, just so I could be there with my class.  I was scared, but they wanted me there, and I wanted to be there. So they helped me out. The other side of this is that these same friends challenge me to be more fearless and independent. This is the same thing I hope I do for them. We care for and challenge one another. And we include one another in all areas of life here. There are things that are difficult to make that happen sometimes, but I’m finally in a place where my disability doesn’t feel like a barrier to having an active life.”

Aleese Kenitzer, WTS M.Div. Junior, continued:  “I have a significant hearing loss in my right ear. It has been my responsibility to assure that my disability does not affect me in school or in ministry, but it is extremely helpful when people are aware of the fact that I do not hear well, and make an effort to improve communication. But often, I have either witnessed how people do not understand how an impairment affects one’s lifestyle, or have witnessed the response of 'well, people need must scream for you to be able to hear.' Neither one is true, and both of these actions exclude those who cannot hear well. It is common for those with hearing impairments to be excluded because they cannot hear and understand what is happening around them, or excluded because of those who overcompensate.”

Dave Fier, WTS M.Div. Junior came next,  “I have a genetic learning difference called Soto’s syndrome. I was blessed to be my current height of 6ft 4inches in fifth grade I haven’t grown since. One of my many challenges is it takes me along time to process information.  “Fear not,” I say. This difference has also affected my coordination and some of my physical abilities. “Fear not,” I say.  Another difference I have been blessed with is to have a heightened emotional and artistic sense.  “Fear not,” I say.  God blessed me with this difference and I wouldn’t have life any other way. Most importantly I am child God. I am a brother in this community of many. The real question is how can we all learn and grow together.”

Tami Groth, WTS 2^nd year M.A. Diacaonal Ministry, lives with two disabilities: “My medical history includes both clinical depression--a chemical imbalance which impacts both your emotions and your ability to think correctly--and celiac disease, an auto-immune disorder where gluten, found in wheat, rye, and barley, attacks my body. These conditions are not related, but their effects can compound one another. When you cannot automatically join in something as basic as sharing bread with others, it is easy to feel isolated, and isolation can make you wonder if depression is returning.

I fight these issues by creating inclusive community however I can: by making food I can eat to share with others, by meeting others in their own needs, and by sharing what I have learned as I have educated myself about my conditions. Sometimes accommodating everyone’s needs seems like more than we can cope with--the list feels endless. But the joy of seeing someone feel like they can now be a part of a community is boundless, and it always makes me determined never to assume that what works for me works for all.”

Lee Gable, WTS M.Div. Senior, added, “ My friend lives with multiple chemical sensitivity related to fibromyalgia plus complications.  The air she breathes and any surfaces or fabrics she is in contact with are potential sources of pain.  Even your hand lotion can affect her.  She must be aware of what is around her.  She uses air purifiers to hold back the multiplicity of scents and carefully researches and uses products to help her environment not be a source of pain.” 

If you don't see her in church, ask about what is going on or send a card.  Ask the her if she wants to be on the prayer list.  Please don't be offended if she has to get up and move away from unseen conditions that cause unseen pain.  As a child of God living with conditions she would not have chosen for herself, my friend only asks, 'Don't define me by my illness.'”

 So how can we be compassionate, accommodating others, without being exclusive? 

 Megan Reedstrom, WTS M.Div. Senior, concluded the presentations.  “I have been asked to talk about friendship because I have the pleasure of calling Lisa Heffernan one of my very best friends. Through our friendship I have become much more cognizant of accessibility and its importance and how frustrating it is when people abuse or misuse things like accessible parking. And through two road trips we have taken together, I've learned that traveling with someone who uses a wheelchair is not that different than traveling with someone who doesn't. We just allow a little extra time for travel, and do a little extra planning to make sure the places we are headed are accessible. The most important thing I have learned in all we have done together as friends is that we are far more alike than we are different.”

 
Many graduates of Wartburg and all of our seminaries live with disabilities and serve throughout the church in the world. Some are:

Rev. Phil Wangberg, who uses a wheelchair due to cancer of the spine, is pastor of All Saints Lutheran Church, Albuquerque, NM.

Diaconal Minister Rich Mohr-Kelly, who is visually impaired, serves in Pittsburgh, PA neighborhood ministry and at Stewart Avenue Lutheran and Birmingham UCC Congregational Churches.

Rev. Kathryn Bielfeldt, who is blind, served for over 21 years as pastor of St. John’s Lutheran Church of Campbell Hill, IL and added on part-time service to 2 other congregations in the Wartburg Parish of Southern Illinois. She recently retired.

Rev. Chris Kinney, who has quadriplegia due to MS, Oakdale, MN, currently does supply preaching, advocacy, mentoring, and short-term counseling

Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. (1 Cor. 12:27)

After the brief presentations, students, faculty and staff of the whole community engaged for most of the hour in conversation around tables addressing these questions:

Questions for table discussion:

1.      What is your personal experience and/or experience with others who may have disabilities of various kinds?

2.      What do you think “living in community with our abilities and disabilities” looks like?

3.      How are disabilities perceived in the church today? Are some disabilities more “acceptable” than others?

4.      How might a disability (seen or unseen) isolate us or others as we try to live together in community?

5.      What sort of language is helpful (or not helpful) when speaking about persons with disabilities?

6.      What good things have you seen churches do to work toward the inclusion of people with disabilities in communities and/or congregations?

7.      How can we as a community work toward openness and full accessibility? Not because we “have” to, but because we want to include all of our brothers and sisters in Christ into the life of this community and the wider Church.

 

Some helpful resources: (provide by Josh Melvin, WTS, 2^nd Year M.A.)

The ELCA’s Social Message on Disability: http://www.elca.org/What-We-Believe/Social-Issues/Messages/Human-Disabilities.aspx

“Hearing DISability, Seeing disability” by Josh Melvin http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs064/1102843057919/archive/1110800107155.html

Avalos, Hector, The Abled Body: Rethinking Disabilities in Biblical Studies, Society of Biblical Literature, 2007.

Bishop, Marilyn E., Religion and Disability: Essays in Scripture, Theology, and Ethics, Sheed & Ward, 1995.

Black, Kathy, A Healing Homiletic: Preaching and Disability, Abingdon Press, 1996.

Block, Jennie Weiss, Copious Hosting: A Theology of Access for People with Disabilities, Continuum, 2002.

Carter, Erik W., Including People with Disabilities in Faith Communities: A Guide for Service Providers, Families & Congregations, Paul H. Brookes Pub. Co., 2007.

Cone, James H., God of the Oppressed, Orbis Books, 1997.

Creamer, Deborah Beth, Disability and Christian Theology Embodied Limits and Constructive Possibilities, Oxford University Press, 2009.

Eiesland, Nancy L., The Disabled God: Towards a Liberatory Theology of Disability, Abingdon Press, 1994.

Eiesland, Nancy L., Human Disability and the Service of God: Reassessing Religious Practice, Abingdon Press, 1998.

Ferguson, Danyelle, & Parsons, Lynn, Disabilities and the Gospel: How to Bring People with Special Needs Closer to Christ, Cedar Fort, Inc., 2011.

Govig, Stewart D., Strong at the Broken Places: Persons with Disabilities and the Church, Westminster John Knox Press, 1989.

Pinksy, Mark I., Amazing Gifts: Stories of Faith, Disability, and Inclusion, The Alban Institute, 2011.

Reinders, Hahs S., Receiving the Gift of Friendship: Profound Disability, Theological Anthropology, and Ethics, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2008.

Reynolds, Thomas E., Vulnerable Communion: A Theology of Disability and Hospitality, Brazos Press, 2008.

Shapiro, Joseph P., No Pity: People with Disabilities Forging a New Civil Rights Movement, Three Rivers Press, 1994.

Waters, Larry J., Why, O God? Suffering and Disability in the Bible and the Church, Crossway, 2011.

Webb-Mitchell, Brett, Beyond Accessibility: Toward Full Inclusion of People with Disabilities in Faith Communities, Church Publishing Inc., 2010.

Yong, Amos, The Bible, Disability, and the Church: A New Vision of the People of God, Wm B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2011.