Chaplaincy & the Movement to End Poverty

This blog first appeared on the Poverty Initiative Union in Dialogue Blog: A New & Unsettling Force.

Below are two pieces by Poverty Initiative leaders discussing the different contexts in which they have served as chaplains and how this work is connected to the broader movement to end Poverty.  The first is a reflection by Jennifer Wilder about her work with the Union protest chaplains who have been serving in Zuccotti (Liberty) Park for the past several weeks of Occupy Wall Street.   Jenn’s reflection is followed by an excerpt from a reflection that Union alum and Poverty Initiative leader Onleilove Alston wrote about being a chaplain over the years with the Poverty Initiative, “on the field of battle for justice.”

CHAPLAINCY IN ZUCCOTTI PARK FOR ‘OCCUPY WALL STREET’

As I focused on our prayer, I could hear the Occupation Wall Street People’s Mic start not two yards away from us.  Between my eyes half-closed, I could see a camera flash, irreverent yet commonplace at Occupation Wall Street, taking a picture of the two of us.  The lady, (lets call her Glory) who now clasped hands with me in prayer in the middle of roudy Zuccotti Park, had participated that morning in her first-ever protest, which was in Harlem opposing the stop-and-frisk protest policy.  Glory told me her own humiliating experiences of being stopped, frisked, and accused of prostitution.  Glory was pregnant with twins, and she looked forward to telling them what she had done while expecting them to prepare the way for them to have better conditions.

Event:Join a Circle of Protection on Nov. 16: Standing For and With the Poor

What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.
– James 2: 14-17

Friendly Hands Ministers @ FPWA 2011 Lobby Day

At 12 noon on Nov. 16,  faith, community and non-profit leaders in New York City will come together for an hour of prayer and action, in the hope of creating a “circle of protection” around Friendly Hands Ministries.

Friendly Hands is a faith-based organization founded by Latino/a clergy to serve New York City’s East Harlem neighborhood through a feeding program, job training, childcare, health care referrals and legal advocacy for immigrants.

Many of the clergy who work with Friendly Hands are Pentecostal and are empowered by the Holy Spirit to take action in their community. In addition to providing direct services the leadership of Friendly Hands has undergone faith-based advocacy training and lobbied in New York’s state capital on behalf of their community. This organization is moving from charity to justice and having a powerful impact in East Harlem.

As we pray for Friendly Hands (which depends on federal EFSP funding from FEMA for it’s feeding program), we will also pray for all the non-profits and human services agencies throughout New York City and our nation that will be directly affected by the Congressional Super Committee and appropriations processes as our lawmakers decide which federal funding to cut and which to preserve.

Join the Women’s Ordination Conference Anti- Racism Team!

Via Eda of Hosanna! People’s Seminary

Are you Called to Join the Women’s Ordination Conference Anti- Racism Team?

In the forty years since the beginning of the movement to ordain Catholic women, massive changes have taken place in U.S. and global societies, and in the theological discussion that emerge from and impact them. The exclusion of women from ordination once seemed an unambiguous example of injustice. Today, in light of the shift of the center of Catholic Christianity to the countries of the South and to communities of color in the North, the question of ordination has become more complex. While it remains true that the exclusion of women from the Catholic priesthood is ethically unacceptable, it is also necessary to ask which women we are referring to when we speak of women being ordained or not ordained. We need strategies that will enable women’s ordination activists to struggle with the question: what does it mean that we are both oppressors and oppressed at the same time?

New Hosanna! Peoples Seminary Program: SisterTemples

SisterTemples: Testimonies of the Body from Where We Stand

We’re thrilled to announce our September 2011- May 2012 programming! Whether you’re interested in building communities and missions accessible to all, or participating in free, supportive, and challenging anti-racism training and community for white folks, or practicing womanist/feminist preaching on the body in a community of sisters, we have something for you this year!

Special Communion readers are especially invited to our new learning/preaching circle, SisterTemples: Testimonies of the Body from Where We Stand meeting fourth Tuesdays, 8-9PM EST by video conference. Please be sure to register by August 31^st. Programming is (as always) FREE but spaces are limited!

A Sister doing great work: Yuan Tang featured in Northeast Times Star

Yuan Tang, a mighty woman of God, former teacher in North Philly and graduate of Drexel Law School, discusses her work with  Northeast Times Star.  Ms. Tang is an Chinese immigrant and  knows first hands the challenges that immigrants face and is becoming an “oak of righteousness” in her community. I first met Yuan at Penn State University where she facilitated  anti-racism workshops on campus and throughout the community. She truly attempts to live out the full gospel; dedicating herself to wholeness and justice. Visit:  Northeast Times Star to read an article about her work.

Feet in 2 Worlds Podcast: The Complex Relationship Between Immigrant Blacks and African Americans on College Campuses

Journalist Martha St. Jean interviewed Onleilove and others on the divide that may exist among African-Americans, Africans and West-Indians on University campuses. Check out the article and podcast on Feet in 2 Worlds: The Complex Relationship Between Immigrant Blacks and African Americans on College Campuses

Hosanna! People’s Seminary Presents: SEX,RACE & MONEY Rolling Away the Stone in the Beloved Community.

This is going to be an exciting opportunity to dialogue with people from across the country about how to build true community. I present my research on New Monastics and Critical Race Theory on May 9th! Special Communion guest contributor Eda Uca-Dorn will be presenting as well.

Want a taste of the learning/teaching circle now? Check out H!PS director Eda Uca-Dorn’s article and interview on Jesus Radicals’ Iconocast discussing the Hosanna! Communities Initiative. Visit: www.hopesem.org for more information.

Join us for the first Hosanna! Communities Initiative learning/teaching circle, SEX, RACE, & MONEY: Rolling Away the Stone in the Beloved Community. In this four-part liberation training program we will begin dreaming together what would make for missions of mutual liberation, that is those built on Lila Watson’sinvitation: If you have come to help me, go home. If you have come because your liberation is bound up in mine, let us work together. Eda Uca-Dorn will be facilitating with Chelsea Collogne presenting research on sex-positive community building and Onleilove Alston presenting research on race and class dynamics in Christian mission. (Learn more about our presenters)

1.   When/How/Where will you meet?

We will be meeting 5PM PST/8PM EST by web-based video conference.

2.   What does it cost?

It’s free! In fact, we will be lending limited supplies of webcams, headsets, and Ethernet cables to those for whom buying supplies would pose a barrier to participation.

3.   Who can participate in this learning/teaching circle?

Anyone who agrees to abide in our community guidelines and who can meet the following minimum technology requirements. We will be offering (in fact, requiring) tech training for participants (picking one person in your group to be the tech liaison is fine). If you have any questions (or suggestions!) on tech, please contact Mike@hopesem.org. The tech requirements are:

4.   How many people will be able to participate?

It’s a weird sort of question to answer. You’re welcome to gather in as large groups as you’d like for the sessions however unfortunately, we only have room for ten webcam streams in this program.

5.   Webcam Streams? What are you talking about?

In web-based video conference lingo, a “stream” is the video coming from a web cam. The details are complicated for tech neophytes like us to explain but if you imagine that each “stream” is like a car on a road and the more cars are on the road, the more likelihood of traffic and slowdown. Because the “road” offered by our video conference provider is pretty small (that’s due to current developments in technology- we’d have gotten a bigger “road” if one existed) we can only have about 10 “cars” or webcam streams per session or we’re likely to have annoying technical difficulties.

6.   How can I/we have one of the ten streams?

Register soon!

7.   I have a community meal/work/yoga/other commitment during the meeting time. Is it OK for me to only come to one or two of the sessions?

• Because we have limited room for full participants and we are meeting only four times, we ask all participants to commit to attending all four sessions. Communities which register may have rotating members in the sessions if members make a commitment to sharing what was discussed at missed sessions with others. We ask that members who missed sessions are eager to listen and slow to speak.
  
  
  8.   What if I/we can’t participate in the sessions?

We will be making available taped presentations on this site along with a resources list and message board to allow you and your community to follow along independently. We hope to be creating many more opportunities for this kind of learning and dialogue in the future!

9.   I have more questions! Whom should I contact?

We’d love to hear from you! Contact info@hopesem.org.

Oh shit it’s like they read the emergent church user’s manual!!

Eating disorders and the priesthood

(trigger warning for frank discussion of eating disordered behavior)

My version of hell is eating some overcooked starch in a creamy sauce in front of a room of people while they all make idle chatter and comment on how much or how little I’m eating.  Unfortunately for me, I’m a minister, so this situation occurs approximately 5,348 times every week.

“Integrity is contagious, see. It is hard to look at the way we know the truth and not be tempted to look at your own truth, and that truth’s consequences.”

little light wrote a piece over at Questioning Transphobia about believing in trans people and about integrity, and it is a must-read. Read it and read it again.