A meeting of U.S. church leaders with leaders of the Council of Churches of Cuba concluded in Havana December 2 with a joint declaration celebrating signs of greater unity between U.S. and Cuban churches.

Sixteen representatives of U.S. National Council of Churches member communions were in Cuba November 28 through December 2 meeting with Cuban church and political leaders, including President Raúl Castro.

The delegation, which Cuban church leaders said was the highest ranking U.S. church group to visit the island in their memory, was led by the Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon, NCC general secretary.

The joint statement by the churches  declared that normalization of relations between the U.S. and Cuba would be in the best interest of both nations, and the leaders called for the resolution of three humanitarian issues “which cause unjustifiable human misunderstanding and suffering.”

Foremost among the issues is the 53-year-old U.S. economic embargo of Cuba that dates back to the administration of President John F. Kennedy.

The embargo is “the major obstacle to the resolution of differences, to economic interaction, and to fuller engagement of our peoples and churches,” the U.S. and Cuban church leaders said.

Also cited as obstacles to normalization of relations is the imprisonment in the U.S. of the “Cuban Five,” whose sentences in 1998 “have been deemed unjust by numerous human rights organizations, including Amnesty International and the United Nations); and the two-year incarceration in Cuba of U.S. citizen Alan Gross.

“Together, we affirm the importance of living in hope, but also to demonstrate the credibility of our hope by acting to help make it so,” the church leaders said.

“We, therefore, commit ourselves to promote, even more vigorously, the relationship between our churches and church and ecumenical councils, and to advocate, even more assertively, for the normalization of relations between our countries. Such commitment, we confess, is a response to the One who has bound us to one another (e.g., Ephesians 4:6) and sent us forth to be ambassadors of God’s reconciling love.”

The full text of the joint declaration can be read at www.ncccusa.org/pdfs/cubajpointstatemewnt.pdf

Kinnamon and other members of the delegation met with the wives of the “Cuban Five” and with Alan Gross to publicize their support for their release.

Gross’ name came up during a meeting December 1 between Kinnamon and Cuban President Raúl Castro. Kinnamon said Castro expressed concern about Gross’ declining health, but did not comment on the possibility of his release.

Mutual Challenges

In a sermon November 27 at the National Episcopal Cathedral, Kinnamon laid out challenges faced by the churches of the United States and Cuba.

“And hanging over all of this is the U.S, embargo/blockade and the imprisonment of the Cuban Five, both of which our American churches have forcefully condemned,” Kinnamon said.

He cited a passage from the Apostle Paul: “Give thanks in all circumstances… (I Thessalonians).”

“Life itself is a gift of our Creator,” Kinnamon said. “How can we not live in gratitude? And yet, I do not give thanks for the violence that so scars our world or for the fact that billions of God’s children live in abject poverty or for the pollution of God’s creation—or for the continued U.S. animosity toward Cuba. The Psalms are filled with a call to thankful living; but the psalmist also cries out in protest to God. The world should not be this way! I will not give thanks for these things!”

Kinnamon added: “Perhaps what Paul has in mind, however, is thanksgiving, not just for what is, but for what God has promised. I give thanks for the vision in Micah of that day when swords are beaten into plowshares and nations do not learn war anymore (chapter 4). I give thanks for the vision in Isaiah of that day when children will not die young and no one will labor in vain (chapter 65). And, in this way, our very act of giving thanks becomes itself a protest against the violence and greed of the world as it is. Giving thanks is itself a protest against the puffed up way of living that turns others into enemies and relegates some to the bottom of the heap.”

Read the full text of Kinnamon’s sermon at http://www.ncccusa.org/news/MK.Nov30.11havana.html.

In addition to Kinnamon and his wife, Mardine Davis, members of the U.S. delegation included:

The Rev. John McCullough , Executive Director and CEO, Church World Service; the Rt. Rev. Dr. Katharine Jefferts Schori, Presiding Bishop and Primate of the Episcopal Church; Bishop John F. White, African Methodist Episcopal Church Ecumenical Officer; Bishop Sarah F. Davis, African Methodist Episcopal Church; Paula Clayton Dempsey, Alliance of Baptists Ecumenical Officer; and the Rev. Dr. Richard L. Hamm, Executive Director, Christian Churches Together.

Also, H.E. Archbishop Vicken Aykazian, Diocese of the Armenian Church of America, Diocesan Legate and Ecumenical Officer; Bishop Demetrios of Mokissos, Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America; Dr. Zachariah Mar Nicholovos, Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, Assistant Metropolitan; the Rev. Gradye Parsons, Stated Clerk, Presbyterian Church (USA); Elder Loyda Aja, Assistant Stated Clerk, Presbyterian Church (USA); and the Rev. Wesley S. Granberg-Michaelson, ecumenical officer, Reformed Church in America.

Also, the Rev. Geoffrey Black, General Minister and President, the United Church of Christ; Bishop Sharon Zimmerman Rader, Secretary of the Council of Bishops, United Methodist Church; the Rev. Jerry L. Van Marter, chair, NCC communication commission; and Becky Ball-Miller, Church of the Brethren.

Source: http://www.ncccusa.org

The young couple appears to live out of their car. He says, “I could really go for a cup of coffee.” She responds, “You just have to have a little faith.” A moment later they see a sign inviting them for a free cup of coffee and a prayer.

Another woman comes for coffee and connects with one of the pastors about her incarcerated son. Yet another woman stops and says, “I’m not really religious, but every time I pass you guys I say a prayer.”

Members and pastors from Bethel Lutheran Church, an Evangelical Lutheran Church in America congregation in Rochester, Minn., stand near the street every Wednesday morning to offer free coffee and prayers to passing motorists and pedestrians.

Andrew Nelson, one of the pastors at Bethel, says that part of their “coffee and a prayer” ministry is to include all neighbors.

“We don’t insist that you have a particular way of praying or even that you pray at all,” Andrew says, but all who stop or drive by receive a prayer, even if it is not spoken.

Across town another ELCA congregation reaches out with hot beverages. Members of People of Hope Lutheran Church gather one cold, winter night to distribute hot chocolate to folks in the downtown area.

The recipients are people who spend their days and nights caring for others at the world-renowned Mayo Clinic.

Activities like distributing hot chocolate and offering turkey sandwich lunches to people working on Thanksgiving Day have been ways to let people in the community know that others are thinking of them.

“People absolutely love that we’re trying to figure out new ways to reach into the community and get to know our neighbors,” say Dan Doerring, pastor of People of Hope.

Dan says the creative and radical outreach is not necessarily done with the idea of bringing people through the doors of the church, “but just to be the presence of Christ in the larger community.”

Source: http://www.livinglutheran.com

In a denomination with declining membership and where many available pulpits are no longer able to sustain a full-time pastor in the traditional model, many in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) have been calling for more tentmakers.

Tentmakers are those who work in pastoral or ministry roles but whose primary source of income comes from their jobs in the secular world.

Justin Souza didn’t set out to become a tentmaker — he simply followed in the path it seemed God was calling him. A major component on that path was a love of music.

“I’ve always been interested in music — it has been my passion, and as a young person it, in many ways, defined who I was,” said Souza, who is the founder of a new ministry in Los Angeles called The Breathing Room.

In high school, Souza, who had grown up in the church, realized that although he loved music, his identity was more centrally rooted in Jesus.

“Over time I had this pull to match together the fact that my identity is in Jesus, yet he is the one who has created me to be this person who is very touched by music and passionate about it,” Souza said.

His journey of learning how to integrate his faith with his love of music led Souza to reach out to youth who might be grappling with similar circumstances.

“This is who I am looking for — kids who might be on the fringe of possibly having a faith, but who don’t know how to reconcile the idea of ‘church’ with who they are,” he said.

One group of such kids is known as ‘straight edge’: a music subculture associated with hardcore punk rock and a standard of living that refrains from drugs, alcohol and premarital sex.

“It is actually an easy subculture to engage with — they like hardcore music, screaming, tattoos and piercings so you might not know it, but they are passionate about their moral lifestyle as well,” said Souza.

He believes that it is especially these youth who might be drawn to Christianity, if they’ve got the opportunity.  These type of youth don’t often feel welcomed into the church.

“Often as the church, we have become unapproachable so kids feel unsafe in those type of churches,” Souza said.

And that’s exactly why The Breathing Room — an all-ages music venue that Souza started in partnership with Granada Hills Presbyterian Church — is intentionally located in the church fellowship hall.

“Our reputation has been established that we are a safe place to come to, that you aren’t going to be judged,” Souza said. “We accept you for who you are, we love you for who you are and we want to get to know you.”

Christians are often encouraged to bring their friends to church, but Souza believes that getting to know people before inviting them to church is essential.

“It took me awhile to realize it, but I began to see that I really have no business inviting someone who is not a Christian to church — church is for Christians,” he said. “Actually, I have no business inviting my co-workers to church — I must first get to know them, to develop a relationship with them, and then once they know me and have an interest in knowing Jesus, then we might talk about coming to church to learn more and explore that little seed of faith that has developed in them.”

It’s not that inviting someone to church is bad, but attending a worship service isn’t necessarily the way to reach out to those beyond the church’s walls.

“The idea of the missional church, in the context of our ministry, is to identify who God has created these people to be and helping them see that it is not by chance that you have these passions,” Souza said. “We love you for who God has made you — and that is where discipleship begins in the context of our ministry.”

When he’s not volunteering his time for The Breathing Room, Souza works full-time in the music business, managing tour merchandise for bands such as The Smashing Pumpkins and Evanescence. His wife works raising their two young children. Seeing a need, she has begun a ministry with mothers of preschoolers, reaching out to moms who need other moms to talk to.

“It is hard to balance it all,” Souza said. “We are trying to do things — it would be nice to be able to do them full time, but we offer up what we can with what we have, and hope that God is pleased and hope his kingdom continues to grow.”

Source: http://www.pcusa.org

The parking lot fills quickly on Tuesday afternoons at St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church in Brookings, Oregon as dozens of hopeful residents line up, take a number and wait their turn to see a doctor or other health-care provider.

But first, they’re fed a hearty, healthy meal.

“People can take a number, come eat lunch, and that’s the order in which we treat people” at the church’s free medical clinic and soup kitchen, said the Rev. Bernie Lindley, St. Timothy’s vicar, during a recent telephone interview from the church.

Just about 18 months old, the clinic is open from 1 to 4 p.m. on Tuesdays and has treated more than 575 patients, mostly the uninsured employed, some who live as far as 60 miles away, said Lindley.

Like many other church-initiated free medical clinics across the country, St. Timothy’s began its outreach ministry “as a response to what we saw as a tremendous amount of need; we just didn’t know how we could respond until the opportunity presented itself,” Lindley said. The nearest hospital is at least 30 miles away, he added.

At least a dozen Episcopal congregations throughout the country are meeting community needs by offering physical space, coordinating local resources, securing grant money and recruiting volunteers, and providing free medical services to the uninsured, according to Matthew Ellis, executive director of the National Episcopal Health Ministries.

“For many, the lack of appropriate health insurance prevents them from addressing important health care needs; in these instances, faith-based health clinics may be one of the only options available,” Ellis said in a recent email to ENS.

Historically Brookings, located about five miles north of the California border, was a timber town; the plywood mill its largest employer. Now, unemployment hovers at about 10 percent, more than half of the area’s 14,000 residents are retired and most of the clinic’s patients work in service sector, minimum-wage positions without health insurance, according to Lindley.

“Everybody thinks it’s the guy panhandling on the corner or living under the bridge that needs us, but a lot of the people we see are partly employed or recently unemployed,” he said.

Another misconception, say Lindley and other clinic providers, is that it takes a large or wealthy congregation to start a free medical clinic.

With an average Sunday attendance of about 60 and a $58,000 annual budget, “the congregation doesn’t have tremendous resources,” Lindley said. They have expanded services to include a dental van, long-term mental health counseling, prescription assistance and numerous 12-step programs.

“What we do have is the willingness to say yes to people who have a sense of social justice and who want to do ministry and to reach out to others within our community.

“It’s very important we don’t exist for our own purpose. We need to exist for the betterment of the community,” he said.

St. Peter’s Clinic in Hillsdale, Michigan, is another example of a small congregation serving up hope in huge doses.

While average Sunday attendance at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church is about two dozen, its free medical clinic operates with about six times that many volunteers. There are doctors, physicians assistants, nurses, pharmacists, medical assistants, receptionists “and lay people of all kind,” said Jill Pavka, a retired nurse and the clinic’s executive director. There are about 120 active volunteers, she added.

“They come from all over the community, they’re all different faiths or no faiths. It’s a huge mix of people who come here because they believe in the mission and what we do,” she added.

On Tuesday evenings, the parish hall converts to a waiting room and the church basement becomes exam rooms. It takes about 24 people to staff the clinic, which averages about 60 patient visits per week, Pavka said.

“We open our doors at 5 p.m., and many of them come straight from work,” she added.

Terry Smith, 55, a resident of Reading, Michigan in Hillsdale County has been a regular clinic patient for the past two years.

“Without the clinic,” she said emphatically in a recent telephone interview, “I’d be a dead duck.”

The manicurist and mother of three developed diabetes two years ago. Through the clinic she receives medicine to regulate her blood pressure and cholesterol, and to treat her diabetes. She also receives the supplies she needs — a meter and test strips to monitor her blood glucose level three times daily.

“My sugar is perfect now, but I do cheat once in a while,” said Smith, who also attends a monthly group at the clinic that offers education, awareness and support. “I know what can happen, you can go blind, or lose your feet. Diabetes does a lot to you if you don’t take care of your body,” she said.

Employed full-time, Smith has no health insurance. “The economy has hit me so hard,” she said, calling health insurance “a luxury, so most people have had to give it up because of the economy.”

“I don’t make enough to go pay a regular doctor or to pay my own insurance, so I’m forced to come here,” she said.

But, she added: “It’s wonderful, because you don’t have to worry. They don’t make you feel like a piece of dirt because you have to come here, because you can’t help it.”

Area unemployment surged in the community of about 40,000 after the auto industry tanked, according to Pavka. Manufacturing, tool and die and automotive-supply businesses “lost over 2,000 jobs in a two-year period of time,” she said. The unemployment rate is about 15 percent.

“The people we see are the new poor, who had good jobs. They were making $12 to $20 per hour, decent money for a rural community like this, they had great benefits,” she said. “Then all of the sudden they found themselves with nothing.”

To be eligible for the clinic’s services, patients must be uninsured with an income level at 200 percent of the federal poverty level, or about $44,700 annual income for a family of four. The clinic does not treat children, but they receive medical coverage under state programs. People 64 years and older typically can access Medicare.

The number of patients visiting the clinic has increased each year since it opened in 2002.  All told, volunteers have handled more than 21,000 patient visits and dispensed $6.37 million in prescription medication, Pavka said. Although the clinic’s focus is on chronic disease management, acute care and providing medications, there has been an increase in patients with multiple health issues, she said.

In 2009 (the latest year for which the statistics are tallied), the clinic referred 232 patients to other doctors, including surgeons, orthopedic surgeons and dentists. Ophthalmology and podiatry services are also available, along with a monthly diabetic clinic, depression support and weekly smoking-cessation groups.

With an annual budget of $140,000, most funding comes from private donations, as well as the Diocese of Michigan’s social ministry fund and grants through health-insurance provider Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan.

Still, Pavka is aware of a pressing need. “I’d love to find a way to serve the people we’re missing during the day,” she said, noting that people who work in the evening cannot come to the clinic.

Linda Cosier, 62, a licensed practical nurse who volunteers at the clinic, said she’s been surprised at how much she receives in turn from patients. “Anyone who volunteers broadens themselves and becomes a lot better person,” she said. “Every Tuesday night we all learn from somebody who comes to the clinic asking for help.”

A free medical clinic begun by a nearby congregation of about 40 people inspired St. James the Less Church (http://www.stjamestheless.com) in Ashland, Virginia, in 2006 to start its own clinic in the church basement, according to Lee Chambers, clinic board president and volunteer.

The clinic has since expanded to include five separate locations in various churches, not all of them Episcopal, he said. “The demand exceeded the room we had at St. James and we had to move,” he said. “For example, we didn’t have enough room to put a chair in for the optical clinic, which requires a whole room. So we started looking for other space.”

The St. James clinic is open Wednesdays from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. and offers eye, medical and dental services, prevention care and prevention education, said Chambers, 76, a retired chemical-industry marketing manager.

Patients must be uninsured residents of Hanover County, Virginia, with income 150 percent of the current federal poverty guidelines.  But, “if you’re 66 and come in for glasses, obviously Medicare doesn’t pay for that,” said Chambers.

Chambers finds volunteering extremely satisfying. He maintains equipment and registers patients for the dental clinic. In some instances, lives are changed, even saved, he said.

“We have people who work at WalMart loading and unloading boxes,” he said. “When they get their teeth they say, ‘now I can get a promotion and work out front at the cash register and smile at people.’ It’s a great mission, a very great mission.”

Another patient arrived with dangerously high blood pressure. “We don’t treat emergencies,” he said. “We immediately called the rescue squad; they took her to the hospital. She told us later the hospital said if we hadn’t reacted the way we did, she would have died. That visit changed her life.”

Chambers hopes churches will consider tackling issues of the body, as well as the soul. The need for health education is so great that “even if churches don’t want to start up a free clinic, they could at least start with a series of seminars and see where that leads.

“Ministering to the sick is a fundamental ministry of the church, and it is heartening to see so many of our parishes addressing this critical need.”

By Pat McCaughan

Source: http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com

A groundbreaking 2007 survey of more than 6,000 American congregations reveals that churches spend a significant amount of time, energy and money in the ministries of health care. The Congregational Health Ministry Survey, conducted by the National Council of Churches USA (NCC) with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, showed that a majority of churches are ministering to their communities by providing health care ministries.

According to the survey, about 70 percent of responding churches provide direct health services, with 65 percent offering health education programs within their community. The survey defines direct services as provision of medical care to individuals by trained health care professionals.

Washington, December 12, 2011 – The National Council of Churches has joined nearly 150 national and regional ecumenical, interfaith, and advocacy organizations to call on Congress to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act of 1994 (VAWA).

The Act, which creates an office within the Department of Justice to develop federal policies around issues relating to domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking, is scheduled for reauthorization this year.

Churches and faith organizations have been actively supportive of VAWA, said the Rev. Ann Tiemeyer, program director of the National Council of Churches Women’s Ministries Program.

“The church not only has a role in calling upon our Government to reauthorize and fund VAWA,” Tiemeyer said. “We also need to be safe places where women can come for assistance and healing. We need to preach out against all forms of intimate partner violence and work in partnership with our government to accomplish this goal.”

The nationwide Ecumenical Advocacy Days in 2010 set VAWA as a primary topic to discuss with members of Congress when delegates visited Capitol Hill, Tiemeyer noted. “Knowing that re-authorization was coming this fall, we have been building on this work since last March.”

Organizations signing on to a letter to members of Congress today said, “Since its original passage in 1994, VAWA has dramatically enhanced our nation’s response to violence against women.

“More victims report domestic violence to the police and the rate of non-fatal intimate partner violence against women has decreased by 63 percent,” the letter said.

“The sexual assault services program in VAWA helps rape crisis centers keep their doors open to provide the frontline response to victims of rape. VAWA provides for a coordinated community approach, improving collaboration between law enforcement and victim services providers to better meet the needs of victims.

“These comprehensive and cost-effective programs not only save lives, they also save money,” the letter said.  “In fact, VAWA saved nearly $12.6 billion in net averted social costs in just its first six years.”

The letter said reauthorization of VAWA will “build upon its successes and continue to enhance our nation’s ability to hold perpetrators accountable and keep victims and their children safe from future harm.”

The full text of the letter to Congress is here.

Signers of the letter to Congress include:

Alianza-National Latino Alliance to End Domestic Violence
Alternatives to Family Violence
American Association of University Women
American College of Nurse-Midwives
American Probation and Parole Association
American Psychiatric Association
Americans Overseas Domestic Crisis Center
ASHA for Women
Asian & Pacific Islander Institute on Domestic Violence
ASISTA Immigration Assistance
Association of Jewish Family and Children’s Agencies
Association of Prosecuting Attorneys
Association of Reproductive Health Professionals
Black Women’s Health Imperative
Break the Cycle
Casa de Esperanza
Church of the Brethren
Coalition of Labor Union Women
Deaf Abused Women’s Network
Disciples Justice Action Network
Disciples Women of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Domestic Violence Report
Feminist Majority/Feminist Majority Foundation
Futures Without Violence (formerly the Family Violence Prevention Fund)
General Federation of Women’s Clubs
Institute on Domestic Violence in the African-American Community
International Association of Forensic Nurses
Japanese American Citizens League
Jewish Council for Public Affairs
Jewish Women International
Joyful Heart Foundation
Legal Momentum
MANA – A National Latina Organization
Men Can Stop Rape
Mennonite Central Committee US
Methodist Federation for Social Action
National Alliance to End Sexual Violence
National Association of Counties
National Association of VOCA Assistance Administrators
National Center for Victims of Crime
National Center on Domestic and Sexual Violence
National Coalition Against Domestic Violence
National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs
National Congress of American Indians Violence Against Women Task Force
National Council of Jewish Women
National Council of Negro Women
National Council on Independent Living
National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA
National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges
National Council of Women’s Organizations
National Dating Abuse Hotline
National Domestic Violence Hotline
National Housing Law Project
National Institute of Crime Prevention
National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health
National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty
National Legal Aid and Defender Association
National Network to End Domestic Violence
National Organization for Women
National Organization of Sisters of Color Ending Sexual Assault
National Women’s Political Caucus
National Resource Center on Domestic Violence
National Resource Sharing Project
NETWORK – A National Catholic Social Justice Lobby
9to5, National Association of Working Women
Nursing Network on Violence Against Women International
Planned Parenthood Federation of America
Rape Abuse and Incest National Network
Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law
Service Women’s Action Network
Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States
Tribal Law and Policy Institute
Union for Reform Judaism
United Church of Christ
United Methodist Church (General Board of Church and Society)
Voices of Men
Witness Justice
Women’s Information Network
Women’s Law Project
Women of Color Network
YWCA USA

State and local sign-ons:

Advocates Against Family Violence, Caldwell, ID
AYUDA, Inc., Washington, DC
Beyond Survival Sexual Assault Resource Center Greys Harbor Cnty, Aberdeen, WA
Bridges of Williamson County, TN
Choices Domestic Violence Solutions, Gardena, CA
Christian Women Alive, Troy, MI
Cleveland Rape Crisis Center, Cleveland, OH
Crime Victim and Sexual Violence Center, Albany, NY
Crisis Center and Women’s Shelter, Ottumwa, IA
Crisis Council, Troy, NC
Cross Roads Safe House, Fort Collins, CO
DC Coalition Against Domestic Violence, Washington, DC
District Alliance for Safe Housing, Washington, DC
Domestic and Sexual Violence Services, Red Lodge, MT
Domestic Violence Project, Canton, OH
Drogheda Project, Shattuc, IL
Family Shelter Service, Wheaton, IL
Family Services, Green Bay, WI
Hope Center, Faribault, MN
Human Options, Inc., Irvine, CA
Gateway Family Services, Snyder, TX
Life Source Consultants, Inc., St. Louis, MO
Mass 2-1-1, Framingham, MA
Meriden-Wallingford Chrysalis, Meridan, CT
Middleway House, Bloomington, IN
Monsoon United Asian Women, IA
My Sister’s Place, Washington, DC
My Sister’s Place, White Plains, NY
Nassau County Coalition Against Domestic Violence, Bethpage, NY
New York Asian Women’s Center, New York, NY
Panhandle Crisis Center, Perryton, TX
Peace Over Violence, Los Angeles, CA
Rainbow Response Coalition, Washington, DC
Ramona’s Way, Washington, DC
Rare Diamond Minds, Baltimore, MD
The Retreat, Suffolk County, NY
SoLatina, Revere, MA
Someplace Safe, Fergus Falls, MN
South Dakota Coalition Ending Domestic and Sexual Violence
South Suburban Family Shelter, Homewood, IL
S.T.A.C.I.E. Foundation, Cincinnati, OH
The Support Center, Omak, WA
Survivors and Advocates For Empowerment, Washington, DC
Texas Association Against Sexual Assault, Austin, TX
Trainings, Transitions, Teams, Overland Park, KS
Turnaround Coaching, Inc., Gilbert, AZ
Voices of Hope, Lincoln, NE
VIBS—Family Violence and Rape Crisis Center, Holbrook, NY
WEAVE—Washington Empowered Against Violence, Washington, DC
Women Against Abuse, Philadelphia, PA
Women in Transition, Philadelphia, PA
YWCA Alaska, Anchorage, AK
YWCA, Dayton, OH
YWCA Lancaster, Lancaster, PA
YWCA DV/SA Resource Center, Clinton, IA
YWCA DV/SA Resource Center Jackson, Maquoketa, IA
YWCA Greater Cincinnati, OH
YWCA Greater Harrisburg, PA
YWCA Greater Triangle
YWCA, Hartford, CT
YWCA Metropolitan Chicago, Chicago, IL
YWCA Monterey County, Salinas, CA
YWCA of the Sauk Valley, Sterling, IL
YWCA Fort Worth & Tarrant County, TX
YWCA South Hampton Roads, VA
YWCA, Spokane, WA

Source: www.ncccusa.org

Katherine Simons sees it all the time. Hopelessness.

She sees it on the faces of the thousands of out-of-work people who walk through the doors of the Job Networking Ministry that Simons organizes twice a month at Roswell United Methodist Church in the Atlanta suburb.

“That look” is all over their faces. Their smiles are forced. Their eyes are intense. Anxiety has carved lines into their foreheads.

“Stress has drained the life out of them,” Simons said.

“These are people who have run out of money. They’ve run out of direction. They’ve run out of options. They’re discouraged. They’re worried. And they’re afraid.”

Dragged kicking and screaming

Charlie Brown was one of those people.

It wasn’t long ago — a little more than two years — that the unemployed computer programmer was dragged, “kicking and screaming,” to the Roswell meeting.

“I didn’t want to go,” he said, “But the person who was pushing me to go wouldn’t take ‘no’ for an answer. I was so miserable and so depressed at the time; I guess I just gave in.”

Unemployment was a shock to Brown, who had worked since he was 18 years old. When he was laid off in 2008 at age 51, it was the first time he’d ever been without a job.

“No recruiters would talk to me,” he said. “In fact, no one was interested in talking to me. Everyone was saying, ‘no, no, no,’ to everything I had to offer. There just were no jobs.”

Brown spent the next several months going back repeatedly to Roswell. He called it a “university.”

“I felt like a freshman on campus for the first time because there was so much stuff going on,” he laughed. “I didn’t know where to go. I didn’t know what to do. I was just lost.”

On the other side

Eventually, he made it through several of Roswell’s workshops on writing résumés, interviewing and job searching for baby boomers. He got his résumé reviewed and revised. Had his picture taken for LinkedIn. Started networking. He may have come in without a to-do list, but he left with many self-improvement assignments.

“My skills had gotten old and stale, so I did a refresh,” he said. “I spent a year attending classes, seminars and doing self-study, all to bring my skill set up to current.”

But more than getting an education in the ABCs of searching for a job, Brown said he learned about himself and the kind of person he wanted to be.

“I wanted to be somebody whom others wanted to be around, and the way to do that was to become a more positive person,” he said. “Up until then, I was always angry, and I was wallowing in it. And I had a lot of fear. I was afraid I was going to fail my family. It was a terrifying time.

“But,” said Brown, “I learned to stay cheerful. To laugh out loud more often. To tell funny stories. The more entertaining you are to people — even potential employers — the more attractive you are.”
Brown said he knew a positive attitude was an asset, especially as a boomer trying to make his mark in a competitive job market.

“You can bridge the age gap if you’re someone people enjoy spending time with,” he said. “You’re only as young as you act. You have to show people you’re willing to continue to grow on a spiritual, educational and personality level.”

But it wasn’t easy.

“The hardest thing you can do is put on a happy face,” he admitted. “But you have to. You can’t just sit around being upset. You’ve got to let go. You’ve gotta work your way through it.”

You’re more than your job

Bob Kashey, a volunteer with the Roswell program, knows how hard it is for job seekers to get to the mental and spiritual place of which Brown speaks.

“People walk in here with an overwhelming fear because they’ve never been out of a job,” Kashey said. “They’ve grown up in a society that says, ‘You are as successful as your job,’ and they truly think their success is tied to what they do.

When you take that away from them, they have nothing to fall back on, so they fall hard.”

While Roswell’s program may focus on making attendees “job-search ready,” the pep talks and prayer prep their souls for what’s ahead.

“We teach them to focus on the content of your character — that’s what makes you successful,” said Kashey. “We need to get away from the stereotype that says ‘my job as such and such’ or ‘the XYZ Company is my life and I’m going to work at it 12 hours a day and never see my kids.’

“That way, when they walk into job interviews, they have their priorities straight, and they’re not worried,” he said.

“They’re able to be themselves and let their light shine through — and be passionate about what really matters.”

Charlie Brown now has good news to share with the job seekers who have become his friends at the Roswell career ministry meetings. He was recently hired as a software engineer in the Atlanta area.

If your church is interested in beginning a career ministry, contact Katherine Simons at 404-518-1377 or via email at lovingyourneighbor@gmail.com.

But finally having the “un” removed from his “employed” status won’t keep him away from Roswell where he’s committed to giving back as a volunteer.

“Sometimes God’s plan is not about what we want,” Brown said. “Look at Job and Jonah. God dragged them, kicking and screaming, as he did me, to a place we didn’t want to go, but in the end, it was better for us. In my case, it wasn’t only better for me, it’s (also) better because maybe I can help others.”

By Susan Passi-Klaus

Source: http://www.umc.org

Chicago, November 9, 2011 — Kathryn Mary Lohre, Director of Ecumenical and Inter-Religious Relations in the Office of the Presiding Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, was installed as the 26th President of the National Council of Churches.

The installation took place during the Council’s Governing Board meeting at the ELCA Churchwide Office in Chicago. Lohre will serve her two year term from January 1, 2012 to December 31, 2013.

The Rev. A. Roy Medley, general secretary of American Baptist Churches USA, was installed as President Elect of the National Council of Churches following his election by the NCC Governing Board Wednesday.

Lohre, who has been serving as NCC President Elect, will succeed the Rev. Canon Peg Chemberlin, who will now serve as immediate past president of the Council. This is the first time in the history of the NCC that a woman will succeed a woman in the role.

At a luncheon honoring her installation sponsored by Odyssey Networks, Lohre told the story of the National Council of Churches reception for Liberian peace activist Leymah Gbowee on October 7, the day she won the Nobel Peace Prize.

The reception, organized by the Rev. Ann Tiemeyer, was originally planned as the last stop on a tour to promote Gbowee’s memoirs and to add Gbowee’s name to the NCC’s Circles of Names campaign, was hastily rearranged so Gbowee could meet with supporters and the media in The Interchurch Center Chapel.

Lohre spoke movingly as she described Gbowee’s visit to the NCC as a historic milestone in the contributions of women of faith to peace and justice movements around the world.

“I was not there,” said Lohre. But because the National Council of Churches represents a wide community of persons of faith, “we were there.”

Kathryn Lohre was assistant director of the Pluralism Project at Harvard from 2005 to 2011, serving with project director Dr. Diana Eck, a member of the NCC Governing Board and chair of the NCC’s Interfaith Relations Commission.

Lohre is a member of the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches. She previously served on the ELCA Bishop’s Global, Ecumenical and Interfaith Relationships Roundtable, the Commission for Women Steering Committee and as an assistant to the ELCA Youth Gathering (2000).

Lohre is a summa cum laude graduate of St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minn., and earned the Master of Divinity degree at Harvard Divinity School. In May 2011, the Graduate Theological Foundation, Mishawaka, Ind., conferred an honorary Doctor of Divinity to Lohre, “in recognition of her election as president-elect of the National Council of Churches and also in recognition of her contributions to women’s interfaith issues and pluralism.”

At 34, Lohre is the first Lutheran and the second youngest president of the Council. The Rev. Dr. M. William Howard, an American Baptist, became president in 1979 at the age of 33.

Source: http://www.ncccusa.org

Santa Fe, N.M., is gifted with a warm climate — which is at least one reason why the city also has a sizable homeless population.

First Presbyterian Church, located in downtown Santa Fe, is using a unique feature of its building to reach out to these sometimes forgotten people.

The church has showers on its main level, made to be easily accessible to groups. The showers were added partly with the homeless community in mind.

“When we built the new church about six years ago, our pastor then was the Rev. Sheila Gustafson, and she was very aware of the needs of the homeless in our community as well as the fact that we have a lot of visiting groups,” said Mary Ann Lundy, chairwoman of the congregation’s Mission and Social Justice Committee.

Church members have taken advantage of the unusual arrangement by offering a program called Hot Water Hospitality on Sunday afternoons. The program, established two years ago, runs from May to October and provides showers, meals and a clothing center for about 80 homeless people.

The church estimates there are 1,200-1,500 homeless people in the city, and it reaches about 350 of them throughout its season.

“It’s primarily men, although there are women also homeless and then we have some families.  Since we’re in New Mexico, we have a lot of immigrants in the program. We have a number of veterans,” Lundy said. “They’re all homeless, that’s the common denominator.”

Sallie Watson, regional presbyter/stated clerk for Santa Fe and Sierra Blanca Presbyteries, visited the church on a recent Sunday and can attest to the popularity of the program.

“I was at worship there a couple of weeks ago and as I was leaving, the people were lining up outside to come in,” she said. “It looked like a group waiting for the second service and I guess kind of they were.”

The effort has also been made interfaith. Every second Sunday, another faith group is invited to bring and prepare food. So far groups from Temple Beth Shalom, Holy Faith Episcopal Church, Unitarian Universalist Church, and Santa Maria de la Paz Catholic Church have helped serve more than 2,100 meals.

The meal is served buffet style, and guests seem to appreciate the atmosphere as much as the services, prompting many to stay for the entire afternoon even though they’ve already showered and eaten.

“I think it’s also become a center for fellowship among the homeless,” Lundy said. “They have said, ‘We feel you treat us with respect and we feel normal here.’ They seem very much to enjoy the atmosphere of the place.”

Watson recognized that Hot Water Hospitality is not only a benefit for the community but for First Presbyterian Church as well.

“I think the value goes both ways, not only for those who are being assisted, but for those in the congregation also,” she said. “It not only showed that the church was actively serving, but also that there was a way for the congregation to mix with and get to know those who were coming in for assistance. It has not always been that way, and so I think that is really refreshing.”

The Rev. Brooke Pickrell, an associate pastor at First who recently left to take a position elsewhere, really got the church involved in the shelter community in the city, Lundy said. Pickrell also served as vice chair of the Interfaith Shelter Board, a position that has now gone to Lundy. That group is working on renovating a building that will open Nov. 1 and serve as a full-time shelter facility.

Once the full time Interfaith Shelter opens, much of what is now done at First Presbyterian will move to the new facility. The shelter will house the clothing center and kitchen and will also have a resource center where the homeless can have access to employment and medical referral services.

But the new shelter might not mean the end of the Hot Water Hospitality program at First.

“We don’t know yet about next summer,” Lundy said. “There’s a lot of feeling that this has become a major place of fellowship on Sundays for homeless people and that we need to think about continuing this program even after the shelter opens.”

By Toni Montgomery

Source: http://www.pcusa.org

With a generous grant from Odyssey Networks and the support of the New York Board of Rabbis, the National Council of Churches, Mazon: A Jewish Response to Hunger, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Presbyterian Church in America, Bread for the World, the Union for Reform Judaism, and the Westside Campaign Against Hunger, A Peace of Bread hopes to restore a nation’s conviction that hunger can be eliminated. For local listings, check the Interfaith Broadcasting Commission webpage.

A Peace of Bread: Faith, Food and the Future is a compelling and heart-felt look at how young, and not so young, faith leaders are trying to finally make a dent in this country’s 36 million people (13 million of which are children) that are experiencing hunger.

With faiths’ enduring mandate to “feed the hungry,” A Peace of Bread: Faith, Food, and the Future explores the work not only of the steadfast caregivers in soup kitchens and food pantries, but also that of a new generation of anti-hunger activists – all of whom driven by faith in a brighter future.

Agricultural sustainability, social network community building, and advocacy to reshape food policy – these are just some of the ways in which faith based groups are bringing a new perspective to an old problem.

A Peace of Bread: Faith, Food, and the Future reminds us that we are “not obligated to finish the work (of perfecting the world) but neither are you allowed to desist from it.” ( Pirket Avot 2:16) And with 36 million people suffering from hunger in our nation, the issue requires the combined effort of us all.

A Peace of Bread – opening sequence from Diva Communications on Vimeo.

Among the segments:

• As a young college student, Eli Winkelman founded Challah for Hunger to raise money and awareness for hunger through the production and sale of challah bread. The organization has since grown to over 40 chapters in schools across the nation and beyond.
• The young men of Gonzaga’s College High School’s Campus Kitchen spend their summers cooking and delivering meals to the less fortunate in the shadow of the nation’s capitol.
• At the Jewish Farm School in upstate New York, Nati Passow worked toward a long-held dream of agricultural sustainability. Participants connect to their faith by working the land and growing food for the cause.

Also featuring:

• An interview with Congressman James McGovern; co-Chair of the Hunger Caucus.
• The Interfaith Hunger Seder held at the Capitol Building in Hartford, Conn.
• The weekly food distribution efforts at the Seventh-day Adventist Berean Church, Atlanta, and Westside Campaign Against Hunger.
• An interview with David Scherer (a.k.a. AGAPE) who uses the power of music to raise hunger awareness amongst youth across a 100+ show tour every year.
• The gleaning of America’s fields through the work of the Society of St. Andrew.
• The advocacy work of Mazon: A Jewish Response to Hunger, Bread for the World and the America Jewish World Service.

All it takes is a few creative solutions, a lot of big hearts and an unalterable will.

For more information contact bread@divacommunications.com

This special is are produced through the NCC’s partnership with Interfaith Broadcasting Commission (IBC), through which America’s faith community  provides television programming to the affiliates of the three major broadcast TV networks each year. You can find out more about the programs and check local listing at http://www.interfaithbroadcasting.com

“Sound of gunshots echoed throughout the village. People were running helter-skelter. I grabbed my sewing machine and dragged it inside the house, was about to return to the veranda to snatch other materials when a gun-wielding, furious-looking young man halted me at the door and commanded that I return with him inside.

“Did you hear the shots?” he yelled at me.

“Yes, I did and that’s why I’m packing out,” I replied nervously as I retreated.

“Where are the rest of the occupants in this house?” he demanded.

“They are all gone,” I said.

Juana Kamara, an amputee now living in Mattru Village, near city in southern Sierra Leone, recalled the incident that led to the loss of his right leg during the early days of the Sierra Leone civil conflict that lasted 11 years.

Kamara, a former tailor who is now a radio mechanic, is one of the hundreds who benefited from the Artificial Limb Fitting Center in Bo that has been giving hope to amputees from the Sierra Leone civil strife. He got his first prosthetic limb from the center, which is funded by the United Methodist Committee on Relief, in 2002 when the Sierra Leone war officially was declared ended.

The Revolutionary United Front rebels attacked Kamara’s eastern Sierra Leone village, Bunumbu — a three-hour walk from the Liberia border — in 1991. The war began in that part of the country after rebels crossed the border from Liberia.

“There were moments when rebels would enter the village and fire in the air,” Kamara recalled. “The people would run away, and the rebels would loot their property and ask a few young people they captured to carry the load into Liberia.”

Fortunes change

Kamara’s fortune changed in a rapid succession of events as he picked up the story of the young man who entered his home. “Before long, the man interrogating me was joined by another young man who said his colleague was wasting time talking to me and that he should shoot me instead. Before I knew it, a third armed man joined them,” he said.

“Let us don’t kill him. He is very handsome,” the third combatant suggested. “Instead, let us do a thing to him that he’ll never forget in his life,” Kamara said, repeating the exchange.

“What then do you want to do to me?” Kamara said he asked.

The third rebel searched under Kamara’s bed and came up with a machete. He ordered Kamara to go with them to the back of the compound. The group went out with one rebel in front and another at Kamara’s back to prevent him from escaping.

In the backyard, the rebels held Kamara’s right foot to a stick and cut it with the machete, leaving him in pain. They left without taking anything from his house.

Kamara’s brother and the rest of the family who had escaped before the rebels entered later returned to the gruesome site of a crawling Kamara with his mutilated leg bleeding profusely. Kamara said he asked for a knife, which he used to chop off the skin of flesh holding the lower limb to his thigh. Then his elder brother carried Kamara on his back to Kailahun, the district headquarter town, to seek medical attention but could not get help for him. Kamara later was taken to city in the south.

Making a new life

Kamara and his family now stay in an amputee camp in Mattru that a Norwegian organization built. His prosthetic limb care is provided by the United Methodist Artificial Limb Fitting Center, managed by Lappia Amara.

Amara visits the amputees in Mattru regularly to see to their needs. Sometimes he repairs the prosthetic limbs; other times, he replaces worn-out prosthetic limbs with new ones.

“My life has changed drastically since I received the artificial limb,” Kamara said. “Before I got the limb, I used to feel very shy to go outside for fear that people might think I was a beggar if they saw me out in the street. So I stayed indoors for most of the time.” Most amputees resorted to begging after the end of the war, but Kamara comes from a culture that frowns on begging.

The artificial limb renewed Kamara’s self-esteem and enabled him, once again, to fend for himself and his family. He repairs faulty shortwave and FM radio sets for the Mattru community. He says people from all over the community bring their radio sets and tape recorders for repair and pay for his service. He also plants potatoes close to his home, and the family sells leftover potatoes after they use what they need.

“Since I received the artificial limb, I have learnt to walk normally — so normal that one wouldn’t know I’m amputated when I’m in trousers,” Kamara said. “I own a bicycle and can ride well. I ride to Bo and back frequently.”

Amara runs a mobile clinic for amputees. On average, he treats more than 30 patients a month throughout the country. The clinics last for two weeks in each location. During mobile clinic visits, he meets amputees in their locations and prepares the limbs for them. Another group, The Norwegian Friends, built amputee camps in most district headquarter towns after the war.

Reaching out to amputees

The amputees fend for themselves after receiving the artificial limbs from the United Methodist Church. Amara says the prosthetic legs last much longer than those provided by other organizations around the country, and they are provided free from funds received from UMCOR.

“Before I travel, I put out notices usually stating that the United Methodist Artificial Limb Fitting Center would be providing limbs for amputees on a stated date and ask amputees around the location to attend.

“Usually, we take their measurements on the first day and ask them to come for practice on a stated date after which they take their prosthetic limbs home,” Amara said.

Amara’s dream is to have a vehicle to take staff and materials to organize more mobile clinics each year. Now, he can organize the clinics only in the dry season when commercial vehicles do not charge as much as much as they do during the rainy season when the roads are bad.

Theodore R. Warnock, a missionary for special projects with UMCOR Health, said the program hopes to expand its services by visiting amputees who cannot afford to come from their villages to the center, providing artificial hands to upper-arm amputees, issuing wheelchairs to polio victims and offering limb-fitting camps.

By Phileas Jusu

Source: www.umc.org