Episcopal Urban Caucus Seeks Global Justice
by Emmett Jarrett & Anne Scheibner

"Jesus sent his disciples out like sheep among the wolves - and they came back! They were able to come back safely because they followed instructions. How do you know when your vocation is genuine? When the deepest desire of your heart meets the deepest need of your community, then your vocation is genuine," said the Rev. Canon Edward W. Rodman, Canon Missioner for the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts, to the recent Episcopal Urban Caucus assembly.

The Caucus, a 21 year-old network of Episcopal urban ministers, met in New London, February 21-24, 2001, for four days of worship, fellowship, theological reflection, workshops and planning. The theme of "Defining the Church's Agenda for the New Global City" drew 175 activists from urban centers around the country to this small New England city. Once a whaling center, then the part of the regional home of nuclear submarine production, New London is now the global research center for Pfizer, and home to members of the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohican tribes, who own major casinos in the area.

Members of the Caucus went on a bus tour of New London after hearing English urban theologian Andrew Davey's keynote address on globalization to see first-hand its results. Visits to Pfizer's new construction contrasted sharply with nearby neighborhoods, where homes have been destroyed to make way for upscale hotels and recreation centers. The results of 1960's "urban renewal" are still evident, and a shuttered downtown testifies to the removal of retail shops and businesses from the city center to suburban shopping malls.

Urban education reform was a major theme of the Caucus assembly. "Whose pictures are in God's wallet?" asked David Hornbeck, former superintendent of Philadelphia schools. "If all children deserve equal education, why do some children - disproportionately children of color and poor, and mainly from inner city areas - get less than others?"

Hornbeck's colleague, Linda Powell, professor at Teachers College, Columbia University, invited Caucus members to think back to their earliest memories of school. "Realize that these are the 'lenses' through which you see the issues of school reform," she said. A panel of high school students from local Williams H.S. and schools in Buffalo, New York, answered questions from the adults about life in schools now. "What do you need to make a good education?" one person asked. "A teacher who likes his or her subject and likes us," said the students. Ingrid Young, 18, remembered telling a family member that her favorite teacher was black. The family member told her she shouldn't trust black people. "I told him I could trust this teacher," she said. "I had learned for myself that you really could trust people."

"You are the prophets of the Episcopal Church," said the Rev. Canon Carmen Guerrero to the Caucus assembly at its final meeting. "You had the vision to establish Jubilee Ministry with the poor in the USA in 1982, and you supported the Jubilee 2000 global debt cancellation movement in the 1990's." Guerrero, staff officer for Jubilee Ministries at the Episcopal Church Center in New York, reminded members, "The heart of the Gospel is justice, and the way to do justice is empowerment of the poor." The global agenda is as much a part of this vocation as church work at the local level.

The Episcopal Peace Fellowship and the Episcopal Network for Economic Justice both also met in conjunction with the Urban Caucus assembly. Janet Chisholm, interim director of the national interfaith group, Fellowship of Reconciliation, spoke to the EPF luncheon on the theme "Building a Culture of Nonviolence." The Economic Justice Network awarded its first annual "Gloria Brown Award for Economic Justice" to the Naugatuck Valley Project as an example of church and community organizing for justice for all.

The assembly passed resolutions in support of solidarity with women and children who are victims of oppression in the global economy, and with union workers in hotels and restaurants. New members were elected to the Caucus Board, which met following the Assembly and elected R. P. M. Bowden, of Atlanta, President, and the Rev. Margaret Rose, also of Atlanta, Vice President. The next assembly will be held in Los Angeles, February 6-9, 2002, and the overall theme will be Multiculturalism.

Emmett Jarrett and Anne Scheibner are the new co-coordinators of the Episcopal Urban Caucus. Emmett, an Episcopal priest, and Anne, a writer & activist, live and work at St. Francis House in New London, Connecticut. It is a Franciscan house of prayer, a house of hospitality, and a justice ministry based on the Catholic Worker model.

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Learn more about the Episcopal Urban Caucus on their web site at:
http://www.episcopalurbancaucus.org