Paul Moore lays hands on Susan Russell, director of the Claiming the Blessing initiative.
by Ethan Flad
Paul Moore lays hands on Susan Russell, director of the Claiming the Blessing initiative. |
War was on the horizon and the memory of the Republican Party’s capture of the U.S. Congress was fresh. This quickly shifting political landscape has put the social activist community on notice: A quarter-century of progress is in danger of being reversed. With the Episcopal Church’s General Convention only a few months away, a re-energized EUC constituency arrived in Chicago worried that the rightward move in the government could soon be reflected in the church too.
Assembly organizers chose the conference title "Church Growth or Discipleship: Whither the Episcopal Church?" as a method of exploring this concern. The theme drew on a program called "20/20," a controversial proposal that has challenged the denomination to double its membership by the year 2020. Since many previous evangelism initiatives have been sponsored by political conservatives, social activists have historically kept a wary distance. In a keynote address, Ian Douglas, professor of World Mission & Global Christianity at the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass., argued that this is a false dichotomy. "I have a problem with the binary, oppositional placement of being either for more bodies in the pews or for human rights and social justice," declared Douglas.
Two pieces of the assembly sparked extra energy. Paul Moore, retired bishop of New York, appeared as the banquet speaker, just one month after being diagnosed with inoperable lung and brain cancer. Moore is widely considered to be one of the church’s most prophetic witnesses to the struggles for racial, economic and sexual justice over the past half-century, and his reflections on ministry and justice provoked a response of tears and laughter from the audience. "It’s the cracked ones who let the light through," Moore said more than once, enthusing, "The thing about this stuff is it’s a lot of fun when you’re doing it!"
One of the founders of the EUC, as well as several earlier civil-rights-era church groups, Moore focused on the pressing need for the justice community to build a revitalized, stronger movement. A World War II veteran, he expressed optimism that the current political climate could actually be useful: "I think this war may be a time when we can impact others." To encourage this, Moore called each person to think of the moment when they were transformed into a social justice activist. "I think we have to understand why we are here. How do we get more people who are as weird as we are, or as sane as we are, or as committed to the word made flesh as us? How can each of us touch someone else?" His opinions about building movements also looked forward to the upcoming General Convention. With several fellow members of the episcopacy in the audience, Moore challenged them: "May I say to my brother bishops: Get there [to General Convention] the night before [it starts] and organize. It doesn’t take very many of you to be effective!" He received a standing ovation.
It was indeed the upcoming General Convention that was on everyone’s mind. In an EUC strategy session, Convention veterans Diane Pollard and Byron Rushing took pains to explain the confusing and occasionally tedious aspects of what will happen in Minneapolis, noting that seemingly uninteresting topics are often the most important ones. "Please pay lots of attention to the budget!" warned Pollard. More than 30 "hot topics" were raised by workshop participants as areas of concern. On the final morning of the assembly, some of these issues – addressing diverse concerns like living-wage legislation, prison building, and the war – emerged as resolutions adopted by the 23rd EUC assembly.
Text of EUC assembly keynote speeches are posted online at: www.thewitness.org/agw and www.episcopalurbancaucus.org.
Additional coverage at www.everyvoice.net
by Kevin P.J. Coffey
About 80 friends from the west, north, east and south gathered at St James’ Episcopal Church in Great Barrington, Mass., on Saturday, March 22, for one of many memorial services for Linda Lucille Strohmier, who died suddenly from a heart attack on Friday, March 14, 2003.
Born Oct 31, 1945 in Brazil, Ind., Strohmier was the daughter of William and Wanita Hamm Shearer. In 1966, she graduated Indiana University, cum laude, with a B.A. and from The General Theological Seminary, cum laude, with an M.Div, in 1984. After her ordination to the priesthood, she served parishes in the Dioceses of Bethlehem, New York and Olympia before being appointed by then Presiding Bishop Edmond Browning to be National Evangelism Coordinator. She also served several years on the board of the Episcopal Church Publishing Company, publisher of The Witness.
Strohmier later served congregations in the Dioceses of Newark and New Jersey. Since the 1st of this year she had been serving as cook with Life Needs Co-op, a "lifesharing" extended family setting for individuals with disabilities, where her daughter, Margaret "Maggie" Strohmier, has lived for many years.
A funeral service was held for the members of Maggie Strohmier’s household in Great Barrington on Monday, March 17. The Eucharistic prayer used at the memorial service was one Strohmier had crafted while serving on the drafting panel working on the supplemental eucharistic texts for the Standing Liturgical Committee. Following the memorial service, Strohmier’s family and friends returned to Maggie Strohmier’s home for both a repast and, honoring Strohmier’s Native American heritage, a potlatch – a term, corrupted from a Nootka Indian word for "gift," for a ceremonial custom among some Indian tribes of distributing an individual’s property among friends and neighbors.
Bill Lewellis, communication minister and editor for the Diocese of Bethlehem, said, "Linda brought to the world a love of theater and community. Her singing was inspiring and vibrant, and her laughter was hearty and infectious. People sought Linda out for counsel, understanding and warmth. She will be greatly missed by her daughter and by her many friends." Bishop Stephen Charleston, president and dean of Episcopal Divinity School, described Strohmier as "a teacher, a healer, a prophet and a mystic."
Strohmier’s "non-church" life experience included founding the Thetford Parish Players, a community theater in Vermont that recently celebrated its 30th anniversary; working as manager with The Big Apple Circus; serving as production coordinator with the Vivian Beaumont Theatre; and working as a script writer with Jon Bankert.
In the war in Iraq we see "the exploitation of the myth of redemptive violence," a March 25 statement by The Witness in response to the war declared. "The U.S. government unleashes righteous war and violence in order to rid the world of the threat of war and violence."
The statement – prefaced with words from William Stringfellow rejecting "the claim of a nation, ideology or other principality" to rule history and to give moral significance to human life – offered five Christian responses to the war: rejecting demonization of the enemy and religious prejudice; calling our nation to turn from violence; assisting victims of war and opposing the use of especially destructive weapons; supporting nonviolent resistance, including civil disobedience; and calling for just and equitable relationships between individuals, communities and nations.
For the complete text of this statement (along with an interfaith statement on the war also endorsed by The Witness), click here.