Conference Minister's Address 2002

Connecticut Conference, United Church of Christ

God is Still Speaking...

Davida Foy Crabtree

I told our Moderator a week ago that I was tempted to offer the following as my address this year: "Thus saith our God: the whole world has gone nuts!" And then I would sit down.

You might actually prefer that I did that. But of course, I won't.

I will not credit God with such a casual and shallow, albeit true, comment. Yet I affirm, God is still speaking in the midst of this world of ours.

In a world in which fundamentalism of many stripes appears to be growing, where suicide bombers, snipers and high-tech explosives are common occurrences, where certain executives put their own aggrandizement before even the pensions of their workers, where concern for poverty has taken a back seat to concern for power -- in such a world, we need this word: God is still speaking!

In this past year, your Conference staff have urged again and again that we all pay attention to the way we care for ourselves and each other. It is important to recognize that every single one of us is grieving and hurting in our own unique way, and that such conditions result in short tempers, a collective depression, and the need for us to be gentle with one another.

Over the years, I have developed a list of what I call "Rules for Living in the Aftermath of a Disaster." I've tried to live them myself this past year, and need to acknowledge that they are not easy to live by because they go against everything in our culture. Nevertheless, I want to begin by sharing them with you. Some of you will say to yourselves, "Never mind the whole world, has our Conference Minister gone nuts? We are no longer in the aftermath of a disaster!" I assure you, you are wrong. In my view, we are in the midst of a disaster. We are still reeling from the tragedy of last year, our economy has been profoundly affected, the number of people living in poverty is increasing, and we are on the verge of a major war. That has all the marks of a disaster. So here are my suggestions for living in a time like this:

Slow down.
Simplify.
Center yourself spiritually.
Be a person of grace and forgiveness.
Pay attention to your well-being and that of others.
Give generously and offer yourself in service.
Make no major decisions.
Work as effectively as possible.
Contribute to justice and peace, protect the most vulnerable - children, the elderly, those who are poor.
Seek beauty.

The alternative to following these "rules" is emotional and spiritual despair, a downward spiral not only for the person, but also for the larger society. A kind of low-key panic ("it's the end of the world so I might as well do something wild!") spawns acts of desperation and insanity. The nation gears up for security instead of caring for its most needy. The populace becomes vulnerable to a fear of being seen as less than patriotic if they critique government's actions. Anyone who bears the remotest resemblance to an Arab is suspect. Such things have their roots in the opposite of the gospel, and the opposite of these "rules".

So I am not surprised that the whole world has gone nuts. While the "rules" I've just laid out are intended for individuals, I think they apply to communities and nations as well. They are rooted in my understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and in my experience as Conference Minister in Southern California during two earthquakes, the LAPD civil unrest, and countless wildfires and mudslides.

Whenever we react with anger and with force, we set in motion a powerful set of counter-forces. While we are not responsible for the reactions of others, we are responsible for our own, and we do influence the way others behave by the decisions we make. So when the strongest nation on earth reacts by declaring war on a network of terrorists, there can be only one result, in my view. And that is growth in the network, its legitimacy in the eyes of its sympathizers, and an increase in its acts of terror. And when that strongest nation fails to achieve its goal, and determines to expand its "war", the potential for a worldwide conflict increases exponentially.

I know that many of you will not agree with what I have just said. Nevertheless, I continue to believe that the path of creative nonviolence is the path of the Christian, and that it is our responsibility to advocate for and teach that path to the world. I continue to believe that God is still speaking in our world, and is even now working to turn our current condition around. For that reason, we have brought the peace pole we planted at our Conference office this past spring and placed it here on the stage - to remind us of the universal prayer, shown on this pole in nine languages, "May peace prevail on earth." May it indeed be so!

God Speaks Through our Global Partners

We can learn a lot from our global ecumenical partners if we seek to be the Body of Christ in the midst of a suffering world. Those partners include the Presbyterian Church in the Republic of Korea and their faithful witness for human rights and dignity, and the Congregational Church of Southern Africa and their advocacy for racial reconciliation and truth, and the Mennonite Church in Colombia and their firm stand for justice and peace where there is neither. In every instance, the clarity and radiance of their Christian witness is compelling because they not only talk about it and teach it, but also live it individually and corporately in the midst of their own society.

On this occasion, I want to speak with you out of the experience of our delegation's pastoral visit with our partners in Colombia this past summer. If you read CONNtact, you already know that I was deeply moved by the life and work of the Church there.

The news that you and I read about Colombia here in the United States paints only one part of the picture.1 It focuses on drugs and violence, both of which are certainly present. Yet the reality is far more complex than that. We rarely hear of the two million people who have been displaced from their ancestral lands by the greed and the armed factions. Two years ago our keynoter, Ricardo Esquivia, described the "belts of misery" that surround Colombia's cities, but we never see pictures of this aspect of life there. Nor do we learn that more than 30% of the population there is Afro-Colombian, descendants of the Spanish slave trade. The story of indigenous and African heritage peoples in Colombia is another story of racism, plain and simple, not unlike our own nation's story. As the wealthy and powerful conduct their war of greed, it is the Afro-Colombians and the indigenous peoples who suffer the most, and far disproportionate to their presence in the total population.

When I went through the security checkpoints at Bogotá's airport on my way home, the security attendant who was going through my first bag asked me "What did you like best about Colombia?" Instantly, I responded, "The people!" He smiled, stopped going through my bags, thanked me and waved me through.

There is much to like about Colombia, and its people top the list. I found them engaging, committed to peace, and full of a zest for life that is striking given their situation. Even as we spent a day in one of the more upscale belts of misery (upscale because the homes are built of concrete block rather than tarpaper and plastic), we kept seeing little flower gardens that people had planted. These gardens, and the beginnings of social organization that we observed, were signs of hope in the midst of extremely difficult living conditions.

Colombia is a nation where there could be so much more for its people! It is a beautiful country - with seacoast on the Caribbean and the Pacific, with rolling foothills and majestic mountains, a place where the soil has been rich and productive, where water is plentiful and there is more biodiversity than almost anywhere else on earth.

Instead its land is no longer productive; the aerial spraying of crops to stop coca production is destroying its biodiversity; and the people live in fear and in hunger. Its government is headed toward dictatorship, and our government is funding its military as well as the spraying, from which the land and the rainforest may never recover.

In the midst of this situation, the Christian church is seeking to live out its vocation as the Body of Christ. Led by Ricardo and others, the Protestant Council initiated a Commission on Human Rights and Peace a few years ago. This Commission is an active participant in the struggle for human rights, justice and peace there. This is crucial work now, as churches are being closed down by the armed factions, and pastors are being assassinated, even as they lead worship.

On our first full day in Bogota, we had an opportunity to meet and hear from pastors and lay leaders from all over Colombia. One of them told us he had traveled five days to get there to meet us! For him, our presence meant that he was not alone in his ministry, and he wanted to have the experience of meeting us, not just sense it from afar. Over and over again, we heard from every sector of society there that our delegation and others like it are very important to them. This sense of being accompanied on their journey, of knowing that there are Christians in the United States who care about them, is a sacred sense. We knew before we went that it was important that we be there. We had no idea, however, that our presence would mediate the ministry of Jesus Christ and our ecumenical oneness quite so palpably.

Accompaniment is another word for partnership. We accompany one another in the ways of the gospel, through the painful and the joyful moments of ministry. In Colombia, accompaniment is life giving - literally. One of Ricardo's ministries as Director of Justapaz, the Justice and Peace Ministry of the Mennonites there, is to walk into the most conflicted and dangerous places when someone has been kidnapped or an assassination is threatened. He leaves wherever he is and travels great distances through dangerous territory to the commander of whatever force is in charge. There he pleads for those who are or would be victims of the violence. Often as not, he brings them out safely. And he is able to do so simply because of his transparent faith in Jesus Christ and his commitment to the way of peace. He takes his own life in his hands, or rather, places his life in God's hands, to accompany the Colombian people and secure their future.

So, just as we have developed partner church relationships with our friends in the Kyung-ki Presbytery in South Korea, and have learned so much from those relationships, so I want to invite our churches to become partners with churches in Colombia. Together we can learn to accompany one another, perhaps not in so dramatic a way as Ricardo accompanies those in danger. It may be as simple as exchanging letters and email, praying for the partner church each Sunday, listening deeply to their stories, advocating for our own government to be a source of peace-making instead of military arms, and opening ourselves to the witness of their faith and their courageous action. Our mutual accompaniment can be a way that is faithful to Christ, that enables Colombian Christians to know they are not alone, and that, indeed, transforms our understanding of the faith and the world.

I invite you to hear the words of one Assembly of God pastor from an oil rich region: "In the middle of all our pain, we still have a God who consoles us. What I'm going to say is not because we have no hope, but because we must take the situation seriously. War never brings peace, only more war... For many years, our churches were fearful and thought they couldn't do anything. They wanted to, but feared retaliation. Now we know that we are the Body of Christ and we must act to help people. I ask you to pray for my family, my wife and our three year old who are still at home and caught in the midst of the conflict. The most important message I can send home with you [to the United States] is this: Send no more arms - please!"

And let me tell you of a Mennonite pastor, a woman, who serves in a mountainous region where both the guerrillas of the left and the paramilitaries of the right are active. She told of the death threats against mayors throughout the whole country, of the kidnappings of cattle ranchers who cannot go out into the country, of the massacres and assassinations that happen daily. Here is what she has to say: "The church was busy singing, praying, clapping and dancing. We began to ask, 'is this really the gospel?' Now Isaiah has taught us the true fast. So we decided to begin by changing ourselves and becoming sensitive to what was happening around us. We realized the greatest need was the children, and we decided that as a church we would start a school for the children whose families had been displaced from their land. We thought we could start a school for 15 to 20 kids, and 567 showed up! We have felt the hand of God. We need your hand, your prayers."

Knowing Ricardo, and having met dozens of pastors and laity in Colombia now, people who are placing their lives on the line for the sake of the gospel, I often find myself in prayer for them. The thought that any one of these, our friends in Christ, could be killed at any moment is almost more than I can bear. Yet it is their truth. And it is our truth as well, for our tax dollars are fueling the violence and destruction there. They know they could back down and not preach the gospel of peace. But they do not give in, they take on the fear, and they risk their lives by their courage.

In the midst of this narrative about Colombia, I want to remind us that few of us have met people from Iraq. It is harder, therefore, for us to think of them in personal terms. Yet it is the ordinary people of that nation who will suffer the most from any war our nation launches. It is always that way. The pictures we will see will be of buildings and machines being destroyed. Yet it will be families not unlike our own who will lose their homes and livelihoods, their sons and daughters. It will be farmers and merchants, peace-makers and advocates for human rights. It will be women who have struggled for their rights as Muslim women, and children who will go without parents. From my journey to Colombia, I learned once again that war, no matter why or how it is fought, is no solution to conflict. That pastor is right: war never brings peace - only more war.

Banner from Colombia

After I left Colombia, the delegation continued on for another five days, traveling out into the countryside to two different areas. In one of those areas, the delegation had the opportunity to visit a farm your mission dollars have helped start - a farm where a few families who've lost their land can safely raise food to help other displaced families. And they visited the school where 567 children came with hope in their hearts, a school you have helped equip, a school where no teacher has been paid in a very long time. Then one day they went to a village of artists that has declared itself a violence-free zone. They met wonderfully creative and dedicated people who have a vision of a different Colombia. When they came back, they came bearing a gift for our Conference from one of the weavers, who had given two weeks of her life to make it for us. Two weeks of her life to say thank you on behalf of Justapaz and our partners! I was moved to tears, and humbled, indeed embarrassed by her generosity. Here is your gift, with thanks from our brothers and sisters in Christ in Colombia.

Now, the day after the rest of the delegation returned, I met Sarah Downey of our Cheshire church, at Silver Lake so we could share the story of our trip with the conferees and staff there. When we arrived there, Val Tutson's Sing Praise conference was underway. Mind you, they had arrived on Sunday, and this was just Tuesday morning. But already they had written a song and were practicing it. We're going to take a break here and learn it together, because it captures the spirit of the United Church of Christ and of our global partnerships. We'll also sing it later during worship.

Sing Praise conferees sing "God's Neighborhood"

Later that week, at my request, Val and her conference made a videotape of themselves singing that wonderful song, and we have sent it to Justapaz as a sign of our unity and our thankfulness for the partnership. God is indeed still speaking, through our partners in Colombia, through our kids at Silver Lake, and through you as you seek to be faithful witnesses to Jesus Christ for our time.

God Speaks with Commas as well as Periods

Now I want to say some other things to you about our theme for this meeting. It is taken from the new UCC identity campaign, and inspired by something George Burns apparently found in Gracie Allen's handwriting after she died: "Never place a period where God has placed a comma."

If there were ever a denomination of people for whom Gracie Allen's quip was fitting, it is the United Church of Christ. There have been times in our past when we have indeed placed a period where God had placed a comma. And each time, we have been chagrined.

For too long, we placed a period on our acceptance of slavery and did not listen to the reformers among us who cried out for abolition.
For too long, we enjoyed the benefits of being this state's established religion and abused others who did not agree with us theologically.
For too long, we accepted the world's ways when it came to appreciating and embracing the gifts of women for leadership, even though it was a Congregational church that first broke with tradition and ordained Antoinette Brown in 1853.
For too long, we allowed ourselves to believe that "don't ask, don't tell" was an acceptable stance for a Christian church when it came to extending a welcome to gay and lesbian members and clergy.

We have indeed placed a great many periods where God was still placing commas. Out of those experiences of chagrin has grown among us a determination to be a people who will question, who will challenge, who will wonder aloud whether indeed the world's perceived period at the end of a sentence, isn't in fact a comma in God's terms.

Such perception is not new among us, of course. The Rev. John Robinson, the great Congregational theologian and pastor of the English church at Leiden, Holland in the early 1600's, said to his congregation as they departed for the new world, God "hath yet more light and truth to break forth from his Word."

And our own UCC Constitution says: "The United Church of Christ...affirms the responsibility of the Church in each generation to make this faith its own in reality of worship, in honesty of thought and expression, and in purity of heart before God." (Preamble to the Constitution, Paragraph 2)

And so we are sometimes God's comma people. As Ron Buford, our friend and colleague on the national staff, has so nicely put it, we are often the people who come early to a position that later proves prophetic. We don't do it to posture nor simply for the sake of being different, but the truth is, we are different. Our faith and our heritage make us that way.

Today, we recognize that our churches benefited from slavery because our members and ministers did. However, there is a comma at the end of that simple statement as well because while slavery in Connecticut is long over, racism isn't. It isn't over in our public schools, our town halls, our financial institutions and our government. And it isn't over in our churches. Various generations of the church have confronted racism and attempted to root it out. But still it persists. And the truth is that our racism is one of the longest legacies of slavery. Every generation of the church needs to confront and deal with racism; it isn't enough to say that we challenged racism in the 60's and 70's. So I want to invite and challenge every church of this Conference to use the Hartford Courant's special magazine section entitled Complicity as a study document in this next year. We have this week send a copy to every church.2 In it you will find that almost no towns, and thus no churches, are exempt from complicity with and benefiting from the slave trade in one form or another.

Over these years as your Conference Minister, whenever speaking about our Congregational heritage in the Amistad incident, I have tried to acknowledge that our members also owned slaves, served as judges who rendered terrible decisions, persecuted Prudence Crandall, and on and on. It has been a joy to celebrate the construction of the new Amistad, and that has provided an opportunity for us to lift up a portion of our heritage that can lead us to be better people for our time. Yet if all we do is celebrate the Amistad and focus on the major contributions our forebears made in the antislavery movement, we will have been remiss. Our heritage is also replete with heroes and heroines whose memory has been forever damaged by their support for slavery.

Say what you will about their being people of their times, about their being culture-bound. Let that be no excuse for us in our time. Racism abounds - around, among and within us. It abounds not only as personal prejudice, but in its institutionalized forms as well. It abounds not only in relation to African Americans, but also in relation to Latinos and Latinas, to Asian and Pacific Islanders, and as the Courant so aptly pointed out, in relation to Native Americans. If we want to be a church for the future, we must find creative and persistent ways of addressing racism in our day - and eliminating it!

The Hartford Courant has performed a very important public service by the publication of this material. This is a great opportunity for our churches to engage both our history of complicity and the contemporary racism that so afflicts us all. Perhaps a few of you might gather to develop a study guide, and others a series of worship resources and experiences. Still others might begin to develop a focus group on racism to continue the teaching. Most important, however, is the work we do in our churches, because the transformation of our members carries over into their workplaces and neighborhoods as well.

God is still speaking and is not done with us yet. The racism that infests our nation and our world, that too often influences government policy, both foreign and domestic, that prevents us from being the Church of Jesus Christ is a sin. As such it needs to be confronted and redeemed. If we will be the church of the future, we have no choice. It must be done. So let's do it!

It is important that the members of our Conference recognize the long, long history of our determination to walk in the ways of God's "yet more light", even when they go against the culture or politics of our time. I have always found it ironic when people have hurled the epithet at us that we were being "politically correct." The truth is, we have never been politically correct since 1818 when Congregationalism was disestablished in this state. We have, however, tried to be theologically and biblically faithful. In keeping with the insights of John Robinson and the framers of our UCC Constitution, our constant effort is to discern the mind of Christ for our day. Or, as scripture puts it, to "work out our own salvation with fear and trembling." When we engage the issues of the day, that is precisely what we are doing, just as our forebears in faith sought to construct in this place a godly and upright civilization. They may have missed the mark in some respects, but the point is that they tried. And so do we.

God is Still Speaking through a Renewed United Church of Christ

Now I have an announcement to make. Trumpets please!

In 2007, the United Church of Christ will celebrate its fiftieth anniversary. I am pleased to announce that this past weekend the national Executive Council voted to accept our invitation to hold the 26th General Synod right here in Connecticut, at the new convention center in Hartford!

That is all the more reason we need to be a renewed church with a renewed mission over these next few years. By 2007, we will be invigorated by a capital campaign if you vote to proceed next spring. We will be headed into the fiftieth anniversaries of both Silver Lake and Andover Newton, and we will welcome the UCC General Synod to Connecticut for the first time ever! Thanks be to God!

Davida Foy Crabtree
Conference Minister
October 18, 2002

The delegation will report later in this annual meeting. A comprehensive written report by Kate and Hugh McLean is posted on our Conference web site, www.ctucc.org. [Return]
It is also available from the Courant's website: http://www.ctnow.com/news/local/northeast/hc-slavery.special [Return]