I . . . → Read More: Enjoying the Privilege: Campus Ministry as Cross Cultural Work – Abby King Kaiser]]> I have been a campus minister for roughly nine months—one academic year. My first day on campus was also the first day of classes for the class of 2016 at Xavier University. The Class of 2013 graduated just a few weeks ago. I am still taking a deep breath and trying to recover from the madness.

I love it.

The nudges that pushed me towards seminary and ordained ministry started, as they did for many folks, with a fabulous campus ministry experience. I worked with a progressive woman pastor (the first such leader I had ever encountered), someone I wanted to be like. She nurtured my leadership skills, as well as transformation in a wide variety of students. Her work felt like real, meaningful, life-changing stuff. Maybe I would think about seminary after all.

At seminary, I didn’t figure I would ever work in campus ministry. Where I come from, campus ministry was dominated by large, para-church ministries that lean more conservatively than I do. (At one time, my alma mater boasted the largest cru chapter in the country, with a staff as large as the congregation I used to serve.) That is definitely not a paradigm that fits my faith or my leadership. Everywhere I looked, my denomination was de-funding campus ministry, so serving college students seemed like a fantasy. I discovered my call to pastoral ministry the congregation I interned with and took a call in small, struggling urban church. I loved congregational ministry—and still do. Now, my “congregation” just happens to all go to the same school.

My role is not a unique one. I am an ordained Presbyterian on a Jesuit campus. Most of the large and many of the small Jesuit schools have added “ecumenical” ministers/ministries of some sort, often paying that staff as a part of their campus ministry department. I am not the only Presbyterian in such a post around the country (check out Tad Monroe at Seattle and the wonderful program Aimee Moiso built at Santa Clara in her time there). I am moved by the depth of the Jesuit values that commits these institutions to the growth of students of all faiths.

In my nine months of ministry hear, my biggest lesson has been this:

Campus ministry is cross-cultural work.

Now, just before starting this job, I spent months in a colleague group that examined the missional nature of our leadership, including repeated, intense readings of Luke 10:1-12. I will admit that after that, everything looks like cross-cultural work (that is another post) but hear me out.

Keep in mind, I just turned 30. Young, young, young was all I heard in my last call. Not anymore.

The students listen to the music we got down to in high school the way that we listened to eighties music. Throwback parties now throw back to the 90s. I didn’t know what Snap Chat was until I worked here.

I work with a wide variety of Christian students (and students of other faiths). I have sat in mass needing translation; I have to ask what words or traditions mean often enough to stop feeling stupid when I do it. I have learned not to assume anything theologically, as I have found myself with my foot in my mouth any time I assumed that x, y or z was true for everyone gathered.

If you are working, serving, or volunteering in campus ministry, unless you are 18-22 and a student leader in ministry on the same campus where you go to school (or an adult student working on a campus of primarily adult students), you are doing cross-cultural work. Doesn’t matter if you are an alumni, doesn’t matter if you just graduated from this very school last year. Doesn’t matter how much you liked college the first time around. Doesn’t matter how cool you are, how much you use facebook (or how little you do). Doesn’t matter how long you have been around. This is their community; their day-to-day lives. We are guests. We are privileged to be welcomed into their spaces, into their lives.

I didn’t consider going to Xavier as an undergrad—too close to home. Interviewing here, I felt like I should have considered it (have you seen the PPP program?). When I was in high school doing community service, I looked up to the Xavier students at the sites where we served as if they were rock stars. I carried all of these assumptions with me as I started to serve, only to find more.

Isn’t Xavier all rich kids?
But it’s a Catholic school?
That generation isn’t interested in church.
They see college as a way to escape from the religion their parents forced on them.
College will drain them of their faith.

By approaching my work as cross-cultural, I began to see all of these assumptions as evident of the underlying stereotypes and prejudices that fuel them. I began to listen, not to these outside voices, but the students (and their cultures) directly. I began to see how I could engage with my unique gifts and challenges in a community with its own unique gifts and challenges. I also saw how much of the leadership needed resided in the community of students itself—and not in our office.

Our students are powerful community organizers. Our students are people of faith who have struggled to grow with in God despite challenges along the way. Our students are philosophers, poets and musicians. Our students are ministers of hospitality, generosity and compassion. They read Scripture and ask hard questions. They interpret world around them and seek God in their midst. They are interpreters, cultural innovators and leaders.

What then is my role?

My role is to travel light, to stay with those who welcome my presence, and to pray for God to send workers for the harvest—those student leaders who will truly be the ministers on this campus. My role is as a fellow traveler, taking hospitality, offering my gifts, being in community for the time that we are called to be together.

What a privilege it is.

Rev. Abby King-Kaiser is the Assistant Director for Ecumenical and Multi-faith Ministry at the Dorothy Day Center for Faith and Justice at Xavier University. Try saying that five times fast. She is blessed to again be living in her hometown, after spending most of her twenties in the Bay Area. Always a mom, occasionally an artist, she is spending the summer trying to tame her tiny, but insane backyard. Her high hopes include fresh, homegrown vegetables and weekly, ecumenical Protestant worship (which begins at Xavier in the fall). Check out the CFJ blog to be amazed by the students she is blessed to work with.

I have never felt called to go: I mean, I’ve never felt like God has said “Pack up, move across the country or the world, I have work for you to do there.” Global missions, therefore, seemed to be ruled out.

Instead, I have felt drawn to the local. Increasingly so. I’m a homebody, the kind of . . . → Read More: Mission of a Campus Minister: Engage, Strengthen, Send – Seth Thomas]]>

I have never felt called to go: I mean, I’ve never felt like God has said “Pack up, move across the country or the world, I have work for you to do there.” Global missions, therefore, seemed to be ruled out.

Instead, I have felt drawn to the local. Increasingly so. I’m a homebody, the kind of person who likes to walk the streets of my neighborhood, likes to say hi to the folks around town that I’ve known for at least a decade, in this place my life has been situated.

Beginning in campus ministry, 7 years ago, I wondered about how this sense of place could be used to impact students. What if, instead of me being the one who goes, I was the one who was called to empower others to do so? What if it was my job to engage, strengthen, and send students out to be the hands and feet of God in the world?

This has been the driving force for me as a campus minister, these past 7 years. All aspects of the work I do with the INN University Ministries, located in Bellingham, WA, serving Western Washington University students and young adults, has been done with the drive that says, “Don’t stay long, your job is to go!”

How does this look? I think one of the biggest challenges of doing campus ministry, over a long period of time, is the sense of displacement or lack of continuity, year after year. The students change every year, some staying longer, but many just popping in for a short while. So how does one engage, strengthen, and send a transient population?

First: Engagement
For us, it starts on Tuesday nights. Our weekly gathering is the place where students are called together to meet, worship, have fun, and be a gathered-people. In my opinion, the focus of those nights can never be to dive into the deepest subject matter. Rather, it is a time to connect people, help them build relationships, and establish mentoring, discipleship communities that will call them into fuller maturity once they are engaged. So, a big push we make is to teach, but also to establish relationships and connect people with small groups. When I’m doing my job, a big part of those nights is to meet students, see how they are, check in on their lives, see if they want to grab coffee, and get them into a peer-led small group ASAP to help them continue their engagement.

Second: Strengthening
In our context, the work of discipleship is key. It is in mentoring relationships (with a peer and/or with an older mentor like myself) that transformation, growth, and strengthening occur. For the brief time we have students in our lives, my work is to help call them forward as leaders, challenge them to grow as disciples of Jesus through prayer and learning, and help them discern where God is leading them vocationally. This final piece ties into the last part of my calling as a campus minister: sending.

Before I address sending, though, I want to say a bit more on strengthening. The reality is that in this post-Christian, Almost Christian, sorta Christian world, students come in to our gathering at many stages of development. Some have learned a lot and developed deep roots in their walk with Jesus. Others, the majority, are new to faith, exploring and considering what following Jesus even looks like. And that’s ok, but because of it, we have to challenge our methods of engagement and discipleship. One size does not fit all. We have to be ready for the slower walk with someone coming to faith for the very first time. And we have to be ready to sprint with the one who’s been at this for a while and is thirsty for what’s next.

Finally: Sending
My job as a campus minister is not to keep students in my ministry. My job is to help them see the places of brokenness in the world, develop the tools to follow Jesus faithfully, and then get them the hell out of my church to go do the work of justice, reconciliation, and beauty-making in the world. To do this, I try to spend most of my time in conversation with students asking questions about where they are being led, what’s the passion in their hearts, what’s the thing they feel uncomfortable about and what are they going to do about it?

To close, here is an example of what I see as success in campus ministry. I take no credit for any of this, but I think this is what I’m trying to articulate about a student being engaged, strengthened, and sent.

A girl name Hailey came in to our ministry as a young student, a few years back. She had a beautiful voice, great musical abilities, and a passion for justice. Over the years, after having a chance to be a part of small groups, lead a Tuesday night worship team, and gone on a couple of mission trips, she graduated and left our community. With her, went the prayers of our staff. We had loved watching her grow and were excited for what God had in store for her. Over the next few years, we have watched as she connected with fighting injustice through Invisible Children. She became a huge part of the KONY 2012 campaign, advocating, with her voice, her passion, and her artistic gifts, for the fight against Joseph Kony’s atrocities in Uganda and neighboring countries.

In my mind, she is why I have done campus ministry: To empower, equip, send, and cheer on ambassadors for Christ’s reconciling justice in the world.

Seth Thomas (@sethjames) lives in Bellingham, WA. He is a Master of Divinity student at The Seattle School of Theology & Psychology. After working in campus ministry for these past 7 years with the INN University Ministries at First Presbyterian Church of Bellingham, Seth is transitioning into a career in specialty coffee, one of his deep passions. He blogs about coffee, theology, music, and the church over at http://blog.sethjamesthomas.com.

I’ve been doing this campus ministry gig now for nine years. While I know nine years is no record, I do think nine years is longer than most people stay in campus ministry.

Obviously I enjoy being a campus minister or I would have gotten out of this business a long time ago. I love the freedom . . . → Read More: Roles Change as Life Changes in Campus Ministry – by Kally Elliott]]>

I’ve been doing this campus ministry gig now for nine years. While I know nine years is no record, I do think nine years is longer than most people stay in campus ministry.

Obviously I enjoy being a campus minister or I would have gotten out of this business a long time ago. I love the freedom to be goofy, to wear jeans and a sweatshirt to work, to see students on a daily basis and really get to know them. Journeying with students from the time they are timid freshmen straight out of mama and daddy’s church to the time of graduation when they are no longer afraid to ask questions about their faith or to think outside the box is life giving to me. Watching students grow and mature in their faith is the primary reason I love campus ministry.

And to be totally honest with you, another reason I love campus ministry is the endless pool of babysitters from which I have to pick because, along with being a campus minister, I’m also a mom of four young kids.

I didn’t have all these kids when I was hired to be a campus minister. When I was called to this position I came with one and a half kids. My son, Rylan was 17 months and I was pregnant with my second son, Spencer. And that was okay. I was 28 years old, slightly fashionable, and could pull off the “cool campus minister” effect. Sometimes I got mistaken as “one of the students” and I secretly rejoiced inside every time this happened. Students wanted to hang out with me. They sought me out to go to lunch or coffee. They told me their boyfriend or girlfriend woes. They treated me as one of their own. I often had to consciously draw boundary lines so that the role of “minister” did not get confused with that of “friend”.

These days: two and a half kids, several gray hairs, a few age spots, and some wrinkles around the eyes later I’m pretty sure my status as “cool campus minister” has evolved (devolved?) to that of “lady with too many kids who looks tired all the time but seems to be in charge of the campus ministry”. Okay, so maybe I’m being a little over dramatic but that’s how it feels some days. I’m starting to think my status has changed from “cool campus minister” to “Ministry Mom”.

It was the way students would walk off instead of waiting for me while I locked up the church van on our mission trip that drove home to me the way the students perceive me has changed. In past years while I’d facilitated trips, students still treated me as one of the group. They’d wait for me, save a seat for me, etc. This year I was definitely the mom or the driver of the group. This is a minor thing but it spoke volumes to me about how the students now perceive me as “Mom” or “Chaperone”.

This has taken some getting used to. Honestly I didn’t like it at first and my feelings were a little raw. I think it was something I’ve known for awhile but came face to face with on the mission trip. After the trip I began to realize that while students still come to me to talk it’s changed from simply wanting to hang out to purposefully seeking advice from me. I’m the person they go to after they’ve gone to all their friends but before they go to their own parents.

And I’ve changed too. Besides the wrinkles and minivan full of offspring, I don’t have as much energy for late night coffee runs. The whole boyfriend/girlfriend drama bores me sometimes. Praying that students will make it through finals and papers seems a little trite when there are people living on the street a block away. But then a student comes to me with a deep and wondering question and I get to sit with her as she struggles with a faith that is being cracked open and ultimately strengthened. Or I get to process the decision to become a teacher instead of a banker with a student who is in the midst of discerning God’s call in his life. And I get it.

My role has changed. I have more experience in life now. I have more insight, depth, and strength than I had back when I was “cool”. I keep getting older while the students stay the same age they’ve always been and if I want to stay relevant in this campus ministry gig then I have to readjust how I do campus ministry and my role in the lives of the students.

I have not yet figured out exactly how to do this. I’m trying out different ideas and seeing what seems to work. Another great thing about campus ministry? If you try something one year and it fails, you get to start over the next year! Each year is a new year, a chance to start fresh.

This last year I tried a couple new things. Some worked, some didn’t.

One of the things I tried was hiring a part-time graduate student intern to help with the relational and face to face time with students. I thought with her doing most of the face-to-face time it would free me up to do other things that need to get done. This idea both worked and didn’t work. While the students seemed to really enjoy the company and guidance of my intern, I missed my face-to-face time with students! While I was freed up to do many of the things I’ve thought I wanted to do, I came to the realization that the relational aspect of this ministry is what I really enjoy! This next year I will once again be focusing on face-to-face time with students rather than administrative tasks.

Another thing I did this year that changed my role was to take on a building project. (Those of you scraping by in campus ministry are probably wondering where the money came from to do a building project and hire a grad student intern. One of our supporting churches received a large amount of money that they were supposed to use for evangelism. Since campus ministry definitely falls under the category of evangelism I applied for some of this money and received it.) Taking on a building project was exciting from the aspect that it was a new challenge and I learned a lot in the process however, I now know that I never ever ever ever want to be in charge of building and grounds. I’m proud of the work that was accomplished but I’m also glad that it is over.

As I get older and get further away in age from college students I’m thankful to have the opportunity to work with them, to learn from them, and sometimes to teach them. I’m sure I’ll continue to struggle with my role as campus minister but the struggle is what makes us stay relevant. If we stop struggling then perhaps we’ve given up.

May we campus ministers continue to struggle, to change, to adapt, to roll with the punches, to learn new ways of working with and for college students. May we continue to journey with students as their faith is cracked open and deepened and may those same students challenge us to keep growing and strengthening the ministry with which we’ve been entrusted.

Bio note from Kally Elliott: I grew up in San Diego and went to college at UC Davis but somehow ended up in Tennessee. I went to seminary at Columbia Theological Seminary and am still serving in my first call at the Presbyterian Campus Ministry at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville I’m married to Bryce and have four kids, Rylan (age 10), Spencer (age 8), Kellen (age 5) and Eve (age 17 months). I enjoy working out, hanging out with friends, and the rare moments my kids are behaving.

Read Abby King-Kaiser’s Essay, “Enjoying the Privilege” Read Seth Thomas’ Essay, “Mission of a Campus Minister” Read Kally Elliot’s Essay, “Roles Change as Life Changes in Campus Ministry”

In my current position as Associate Pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Ashland, Oregon, one of my charges upon arriving was to bring new life into our College Ministry to the . . . → Read More: Campus Ministry: Providing Space for Food, Conversation & Spiritual Reflection – Adam Walker Cleaveland]]>

Read Abby King-Kaiser’s Essay, “Enjoying the Privilege”
Read Seth Thomas’ Essay, “Mission of a Campus Minister”
Read Kally Elliot’s Essay, “Roles Change as Life Changes in Campus Ministry”

In my current position as Associate Pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Ashland, Oregon, one of my charges upon arriving was to bring new life into our College Ministry to the students of Southern Oregon University. We had a volunteer who had been doing a great job of engaging with a few students, and so I was able to build on her success and continue to develop new ideas for connecting with students.

What I found was a group of students who were a lot of fun to hang out with: engaging, smart, active and committed to a variety of diverse activities at the university.

What I also found was a group of students who didn’t need one more thing added to their Todo Lists and who didn’t want a program-heavy college ministry. If I tried to plan a lot of events, it became difficult to get folks to show up for things. My first year, I had put some time into scheduling a College Group Broomball night…only to have about 4 students show up. And if you’ve played broomball before, you know that it can be pretty exhausting when you have to be on a team of only 2 people.

So, I’ve become more convinced that while programming has its place, a highly programmatic college ministry was not the direction I wanted to go. While our group is still on the smaller side, we have a core group that does come for our minimal programming, which is focused on food, conversation and reflection.

Food: We eat together. And we eat well. Sometimes that means that we’ll gather after church at Starbucks and enjoy some warm drinks, cookies, bagels, donuts…all of the necessities for a quality campus ministry program. One of the first programs I instituted when I arrived was College Group Dinners. The idea was simple: we’d meet for dinner at the homes of some of our congregation members, make dinner, enjoy a meal together and and then have a fellowship activity, game or a spiritually-oriented discussion. This was also great, because we had quite a few older congregation members who wanted to host our college group, and relationships that probably wouldn’t have formed otherwise were able to begin. Also, I found that anytime I had pizza, there were guaranteed to have a few students showing up.

Conversation: Just finding ways to get together to talk, share our lives with one another and engage in some interesting discussions was a favorite activity for our college group. There are some great resources for getting conversations started. My three favorites were If…Questions For the Soul, Chuck Klosterman’s HYPERtheticals: 50 Questions for Insane Conversations, and Rainn Wilson’s SoulPancake: Chew on Life’s Big Questions. All of these resources got us into some super fun, bizarre and really meaningful conversations that we might not have had a chance to otherwise. We also had some wonderful dinner conversations with church members who had varied life experiences and thoughts on religion and their spiritual journeys to share with our interested college students.

Spiritual Reflection: This was a piece that continued and grew out of our conversations. We would also find ways to engage with scripture, be that a traditional Bible study, or practicing lectio divina with a short Bible passage, or watching one of the Animate Faith videos and discussing it, or getting out the crayons and markers and praying in color. The spiritual reflection piece was a critical part of my ministry with college students, and they were always eager to engage this aspect and grow in their spiritual journeys.

The above are just a few of the ways in which I’ve found work for our ministry in our setting. I think there are a lot of ways to do campus ministry, and I’m excited about hearing from 3 people this week who work with young college people in varied settings. I hope you’ll join the conversation this week.

Rev. Adam Walker Cleaveland is a husband, father, pastor, blogger, runner and social media buff. He blogs about technology, ministry and theology at Pomomusings.com and can be found on Twitter at @adamwc or on Facebook at fb.com/adamwc.

Acutely conscious of Palestinian Christians’ cry to us and to churches around the world for liberation for all Palestinians, Canadian churches engaged the Kairos Palestine (KP) document. However, little did we imagine this would have implications for liberation of the Church at home! And yet in a cruel irony typical of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, there is . . . → Read More: LETTER FROM CANADA: “Captivity led captive” — for some – by Robert Assaly]]>

Acutely conscious of Palestinian Christians’ cry to us and to churches around the world for liberation for all Palestinians, Canadian churches engaged the Kairos Palestine (KP) document. However, little did we imagine this would have implications for liberation of the Church at home! And yet in a cruel irony typical of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, there is still something wrong with this picture when North Americans, not Israelis and Palestinians, are the beneficiaries of this cry for liberation.

This reflection comes as we mark the Ascension, when the Church reads, “He ascended on high and led captivity captive” (Ps. 68.18) – a key liberation text. Palestinian theologian Canon Naim Ateek (of Sabeel, in Jerusalem) has articulated a stunning metaphor for the core problem underpinning the challenge of liberation in that conflict. Israel’s birth in 1948 has as its mirror event the Palestinian Nakba (Catastrophe) – the dispossession of Palestinians to make way for the birth of a Jewish state. He thus named Israel as having been born in original sin.  And he theologically explained how reconciliation would be almost inevitable when Israel confronted and overcame the conditions of its birth.

Ateek would know; indeed he remembers. His childhood expulsion from his birthplace, Beisan, with his family in 1948, was vividly recollected, along with the only return visit with his father when they were first permitted to travel a full decade later. They were denied entry to their house by the Jewish family that had claimed it, the Arabic village name had been changed, the churches transformed to various uses to suit the new Jewish residents. Their history and narrative – the foundational instrument of Palestinian liberation — had been denied and even erased.

In his landmark book, Justice and Only Justice: A Palestinian Theology of Liberation (1989), Ateek names the implications of silencing a narrative. He describes how the refugees tried to “tell their story” but often it fell on deaf ears in the west, thereby giving rise to violence as an alternative recourse (p.14). If there is any redemption for Israel’s birth in ethnically cleansing the Palestinians, and any reconciliation, it will begin by taking captive that very silencing; liberating the truth.

Of this, Canadians have little doubt. A federally appointed Truth and Reconciliation Commission, encouraged by the Church, continues working prominently across the country to confront our own history with the aboriginals of this land. Most notably, the Commission’s work has been to allow victims of Residential School abuse to tell their stories toward gathering the narrative, marking the beginnings of that healing process.

Yet in terms of making space for the Palestinian Christian narrative, the Canadian churches frequently acceded to being held captive, and by rather negative forces. I do not think it is hyperbole to observe that the Kairos Palestine document will be remembered as a turning point in this regard – indeed a Kairos moment for the life of the Canadian Church – liberating us from the easy path of acquiescing to being silenced. Because of the uniquely powerful groups arrayed against justice and peace in Palestine as confirmed by Archbishop Tutu, and the consequences for breaking the silence, I have considered truth-telling on Palestine to be a litmus test for courage, even integrity.

Specifically, what we ourselves were liberated from is named by a keen observer of the churches’ relationship to Judaism as “The Ecumenical Deal.” Dr. Marc Ellis, who 25 years ago, in tandem with Ateek’s work, launched Toward a Jewish Theology of Liberation, has not explicitly called “The Deal” Faustian. Nonetheless, it is the tacit arrangement whereby the church allows legitimate criticism of the state of Israel to be labeled anti-Semitic, such “that to support Jews they have to be silent about what is happening to Palestinians.” Yes, silent.

I would argue that the KP document constitutes, at a minimum, the straw that broke the back of The Ecumenical Deal in Canada.

The prize for buying into the Deal is maintaining relations with its peddlers — establishment Jewish organizations which are nothing less than that Israel Lobby, ranked in the top handful of the Fortune 500 “Power 25” rankings. Their primary vehicles of influence in the Church are often national Christian-Jewish Dialogues.

First then, let us disclaim the Lobby’s disclaimers, as the blunt end of the Ecumenical Deal relies on the veil maintained by these denials. Beyond the disingenuous retort that there is no Israel Lobby, for decades the official interlocutor in the Dialogue, the Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC), was stealthily integral to it. I was invited to be the ecumenical keynote speaker at the national Presbyterian General Assembly in 2010, to address the KP Document. The requisite CJC opposition “partner” was there too, shamelessly introduced as their chief lobbyist in Ottawa. The CJC’s attack on the KP document cobbled together for the occasion exposed the shallowness of their claims as it was accompanied by a CRO (church-related organization) document supporting KP in a mailing to all presbyteries across the country.

The other essential disclaimer is that the interfaith Dialogue claims to be theological, suggesting the exclusion of a foreign policy agenda. My experience has been otherwise. In any event, the veil was dropped recently; internecine struggles among the establishment Jewish organizations resulted in the bitter “smothering” of the CJC, replaced by The Centre for Jewish and Israel Affairs at the Dialogue table. Its very name belies any pretense of disinterest in a solidly Israel-first agenda, while leaving many wondering how the Dialogue might even broach theology.

The preferred enforcement method for the Deal had been clandestine tactics directed at heads of Churches. In 2000, the Canadian Council of Churches sent me along with a colleague on a fact-finding visit to Palestine and Israel, accompanied by a statement of solidarity signed by Canadian church leaders to their Jerusalem counterparts. We were greeted upon arrival with a fax indicating most signatories had recanted. Disappointed Jerusalem Church leaders were mystified at how they could be abandoned by their brothers and sisters in Christ. Upon our return, we traced the reversal to the Christian overseer of the Dialogue having quietly red-flagged the letter to the CJC, which in turn directly pressured each Church leader with the instrument of the Deal. The subsequent outrage of the Arab-Canadian community toward the churches was reported in the secular press.

This followed upon the establishment of “the two-track” process, which was supposed to allow the partnership side of the Church to freely engage the Middle Eastern churches without Dialogue interference. This came about after bringing to light the self-censoring (read: silencing) of these partnership relations under Dialogue surveillance.

The blowback from clandestine operations pushed the Lobby into tactics of open confrontations. When the Bishop of Ottawa earned the front-page headline in the Ottawa newspaper following his Christmas sermon at the Cathedral describing Israel’s treatment of Palestinians, the Israeli Ambassador attempted to embarrass him. This tactic backfired. The Bishop was applauded for standing on principle and, further, for hosting a North American conference on Jerusalem co-sponsored by Friends of Sabeel – North America (FOSNA). The conference was brought to a pregnant hush after the same above-mentioned lobbyist representing the CJC invoked the Holocaust and insinuations of anti-Semitism. Dr. Ellis, on a panel, jumped to his feet, grinned, and claimed, “You’re trying to silence us. We won’t be silent.”

The Ecumenical Deal incidents aiming to silence the Canadian churches, often successfully, could fill volumes.  Then came the KP document.

Speaking with one voice for Palestinian Christians, and with a rare endorsement by all the Jerusalem Heads of Churches, the KP “Word of faith, hope and love from the heart of the Palestinian suffering” could not be ignored. KP included theological reflection, articulation of why the occupation of Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem is an “evil,” the elaboration of the place of faith toward ending that suffering and effecting reconciliation, and the requirement of action in the form of non-violent economic measures including Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS).

Our immediate response was to convene Church Middle East staffers for the first time jointly with CROs, and focused on KP, however in a new broader and unshackled configuration dubbed The Forum. Thus the long harassed 25 year-old Middle East Working Group of only some church staff yielded to a space where partnership issues could be freely discussed and engaged without an institutional conduit to the Dialogue. Thus I believe KP will be remembered here as a turning-point, giving voice to the Palestinian narrative unchallenged by “balance” with the voices of oppression. KP has liberated us from the captivity to the Ecumenical Deal, allowing honest and critical partnership with Palestinian Christians, without looking over our shoulder. And the fruits are already proving rich, promising, and faithful.

A notable achievement is the success of a return visit to Canada of KP staffer Nora Carmi, also the West Banker chosen on behalf of Palestinian Christians to address Pope Benedict personally during his visit to Bethlehem. Despite later being an overseas guest speaker at the United Church of Canada’s General Assembly in 2009, she was mostly sidelined by the presence of an inter-faith partner, a prominent rabbi and former CJC president. The three resolutions on BDS went down to defeat.

Last year on her Forum-initiated post-KP return, with no pro forma Lobby counter-narrative, Nora Carmi eloquently voiced the call to BDS to church leaders, the general public and, in a speech in the Parliament Building, to Senators, Members, Foreign Affairs staff and diplomats.

Only a few weeks later, the United Church of Canada’s boycott resolution passed at General Assembly with overwhelming support. This came on the heels of Lobby success in the USA with the Presbyterian and United Methodist national conventions, where divestment failed by a razor-thin margin, and despite tens of thousands of Lobby dollars invested trying to defeat the Canadian resolution. Along with Lobby enlisting of the national media and even a coalition of Senators, a former CJC representative’s brandishing the Ecumenical Deal at the Assembly was apparently no match for the liberated narrative of Palestinians.

As a direct result of the debate around that boycott resolution, for the first time, a coalition of national Arab-Canadian organizations met with the Forum, and then with Heads of Churches or their appointees. This may itself coalesce into a table with the churches where these groups can have their voices heard, deepening church relations with the region. Moreover, the churches can for the first time hear Canadian voices on all sides – progressive Jewish voices, Dialogue interlocutors, and Arab- and Muslim-Canadians – without allowing suppression of narratives.

Liberated from our own captivity to the Ecumenical Deal and its accompanying fears of being tarred with an anti-Semitism libel, the KP call to us has in significant measure moved the Canadian churches further to giving unfettered voice to the Palestinian narrative, free of an artificial balance with an offsetting voice of oppression. Perhaps it is a sign of authentic partnership that underscored our own deficiencies, however ironic, when in fact we are the beneficiaries of Palestinian Christians’ cry for liberation.

In the 1990s, the Rev. Robert Assaly was Director of the Middle East Council of Churches office in Jerusalem and the Episcopal Vicar of Gaza. He was for a decade the Canadian Council of Churches representative to the UN coordinating committee of North American NGOs on the Question of Palestine in New York. Later he was rector of a rural parish priest in the Diocese of Ottawa where he was born, and is now pursuing a Ph.D. at McGill University. He continues as Chair of the Canadian Friends of Sabeel.

Palestinian Christian Nora Carmi and Rabbi Reuven Bulka of Ottawa address United Church commissioners at the 2009 trinnenial national Assembly during debate on Middle East proposals. Photos by Mike Milne stitched together and published by the United Church Observer, giving the false image of balance at the assembly, even if it is a balance of oppressed and oppressor.

With Israel prohibiting Palestinian clergy from entering Gaza, Fr. Rick Marples of the Diocese of Ottawa defiantly celebrates the Eucharist under the shattered roof of St. Philip’s Gaza. The altar is presumed to have been the target of the Israeli laser-guided missile.

]]> http://www.ecclesio.com/2013/05/letter-from-canada-%e2%80%9ccaptivity-led-captive%e2%80%9d-for-some-by-robert-assaly/feed/ 0 http://www.ecclesio.com/2013/05/response-to-kairos-palestine-%e2%80%9cthe-letter-of-15%e2%80%9d-and-the-use-of-u-s-military-aid-by-israel-in-palestine-katherine-cunningham/ http://www.ecclesio.com/2013/05/response-to-kairos-palestine-%e2%80%9cthe-letter-of-15%e2%80%9d-and-the-use-of-u-s-military-aid-by-israel-in-palestine-katherine-cunningham/#comments Thu, 23 May 2013 01:00:44 +0000 Cynthia Holder Rich http://www.ecclesio.com/?p=4241 As Christian leaders in the United States, it is our moral responsibility to question the continuation of unconditional U.S. financial assistance to the government of Israel. Realizing a just and lasting peace will require this accountability, as continued U.S. military assistance to Israel — offered without conditions or accountability — will only serve to sustain the . . . → Read More: RESPONSE TO KAIROS PALESTINE: “The Letter of 15” and the use of U.S. military aid by Israel in Palestine – Katherine Cunningham]]> As Christian leaders in the United States, it is our moral responsibility to question the continuation of unconditional U.S. financial assistance to the government of Israel. Realizing a just and lasting peace will require this accountability, as continued U.S. military assistance to Israel — offered without conditions or accountability — will only serve to sustain the status quo and Israel’s military occupation of the Palestinian territories. ~ from Letter of 15 Church Leaders to U.S. Congress

On October 5, 2012, fifteen Christian leaders in the United States issued a letter to members of Congress that rocked American Christian-Jewish relationships.  The letter addressed the American legislators who approve all economic and military aid to Israel and are charged with the responsibility of oversight for how that 3.1 billion dollar annual aid package is implemented.

No one saw this coming.  The statement stunned the Jewish community used to the unquestioned support of the State of Israel as a preferential ally of the United States.  The 2012 denominational national meetings, with their heated debates on divestment from American corporations benefiting from supporting the Palestinian occupation, concluded with votes among the Methodists, Presbyterians and Episcopalians “to invest” in Palestine rather than divest church funds from U.S. corporations profiting from Israel’s military occupation. Those votes were influenced by threats from Jewish organizations that pro-divestment actions would cause a rupture in the decades of Christian-Jewish interfaith partnerships.

Within months of the national meetings, the heads of mainline churches and other Christian organizations turned their attention the United States Congress, asking its members to investigate human rights abuses and violations of federal laws that Congress itself had placed on all foreign military aid.  The intense reaction from Jewish organizations reveals a significant divide in nationalistic loyalties, focused on Christian U.S. citizens calling Congress to an honest examination of military aid under United States law against the actions of the country that so many Americans regard as the rightful Jewish homeland.

What the letter said about Palestinian and Israeli suffering

Each of the Christian churches and organizations that signed on (see list below) to the letter has an established ethical commitment to peacemaking in the region.  Many of these churches have actively supported a two-state solution and encouraged Israelis and Palestinians to continue to negotiate for a just peace. The ecumenical letter sought to lift up the long history of suffering in the region, noting that the longing for security and peace for both sides is genuine and that each party bears responsibility.  It affirms the deaths and horror resulting from past suicide bombings and the broad fearfulness resulting from Gaza rocket attacks upon the broader Israeli society. The Letter underscores the churches’ witness to Palestinian home demolitions, the killing of civilians by the Israeli military and other human rights violations. Its text reflects the churches’ usual “balanced” approach to suffering and security. It is careful not to characterize or criticize any faith group’s stance on the conflicts.

Kairos Palestine and the United States Congress

The Kairos Palestine confessional document insists on defining Christ’s commandment to love as inclusive of the friend and the enemy.  It also claims resistance as both a right and duty of the Christian, using love as its logic. [KP: 4.2.3] Such love is corrective, refusing to resist evil with evil, and seeking respect of all life. It affirms that one may defend his or her life, freedom and land. [KP: 4.2.5] However, with regard to the international community, Kairos Palestine challenges the international community to resist “selective application of international law” which “threatens to leave us vulnerable to a law of the jungle. It legitimizes the claims by certain armed groups and states that the international community only understands the logic of force.” [KP: 7]

The reality on the ground, asserts Kairos Palestine, is one of daily inhuman conditions, enforced by the Israeli military, including military checkpoints, the use of guns, tear gas and bombs against civilians in situations which do not rise to the level of military threat. Other policies of occupation defy and break international UN laws and, in all likelihood, United States laws, on the use of military aid provided to an allied government.  This is the logic of force, and this is why it is so important that Christian leaders spoke truth to power, in this case the United States Congress.

The ecumenical document, often referred to as “The Letter of 15, ” urges Congress to conduct “ an immediate investigation into possible violations by Israel of the U.S. Foreign Assistance Act and the U.S. Arms Export Control Act which respectively prohibit assistance to any country which engages in a consistent pattern of human rights violations and limit the use of U.S. weapons to “internal security” or “legitimate self-defense.”  These two laws form the basis for the Letter of 15 issuing a call to Congress to engage in its responsibility to investigate and report on its findings.

The Arms Export Control Act (AECA, 1976) is a comprehensive policy regulating how arms are traded, sold or supplied for a country’s lawful self-defense and imposes restrictions on the development and proliferation of certain kinds of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons.

The Foreign Assistance Act dates from 1961 and includes the separation of military and non-military aid, also creating the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).  This law states that no assistance will be provided to a government which

“engages in a consistent pattern of gross violations of internationally recognized human rights, including torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment, prolonged detention without charges, causing the disappearance of persons by the abduction and clandestine detention of those persons, or other flagrant denial of the right to life, liberty, and the security of person, unless such assistance will directly benefit the needy people in such country.” [Legislation on Foreign Relations,The Government Printing Office]

The 2011 U.S. State Department Country Report on Human Rights Practices covered Israel and the Occupied Territories, describing numerous human rights violations committed by the Israeli military against Palestinian civilians — many of which involve the misuse of US-supplied weapons.

When viewed through the lens of Kairos Palestine, the Letter of 15 is a collaboration of Christian organizations in the U.S. urging Congress to take responsibility for enforcing its own laws, decades old, and uphold these legal restrictions that Congress bound itself to as the legislative branch of our government, and at the same time to address how the military actions and policies of the State of Israel might be in violation of its agreements with the U.S. to abide by the laws conditional to the preferential aid it receives. Both sides are accountable for upholding United States and international laws and human rights. Congress has an accountability relationship to U.S. taxpayers to abide by our standards in providing aid. Israel is not exempt.  [KP: 1.2, 1.4]

Responses to the Ecumenical Letter

The Letter of 15 elicited a fierce exchange of accusations, as well as much commentary in both secular and religious media.  One of the most telling is the following set of interviews from the HuffPost Live: Faith Leaders on Aid to Israel, which interviewed Jewish and Christian leaders on the Letter and its impact.  Watch the video interviews on HuffPost Live Source.

Jewish organizations had swift angry reactions to the Letter.  The Rabbinical Assembly asked Congress to reject the call for oversight. The Jewish Council for Public Affairs characterized the letter signed by 15 church leaders as “a step too far,” according to JCPA President Rabbi Steve Gutow.  “The participation of these leaders in yet another one-sided anti-Israel campaign cannot be viewed apart from the vicious anti-Zionism that has gone virtually unchecked in several of these denominations.” Never mind that anti-Zionism was used as synonymous with anti-semitism, which it is not.

The Jewish Voice for Peace Rabbinical Council supported the call for Congressional oversight, noting that Mideast analyst MJ Rosenberg has rightly pointed out that such programs as Social Security and food stamps were under congressional scrutiny for compliance, asking why not the same for Israel?  “…the U.S. alone is in a place to create the kind of leverage that might challenge Israel to turn away from policies that impede the cause of a just peace for Israelis and Palestinians and true security for all who live in the region.”

At the same time, the churches which had signed the letter to Congress quickly moved to interpret its contents in light of established denominational policies. The Rev. Gradye Parsons, Stated Clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), one of the signatories, noted that in 2010 that body had explicitly noted the problems with compliance on the part of the State of Israel with regard to military aid and directed him to communicate these issues to Congress.

In an essay published by Mondoweiss, author and activist Dr. Mark Braverman asserted that beyond the issues of interfaith bullying, the churches’ letter addresses the need to look at the unconditional financial and diplomatic support by the U.S. government for Israel under the guise of security. “We know that responsible advocacy for human rights for Palestinians and a sane, compassionate U.S. policy have nothing to do with anti-Jewish feeling,” Braverman writes, “But make no mistake—we are seeing only the beginning of the battle that will be waged to silence this church movement.”

A final word

Military aid to the State of Israel from the United States is the single most important international aid factor–beyond any government’s humanitarian aid–in addressing how the conflict between Palestine and Israel will be resolved with justice. Our government arms the Israelis, a major contribution to the power imbalance between both parties, and insures the occupier’s military and colonial initiatives and logistics will succeed.

B’Tselem’s May 2013 report on human rights violations during operation “Pillar of Defense” in November 2012 states the Israeli military killed 167 Palestinians, including at least 87 who did not take part in the hostilities, 31 of whom were minors. Should our congress not be concerned with loss of innocent civilian life? Should it not also seek firm answers about whether or not US military aid was used in Pillar of Defense?

This is precisely why the Letter of 15 is a cry for justice to the Congress and to the churches. It requests that our government honor its legal responsibilities to those supplied military aid and to the taxpayers themselves who fund it. The Letter confronts the church to keep bringing that demand forward to the legislators and candidates for office:  Have we been faithful to the laws of our land?  Will we subject aid to the State of Israel to the same scrutiny we do other countries, and even to domestic aid programs of the Federal government? Will justice and human rights be served on our own end, even as the government calls other countries to do the same in their international relations?

Kairos Palestine issues a challenge to the churches of the world: “Are you able to help us get our freedom back, for this is the only way you can help the two peoples attain justice, peace, security and love?” [KP: 6] How do we Christians in North America respond?

Rev. Katherine Cunningham is the moderator of the Israel Palestine Mission Network of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). In joyful obedience to the call of Christ, and in solidarity with churches and our other partners in the Middle East, this network covenants to engage, consolidate, nourish, and channel its energy toward the goal of a just peace in Israel /Palestine by facilitating education, promoting partnerships, and coordinating advocacy.  Please visit the network’s website at www,theIPMN.org.

Signatories of the Letter of 15:

Gradye Parsons, Stated Clerk of the Presbyterian Church (USA)

Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

United Methodist Council of Bishops President Rosemarie Wenner

Peg Birk, transitional General Secretary of the National Council of Churches

Shan Cretin, General Secretary of the American Friends Service Committee

J. Ron Byler, Executive Director of the Mennonite Central Committee U.S.

Alexander Patico, North American Secretary for the Orthodox Peace Fellowship

Diane Randall, Executive Secretary of the Friends Committee on Legislation

A. Roy Medley, General Secretary of American Baptist Churches

Geoffrey A. Black, General Minister and President of United Church of Christ

Sharon Watkins, General Minister and President of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

Julia Brown Karimu, President of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) Division of Overseas Ministries

James A. Moos, Executive Minister for the United Church of Christ’s Wider Church Ministries

Eli S. McCarthy, Justice and Peace Director for the Conference of Major Superiors of Men

Kathy McKneely, Acting Director of the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns

NOTE: For a comprehensive listing of responses to the Letter to Congress, please visit the United Methodists Holy Land Task Force web site here. Also, The Church Letter Reporter, here.

Expanding Jewish-only settlements annex fertile Palestinian land to Israel. Photo: Susanne Hoder

Street in a Palestinian refugee camp in Bethlehem. Photo: Susanne Hoder

I’ll never forget my first encounter with an elderly Palestinian Christian in Bethlehem.  We discussed the desperate reality on the ground for families whose homes were being destroyed, their farmland and wells confiscated.  With a . . . → Read More: An Awakening: American Churches Embrace Targeted Economic Actions in Response to Kairos Palestine – Susanne Hoder]]>

Cross on a Bethlehem church with the illegal Israeli settlement of Har Homa in the background (Photo: Rev. Larry George, UMKR)

I’ll never forget my first encounter with an elderly Palestinian Christian in Bethlehem.  We discussed the desperate reality on the ground for families whose homes were being destroyed, their farmland and wells confiscated.  With a look of deep hurt he asked me, “Why are American churches not doing anything to stop this?”  I could only tell him that churches back home didn’t know.  If they did, I assured him, it would be different.  I was certain followers of Christ would unite against Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Christians and Muslims, which is so apparent to those who witness it.

A decade later, despite first-hand accounts from people of every faith, many American churches are still in the dark about Israel’s treatment of non-Jews.  However, others are responding decisively to a historic call which has been signed by thousands of Palestinian Christians since its publication in 2009.   Known as Kairos Palestine [1], this urgent missive to the churches of the world cries out for an end to complacency.  It asks for concrete actions to help end the occupation and discrimination that confront Palestinians daily.  The Kairos document followed the Amman Call of 2007 and the Berne Perspective in 2008, which said “No more words without deeds.” Kairos Palestine was unique in that it called for specific steps – including boycott, divestment and sanctions – which have successfully ended oppression in other countries.

The wheels of church policy turn slowly, and for those of us who have seen the destroyed homes, uprooted trees, and confiscated wells, the pace of change is maddeningly slow.  Yet in 2013, there has been tangible action from several major denominations in the US, and there are promising signs from others.

Last year the United Methodist General Conference approved a measure calling on all nations to forbid the import of settlement goods.[2] Groundbreaking research has been done by United Methodist volunteers to identify settlement companies exporting products to the United States and US companies importing them.[3] The United Methodist General Board of Church and Society will be approaching US government agencies with these lists, urging that the products be banned.

Within the United Methodist Church, a global grassroots movement called United Methodist Kairos Response (UMKR)[4] has urged the UMC to align its words with its actions.  For years, the denomination has called for an end to the occupation.  Yet church investment portfolios show significant holdings in companies that enable the occupation to continue.  Encouraged by UMKR, a number of regional United Methodist conferences called for divestment from these companies, and several UM foundations have already divested.[5] Others will consider resolutions to divest this summer.

The Presbyterian Church (USA) voted at its 2012 General Assembly to call for boycott of settlement products.[6] Its highly respected Israel/Palestine Mission Network (IPMN) has formed a boycott committee and has endorsed an interfaith campaign against SodaStream.[7] The boycott committee meets frequently through conference calls and has developed a Boycott 101 section on its web site.[8] This guide identifies some of the settlement products being imported to the United States, offering suggestions and steps for local churches to boycott them.   IPMN also provides resources for contacting stores that carry the products, and informing the communities about them.  From Rochester to San Francisco, Presbyterians are leafleting retailers and writing to managers, asking that these products be de-shelved.

IPMN is encouraging an expansion of the boycott to include US companies sustaining the occupation in a variety of ways.  An example is Hewlett Packard, whose biometric scanners are used as a discriminatory tool at checkpoints in the West Bank to control the movement of Palestinians in their own lands.

A measure calling for divestment of church funds from three American companies profiting from the occupation came within two votes of passing at the last Presbyterian General Assembly.  Instead of divesting, the General Assembly voted to invest in Palestine and has been sending leaders on trips to the region to find suitable projects for investment. For reasons discussed later in this article, that has been difficult. Divestment will be reconsidered at the next policy session in 2014.

Big strides for justice were made in 2013 when both the American Friends Service Committee and the Mennonite Central Committee announced investment screens of 29 companies involved with the occupation.[9] These companies are being removed from portfolios and will be ineligible for future investment until they end their role in Israel’s occupation.

The United Church of Christ Palestine Israel Network (UCC PIN)[10] was founded in January of 2012.  It has a Steering Committee of 20 people. With their support, the UCC national ministry staff has taken two bold stands in the last year. The denomination’s General Minister and President, and the Executive Minister for Wider Church Ministries joined other Christian leaders in asking Congress to investigate the use of military aid given to Israel by the US.[11] UCC PIN is encouraging local church groups to take this request personally to their Congressional representatives. The UCC Collegium of Officers (the top national officers in the UCC) signed a special Advent letter encouraging church members to boycott certain products that support Israel’s occupation.[12]

UCC PIN has joined the US Campaign to End the Occupation and has endorsed the Kairos Palestine Document, the Call to Action of Kairos USA, the Soda Stream boycott and the Hewlett Packard boycott. One of its Steering Committee members has become a liaison to United Church Funds and will be meeting with the Ecumenical Action Group (EAG), which focuses on shareholder resolutions and other forms of corporate engagement to end complicity in Israel’s occupation.

Catholics too are taking action. Pax Christi joined other religious groups in the US in publishing an abridged version of the Kairos Palestine Document.  In January 2013, Pax Christi International called for accurate labeling of goods produced in the settlements and “an active ban of settlement products.”[13]

As early as 2007, the National Coalition of American Nuns stated, “We encourage a boycott of Israeli goods in order to hasten a more just civil order in the Holy Land….we call for divestment from Caterpillar, municipal boycotts of CAT machinery, and a consumer boycott of other CAT products.”[14]

A key disappointment has been the stance of the Episcopal Church in the US, which “does not support boycott, divestment, and economic sanctions against the state of Israel.”[15] In 2013, the Episcopal Executive Council voted to invest $500,000 in the Bank of Palestine, despite overwhelming evidence that such “positive investment” is meaningless when companies cannot get goods to market, workers cannot reach their jobs and vital resources such as water are withheld from Palestinians.[16] Many capital projects built with donor funds have been destroyed by Israel, including roads, water cisterns, solar panels and power plants.  The Bank of Palestine has its work cut out to find secure projects for these church funds. Fortunately, key groups within the church, including the Episcopal Peace Fellowship and the Palestine Israel Network, have called for BDS, and support for these groups among Episcopalians is growing.

Though the Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELCA) has also refrained from endorsing boycott or divestment, it has promoted sanctions that would end US military aid and housing loan guarantees to Israel.  Its Churchwide Strategy for Engagement in Israel and Palestine states “ELCA has 1) urged that no U.S. funds be used for military assistance; 2) called for a freeze on all Israeli settlement activity; 3) opposed further housing loan guarantees to Israel unless and until the construction and expansion of settlements in the occupied territories is stopped.” [17] ELCA Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson joined with 14 other Christian leaders in signing a 2012 letter[18] requesting hearings about the use of military aid to Israel to ensure compliance with US and international human rights law.  The letter questioned the continuation of unconditional U.S. financial assistance to the government of Israel.  (More on this “Letter of 15” will be in tomorrow’s article here on Ecclesio.)

Kairos USA, which Mark Braverman described for Ecclesio this week, has made a tremendous contribution to educating American Christians about the call of Kairos Palestine.  Kairos USA’s Call to Action is inspiring.[19] It encourages Christians to translate concern into action and “to become educated about the Palestinian call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions.” The endorsements it has gathered from a theologically diverse mix of church leaders are impressive.

We must not stop with declarations. When importers of settlement products are named in their communities, when settlement goods are de-shelved, banned and taxed, and when investors adopt selective screens, the edifice of occupation will crumble.  The tools for accomplishing this are available.  We need only the determination to replace words with action.

US connections to the occupation have been identified. American consumers and investors can speak with their economic choices. In the prophetic tradition of justice to which Christ called us, American churches must lead the way.  As Kairos Palestine tells us, “the time is now.”

[2] Opposition to Israeli Settlements on Palestinian Land, Resolution 6073, adopted May 2, 2012. https://www.umhltf.org/United_Methodist_Church.html#2012_Resolution_Opposition_to_Israeli_Settlements

[3] Seizing the Mandate, published by United Methodist Kairos Response in February, 2013.  www.kairosresponse.org/boycott

[4]UM Kairos Response web site. www.kairosresponse.org

[5] The West Ohio, New York, and Northern Illinois conferences (regional governing bodies) of the UMC.

[6] “220^th GA Passes Boycott.” July 6, 2012.   http://www.israelpalestinemissionnetwork.org/main/component/content/article/18/227-220th-ga-passes-boycott

[7] Interfaith SodaStream Boycott web site. http://sodastreamboycott.org/

[8]Israel Palestine Network of the Presbyterian Church U.S.A., “Boycott 101.” http://israelpalestinemissionnetwork.org/main/advocacy/boycott-101

[9] “Companies Violating AFSC’s Investment Screen.” http://www.afsc.org/sites/afsc.civicactions.net/files/documents/Israel-Palestine%20Investment%20Screen%20-%20Companies%20List.pdf. “Mennonite US Board Acts for Peace Through Its Investments”, by Cheryl Zehr Walker,
March 26, 2013.  http://www.mcc.org/stories/news/mcc-us-board-acts-peace-through-its-investments

[10]UCC Global Ministries web site. http://globalministries.org/mee/partners/ucc-palestineisrael-network.html

[11] “UPDATED: UCC and Disciples join Christian leaders in letter to Congress outlining human-rights violations in the Middle East”

by Anthony Moujaes, UCNews, March 20, 2013.  http://globalministries.org/news/mee/ucc-joins-christian-leaders.html

[12] “Let us respond to Christ’s message of hope with justice and peace: An Advent Pastoral Letter from the National Officers of the United Church of Christ” November 21, 2012. http://www.ucc.org/news/this-advent-let-us-respond.html

[13] “Pax Christi International Calls for an End of Settlement Policy by Israel.” http://paxchristiusa.org/2013/01/30/pax-christi-international-pax-christi-international-calls-for-an-end-of-settlement-policy-by-israel/

[14] Nat’l Coalition of American Nuns, “Commitment to Peace.” http://www.ncan.us/2007/10/commitment-to-p.html

[15] “Episcopal Church Policy on Israel/Palestine.” http://epfnational.org/PIN/episcopal-church-policy-on-israelpalestine/

[16] UM Kairos Response, “Why Investing in Palestine Cannot Work Without Ending the Occupation.” https://www.kairosresponse.org/Investing_Is_Not_Enough.html

[17] Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Our Faith in Action, Justice, Israel and Palestine. http://www.elca.org/Our-Faith-In-Action/Justice/Advocacy/Issues/Israel-Palestine.aspx.

[18] Religious leaders ask Congress to condition Israel military aid on human rights compliance http://www.pcusa.org/news/2012/10/5/religious-leaders-ask-congress-condition-israel-mi/

[19] Kairos USA web site. http://www.kairosusa.org/?q=node/18

Susanne Hoder founded the Interfaith Peace Initiative, helped establish the United Methodist Divestment Task Force in New England, and co-founded United Methodist Kairos Response.  Since first visiting the Holy Land in 2004, she has worked to end Israel’s occupation and persecution of Palestinians.  She led a United Methodist study group to the West Bank in 2010 to document companies involved with the occupation, and has published research on companies that import products from illegal settlements to the United States.

The Israeli wall inside Bethlehem annexing a Christian family’s land to Israel (photo: Susanne Hoder, UMKR)

Guest Editor’s Note: This week on Ecclesio we will read five articles reporting on the North American response to Kairos Palestine, a confession of faith written by Palestinian Christians in 2009, calling for . . . → Read More: Kairos USA: a movement emerges as a response to Kairos Palestine – Pauline Coffman]]> Read Mark Braverman’s Essay, “Kairos Time”
Read Susanne Hoder’s Essay, “An Awakening”
Read Katherine Cunningham’s Essay, “Response to Kairos Palestine”
Read Robert Assaly’s Essay, “Letter from Canada”

Guest Editor’s Note: This week on Ecclesio we will read five articles reporting on the North American response to Kairos Palestine, a confession of faith written by Palestinian Christians in 2009, calling for solidarity in their hour of need. The document is translated from its original Arabic into twenty languages, and is called A Moment of Truth: A word of faith, hope and love from the heart of Palestinian suffering. With all the heads of churches in the Holy Land signing this confession of faith, it is a unique call to action to the Christian community around the world.

This week’s articles on Ecclesio will report on some of the actions taken by U.S. denominations in response to this call. On Friday, we will read a report on the Canadian response.

As a Presbyterian Elder living in New York City, I was glad and proud to see our General Assembly receive Kairos Palestine for study in 2010, even though some tried to say its call for non-violent economic action should be considered violent because of the long, violent Christian history against Jews. I hope Christians of conscience will take the time to read, reflect, and act on this call from the fast-dwindling Christians of the Holy Land. The Friends of Sabeel North America (FOSNA) has provided a good introduction online and the full document too. The Israel Palestine Mission Network of the Presbyterian Church (USA), on whose board I serve, has produced a small and well-used study guide for groups, which also includes the full document. It is available through the denomination’s online store.

Today
Pauline Coffman
Kairos USA: a movement emerges as a response to Kairos Palestine

Tuesday
Mark Braverman
Kairos Time: A U.S. Call to Action

Wednesday
Susanne Hoder
An Awakening: American Churches embrace targeted economic actions in response to Kairos Palestine

Thursday
Katherine Cunningham
Response to Kairos Palestine: “The Letter of 15” and the use of U.S. military aid by Israel in Palestine

Friday
Robert Assaly
The Canadian response to Kairos Palestine

Noushin Framke
Guest Director
May 20, 2013

Kairos USA: a movement emerges as a response to Kairos Palestine
By Dr. Pauline M. Coffman

Responding to the growing need among Christians for an ecumenical and action-oriented response to the Kairos Palestine confession, issued in 2009 by Palestinian Christians in Bethlehem, a group of fourteen clergy, theologians and laypersons met in June 2011 at Elmhurst College in Illinois to inaugurate the movement.  The opening of Kairos Palestine* cries out:  “A moment of truth!  Here is a word of faith, hope and love from the heart of Palestinian suffering…  Why now?  Because we have reached a dead end in the tragedy of the Palestinian people.”  The urgency of the statement demanded a response.

.The organizing group stemmed from a meeting between Mark Braverman, a Jewish writer and retired psychologist, and Cotton Fite, an Episcopalian priest and psychotherapist. Their meeting occurred at a Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP) meeting in Washington, D.C. in May 2011.  After consulting with Don Wagner, Presbyterian (PCUSA) clergy and longtime Chicago advocate for a just peace for Israel and Palestine, they issued invitations for the inaugural meeting in Illinois.

Mark Braverman, coming from a Zionist background, was transformed on his views on Israel/Palestine during a visit in 2006 as he witnessed Israel’s military occupation and met peace activists and civil society leaders from the Muslim, Jewish and Christian communities.  A clinical and community psychologist, Mark returned to the U.S. and wrote the story of his transformation and awakening in Fatal Embrace: Christians, Jews, and the Search for Peace in the Holy Land, published in 2010.

Mark was present in Bethlehem in 2009 when Kairos Palestine was launched and was keenly aware of the urgency of the call from Palestinian Christians to Christians around the world asking for solidarity. Accordingly, he opened the 2011 Illinois meeting by emphasizing the need for a grassroots movement in the U.S. to help bring about the end to Israeli apartheid.  He cited the role of U.S. churches in the Civil Rights movement in the U.S. and the movement to end South African apartheid.  He stressed the role of the U.S. church in allowing the urgent human rights tragedy to unfold and noted the recent emergence of Kairos movements in South Africa, Europe and Asia in response to the Kairos Palestine call.  The group gathered in Illinois believed it was time we as Americans confessed our complicity and issued a call to action in the U.S.

Several of those attending the June meeting in Illinois, including myself, were among the 10 representing Kairos USA movement at the Kairos for Global Justice conference in Bethlehem, Palestine, in December 2011. The experience of being with delegates from all around the globe impressed upon us the need for and importance of a response from the U.S., and the vision for Kairos USA began to take shape. In addition to participating in the conference, our group planned the next gathering at which work on the Kairos USA confessing statement would begin.

Less than three months later, over 40 people from across the country and the Christian spectrum gathered at the Stony Point Conference Center in New York in February 2012. The plan was to study, worship and pray together as we reflected and constructed the framework of the Kairos USA statement, “Call to Action: U.S. Response to the Kairos Palestine Document.” It is important to note that delegates came from mainline churches as well as evangelical and Pentecostal ones. There was a good diversity of backgrounds as well as theological opinions present, which made the gathering all the more potent and moving. The convergence of the diverse perspectives was striking, as everyone offered points to include in the statement that emerged as the Kairos USA response to Kairos Palestine.

Kairos USA launched its statement in June 2012, in time to reach those attending the Presbyterian Church (USA)’s General Assembly and the Episcopal Church’s General Conference. A study guide was developed to help American Christians understand what Palestinian Christians are calling on us to do. This includes exploring and understanding nonviolence from a variety of perspectives, both practical and theological. The free study guide can be downloaded from the site.

Since the launch in 2012, hundreds of Christian leaders and lay people representing many different perspectives of Christianity have signed on in support of the movement and call to action; their names can be seen on the Kairos USA website:  www.kairosusa.org.  The movement is growing and new supporters can sign on at the website. Join us!

Tomorrow, Dr. Mark Braverman will present and interpret the theology of the Kairos USA confession of faith and its promise for a just peace here on Ecclesio.

* This document is the Christian Palestinians’ word to the world about what is happening in Palestine. It is written at this time when they wanted to see the Glory of the grace of God in their land and in the sufferings of its people. In this spirit the document requests the international community to stand by the Palestinian people who have faced oppression, displacement, suffering and clear apartheid for more than six decades.  Read more here.

Pauline Coffman is a professor and director (retired) of the School of Adult Learning, North Park University, Chicago, IL.  She is a member of the Israel Palestine Mission Network of the PC(USA), the Middle East Task Force of Chicago Presbytery, and the Chicago Faith Coalition on Middle East Policy.  Pauline attends First United Church of Oak Park, IL (union PCUSA and UCC), and is co-leading a seminar to Israel/Palestine in June 2013. Pauline serves on the Board of Directors of Kairos USA.

An excerpt (pre-final edit) from Bruce’s upcoming book, “But I don’t see you as Asian”: Curating Conversations About Race.

Any comment that begin with “I don’t mean to be . . .” is probably not going to end well.  “I don’t mean to be a jerk, but…” signals that you are about to say something jerky; “I . . . → Read More: “I don’t mean to be racist, but . . .” – Bruce Reyes-Chow]]>

An excerpt (pre-final edit) from Bruce’s upcoming book, “But I don’t see you as Asian”: Curating Conversations About Race.

Any comment that begin with “I don’t mean to be . . .” is probably not going to end well.  “I don’t mean to be a jerk, but…” signals that you are about to say something jerky; “I don’t mean to be rude, but . . .” signals that you are about to be rude, and “I don’t mean to be racist, but . . .”signals that they next few words probably will be in fact . . . racist.

A few months ago, I stumbled upon a great twitter account @yesyoureracist that calls out people who preface a tweet with something like “I don’t mean to be racist, but . . .

Here are just a few examples. I chose not to publicly call out these folks to the extent that I would include direct links and Twitter names. My intent is not to bring down the hammer on any one person, but only to point out that issues of race are still in need of addressing in today’s society. And yes, I have let stand all misspellings and grammatical creativity.

○       Tweet – “i swear to god i am not racist but i am very thankful that my new neighbours are not Indian”

○       Tweet – “Not a racist but Chinese folks – please stay away from getting behind the wheels. Your driving sucks BIG TIME!”

○       Tweet – “Im friends with plenty of blacks. Just because i dont want my sister to date one does not mean i am racist”

○       Tweet – “I’m not racist but if we didn’t have a non-white president, foodstamps wouldn’t be record high because they’d have jobs!”

○       Tweet – “Not being racist but u know the incidents @ #bostonmarathon are by those filthy disgusting raghead bastards.

If you were to scroll through people’s response to @yesyoureracist you will see that many people respond with something to effect of, “I can’t be racist, I have Black friends,” will claim that it is unfair to call them out because they have free speech and or try and justify their words in some other way.

Am I saying that people should now no longer be allowed to express what we they are really feeling, even when it is based on the color of another person’s skin? Certainly not. I am one that thinks that folks must always be allowed to express themselves, no matter how much I may disagree with or disdain what they say. At the same time, I also think that that should have the integrity to recognize that some of those thoughts, no matter how much they want them not to be, are indeed racist. And most importantly, when thinking about the freedom of speech that we are privileged to have here in the United States, this freedom does not mean that our words can be spoken and are immune from the repercussions and accountability that may arise from ramifications of those words.

Ultimately, the problem with this, “I’m not racist, but . . .” thinking creates the illusion that one can think use this as some kind of disclaimer and there are no ramifications for what is being said – or that there is no justification for people to be upset by those words – because the person who said the words also said he/she is not racist.

Free speech does not protect people from the consequences of those words, nor does merely claiming a reality make that reality true. When we use this phrase or hold this attitude, through our words and actions we participate in the widening of personal racial division, as well as justify systematic and structural discrimination that are built on racial stereotypes and assumptions.

In terms of reframing this perspective and thinking, I wish it were as easy as, “Just stop saying it.” This is not really a comment that screams, “I want to be in community,” but for those who hold these ideas and seek to change, there must be a commitment to take a deep look into their own prejudices: why do they exist, why do we justify them and is this something that we want to perpetuate and pass along.

And for those who have heard it, this is also a great opportunity to speak on behalf of targeted communities, not only to bring light upon those who should know better, but to model to larger spheres of influence that this attitude is not acceptable.

Good luck.

Bruce Reyes-Chow is the author of The Definitive-ish Guide for Using Social Media in the Church as well as the soon-to-be-released, “But I don’t see you as Asian”: Curating Conversations about Race. He can be found online on twitter at @breyeschow, on facebook at @breyeschowpage and/or on his blog at www.reyes-chow.com.