SUMMER 2012
ALLIANCEOFBAPTISTS.ORG
A VOICE FOR PARTNERSHIP AND COLLABORATION HONORING MAHAN SILER—THE MAVERICK MYSTIC NANCY SEHESTED
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t happened smack dab in the middle of his sermon a few months ago. Suddenly Mahan was lying fully stretched out on the wooden floor, splayed with his long arms extended over his head and his face to the floor. Startled children who had been doodling on their paper looked up to see the strange sight. Adults leaned forward in their chairs Mahan Siler, an Alliance friend who describes himself as being "privileged wondering what to make of it. Mahan was illustrating to be around at the beginning." the way of prayer, the practice of telling every muscle and fiber of our body our intention before God. In his sermon that day at the Circle of Mercy Congregation in Asheville, N.C., Mahan offered something similar to the words from his book AnamCara. “We partner with God both in the external work of dismantling structural and inter-personal violence and in the internal work of dismantling ways we violate our own potential. We surrender to the Spirit at work for Shalom both in the outer world and in our inner world. This divine movement of personal and social transformation is the very force to which the church gives witness. … The church gifts the world with an alternative way of being. The church offers Jesus, one through whom the Spirit of divine love courses, who went about healing brokenness, exposing abusive power, loving enemies, dismantling social barriers, transforming suffering into compassion, being the life of God that companions us.” Mahan has embodied his words of divine love coursing through his body and soul throughout his ministry. I first met him in the lively discussions surrounding our efforts in midwifing the birth of the Alliance of Baptists in 1987. We were working on the language of the covenant. Some of us used the language of our defiance: We will not forsake our Baptist heritage of the priesthood of the believer. We will not forsake our commitment to women and men in partnership in ministry. Mahan and his working group turned the words to affirming, covenant language. We commit ourselves to… full partnership of all of God’s people in mission and ministry.
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In 1992, First Baptist Church of Matanzas, Cuba, partnered with Pullen Memorial Baptist Church in Raleigh, N.C., to become the first sister-church relationship in the Alliance. As pastors of those churches, Mahan and Francisco, “Paco,” Rodes developed an abiding friendship. Mahan also shepherded Pullen through the tumultuous dialogue on same-sex unions. The church’s affirmation resulted in both loss and gain of members, as well as the ousting of their historic alignment with the Southern Baptist Convention. Mahan knows both the joy and heartache of commitment to partnering with people who have been closed out of full participation in the body of Christ. He has witnessed the welcoming sight of walls of division collapsing even as simultaneously other walls tragically appear. No dismantling of racism, sexism, homophobia or authoritarianism escapes the upheaval of our relationships. He is good to remind those of us who carry strong convictions that the hope lies in building right relationships rather than debating right beliefs.
RIGHT: Wellington Santos and Odja Barros Santos respond to a warm welcome from members of the Alliance of Baptists board during their meeting in Austin, Texas. Odja is the associate pastor in the area of Christian education at the Igreja Batista do Pinheiro in Macéio and president of the Aliança de Batistas do Brasil in Chã Preta. Wellington is the immediate past president of the Aliança and pastor of the church in Macéio. The Aliança de Batistas do Brasil is an Alliance mission partner. Special thanks to Charlotte Greenhaw, Portguese translator, and Connie Gates, Alliance ambassador to Brazil, for their work to ensure Odja and Wellington were not only seen but also understood.
Both maverick and mystic, Mahan continues to live his call of full partnership with God and God’s people. He looks for those places where gospel transformation is happening. Perhaps that is one reason he has led a small group at a maximum-security prison for the past seven years. Plus he has kept his passion for mentoring pastors in their unique vocation as spiritual leaders. Of course his greatest partnering has been with his wife Janice and their big family of children and grandchildren. On this daring and precarious calling of the church, Mahan has clearly not journeyed alone. He has always sought other adventurers who endeavor to live faithfully during this turning point in history. On this unmarked gospel trail, Mahan drops breadcrumbs of encouragement. His
Nancy Hastings Sehested is a co-pastor of the Circle of Mercy Congregation, an ecumenical church in Asheville, N.C. The church is affiliated with the United Church of Christ and a partner congregation of the Alliance of Baptists. Nancy is also a state prison chaplain in a maximum-security prison for men in North Carolina. She graduated with a M.Div. from Union Theological Seminary in New York City in 1978 and received a Distinguished Alumni Award there in 1992. An ordained Baptist minister, she has pastored churches in Atlanta, Memphis and Asheville during the past 25 years. She is married to Ken Sehested, co-pastor of the Circle of Mercy Congregation and former executive director of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America. They have two daughters, two sons-in-law, two grandchildren, and two grand-dogs.
VOICES MAGAZINE IS AN ALLIANCE OF BAPTISTS PRINT PUBLICATION WHOSE PURPOSE IS TO GIVE VOICE TO PROGRESSIVE CHRISTIANS AROUND THE WORLD WHO ARE SEEKING TO RESPOND TO THE CONTINUING CALL OF GOD IN A RAPIDLY CHANGING WORLD. IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO SUBMIT AN IDEA FOR AN ARTICLE OR ADVERTISE IN VOICES MAGAZINE, EMAIL MARY@ALLIANCEOFBAPTISTS.ORG.
VOICES IS PUBLISHED BY ALLIANCE OF BAPTISTS: 3939 LAVISTA ROAD, E-122 ATLANTA, GEORGIA 30084 866.745.7609 allianceofbaptists.org VISION/EDITOR | MARY ANDREOLLI DESIGNER | TOBIAS BECKER COPY EDITORS | RELMA HARGUS, CATHY DOWNS EDITORIAL BOARD | LEADERSHIP TEAM, RELMA HARGUS
LAURA MAYO LEE NICHOLAS-PATTILLO NED ALLYN PARKER TERRY-THOMAS PRIMER KEN RAMSEY PAUL RICHARDSON, treasurer SHEILA SHOLES-ROSS
KATHY STAYTON G.J. TARAZI CECIL WHITE
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TOSSING THIS BALL AROUND …………………………… PAGE 4 IT TAKES A VILLAGE ………………………………………… PAGE 8 MANY VOICES, ONE LOVE ……………………………… PAGE 11
& STAFF
LINDSAY COMSTOCK JOHN E. EVANS ANNE GARNER CARL GREGG, secretary STEPHANIE L. HAMILTON PAUL HAYES DAVID MASSENGILL
TEAM
BOB BECKERLE CAROL BLYTHE, president ANITA BRADSHAW D.H. CLARK APRIL BAKER , vice president DAVID BALL
LEADERSHIP
BOARD
MEMBERS
© 2012, Alliance of Baptists
MARY ANDREOLLI, minister for outreach & communications CAROLE COLLINS, director for operations & finance PAULA CLAYTON DEMPSEY, minister for partnership relations SANDRA BLACKWELL, administrative assistant,
CHRIS COPELAND, minister for leadership formation CATHY DOWNS, communications specialist ANA KARIM, summer communities of service project manager
PEACE AND PROSPERITY IN PARTNERSHIP …………… EVERYTHING IS CONNECTED …………………………… EQUAL PARTNERSHIP, EQUAL EXCHANGE …………… TAKING FLIGHT TOGETHER ……………………………… THE PARTNERSHIP OF GIVING …………………………
PAGE 13 PAGE 15 PAGE 17 PAGE 20 PAGE 22
COVER: Pastors Annah and Elias Maponga, seated, are the recipients of a laying on of hands blessing at Clayton Baptist Church Masembura, Bindura, during their ordination service in July 2011. Annah was a student of Henry Mugabe, a dear friend of the Alliance of Baptists who has been instrumental in the nurturing of partnerships to found the new Zimbabwe Theological Seminary. The couple founded the House of Hope orphanage in Bindura, Zimbabwe, with the assistance of JourneyPartners. The Zimbabwe Theological Seminary, House of Hope and JourneyPartners are Alliance mission partners.
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TOSSING THIS BALL AROUND MAHAN SILER
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ogi Berra, outrageous, colorful manager of the New York Mets, once gathered his team in the locker room after another of many defeats. Frustrated, and full of sarcasm, he picks up a baseball, holds it up, turns it around in his hand, and says, “Now . . . this is a baseball.”
righteous/sinner; adult/child; master/slave; male/female; Jew/Samaritan; Jew/gentile; occupying Romans/occupied Jews; rich/poor; friend/enemy. Everywhere and anywhere, Jesus redefined loving relationships as shared power, as empowering, as partnership—with God, with the other.
A disclaimer, lest you be offended. Alliance readers, you are not a bunch of losers! Or, a bunch of winners, for that matter. I mean, who’s keeping score? Rather, it’s Berra’s reminder of what is basic that draws my attention, and I hope yours as well. There is value, from time to time, to gather “in the locker room,” step back and remind each other, “Now . . . this is a baseball! This is what’s basic. Here is the truth we ‘toss around,’ knowing that without it we cannot play together.” I remind you that Jesus often did the Berra kind of thing. In response to a trick question, it was as if Jesus was in God has been groaning to create from the “locker room” lifting up a baseball, the beginning, namely, alternative saying, “Now, this is our baseball! This is relationships of shared power, justice, the one thing we cannot do without. This mutuality, equity, mercy—in other words, is non-negotiable. It’s loving God with all Alliance founders present at the 1992 convocation at Providence Baptist Church in Charlotte, N.C., are partnerships. You and I toss this “ball” you got and your neighbor as yourself.” Bill Puckett, Tom Austin, Tom Conley, top row; Larry Coleman, Henry Crouch, Richard Groves, middle; Bill Treadwell, Luther Brewer, Mahan Siler, John E. Roberts, Alan Neely, Jim Strickland, Walker Knight, around at home, at work, at church. We Then he tells a story that defines the Nancy Hastings Sehested, Susan Lockwood, Doug Murray, Karen Smith Moore and Bob Spinks. experience this “great act of birthing” in neighbor as the “other,” the one outside little ways and in big ways. of our tribe, the Samaritan who best can tend our wounds. That sure shook the foundations, That’s the baseball! At the end, Jesus even redefined his Well, it happened in a big way in 1985 and 1986, when a small teacher-disciple relationship, saying to his close circle, “I challenging their assumptions about relationships. group of Southern Baptists met every few weeks in Charlotte now call you . . . friends.” There it is again, the “baseball”— at Providence Baptist Church. We were reading “the signs Then, not content to leave this redefinition as only a partnership. of the time” among Southern Baptists, observing the move good idea, Jesus went about embodying its truth. You too have noted his travels, redefining every relationship Let’s add to our thinking this provocative metaphor from toward relationships of domination, not mutuality; of control, in his day that was based on one person or group Paul: “From the beginning, the entire universe has been not freedom; of exclusion, not inclusion. We felt that the dominating another person or group. Look at him, groaning in one great act of giving birth.” (Romans 8: best of Baptist witness—domination-free relationships with confronting every arrangement of coercive power: 19) I’m suggesting that what was birthed in Jesus is what God and one another—was being threatened. We groaned.
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After being appointed by Alliance President Ann Quattlebaum in 1992, members of the Alliance Task Force on Human Sexuality, from left, David Reed, Lynn Rhodes, Priscilla Perry, Millard Eiland, Steven Boyd, Brooks Wicker and Mahan Siler, produced a report that invites churches to participate in the search for a Christian response to persons of a same-sex orientation. The Alliance membership received their report “with gratitude” during an annual meeting March 4, 1995, in Vienna, Va.
During these past 50 years, in the midst of unbelievable death-dealing violence, we have also witnessed a great birthing time. The Civil Rights movement: there it is, the birthing of just relationships across racial divides. The feminist movement: there it is, the longing for and gradual shift toward equality in male-female relationships. The impulse toward collaboration, exploding in Internet communication: there it is, the move from tight, authoritarian power to more circles of shared power. The redefinition of many marriages from one dominating the other: there it is, the shift toward shared power and decision-making. The welcoming movement of same-sex persons in society, and, here and there, in the church: there it is, another shift toward just relationships. And note the public protests and risks for freedom, including political freedom, that never stop: there it is, reconfigurations of power arrangements. We imagined. We differed. We challenged. We fussed. We told stories. We laughed. We prayed. It was a “great act of giving birth.” New life happened. A baby was born, named The Southern Baptist Alliance. Now, let’s back up for a moment. Let’s glance back over our last 50 years or so.
If Paul is right, the universe is always groaning, giving birth to the new, and I am suggesting that what’s always trying to be born are domination-free relationships. I’m saying the “baseball” we toss around in Jesus’ name is the birthing of relationships that are just, merciful and mutual. Shalom, if you will.
Indeed, in the ‘60s and early ‘70s, some of us who were coming into adulthood felt this surge of liberating energy. We thought a new day was arriving for all institutions, including the church. We felt a part of a freedom movement from oppressive structures of domination. What an exciting time! We were riding the wave of the future . . . we thought. But little did we expect that later, in the ‘70s and into the ‘80s and ‘90s a reaction would set in with such force. It surprised many of us. I, for one, was naive and caught off guard. The backlash insisted on more law and order, more control, more rules, more authoritarian leadership, more doctrine—much of it fueled by the fear of the new changes occurring. A strong counter-wind swept across the land. Southern Baptists were caught up in that wind. The very
conservative leaders, later tagged fundamentalists, were putting their sails to that wind. They set out to eliminate the more liberating impulses, especially felt in the seminaries. They fought for, and eventually accomplished, control over the Southern Baptist Convention through creedal statements of faith and policies through the process of nominating trustees to Southern Baptist institutions. So, we who gathered in Charlotte in the mid-eighties were leaning the other way. We were lifting our sails to another wind. What the fundamentalists knew as gain, we experienced as loss—a loss of the core of our Baptist heritage. At the time, we were Southern Baptists attempting to provide an alternative within our tribal family of faith. The best snapshot of this birthing process may be the forming of the covenant. We asked: What are we saying “No” to, what are we saying “Yes” to? On the “No” side was this list: “No” to creedal statements of faith that undermine the freedom of the individual, within community, to interpret Scripture; “No” to the prohibition of ordaining women; “No” to any other body beyond the local church assuming control of ordination; “No” to a denomination that discounts the larger church; “No” to authoritarian leadership of the pastor; “No” to the inerrancy view of scripture that disregards the contribution of current scholarship; “No” to an individualistic understanding of salvation that bypasses social and economic justice; “No” to either state or church dominating the other. Then, we took the sheet listing the “Noes” and “Yeses” and cut the sheet down the middle leaving the “yeses” to work with. The result is the covenant I invite you to read again as if for the first time.
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In a time when historic Baptist principles, freedoms, and traditions need a clear voice, and in our personal and corporate response to the call of God in Jesus Christ to be disciples and servants in the world, we commit ourselves to: 1) The freedom of the individual, led by God’s Spirit within the family of faith, to read and interpret the Scriptures, relying on the historical understanding by the church and on the best methods of modern biblical study; 2) The freedom of the local church under the authority of Jesus Christ to shape its own life and mission, call its own leadership, and ordain whom it perceives as gifted for ministry, male or female; 3) The larger body of Jesus Christ, expressed in various Christian traditions, and to a cooperation with believers everywhere in giving full expression to the Gospel; 4) The servant role of leadership within the church, following the model of our Servant Lord, and to full partnership of all of God’s people in mission and ministry; 5) Theological education in congregations, colleges and seminaries characterized by reverence for biblical authority and respect for open inquiry and responsible scholarship; 6) The proclamation of the Good News of Jesus Christ and the calling of God to all peoples to repentance and faith, reconciliation and hope, social and economic justice; 7) The principle of a free church in a free state and the opposition to any effort either by church or state to use the other for its own purposes.
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Jeanette Holt and Stan Hastey, Alliance associate director and executive director respectively, are pictured with the Alliance banner at an exhibit booth at the 1991 Cooperative Baptist Fellowship General Assembly.
opened doors to some and closed doors to others. As we kept defining our mission, some came forward and invested, others disinvested and left. In the birthing process, partnership between women and men leaders was worked out, at times with considerable anguish. There it is! The birth of partnership. The ripples go forward. We redefined mission, not as going to others with a superior understanding, creating dependence. Rather, mission became forming partnerships in ministry, like the ones in Cuba, in Zimbabwe, Morocco and Brazil. The purpose of each one is friendship, mutual sharing in ministry. There it is! Birthing of partnership. The ripples go forward. Our entering into relationships with black Baptists, with American Baptists, with Canadian Baptists, with the National Council of Churches, and others, soon forced a name change: from Southern Baptist Alliance to the Alliance of Baptists. There it is! The birthing of new partnerships. The ripples go forward.
The baby, The Southern Baptist Alliance, was born. From our now privileged place of hindsight, I submit that this event was another birthing of God’s intention for shalom, for partnership. In forming the Alliance, we were following our intuition of the gospel. We had no idea if this baby would live, and if so, what kind of life it would have.
We soon moved to welcome and include same-sex oriented persons into our lives and into our mission. There it is! The birthing of new partnerships. The ripples go forward. We stretched our understanding of ecumenism to include inter-faith relationships. There it is again! The birthing of new partnerships. The ripples go forward.
But this movement for risking partnership could not be stopped, even if we tried. Other new births of partnerships kept happening. And each one, always messy as births are,
We stretched again when we faced a serious limit in the covenant. At the time we formed the covenant we didn’t see the importance of our connection with the earth and its non-
More recently we feel the yearning for marriage equality of same-sex couples, a “no” to abuse of rights, a “yes” to covenant love. There it is! The birth of partnerships. The ripples go forward. Gradually over the years, we began to feel discomfort with our governance. Here we were, a dynamic movement of
partnership giving birth to new forms here and there, yet we were carrying this message in an aging body. The medium was not our message. So with our retiring executive director and associate director who had guided our movement for 20 years with great skill and passion, we saw the opportunity to govern from the partnership principle. We are a few years into this experiment. And we ask, why are we risking an untried model with our staff, a team of four—now three—with equal power and pay? The answer
Photograph by David Anderson.
Janice and Mahan Siler, Sheila Sholes-Ross and Nelson Ross, from left, enjoy conversation at a dinner celebrating the 25th birthday of the Alliance of Baptists March 17, 2012, at Pullen Memorial Baptist Church, Raleigh, N.C.
human beings. Ecological awareness began to expand our very human-centered world-view. There it is again! The birth of partnerships. The ripples go forward.
erupts from our history. We have to try. It’s our DNA. It’s our groove. It’s our best sense of what God is about in this world—birthing ever-new forms of just relationships. There it is again. The birth of partnership. The ripples go forward. Throughout these 25 years we have been tossing “this ball” around. Without that “ball” we cannot play together. That’s the way the Alliance works. I trust it’s the way God works.
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IT TAKES A VILLAGE
BAPTISTS COLLABORATE FOR ECUMENICAL EDUCATION IN ZIMBABWE
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he Alliance has always been committed to theological education. In 1989, a small but determined group of Alliance members voted to give birth to Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond, the first moderate Baptist seminary formed after the fundamentalist takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention seminaries. Now, more than 20 years later and for the same reason, the Alliance is helping give birth to the Zimbabwe Theological Seminary in Gweru, Zimbabwe. The Zimbabwe Theological Seminary, which is Baptist in heritage but ecumenical in practice, is a community of learners committed to spiritual formation and excellence in scholarship. Working from global and inclusive perspectives, they strive to train men and women for the various ministries of the Church in Southern Africa and beyond. Many challenges exist in beginning any new school, but ZTS’s work is compounded by the ongoing economic crisis in Zimbabwe. Last summer, seminary leaders reached out worldwide for partners for help. The overwhelming response to that request is a testimony to the power of collaboration and cooperation.
RIGHT: Bill Rehn, a volunteer with the Montgomery Community Church Used Book Depository, repairs a book being sent to the Zimbabwe Theological Seminary.
TRACY HARTMAN
Here in the United States, a group committed to the new seminary began teleconference meetings last summer to coordinate support efforts. Chris Caldwell, pastor of Broadway Baptist Church in Louisville, Ky., provided the phone bridge and early leadership in the conversations. Mary Andreolli, minister for outreach & communications, and Paula Clayton Dempsey, minister for partnership relations from the Alliance; David Goatley and Dawn Sanders from the Lott Carey Missionary Convention; Ron Crawford, Tom Graves and Tracy Hartman from Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond; and Kerry Smith of Bartlett, Tenn., participated in the early calls. The Alliance and the Lott Carey Convention were already sending funds to the seminary on a regular basis. In addition to securing other sources of funding, the group chose to focus on securing books for the
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seminary library and helping the school develop and launch a website. Beginning with a book list provided by the seminary, team members emailed colleagues and friends across the country for assistance. Kerry Smith pointed the group toward the Montgomery Community Church Used Book Depository, a ministry of Montgomery Community Church in Cincinnati that coordinates the shipment of books to individuals and organizations overseas. Some donors gave books from their personal libraries; others purchased books and donated them to the new school. Renowned spirituality and church history professor Glen Hinson heard about the
A Carson-Newman College graduate, Tracy Hartman received the BTSR Miller Award for Academic Achievement upon graduation in 1995. Her Ph.D. work at Union Theological Seminary and Presbyterian School of Christian Education included groundbreaking research into the relationship between parish setting and preaching style for women pastors. An author as well as a BTSR professor and director of ministry programs, Tracy has served as preacher, preaching instructor and lecturer for conferences at the Baptist Theological Seminary at Zimbabwe and as staff member and interim pastor in several Virginia churches.
need. Even though he admitted, “It is not easy even at age 80 to part with things you have cherished much of your life,” Glen elected to donate his entire library. To date he has filled 92 boxes, and he estimates he will send 50 more. When the seminary requested Bibles, students at BTSR and the library at Union Theological Seminary in Richmond donated more than 75 Bibles. Under the direction of Polly Sedziol and the crew at the Used Book Depository, these books have been collected, re-packaged, posted and shipped halfway around the world. The committee quickly determined that fundraising was needed to help offset the cost of shipping—$3.50 per pound, and more than $13,000 to date—so they began to recruit others to adopt this cause as a mission project.
RIGHT: Polly Sedziol is facilitator of the Used Book Depository of the Montgomery Community Church in Cincinnati. In existence for 27 years, the depository shares Bibles and Christian materials with others throughout the world. Now widowed, Polly is the mother of five children and three dear daughters-inlaw, nine grandchildren, two grandchildren-in-law and four great grandchildren. As Pollyanna Sedziol, she has had several hundred poems published in more than 60 religious and small poetry magazines since 1966. She also crochets cancer caps and prayer shawls and participates in an NPR book club with her sister, with whom she now lives. BELOW: Henry Mugabe and his friend, pastor Lunga of the Nenyunga Baptist Church in the Nenyunga village, share a few moments together before Henry returns to Gweru. Henry has been instrumental in nurturing the partnerships that have emerged to support the new seminary.
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Currently individuals, schools, Sunday School classes and vacation bible school programs in Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina and Kentucky have pledged their support. If you or your organization would like to help, contact Tracy Hartman at thartman@btsr.edu for information on where to send your donation.
Now that the website is up and running, the support team has turned their attention to networking and fundraising on behalf of the seminary. David Goatley at Lott Carey has convened a planning team of African American Southern Seminary alumni. By September, they hope to have graduates participate in a collective contribution. Press releases and interviews about the new school are forthcoming. Henry Mugabe, one of the Zimbabwean nationals instrumental in the new work, will be in the U.S. this summer. If you are interested in hosting Dr. Mugabe as a speaker in your congregation, please contact Dawn Sanders at dsanders@lottcarey.org. In addition to collaboration here, help is coming from other points across the globe. The Italian Baptists, long-term partners of Zimbabwean Baptists, have pledged support for the new school. In Zimbabwe, the new seminary is partnering with a major university to gain accreditation and national standing. No one group or organization could have launched this groundbreaking new school alone. As a global village, however, we are making the dream a reality. If you would like to support ZTS, you will find online donation links at www.zimsem.org.
ABOVE: The first class of students at the new Zimbabwe Theological Seminary in Gweru. RIGHT: Zimbabwe Theological Seminary building in Gweru.
Collaboration continued with work on the new seminary website. A former BTSR student donated her time to design a new logo for the seminary. Colleagues at the Lott Carey Convention volunteered to host the website, and they called on their webmaster, who lives in India, to design, launch and maintain the site. Visit www.zimsem.org, to see the fruits of their good work!
If you have books you would like to donate to the Zimbabwe Theological Seminary please send them to:
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Judson Village Retirement Community 2373 Harrison Avenue Cincinnati, Ohio 45211
To make a donation to the book depository send a check to: Montgomery Used Book Depository 11251 Montgomery Road Cincinnati, Ohio 45238
MANY VOICES, ONE LOVE ROBIN LUNN
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ast year a passionate and courageous coalition was formed in New York City around the push for marriage equality in New York. The Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists was honored to be invited into that work by TJ Williams and Brad Hauger, an interracial gay couple who are members of The Riverside Church, an AWAB member church since 1994. The seed that was planted in this conversation was an event designed to explore marriage equality at the intersection of race and culture. And while the NYC event is still germinating, what sprouted is a national marriage equality campaign that the Alliance of Baptists, the Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists, and the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America are organizing called “Many Voices, One Love.” MVOL is designed to empower Baptists from across the spectrum to work collaboratively and contextually in states where there are ballot initiatives either for or against marriage equality. It is also designed to help change the narrative about who we are as progressive Baptists and what we stand for as peacemaking, justice seeking and welcoming and affirming people of faith. BELOW: Mandy England Cole, associate pastor of Alliance partner congregation, Sardis Baptist Church in Charlotte, N.C., and former Alliance vice president takes notes during a Many Voices, One Love presentation in preparation for opposition passage of Amendment One in North Carolina. In addition to the Alliance, the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America and the Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists also helped organize the event.
In February of this year, the first of a planned triad of events took place at Myers Park Baptist Church in Charlotte, N.C. The event was structured to educate, inspire and prepare people to speak publicly against Amendment One, a ballot initiative designed to limit legal recognition of marriage to only heterosexual couples. We learned about the specifics of the proposed amendment and listened as powerful Baptist voices spoke about the personal, social, economic, political and religious impact this amendment would have on North Carolina as a whole. With more than 100 people in attendance ranging from 8 to 80 and crossing racial, economic, and political lines, it was a day no one will soon forget.
Robin Lunn is the executive director of the Association of Welcoming & Affirming Baptists and a church development coach and consultant. She is a graduate of Andover Newton Theological School and has served American Baptist and United Church of Christ churches, camps and other ministries for more than 15 years.
What was perhaps most significant to learn was how the impact of this amendment would go far beyond the intended targets of gay and lesbian families. We learned how this amendment would impact all North Carolina families in profound ways. Older couples that choose not to legally marry for family or financial reasons would not have protections in the eyes of the law. Local Domestic Partnership laws would become null and void. Protections for victims of domestic violence would be weakened. Children of all couples not legally married would not be eligible for the health benefits of a non-blood related parent. It was this reality that allowed many people from across the Baptist family to take part and become active in the fight to defeat Amendment One. Sadly, we lost this battle for equality in North Carolina, but we found new allies and created new coalitions that have strengthened our collective voice in the public square. These new allies and coalitions are mobilizing with us to create events in Minnesota and Maine, as well as Washington, D.C., Maryland and Ohio.
Our collaborative work on marriage equality is a powerful step that the progressive Baptist community is taking together in this era of extreme partisan religion and politics. In the aftermath of President Barack Obama’s and Vice President Joe Biden’s coming out for marriage equality, it has been amazing to witness the rhetoric of those who feel that affirming love and commitment is somehow demeaning the Bible or the faith that we share. However, it has been a balm to hear so many others speak up for their belief that, regardless of what the church may practice, marriage is a civil right that needs to be afforded to all families in this country.
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And beyond that, so many in the faith community have come out to support love and commitment as a biblical ethic. What has been perhaps the most exciting thing for me in this time is how conversations between and among Baptists on issues of marriage and covenant in general have become more intentional. The church needs to become sincere about its call to teach and embody an inclusive gospel. We are called to take seriously the living Gospel message of Christ to love, and learn, and grow in understanding— particularly when it comes to such foundational issues as
how we view the body, the gift of sexuality, gender, biology, and the roles that we selectively take from our sacred texts for all of these aspects of our humanity. As the only Baptist organization whose sole mission is to work for the inclusion of LGBTQ people in the full life and ministry of the Baptist church, AWAB is proud to partner with the Alliance of Baptists and the BPFNA in the Many Voices, One Love campaign. We share a deep commitment to the work of peace and justice-making for all people and we take seriously this moment when sexual and gender minorities are at the center of the current justice and
peace storm. We will grow and prepare for the next “other” that we will be called to welcome and affirm. We are hopeful that this seed will sprout a tree with many branches and that, one day, a new Jerusalem will be visible where all people who love each other, regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, legal status, racial or cultural background, physical or emotional ability will be affirmed in both legal and religious ways and that the rights of each citizen will be protected. We are many voices but we share and live in the one love that surrounds us all.
LEFT: Anne Compere, former Alliance board member and member of Alliance partner congregation, Knollwood Baptist Church in Winston-Salem, N.C., discusses Amendment One with Ryan Rowe, director of faith outreach for The Coalition to Protect ALL NC Families. BELOW LEFT: Alliance partner congregation, Myers Park Baptist Church in Charlotte, N.C., hosts a Many Voices, One Love event where individuals from across the state had an opportunity to learn about the impact on families of Amendment One. BELOW RIGHT: Carole Collins, director for operations & finance, and her partner, Leslie Lowe, accept the Founder’s award for Oakhurst Baptist Church in Decatur, Ga., an Alliance partner congregation, during the 25th anniversary celebration of the Alliance in Austin, Texas.
CAROLE COLLINS ON PARTNERSHIP
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When I shifted from working in the hierarchical system of management in corporate America to a collaborative model for the Alliance of Baptists, I did not understand what that shift would mean. I thought that I was already a really good “team player” in the corporate world and so a collaborative approach to managing the Alliance of Baptists would be similar. Being a “team player” to me meant going with someone else’s ideas, occasionally, even if I did not agree with the idea. However, true partnership as is found in the collaborative model is working through issues until everyone generally agrees on the outcome, or, in other words we reach consensus. Most often, during the process of moving toward consensus, a whole new idea is ignited through the Leadership team’s discussions. I have learned that this process of discussion and discernment takes a lot of energy and patience. Taking the time to reach consensus has been more difficult for me than I would have expected. The collaborative approach to leadership does not produce results as quickly as the hierarchical system that I was used to working within. The results, on the other hand, remind me of the saying that “the whole is more that the sum of its parts.” When we take the time to be present together we are able to make plans, solve problems and suggest ideas that bring energy and excitement to each member of our team as well as the Alliance. I appreciate the opportunity to work in the collaborative model of leadership that is now a part of the Alliance of Baptists.
Allison Tanner is minister of Christian formation at Lakeshore Avenue Baptist Church, where she has been on staff for 13 years. She recently received a Ph.D. in the area of ethics and social theory from the Graduate Theological Union. Her dissertation research focused on how and why American Baptist pastors choose to—or not to—preach on social issues from their pulpits. In addition to preaching, she also frequently teaches ethics in college and seminary classes. She and her beloved husband, Roehl Cinco, live in the San Francisco Bay Area.
In the heart of Oakland, a community center located in the city’s historic First Baptist Church ministers to low-income children. The Samaritan Neighborhood Center provides transportation from school and home, after-school tutoring and homework assistance, computer access, mentor groups, leadership development skills, non-violence workshops, recreation opportunities, and much more. SNC uses relationships, support, accountability and incentives to help children know they matter, their education matters and their future matters. In fact, several SNC kids have returned to the center, either to become mentors for the current students or to report their own involvement in exciting ventures.
Chaplain Roger Bauer, center in black shirt, visits with some of the seafarers at the International Maritime Center.
PEACE AND PROSPERITY IN PARTNERSHIP
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ALLISON TANNER eek the peace and the prosperity of the city to which I exiled you. Pray to YHWH for it, for as it prospers, you will prosper. —Jeremiah 29:7, The Inclusive Bible
Sometimes the best way to meet the needs of the community in which a congregation worships is to find ministries that are already blessing the community and make them more central to the life of your church. Through celebrating ministries in which a few of its members are already involved, Lakeshore Avenue Baptist Church in Oakland, Calif., has cultivated two significant ministry partners that have provided opportunities for participation in both local and global mission.
In a very different part of the city that everyone drives by, but few people have actually visited, is the port of Oakland. The giant cranes that fill the landscape—and are rumored to have inspired George Lucas’ Imperial AT-AT Walkers in The Empire Strikes Back—easily identify the area, the third largest port in the country. This sea hub of Oakland is the site for the majority of the material goods that enter the country, brought to us by seafarers who work nine months of the year at sea, away from families, loved ones and homeland. The Seafarers Ministry of the Golden Gate provides a space for seafarers to stretch their sea legs, connect with their families via Skype, use phone cards provided for traditional calls, access the Internet, participate in recreational opportunities and utilize transportation to local stores for needed purchases. SMGG also employs a chaplain who provides spiritual services for the seafarers.
Because of more stringent Homeland Security regulations post 9/11, not all seafarers are able to step on U.S. soil. However, the chaplain has clearance to enter ships to pray with them, provide worship services and cell phone access. The hard work of these often forgotten men—and a few women—allow us to lead our “stuff-filled” lives, often at great cost to their own families. SMGG provides a much-needed ministry of hospitality to foreigners whose work provides for our very way of life. The Samaritan Neighborhood Center and the Seafarers Ministry of the Golden Gate are two longstanding ministries that Lakeshore supports.
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Neither originated with our congregation, but both have become true ministry partners for our church and ways for us to continue to seek the prosperity of the city in which we worship. From celebrating the church members who are associated with these ministries to offering financial support, from lifting up the needs of each ministry to participating in walk-a-thons to help meet these needs, from encouraging volunteers to help by bringing church members and teens to these ministry sites to partner with them, Lakeshore finds ways to make these ministries part of our larger church ministry. Supporting these important efforts is one way of seeking the peace of our fair city, and thus finding our own peace.
MARY ANDREOLLI ON PARTNERSHIP Mary Andreolli, minister for outreach & communications, attends the first Occupy Raleigh meeting with friends from Trinity’s Place, a small community of faith she nurtures.
A GREAT NEED Out Of a great need We are all holding hands And climbing. Not loving is a letting go. Listen, The terrain around here Is Far Too Dangerous For That.
—HAFIZ I’ve had many opportunities to travel the world visiting cities like Bulawayo, Zimbabwe; Cairo, Egypt; Karachi, Pakistan; New Delhi, India; San Salvador, El Salvador—to name a few. While traveling to these vastly different cities I remember being just struck by the poverty people are forced to endure. And I do mean forced. For I’ve not yet seen poverty born organically from the earth. Poverty does not grow naturally from a terrain of scarcity. It is imposed by systems and individuals who either consciously or unconsciously determine their needs are greater than others. I believe this cycle of forced poverty can only be broken by partnership—by taking hold of the hands of others out of our deeply rooted ancestral and collective needs. When we take hold of another we let go of what we falsely believe is ours alone. Partnership is not letting go of the other. Partnership is consciously discovering our great need for each other. Partnership is facing oppressive systems and individuals together—and climbing.
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RIGHT: The Seafarer’s Ministry of the Golden Gate provides space for seafarers to use computers to Skype with their families and access the Internet. BELOW: Lakeshore Baptist Church members, Racheal Sims, Mariel Paul, Chukwuemeka Osajindu, Sheila Sims, Julian Nesbitt and Allison Tanner, participate in a shoreline stroll fundraiser for the Seafarer’s Ministry of the Golden Gate Sept. 24, 2011.
EVERYTHING IS CONNECTED BAPTIST FAIR TRADE PROJECT
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LEDAYNE MCLEESE POLASKI
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verything,” my favorite college professor used to say, “is connected to everything else.” Everything I buy—my gas, my clothes, my car, my computer, my airline ticket, my make-up, my lunch—connects me to people all over the world who discover, extract, create, invent, grow, gather, pack, ship, carry, and sell it so that I can have it.
LeDayne McLeese Polaski is program coordinator of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America and a long-time active member of the Alliance. She lives with her husband, Tom, and daughter, Kate, in Charlotte, N.C., where they are active at Park Road Baptist Church. She thinks that fairly traded dark chocolate and almonds would keep her alive and happy for a long, long time.
Working for the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America and leading Friendship Tours around the world, I often get to meet some of those people. In Nicaragua, I’ve met men and women who pick cotton and turn it into some of the clothes I wear. In Chiapas, Mexico, I’ve met villagers who grow some of the coffee I drink. In Eastern North Carolina, I’ve met migrant workers who pick some of the food I eat.
Being connected, really connected, to those people has motivated me to be more careful—and more caring—when I buy my “stuff.” I’ve “gone organic” so that people who pick my cotton and my fruit aren’t exposed to harmful pesticides; I’ve shopped at farmer’s markets so that people who grow my food are the ones who actually make the money on it; I’ve found as many Fair Trade products as possible so that I know that the people who produce my things are fairly treated and fairly compensated. But it isn’t easy. Sometimes responsibly produced products are not available, too expensive, or just too hard to find or to get. So the raw truth is that more often than not, I buy stuff that directly supports exploitation, pollution, appalling working conditions,and the unsustainable use of resources. The Baptist Fair Trade Project, a partnership between BPFNA and Equal Exchange, is a small but significant step toward making it easier for individuals, churches and schools to make better choices when they buy. Equal Exchange is a worker-owned co-operative offering 100 percent fairly traded coffee, chocolate, tea and foods. They offer all their products at wholesale prices to churches and schools and other groups, making it easier and more affordable for people like me to care when they consume. Through their connection with Equal Exchange, farmers support their families, stay on their land and care for the environment. All the farmers connected to Equal Exchange work in democratically run co-operatives. Together they gain control of their own livelihoods and make strides in organic agriculture and quality control. With the added income from Fair Trade, farmers invest in education and social services for their communities. The Better World Shopping Guide—a fabulous resource for anyone interested in socially and environmentally responsible consumerism—lists Equal Exchange on its
Jesus Choqueheranca de Quevero, a member of the CEPICAFE farmer co-op in Peru, de-pulps coffee cherries. A grassroots organization with more than 6,600 producers, CEPICAFE promotes sustainable development and certified organic production as well as helps make basic health, education and other social services available to workers. Equal Exchange was CEPICAFE’s second international customer, but the first to offer pre-shipment credit. They continue to share a close relationship. Photograph provided by Equal Exchange.
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“Small But Beautiful List” of companies that “are true social and environmental leaders in their industries.” Buying from Equal Exchange means knowing without a doubt that you are supporting “the good guys.” As an added benefit, through this partnership, for every pound of Equal Exchange products purchased by Baptists, Equal Exchange donates 15 cents to BPFNA. These donations go into a scholarship fund that supports BPFNA’s Friendship Tours, opening more and more people to the realities of the lives of the individuals who bring them their “stuff.” Equal Exchange also offers free educational materials— including curriculum for children and youth—to help educate and energize congregations and schools about how small farmer co-operatives around the world benefit from purchases. Both sorts of education are crucial in helping people to understand the consequences of every purchase they make. How can you, your church and your school become involved? • You can serve Equal Exchange products at church/school events. The Coffee Starter pack, for instance, makes it easy to start serving Fairly Traded coffee during your church fellowship hour. • You can sell Equal Exchange products weekly or monthly—or you can offer them as part of an alternative Christmas market or holiday bazaar. • You can give gift baskets, artisan items, and business gifts available through the Equal Exchange on-line store. • You can sell Equal Exchange products as a fundraiser, using their popular catalog and keeping 40 percent of the profit. Support small farmers and their families, buy from one of the world’s most respected and responsible companies, provide scholarships for Friendship Tours, educate yourself and others on responsible consumerism AND eat and drink delicious chocolate, coffee, tea, almonds, olive oil, snack bars and more. Life doesn’t get any better. Everything is connected to everything else. THANKS BE TO GOD!
TO LEARN MORE ABOUT HOW TO VOTE WITH YOUR WALLET: Visit http://www.equalexchange.coop/Baptist; www.betterworldshopper.com Call 774-776-7366 E-mail interfaith@equalexchange.coop TOP: As part of the Baptist Free Trade Project, Equal Exchange, in partnership with the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America, offers a wide variety of quality items like fair trade coffee, chocolate, olive oil and so much more. Make your purchase today at http://www.equalexchange.coop/Baptist. Photograph provided by Equal Exchange. MIDDLE: LeDayne shares the good news of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America with friends at Wedgewood Baptist Church in Charlotte, N.C., Feb 19, 2012. Photograph provided by BPFNA. BOTTOM: Ana Rodriquez, left, and Elva Vasquez-Severino are cacao farmers with CONACADO, an organization of small-scale cacao producers in the Dominican Republic. After proving that higher quality fermented cacao could increase income to small farmers, CONACADO expanded its work to organize cacao farmers into 'bloques,' associations in a particular geographic area. CONACADO then focused on finding markets such as Equal Exchange for their high quality cacao, partnering with them to offer products such as hot cocoa, baking cocoa and chocolate bars. Photograph provided by Equal Exchange.
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EQUAL PARTNERSHIP, EQUAL EXCHANGE LINDSAY COMSTOCK
I
like meeting new people. I always have. There is something fresh and exciting about a potential friendship without any prior connection.
At our most recent Alliance gathering in Austin, Texas, I had the privilege of meeting Odja Barros Santos, associate pastor in the area of Christian education at the Igreja Batista do Pinheiro in Maceio and president of the Aliança de Batistas do Brasil, and Wellington Santos, immediate past president of the Aliança and pastor of the church in Maceio. For many other Alliance members, they are old friends; for me, a new connection.
I found myself longing to know them better—to better understand the deep place from which this knowledge came and formed their being. I began replaying all the times the word liberation had been just an adjective I carelessly placed in front of words such as theologian. Can I really claim to be a liberation theologian when I just as easily remove the word liberation to reinvent myself for a new context? Do I really see the world through the eyes of the poor and oppressed, through their struggle and hope? Do I truly include myself as part of the systemic injustices that plague our world or instead merely craft sermons against those I perceive as unjust? Meeting Odja and Wellington reminded me just how much we need the Alianca de Batistas in Brasil. We need their knowledge, their passion, their energy and we need them to teach us how to embody liberation.
In the 45 to 60 minutes that followed our brief introductions, Odja and Wellington shared heartfelt During the holy season of Galungan, which occurs every 210 days, sentiments of what being connected to the international Balinese-Hindus believe that ancestors return to earth to check-in on family community of the Alliance of Baptists means to them. members and offer guidance to the community. The entire island makes As I think about what partnership means for the Alliance They told of how convictions concerning certain social and special provisions to welcome these «visitors» back to their villages. Here, a of Baptists, I am encouraged by our statement: “Twentyreligious issues made them outsiders in Brazil yet welcomed Balinese-Hindu pemangku (priest) blesses offerings brought to Pura Dalem five years ago the Alliance formed around a covenant partners in the Alliance family. They spoke passionately of (Temple of Death) in anticipation of an ancestral visit. These offerings are intended to maintain harmony between the sacred and profane. embodying distinctly Baptist principles. Immediately after their work with women in feminist theological interpretation Photograph by Lindsay Comstock. its inception, the Alliance responded to the guidance and among the LGBTQ community in their region. We of the Spirit to bear witness to a God who has abundant compassion for those living at the even shared our sadness over the death of Trayvon Martin. I knew I was in good company. margins—people who are poor, oppressed, disenfranchised.” More striking than their passion, however, was the deep-seated theological place from which Following this statement of purpose, a philosophy for global mission in partnership and these stories seemed to emanate. It was more than conviction, more than passion, more than a collaboration is laid out with great detail on the Alliance website. personal response to some individual injustice. It was clear that liberation theology ran through Odja’s and Wellington’s veins. It permeated every question they asked; the way they listened Words such as “empower,” “learn,” “enable,” “respect” and “engage” and informed each of their responses.
Lindsay C. Comstock, an Alliance board member, is minister of Christian education and youth with Alliance partner congregation, First Baptist Church of Worcester, Mass. A graduate of Chowan University in 2003 and Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond in 2007, Lindsay is now a doctorate of ministry candidate at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary researching the intersection between multiculturalism and religious pluralism. Before joining the staff at First Baptist, she lived and worked for almost four years in Indonesia as an advocate for women and children focusing on human trafficking education and child sexual exploitation prevention.
leap from the page. Additional study of the language used in these statements shows the intentionality of those who crafted it. “Empower...to do their work.” “They have much to teach us...” “We don’t own the mission project...” I like our statement. I resonate with our language. I feel comfortable being associated with collaborators.
Prior to becoming minister of Christian education and youth five months ago at Alliance partner congregation, First Baptist Church of Worcester, Mass., I lived and worked in Indonesia for almost four years researching the damaging effects of human trafficking and child sexual exploitation.
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Thanks to the collaboration of many child safety experts around the world, as well as the partnership of a local Indonesian couple who were our cultural guides and translators, we were able to write, produce and disseminate an age and culturally appropriate child safety curriculum to dozens of schools, village community centers, childcare centers and government officials in order to address the increasing number of kidnappings and molestation cases in our area. For me, this curriculum represented the best of collaboration and partnership as it brought persons of diverse backgrounds together to each offer their gifts toward a goal of empowering and protecting children. During that same time in Indonesia, I also saw how damaging a lack of collaboration and partnership can be. One evening a local Indonesian family explained to me how their homestay quarters were problematic now as prior tenants, a Western missionary couple, had requested that all of the sacred Hindu symbols be removed so that they could live in the home more comfortably. After an evening of conversation over the meaning and sacredness of these symbols, I was glad I could be a part of restoring the symbols to their rightful place and participate in crafting special offerings to restore balance to their family compound. Collaboration and partnership truly redefines what it means to be part of the human story. Intentionally working together to heal what ails the world is like one story that is interwoven with people and cultures from around the world. No thread more important than the other and no knot bigger or more profound than the next. One tapestry of healing and reconciliation. The late David J. Bosch, former head of the department of missiology at the University of South Africa, writes of mission: “Mission, singular, remains primary; missions, in the plural,
constitutes a derivative.”1 Bosch’s distinction between the missio Dei or God’s mission versus the ministries and programs of God’s churches is an important point: “Mission is God’s turning to the world in respect of creation, care, redemption and consummation (Kramm 1979:210). God’s own mission is larger that the mission of the church (LWF 1988:8). The missio Dei is God’s activity, which embraces both the church and the world, and in which the church may be privileged to participate.”2 For 25 years, the Alliance of Baptists has embraced a framework for global ministerial engagement that takes into consideration missio Dei while unapologetically embracing the many tasks and responsibilities that help make that a reality. The details of how that everevolving conversation develops over time is never without room for growth. As we join with more diverse partners from around the world, it is inevitable that new perspectives and philosophies will emerge that help us stay present to the current world condition. Something as simple as semantics could be a conversation that challenges us, but also allows us to learn more about ourselves and those with whom we partner. I trust our vision for partnership and collaboration means that our semantics and philosophies are flexible enough to consider the larger missio Dei we serve. I trust that as we chart our next 25 years of ministry as the Alliance of Baptists, partnership and collaboration mean we continuously have an ear to the pulse of the global community: ever-growing, ever-changing, ever-stretching
LEFT: Every family compound on Bali is oriented to the kaja and kangin—sacred and profane. The goal of Balinese-Hinduism is to keep a healthy balance between the two. The family temple is the most sacred part of a compound and thus resides in the kaja position. An offering receptacle in a traditional Balinese-Hindu family temple is pictured here.
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In every family temple, small house-like structures hold offerings made by the community. It is important that high gods receive offering as far away from the ground as possible. A white cloth displaying the Hindu universe, which was blessed and hung by a local priest during the original dedication of the family temple, hangs outside the offering receptacle. The family believes that after the ceremony the house comes to life, like a human being. No longer viewed as merely brick and mortar, the home now becomes one with the living analog of the Balinese world. Photograph by Lindsay Comstock.
to be a faithful response to a changing world. I am thankful for all of our partners. Because of each of them, we are able to join in the good work to which God calls people around the world. May we forever be open to what these shared relations offer us in the way of knowledge and growth. 1. Bosch, David J. Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission, p.391. 2. Ibid.
BELOW: Lindsay Comstock, far left, reviews Safety Heroes© coloring sheets from her child safety curriculum, Little Treasures© aboard a medical boat in West Sumatra, Indonesia. After research revealed women and children in rural villages were being preyed upon by traffickers because of their lack of resources and education, Lindsay and trained Indonesian colleagues conducted three months of anti-trafficking campaigns in rural villages using such material.
PAULA CLAYTON DEMPSEY ON PARTNERSHIP Partnership is collegial, relational, hands-on helping, synergetic, serendipitous, sharing, gift evoking, grassroots empowering, hope generating, interdependence fostering. In short, partnership is transformational in both our lives and our organizational lives.
Trinity—Creator, Liberator, and Advocate*—embrace a power together that is greater than any one member. We, as human beings, are created in the image of this mysteriously powerful One that exists in mutuality. Perhaps deep within our DNA is the necessary chromosome for partnership!
Partnership is only possible when we recognize we need one another and that we are good for one another. Deep appreciation for one another is essential for the work of partnership to flourish and flow.
Likewise, we have examples of experiments in mutuality in the early church as found in Acts 2:44-47 as they shared “all things in common … as each had need.”
Partnership does not require that all parties bring equal contributions, but delights in the diversity contributed by each. In partnership we do not keep score, but rejoice in the giving and receiving that goes both ways. Each contributes something of value; each receives something of worth. Our partnerships thrive when we recognize and respect this mutual exchange of gifts. As the contributions of partners are not strictly mathematically equal, so is the flow of power in partnership. Power is shared as power-with instead of power-over. The flow of power reflects a quality inherent in all relationships, for all relationships are dynamic—not static.
Sharing power, sharing material goods, sharing hope, sharing joy, all are intrinsic to partnership. Learning and living into that kind of sharing is messy and difficult work—work that might discourage some, but as Sam Portaro points out in Brightest and Best, in the process is the possibility of being “changed from seed to living plant.” *Borrowed from Letty Russell’s book, The The Future of Partnership,, which reads as if written yesterday and continues Partnership to inspire my reflections on partnership. As does Mahan Siler, whose guidance and support is phenomenal!
Is true partnership in mission and ministry really possible? Despite the world’s model of power-over as normal, as followers of Christ, we have a rich model of shared power in the Trinity. Each member of the
RIGHT: Fred and Margaret Grissom pause to have their photograph taken with Paula Clayton Dempsey, minister for partnership relations after a breakfast together that included Mary Andreolli, minister for outreach & communications and photographer that day. Fred is a retired professor of religious studies, and both he and Margaret have been Alliance members and supporters since its inception.
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THE ALLIANCE OF BAPTISTS AND THE WILD GOOSE FESTIVAL TAKING FLIGHT TOGETHER
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eginnings can be messy. For one thing, it can be difficult to describe something until it has been fully formed. For another, if you’re building a festival whose identity depends on experimentation, questioning, and the imaginative creation of something new, you might be reluctant to close down the options of what it could look like.
In 2011 Trinity’s Place—an Alliance of Baptists-related congregation in Raleigh, N.C.,—participated in the inaugural Wild Goose Festival: a justice, arts, and spirituality gathering at the 70-acre Shakori Hills farm just outside of Pittsboro, N.C. Something like 90 percent of the small congregation participated in creating something special. This year, members of Trinity’s Place and a growing number of off-the-beaten-path faith collectives collaborated in writing affirmations that embody all that we wish to co-create at Wild Goose 2012. Additionally, a collaborative community of visionaries and practitioners on the West Coast are bringing Wild Goose West to life this coming Labor Day weekend,
Here are our Wild Goose Affirmations. In the Celtic tradition, the Wild Goose is a metaphor for the unpredictable spirit of love. For others, it's the Spirit embodied by Jesus careening through the land of the living. The wild goose gathers us along the edges of joy, justice, and art. Its rustling calls us to embody the love of God, neighbor and self, through annual gatherings and a way of caring for, and being in, the world. The Wild Goose Festival emerged in the United States among people hoping to fuse spiritual practice, open-ended creativity, and action for justice in a festival setting. A generation alienated by self-centered and angry religion and politics, engaged in social justice, community-building and the creative arts, and committed to dialogue across boundaries, is already seeking the Wild Goose. We are aware of the shadow side of religion, but committed to its best visions. The people of the Wild Goose don’t divide the secular and the sacred. We sing hymns in the beer tent. LEFT: Festival director Gareth Higgins, second from right, leads a discussion with T Bone Burnett, left, and Jim Wallis at the Wild Goose Festival at Shakori Hills in North Carolina June 23, 2011. Photograph by Courtney Perry.
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Aug. 31-Sept. 2, about 90 minutes outside of Portland, Oregon.
In high summer of 2011, 1,700 of these folk showed up at a farm near Pittsboro, N.C., for the first Wild Goose Festival. Over the Rhine, Michelle Shocked, Jennifer Knapp and David Wilcox rocked the moonstruck crowd. Vincent Harding, who counseled and wrote speeches for Dr. Martin Luther King, spoke elder wisdom from the civil rights movement, while Tony Campolo talked about postmodernism and faith, Lynne Hybels weighed war and peace in the Middle East, and Richard Rohr explored the spiritual dimensions of activism. Nelson and Joyce Johnson told stories of truth and reconciliation in their local city of Greensboro, N.C., where the KKK killed five of their friends in 1979. Peter Rollins engaged ideas of how to transform religious traditions in order to be faithful to them. T Bone Burnett and Callie Khouri wondered at artists more powerful than politicians. Workshops on militarism, racism, ecology, interfaith dialogue and human sexuality drew good-humored and intense discussions. And in that self-same beer tent, hundreds of voices breathed new life into old songs that had anchored their ancestors. You can see the lineup for the 2012 festival here: WildGooseFestival.org/the2012-lineup. We believe the festival is a sign of hope amid the current cultural, political, and national crises. We are convinced that common good solutions need
a good common place to be born. Wild Goose can wing us toward clarity about what it means to be human, to love, and to bring peace. What the Wild Goose community believes is best discovered through shared experience. There is no litmus test beyond an open heart. There is no creed required beyond a willingness to meet respectfully across lines of difference, to share wisdom and listen to each other’s stories, and become more than the sum of our parts. We’re just getting started. The best way to discover what we’re about is to come to the festival. But if you’d like to read more about our aspirations, check out what some friends of ours in the UK have been doing for a few decades at Greenbelt; they inspire us and their commitments resonate with our own: Greenbelt.org.uk/about Ultimately, Wild Goose provides space for courageous, imaginative, and participative social justice work, creative expression, spiritual practice, and astonishing music.
We are called to embody a different kind of religious expression than has often dominated our institutions and culture. We believe that the best criticism of the bad is the practice of the better; so we refuse to merely denounce the shadow of the tradition and abandon it. Instead, we humbly seek to both tear down and build up, walking a path that embodies love of God, neighbor, and self. We dream of a movement where everyone is welcome to participate. We are intentionally building a space in which we invite everyone to value, respect and fully affirm people of any ethnicity, age, gender, gender expression, sexual identity, education, bodily condition, religious affiliation, or economic background, particularly the marginalized. We are committed to fair trade, gift exchange, ecological sanity and economic inclusion. We strive for high standards of mutual respect, non-hierarchical leadership, and participative planning.
We’re proud to be partnering with the Alliance, and invite all of you to join us this year: June 21st-24th, at Shakori Hills, near Raleigh-Durham, NC, or August 31st – September 2nd in Benton County, Oregon. For more information, please see our website, WildGooseFestival.org. To purchase tickets, go to WildGooseFestival.eventbrite.com or WildGooseWest. eventbrite.com. Enter the discount code JOINUS2012 and receive 15% off all ticket options at checkout.
MIDDLE: Nadia Bolz-Weber, center, founding pastor of House for All Sinners and Saints in Denver, leads communion in the Bluegrass Liturgy at the Wild Goose Festival at Shakori Hills in North Carolina June 25, 2011. Photograph by Courtney Perry. BOTTOM: Phyllis Tickle speaks during a panel discussion on sexuality and justice, one of a number of workshops devoted to dialogue across boundaries at the 2011 Wild Goose Festival in North Carolina. Photograph by Courtney Perry. LEFT: The sun sets June 25, 2011, on the storytelling tent at the Wild Goose Festival in Shakori Hills, N.C. Photograph by Courtney Perry.
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THE PARTNERSHIP OF GIVING
This issue of VOICES magazine is dedicated to the many individuals and congregations engaged in the transformative work of ecumenism, mission, radical hospitality and social justice through partnerships around the world. We are grateful to each of you for your courage to stand in solidarity with, to pray with and most importantly to befriend those with whom you creatively engage in partnership. We are also grateful to the individuals who have chosen to engage in partnership through their financial gifts to the Alliance of Baptists during 2011. Your gifts make a world of difference! Thank you! $1 - 99 Courtney Allen Jere Allen Phillip Allen Al Amos Douglas W. Andridge Mary Margaret Atkinson Edna Austin Jim & Fran Avera April Baker & Deborah Lynn Laura Barclay Betty & Richard Barnett Debbie Bates Clinton Bennett Kathy & Bill Berry Fred & Lucyann Billups John D. Blythe Stephen Bouchard Lewis Bozard Anita Bradshaw Ruth Brandon Gaye Burns Laura Canfield Julie E. Cannon Amy Canosa William Carrell Kenneth Cauthen Adriana Cavina Katherine Clark Jaime Clark-Soles Jeanne Craft Ron & Cyndi Crawford Susan H. Creech Jason Crosby Dorothy Cunningham Taylor Davis Peyton Dawes
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Betsy Cadle De Paul Judith E. Dean Deanna Deaton Margaret Diamond Patricia V. Dodge Becky Drysdale Kimberly Ervie David Farmer Sue Fitzgerald Anne & Lewis Ford Laura N. Ford Everett & Rachel Gill Carol Reynolds Green Saundra Grogan Leah Grundset Sally & Marcus Gulley Jeane Hackle Elizabeth Hagan Peter Haley Mary Beth Hall Nancy D. Hall Tyler Hamrick Sandra S. Harrington Carl & Lucille Harris Doug & Carole Hendrix Tiffany Triplett Henkel & Dan Henkel Keith Herron Tami Higdon Tonya Hill Mary Hines Joanne Hinman Robbie Holland John & Dorothy Holley Linda U. James Charles Johnson Lucas Johnson Rachel Johnson Michael Joseph James Jay Joyner Joel Kirby Leah Knox
Gary & Nancy Landis Lou Ann & Hal Lee Judy Lester John Luft Robin Lunn Carroll Makemson Basil Manly, IV Don Manning-Miller Marshall & Usin Marks Nancy Martin Kristi McClatchy Chad & Melissa McGinnis Jay McNeal Claudia J. Moore Lee & Gerry Morris Brenda Moulton Franklin & Marjorie Murdock Anne Thomas Neil Paul L. Nelson Joan Noell Hugh & Lacy Orem Mary Jane Osborne Stephen & Mary Jane Ott Judy & Sam Owen Ellen Parkhurst Wallace & Susan Pasour Mary Beth Beck Pearson Kathleen E. Perkinson A. D. & Dixie Lea Petrey Jim & Susan Pike Carl Porchey Ryon & Irie Price Jed & Frances Ramsey Robert Randolph Jason Ranke Kara Reagan George & Susan Reed Donna Reisenbigler Robert Renix Susan Rhymer Brittany Riddle Lynn Roach
Catherine Rolling Genny Rowley Robert Schmidt Ron Sharp Lenita J. Shumaker Larry Sidwell Herbert Sierk Joyce Marie Sills Weldon Simmons Sara Hendricks Sinal Mildred Jane Williams & George E. J. Singleton Avery Sledge Allison Smith Dianne Smith Jeromy Smith Leon & Martha Smith Nancy Smith Mirian St. Clair Donna Steely Sophia Steibel Jeremy Sternstein Wes Stewart Marjorie Stricklin Thomas & Shirley Stump Ellen Sulerzyski James & Mary Lou Sutton Christine Tew Addie Thomason John Thomson John & Peggy Travis Victor & Sallie Tupitza Jeffrey & Tonya Vickery Donald VonCannon Joe Ann Watson Michael & Catharine Watts David Weasley Lynda Weaver-Williams Carol Weber June Wilder Jason Williams Wanda H. Wilson
$100 - 249 Allen & Conda Abbott Brent Adams Samuel Adkins Matthew & Sunny Alexander Todd Allen Paul Alley Nancy & Jack Ammerman Barbara Atchley Dan & Janet Bagby Dwight & Emma Baker Catherine Ballance Karen Ballard Royce W. Ballard Bonita & Michael Barnes Julie Barnett Jean K. Bartlett Kelly & Philip Belcher Ashley Bell Jennie Plott Betton Carol & Steve Bost Diane Bourgeois Mary Bradley Jerene Broadway & Jim Lowder Curtis Brown III Kevin Brown Jack & Shirley Brymer Betty Russell Buffum Paul D. Burnam Joseph Burnette, II Amy Butler Eric Cain Richard & Judy Carfagno Holmes Carlisle Dina Carroll John Carter Hilquias Cavalcanti Bob and Rachel Chapman Ann Charlescraft Bruce Cheek
Katherine Cheves Renee Clark Hardy Clemons Mary Catherine Cole Walter Coleman, Jr. David Connelly George Cowden Robert E. Cox, Jr. Tiffany Cox Jan Cox-Gedmark Henry Crouch David L. Crum Bob & Linda Cyrus Joe & Carol Dean Laura Dresser Raye Nell Dyer Chris Edwards & Dara Garner-Edwards Lauris M. Eek, Jr. Chris Ehrlich Millard Eiland Mitzi Ellington Gil & Nancy Emmert Malu Fairley Ken Faulkner Stephanie Ford Jay & Alice Foster Suzanne Franklin Laura & Fred Fregin Sandra & Robert Gardner Darrell & Sammie Garner Marsha Garrison Jerry Gentry Marjorie & Bill George Thomas & Judith Ginn Erin Goddard Joy Gooch & Paul Wheeler Alan and Jessie Gragg Vic and Janet Greene Krista Gregory Laura Gundel Rebecca L. Gurney
Carolyn Hall Mary Hamrick Lynn & Ryan Harper Walter Harrelson Robert & Holly Harris Chad Hawkins Paul & Wendy Hayes Norman Hedrick, Jr. Frank & June Heintz Robert E. Herndon Michael Hester Diane & Dennis Hill John & Margaret Hilpert Holly Hollman Dawn Hood-Patterson Charliene Hooker & William L. Hamilton Edward T. Hooper Jennifer Hornbuckle Karen Houck Gene & Brenda Huffstutler John F. Hunt James A. Hutchby David Hutchinson & Jessica Smith Lynn Hyder Richard E. Ice Beverly Isley-Landreth Bruce & Sarah Jayne Mark Jensen Mille Filtenborg Jensen Clare & Matthew Johnson Weyman Johnson Sallie Jones Teresa Jones Leigh Joye David R. Julian Elizabeth Kammerdiener Margie Kelbel Michael & Joan Kellett Linda Kemp Gerald Kersey Debra Kidd
Boris Kizzie Elaine & Dennis Lehr Stephen Lemons Pat & Mike Levi Gayle F. Lewis Pamela Magee Carol F. Majors Marie Mason Moses Mason Carolyn & Louis Mathis Laura Mayo & Nicholas Stepp Judy Mays Ricky McClatchy Hugh & Rebecca McKinley Earl & Barbara McLane Elizabeth Clay Mein Clara Mercado Kenneth & Adrienne Meyers Rebecca & Wes Monfalcone Karen Smith Moore Willis Moore Rick & Janet Morgan David Morton Jim & Marianne Mullin Debra Mumford Vikram Nambiar Meredith Neill Orin Newberry Randi Odom Anne Owens Carol L. Penick Joe & Joan Phillips Peggy & Morgan Ponder Mary Ann & Ron Poythress Terry- Thomas Primer Daniel Pryfogle Mary Anne Ramsey Robert J. Redfearn Frank Reid Ray & Wylene Roan David & Madonna Roberts John & Marylynn Roberts Susan K. Rogers Jan Rush Jeremy Rutledge Robert Sampson Peggy Sanders Cynthia Savage-King Anne R. Sayers Ivan Schoen
Elmo & Hannah Scoggin Larry & Elaine Seberg Elizabeth Seder Michael Sibley Sara Jane & Walter Skinner Cherie Smith Joe & Patty Spampinato Jonathan Spencer Stephen Spencer Laura Stephens-Reed Bill & Claydell Stone Jim Strickland & Rachel Lackey Elizabeth Stroop Ellis Sturgis Nell Summerlin & Rebecca Askew Colleen Swingle-Titus & Paul Titus Alan & Kimberly Taylor Pam Taylor-Glass Marcy Thomas Robert & Elaine Tiller Loren Townsend Janice Wakefield Denise Wallingford Doug Watts Lori Watts David & Jane Waugh Rebecca Waugh Lisa Webb Ralph Webb Mandy Wertz Dorothy Whiston Kathleen W. Wicker Craig Wiester Ann Williams & Richard Ransom Winnie Williams Nancy Witman Sue Witty Frank Woggon Wanda J. Womack Bill Woolf Dale Wratchford Baxter Wynn Stan Yancey Angela Yarber Tyanna Yonkers Carol & Brett Younger Janice Yusk
$250 - 499 Becky & Bob Albritton Mary Andreolli Isam Ballenger Ralph & Rebecca Bouton Rosalind Bradley Rosemary Brevard Lisa Davis Brownlee Jim Broyles Nancy Byard Casey Campbell Ward Carver H. Glenn Chewning Carole Cochran Lindsay Comstock Richard & Carolyn Copeland Sandra Cranford Roger & Mary Ruth Crook Amy Jacks Dean & Russ Dean Tim & Julie Dean Isabel Docampo Tillie Duncan Tyler & Gerry Fletcher Welton & Judy Gaddy Amy Greene J. Carl Gregg Collyn & Michael Hawn Dennis & Betsy Herman James Hicks, II Ted Hodge Wanny & Ashley Hogewood Cam Holzer Jim & Karen Hopkins Sandra John Kim Johnson Ollie & Geraldine Knight Leah Lonsbury Bruce W. Lowe Michael Lucas Charles & Fannie Louise Maddux Grace E. Marquez Deborah Medearis Lydia Mercado Victor Craig Miller Phill & Lisa Nall Damon C. Nix Deborah Norton & Jonathan Sledge
Glenn & Sheila Plott Tom & LeDayne Polaski John D. & Geneva P. Pope Walter & Mary Lynn Porter Ronald Potts Shanta Premawardhana Mary Burks Price Kristy Arnesen Pullen Robert J. Richardson Teresa A. Sanders Jennifer Sheffield Alan Sherouse Beth Silence Jeff & Erin Sims Davis Smith Sharon Snow Chester & Kimberly Snyder Stephen Sprinkle Kenneth Standley Valerie Storms John & Betty Torbert Joshua & Briget Villines Lillian C. Wachter Ben & Dorothy Wagener Melissa Walker-Luckett Jerry Webber Richard & Elizabeth West Kristin Whitesides Nancy Williams Sarah & M. J. Williamson Stan & Jennifer Wilson Paula Womack Alan & Tiffany Wright
$500 - 999 William Barr Carol Burgess Mark Chamberlin Mandy England Cole Christopher Copeland Anne C. Dahle Joann & Jolly Davis Russell Davis Claudia Dickerson Donald Fulton Lil Galphin Wayne Grinstead Stephanie & Mike Hamilton Relma Hargus Liz Harris-Lamkin & James Lamkin
ABOVE: Summer Community of Service 2011 participates in a hand washing ritual at the conclusion of their orientation. Summer Communities of Service, now in it’s third year, is a collaborative initiative between the Alliance of Baptists and the United Church of Christ. Bettie & Stan Hastey Michael Henson Jeanette Holt Beth Jackson-Jordan & David Jordan Stephen & Sandra Jolly Ana Karim John Laney & Joan Yarborough Fran Langstaff Margieann Latham Rick Mixon Anne Money Susan Morris Hoyt & Lora Ponder Ken Ramsey Robert L. Richardson Carson Rogerson Barry & Rosalie Rudert Sheila Sholes-Ross Rachel & Steve Smith Louise & Dick Stanford Kathy & Bill Stayton Eileen Stone John A. Templeton Cynthia Thomas Melanie Vaughn-West & Paul West Kenneth & Diana Veazey Donald & Virginia Voyles Mark & Rebecca Wiggs Lance Young Rose & Robert Young
$1000 - 2499 Jo Ann Alley Robert & Vivian Beckerle John E. Boyd Tere Canzoneri Jeanetta Cotman Mary Jo Crawford Donald W. & Jean C. Davis Craig & Deborah Davis-Johnson Paula & Paul Dempsey Brian Dixon Anne Garner David Gooch Mary Jane Gorman & Duncan McArthur Fred & Margaret Grissom Kelly Grooms Randy Hall Watt Hamlett & Julie Price Hill & Cheryl Hammock Edwin K. Hampton Alan Hoskins Robert Kidd Scott & Ann Landes Richard Lewallen Lynn P. McLaughlin Daniel Miles Tim Moore & MagayShepard Karrie Oertli Annette Pickard
Carolyn Piper & Norman Gearhart Ann Quattlebaum Suzanne Hilton Smith Ken & Betty Stapp Mary Strauss Margaret & John Tarpley Mica Togami Dick Tucker
$2500 - 4999 Carol Blythe & Rick Goodman D. H. Clark Carole Collins & Leslie Lowe Craig Henry Deborah Loftis Pat Parish James Pollard Paul A. & Susan Richardson Lila C. Stevens Brooks Wicker & Pat Hielscher
$5000 and above Margaret Blevins & John Shippee Sylvia & Gary Campbell Elizabeth & Will Hodges David Knight Anita & David Massengill
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Celebrating 25 years of mission and ministry Celebrating 25 years Celebrating 25 years of mission and ministry
of mission and ministry
ALLIANCE OF BAPTISTS SUITE E-122 3939 LAVISTA ROAD ATLANTA, GA 30084
NON PROFIT ORG US POSTAGE
PAID RALEIGH NC PERMIT 1439