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FOR THE MORAVIAN CHURCH
The Legacy of Jane Addams: Inspiration and Challenge by The Rev. Dr. Eleanor Stebner Moravian Open Door in New York City by The Rev. Dr. Craig Atwood The GAPS Community in Los Angeles by the Rev. Christie Melby-Gibbons Common Ground in Edmonton by The Rev. Dr. Eileen Edwards Beyond Confusion to Shared Wisdom: Understanding Manna Ministries by The Rev. Andrew Heil
Vol. 20, No. 3: Summer 2015
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FOR THE MORAVIAN CHURCH
Volume 20, Number 3: Summer 2015 The Hinge is a forum for theological discussion in the Moravian Church. Views and opinions expressed in the articles published in The Hinge are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial board or the official positions of the Moravian Church and its agencies. You are welcome to submit letters and articles for consideration and publication. One of the early offices of the Moravian Church in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, was that of the Hinge: The office of the Hinge requires that the brother who holds it look after everything and bring troublesome factors within the congregation into mutual accord without their first having to be taken up publicly in the congregational council. —September 1742, The Bethlehem Diary, vol. 1, tr. by Kenneth Hamilton, p. 80. The Hinge journal is intended also to be a mainspring in the life of the contemporary Moravian Church, causing us to move, think and grow. Above all, it is to open doors in our church.
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Notes from the Editor This issue of The Hinge focuses on creative social ministries in the church. It is an issue that has been in the works for more than two years. We received a fascinating article by Dr. Eleanor Stebner about the history and significance of Jane Addams and Hull House in Chicago. With her usual diligence and charm, Sister Stebner highlights aspects of Addams’ work that have connections with the Moravian Church. Addams was not a Moravian, but she shared many values of the Moravian Church, particularly those of Comenius. Throughout Sister Stebner’s account we see the practicality of Addams. Unlike Comenius, whose plans for social reform tended to be theoretical, Addams agitated, organized, and administered. Thousands of lives were changed through her efforts, and her writings inspired countless others to dedicate themselves to making this world a more just and loving place. Sister Stebner weaves together the many strands of Addams’ creative and provocative solutions on behalf of the downtrodden and dispossessed in America, especially women. Rather than simple charity, Addams sought to build community. What could be more Moravian? Rather than asking people to respond directly to Sister Stebner’s article, as we usually do in the Hinge, we decided to include vignettes of current Moravian ministries to the poor, homeless, and hopeless. These are the people Howard Thurman called the disinherited. Every city and town has people who are slipping through the tattered fabric of the social “safety net.” For various reasons, they can’t make a living in the modern economy and have been excluded by society; but these are the very people that Jesus called the righteous to view as neighbors. Moravians often speak with pride of our ancestors who crossed oceans and jungles and Arctic tundra to bring the word of love to the “least and the lost” for no other reason than the calling of Christ. Some Moravians today are seeing that the “least and the lost” can be found much closer to home, in our own communities. In 2012 Dr. David Schattschneider wrote a history of Moravian Open Door (MOD), a ministry to the homeless in New York City, in commemoration of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the agency. Drawing on Brother Schattschneider’s work, we have provided a brief description of MOD and its history. MOD began as a compassionate vision meeting a local need, but it did not end in frustration as so many ministries do. Lay members of the Moravian Church offered their legal, financial, and political talents to the effort. The MOD organizers had to confront zoning issues and unfriendly [Continued] THE
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neighbors; and their hard-nosed work and planning paid off. Perhaps MOD is a modern Moravian version of Hull House? In many ways, MOD is a traditional institutional approach to social ministry, but there are Moravians in both the Southern and Northern Provinces today who are experimenting with new models of ministry to reach those on the margins. The Reverend Christie Melby-Gibbons reports on her efforts to reach out to neighbors of the congregation she pastored in Southern California. Sister Melby-Gibbons is now engaged in creating a new congregation in the Western District, and while the future of the work she began in Downey is in doubt, the story of her work there may inspire others to explore creative forms of neighborhood engagement and outreach. Moravians in Alberta have also begun a new type of outreach ministry, creating their own coffee shop called Common Grounds, where the good news and coffee are shared with people who tend to avoid institutional religion. The Reverend Eileen Edwards reports on this new ministry. Finally for this issue, the Southern Province has two different ministries beyond the walls of traditional congregations. The Reverend Brad Bennett conducts worship in a coffee house in Winston-Salem, and the Reverend Russ May has put into practice the “new monasticism” of Shane Claiborne with his community-based ministries known as Anthony’s Plot. Collectively these outreach programs are now known as “Manna Ministries.” The Reverend Andrew Heil discusses the vision of Manna Ministries. As always, we invite you to send your own response to the Hinge in the form of letters to the editor. We also invite you to send us articles on topics that you are interested in the church discussing. And remember, if you read a good book, tell us about it with a book review. v -- Craig Atwood, Editor
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The Legacy of Jane Addams: Inspiration and Challenge
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Eleanor Stebner
The Rev. Dr. Eleanor Stebner is an Associate Professor and holds the J. S. Woodsworth Chair in the Department of Humanities at Simon Frasier University in British Columbia.
Introduction In January 2012, the Hull House Association of Greater Chicago made the surprising announcement that it would close its doors. The Hull House Association was the outgrowth of Hull House, a social settlement house founded in 1889 by Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr. One of the first settlement houses founded in North America, Hull House became famous for its dedication not only to the local community but also to the ideals of social democracy, empowerment through education and the arts, and human cooperation that encompassed differences in race, class, and religious and political commitments. Although Hull House attracted a large number of committed workers and volunteers, many of whom lived there as residents in the early decades, scholars agree that the inspiration behind Hull House was Jane Addams. Addams is a well-known historical figJane Addams’ life, religious and ure in North America, as well as in the United social ideas, and community Kingdom and Europe, South Asia, and Japan. Born in 1860, Addams wrote more than ten practices and ethics are both books, published hundreds of articles durinspiring and challenging to those ing her lifetime, lectured widely, and in 1915 of us living in the early decades of was a founder of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. She also lived the twenty-first century. and worked at Hull House for over forty years. While a most respected and admired public figure during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, she was severely criticized—and ostracized—for her anti-militarist stance during and after World War I. Indeed, the FBI at one time considered her to be the most dangerous woman in the United States. In 1931, just four years before her death, Addams received the Nobel Peace Prize, vindicating her reputation as a humanitarian and lifelong advocate for peace and social justice.
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Addams on Service Sometimes affectionately called “Saint Jane,” Addams became an inspiration to many people in her desire to be of service in her world. Although she attended an evangelical women’s college—then called Rockford Female Seminary—where she studiously read the Greek New Testament, philosophy, and literature, she rejected the college’s emphasis on an outward emotional conversion. She also rejected its goal of having students marry and become foreign missionaries next to their husbands. Addams did not reject, however, a desire to live her life helping others. The question was how to do this in an era when women had limited choices regarding lifestyle and occupation. Also challenging to Addams were a number of difficult experiences in her twenties: her father, whom she adored, died when she was twenty-one years old—her birth mother died
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Jane Addams’ life, religious and social ideas, and community practices and ethics are both inspiring and challenging to those of us living in the early decades of the twenty-first century. Through her life and work, Addams attempted to uphold the common humanity shared by all people and to point toward ways in which communities could practice empathy to cross boundaries of difference and even disdain. Moravians have a long history in striving to do the same. Leo Tolstoy acknowledged this tradition when he told a story about one of his most important childhood memories. When he was five years old, his older brother took him and his two friends up a mountain in the Russian countryside. There, he announced to them that he had a secret by which “all people on Earth would be made happy; there would be no sickness, no unpleasantness, no one would be angry at anyone else, and everybody would love one another.”1 The secret? They would all become Moravian Brethren. It was helpful in catching Tolstoy’s young imagination that the Russian word for ants is muravi, so the kids played at being muravian [sic] by huddling close together under a couple of chairs and baskets covered with blankets. Tolstoy loved this game as a child and he never forgot it as an adult. Reflecting upon it he wrote, “The ideal of the Moravian Brethren, bound to each other by love, not crouching under two chairs draped with shawls but including all human beings under the wide vault of heaven, has always remained with me.”2 Jane Addams was influenced by the life and thought of Tolstoy, who himself had been influenced by the fifteenth century Bohemian Petr Chelcicky and his ideas of church and state relations and nonviolence.3 While Addams may not have had any direct encounters with Moravians, her dedication to a life of service, her understandings regarding the core of Christianity as an ethic of life and relationship, and her insights on community certainly resonate with the values that shaped both the Ancient Unity—directly inspired by the writings of Chelcicky—and the Renewed Moravian Church.
when she was two years old and a sister died when she was six; she experienced painful chronic back problems—due to a spinal problem—and then serious depression; she “failed” at her first career choice, namely, studying medicine in one of the few schools in the United States that admitted female students. She then spent some years trying to figure out what she could do with her life before she stumbled upon the idea of opening a settlement house in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Chicago. After a visit to Toynbee Hall in 1888—the first social settlement house founded by Canon Samuel Barnett in London’s East End—Addams contrived the idea of opening her own place, similar to Toynbee Hall, in Chicago where she would live with Ellen Gates Starr and other friends as neighbors. The idea of a settlement house is simple: people of means—mostly middle-class—move into impoverished urban areas to live; they then get to know their neighbors and thereby begin to understand and address the needs of the community. In founding Hull House, Addams believed that she had found her Christian vocation. Thousands of people—during her own lifetime and after—have been inspired by Addams’ life and work. Indeed, Priscilla Payne Hurd, chair of the Moravian College Board of Trustees from 1999 to 2007, talks of the lasting impression Addams left on her and how that impression planted within her a life devoted to service. Hurd’s mother, who had been a kindergarten teacher in the Hull House neighborhood, took her as a young child to Hull House where she met Addams. “She was oldfashioned, but very strong and purposeful… Thousands of people—during her She was ahead of her time, and I was in awe of own lifetime and after—have been her.”4 Hurd attributes her own life of service to inspired by Addams’ life and work. her encounter with Addams and the children of the neighborhood who had so little. Hurd says of Addams, “She foresaw a compassionate, interdependent world revolving around the principles of social justice, fairness, tolerance, respect, equal opportunity, civic responsibility, and hope, yes hope, for every individual, family, and community.”5 The idea of service is indeed central to the Moravian movement. Moravians believe that all people—no matter how or where we live, what we do for a living, or even how talented we are—are called to a life of service. This idea goes against dominant cultural trends that advocate a kind of radical individualism and a “success”-oriented and independent life. People of Addams’ generation often used the word usefulness to express their desire to live a life devoted to people and a cause larger than themselves. Moravians have a history of serving those most in need—the poor, the ill, the powerless, and the marginalized—living out an ideal that is well worth claiming again and again. It is interesting as well to think about those individuals, living or deceased, to whom we look for inspiration in our own lives of service. Addams
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Addams on Christianity Addams was often asked two questions: “what do you believe?” and “what is your attitude toward the future life?”7 A lively scholarly debate exists as to Addams’ Christian beliefs, but generally speaking, it is accurate to say that she put less emphasis on Christian doctrine than she did on Christian practice and compassion.8 She emphasized the life and teachings of Jesus—not his divinity; she upheld the Jewish prophets in their concern for the poor and marginalized; and she looked to other humans—such as Tolstoy and Gandhi—for examples of how to live in the world with a commitment to its betterment. Addams grew up in a household where her father claimed a Quaker background but also taught Sunday school in the local union church and attended services in either the Presbyterian or the Methodist churches. Like many of her generation, she was biblically literate, but she was not a biblical literalist. She was well-versed not only in the books of the Bible but also in the creeds and confessions of the church, most specifically the Westminster Confession of Faith, 1648. As a child, Addams attended various revival services that were held in her area with friends, and never quite understood the passionate preaching on heaven and hell or the tools—such as the “mourner’s bench”—that were used to lead sinners into repentance. As previously mentioned, she rejected the pressures on her to emotionally and outwardly convert while a student at Rockford. Yet at the age of twenty-five she joined the Presbyterian Church in Cedarville, Illinois, the town where she was born. She was glad, she said in her famous autobiographical book Twenty Years at Hull-House, that the minister did not require her to affirm the church’s theological tenets, which suggests that she would have had an intellectual dilemma in doing so. So why did she join the church? She joined because she wanted to be part of
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certainly was a role model to many individuals. She became an example of how to live not only with a sense of service, but also with a sense of authenticity that empowered others to do the same. Numerous churches scattered throughout the United States have stained glass windows that depict Addams in various forms of service. The Third Presbyterian Church in Rochester, New York, for instance, shows Addams in a glass medallion with nine other individuals—all of whom are said to personify Christian mercy and kindness—including Wilfred Grenfell, Florence Nightingale, Albert Schweitzer, and Walter Rauschenbusch.6 While Addams was highly criticized for her objection to war as a way to solve difficult problems and for her unwavering defense of civil liberties for all—including, in her day, socialists and communists—even her harshest critics did not attempt to discredit her dedication to others. Addams searched for—and found—her vocation, and it provided meaning and direction to her life even as it inspired countless others.
a movement that was radically democratic and egalitarian. Membership allowed her to take on an “outward symbol of fellowship,” meaning that the church provided her with a sense of universal connection with the “slave” and the “fisherman.”9 In this connection she saw a movement that spoke to the unity of humanity. Moravians acknowledge such an egalitarian and democratic attitude when we call one another “sister” or “brother.” Such traditional—perhaps archaic-sounding—language is a basic acknowledgment of the church as a fellowship that ultimately recognizes our common humanity and our ties that extend beyond biological family and social class. Early Christianity was, for Addams, a liberating and empowering movement that called people together from all walks of life and which, more than anything else she knew of historically, had the power to transform society and upset the structures that maintained inequality, poverty, and disenfranchisement. She understood Jesus and the prophets as standing against elitism and privilege. Like that of her contemporary male social gospellers, Addams’ Christianity focused on addressing the problems and concerns of this world. 10 Addams wrote that younger people of her generation were less interested in the “future life” than were their forebears. This, she believed, was good because it showed that Christianity is able to adjust to the needs and contexts of particular times and places. In other words, Christianity is—and needs to be—dynamic, not static.11 When in Chicago, Addams joined a small evangelical Congregational Church in the neighborhood of Hull House and attended numerous other churches, including the prestigious Second Presbyterian Church on Michigan Avenue in downtown Chicago. She also attended Central Church, the congregation founded by David Swing—who resigned from the Presbyterian Church after his infamous heresy trial of 1874. Addams nurtured a wide circle of acquaintances and was part of many conversations regarding how Christianity and other religions could join together for the common good. Addams was a friend and associate of Graham Taylor, a Dutch Reform and later Congregational minister, professor at the Chicago Theological Seminary, and founder of the Chicago Commons settlement house. Many of her associates were Jewish, such as the prominent rabbi Emil G. Hirsch. In 1912, she was part of organizing a meeting of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People—an organization of which she was a founding member. During this meeting she chaired a session on the topic of “Our Common Humanity.” Speaking on the panel was a Jewish rabbi, a civil rights journalist, the leader of the worldwide Baha’i community, and a Methodist college professor from Alabama.12 Some scholars suggest that Addams’ theology became Unitarian and Universalist in emphasis, while others say that her theology developed into secular humanism. Yet Georgia Harkness, a Methodist theologian—and the first woman to hold a full-time teaching position in a North American seminary—writes on Addams one hundred years after her birth in an article enTHE
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titled “What of Her Religion?”. Harkness located her theology as stemming from the “ethical teachings of Jesus.” “[It] did not have in it the full gamut of Pauline Christian thought but what she drew from the Gospels motivated her both to a faith in God and to works of love.”13 It is not surprising, then, that Addams applauded ecumenical and interdenominational movements, such as the formation of the Federal Council of Churches and the adoption of the Social Creed of the Churches (1908), both of which emphasized joint actions in addressing practical problems of the day.14 Addams did not believe that Christians needed to theologically agree with one another in order to work together. An emphasis on living an ethical life rather than on assenting to—and arguing over—particular doctrinal or dogmatic stances is part of the Moravian tradition. Emerging out of the Pietist movements of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Moravians wished to speak to a commonality of shared human experience and against theological disputes that were in their day often downright mean and petty. Certainly, historical Pietism also emphasized devotional, emotional, and ascetic qualities that Addams did not display—nor do many contemporary Moravians; yet her emphasis on Christianity, focusing on how individuals live in respect and love for one another is remarkably similar to the “religion of the heart” emphasis of Zinzendorf. It is also the vision that Tolstoy upheld when he claimed the significance of the Moravian Brethren including “all human beings under the wide vault of heaven.”15 While Addams was always mild-spoken and polite, she was troubled by the judgmental manner of some Christians. She came to believe that holding tight to certain biblical moralism and doctrinal emphases led some Christians to believe that they were better than others, morally superior, and less sinful. Addams thought that this attitude lacked self-introspection; moreover, she saw it as highly problematic for the well-being of individuals and communities. Addams observed, for example, that some Christians of her day completely condemned women involved in the sex trade, or saw those experiencing poverty and homelessness as morally inferior to themselves. Addams was Like her contemporary social particularly perturbed when select biblical texts gospellers, Addams believed it was were used to condemn such “sinners.” Addams thought that such quick, blanketed judgments necessary to examine economic resulted from Christians not attempting to and social conditions in order to understand—rationally and emotionally—the grasp the situations of individuals. complex situations that create such realities. Like her contemporary social gospellers, Addams believed it was necessary to examine economic and social conditions in order to grasp the situations of individuals. Such examination would nurture the human trait of empathy, which would in turn take people beyond their own particular parochialisms. Addams upheld empathy as absolutely necessary to bridge the religious and cultural divisions of her day.
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Jean Bethke Elshtain, professor of social and political ethics at the University of Chicago, puts it this way: Addams believed that “life is complex… So our ethics must be as complex as life itself.” She adds, “What stays Addams from sliding into moral relativism, on the one hand, or moral absolutism, on the other, is her dual commitment to empathetic understanding as the surest route to social knowledge and to a form of compassion linked to a determination not to judge human beings by ‘their hours of defeat.’”16 Empathy is different from sympathy. While sympathy may invoke compassion, empathy allows for imagining one’s self as “other” than one’s self and, therefore, leads to mutual encounters that allow for diversity and decrease moral or social judgments—and it is grace indeed not to be judged by our worst moments. Addams herself came to the conclusion that Jesus was “most severe” when he encountered “two sins—contempt for a human creature and selfrighteousness.”17 Unfortunately she saw these sins often embodied by people who most loudly proclaimed themselves to be Christians and followers of Jesus. Addams believed that a kind of humility and awareness of one’s own limitations and weaknesses was necessary in interacting with one another, and that we must extend empathy rather than sympathy in order to encounter one another as equally human. We are, after all, brothers and sisters.
Addams on Community Addams is remembered today for her service and for her desire to focus on the egalitarian and life-affirming qualities of Christianity. Within academic circles, she is seen as one of the founders of the profession of social work and an influential contributor to educational philosophy, but she is also studied for her insights on community. The settlement house movement was a new movement, founded and led by mostly Christian leaders who wanted to address some of the problems of the late nineteenth century, namely urban poverty and class divisions resulting in political and social antagonisms. It was a movement that drew the active participation of the younger generation and many women. While some settlement houses were overtly religious— Christian and Jewish—many houses attempted to be religiously nonsectarian. Leaders of such houses believed that a nonsectarian stance was necessary in order to provide a public space for people to mingle, to learn from one another, and to address shared concerns. They also wanted to prevent settlement houses from being viewed as instruments of religious proselytism. While Addams and Starr founded Hull House out of their Christian impulses and believed that the settlement house movement itself reflected a “renaissance” of Christianity, they very quickly decided that it would be better for it to function as a nonreligious community. 18 Religious ideas and theology were not ignored; they were part of many discussion groups and artistic endeavors. Yet Hull House residents and volunteers aimed to not be associated with any particular religious tradition or denomination.19 THE
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Direct parallels, therefore, cannot be made between Hull House and various intentional Christian communities of our time, such as Sojouners in Washington, DC. The Hull House community included Christian believers and humanists and socialists; it included a spectrum of religious and philosophical commitments. This being said, Hull House is useful for religious communities to explore because it brings to light some basic ideas crucial to the development of communities based on cooperation. Contemporary sociologist Richard Sennett argues in his latest book that the building of community—human cooperation—is a learned craft. And learning the craft of cooperation can take us beyond what he calls “tribalism,” whether this occurs on religious, national, racial, or social grounds.20 So what are some of the skills that today’s Moravian communities can learn from Jane Addams and Hull House? Many of the following points are rather simple and obvious, at least in theory if not in practice. First, our communities must be firmly grounded in our neighborhoods. Our churches are one part of civil society, and this means that we need to know our neighbors and network with the many components that exist in our neighborhoods, including schools, hospitals, and the many other organizations that are part of people’s everyday lives. Getting to know our neighborhoods and recognizing the needs around us encourages us to take action when necessary. For Addams, this meant not only political involvement but also the nitty-gritty—like becoming the chief garbage inspector in her ward or opening up a baby health clinic at Hull House. Second, in order to know our neighbors, we must cross boundaries. For Addams, the boundaries were most often related to class, race, ethnicity, language, and religion. While it is often comforting to associate with people with whom we share commonalities, it is also crucial that we extend ourselves beyond our own kind. Addams recognized that varying degrees of parochialism prevented people’s ability to shed their stereotypes of the “other.” Joint educational, artistic, and sporting endeavors often served, for Addams and Hull House, as means to cross boundaries. Indeed, Addams’ educational philosophy in some ways modeled John Amos Comenius’ ideas of a pansophic education—education that was to be universal and open up all areas of human curiosity.21 For Comenius, such education would result in human cooperation, locally and internationally; Addams, too, believed in education as a human right and a necessity; she believed in its potential to heal wounds and to help people overcome the crevasses of difference between them. Third, Addams herself was surprised to realize that once we see and know our neighbors and participate in joint activities, the result is often the development of friendships. Of all the phenomena that make life beautiful, friendship is one of the most understudied. All friendships change us, perhaps most especially the ones nurtured and cherished over differences of age, race, life experiences, gender, sexual orientation, and economic and social standing. Friendships extend our world and at the same time provide
grounding for our theological, social, and political understandings. By its very definition, friendship is a voluntary association, yet community leaders can help nurture its possibilities through intentional programming and modeling such behavior. Having fun together—as Addams would say, developing the opportunity to be “playful” together—was crucial to Addams’ understanding of how to help form friendships across differences. Fourth, one of the reasons Hull House was so successful in terms of the community it developed and extended was because it opposed overinstitutionalization or bureaucratization. Addams was a minimalist when it came to rules and procedures, in part because she thought that too many of them would stifle human spontaneity and creativity. The famous educator and philosopher, John Dewey, who was a friend of Addams and active in Hull House, said that Hull House became an institution without “becoming institutionalized.”22 He meant that things were sometimes messy and appeared contradictory. For example, Hull House provided nursery facilities for working mothers while at the same time it advocated for economic changes that would do away with the need for mothers to work. A conflict, some critics declared; but Addams and the other leaders of Hull House believed both approaches were necessary because they knew the neighborhood women and the various struggles they encountered in taking care of their families. Fifth, to borrow a proverb, where there is no vision, the people perish! (Proverbs 29:18). Hull House had a very simple vision: to make the world more humane, and to do so through civic, social, educational, and philanthropic means. The vision was simple and uniting. It allowed for diversity of actions and beliefs, and yet provided a core consensus that provided community cohesion. Hull House had a very simple Having a simple and straightforward vision alvision: to make the world more lowed Hull House to thrive even when serious humane, and to do so through disagreements emerged, and they did. Many civic, social, educational, and people, for example, including board members, disagreed with Addams’ pacifist stance during philanthropic means. The vision World War I, and yet they did not leave the was simple and uniting. community or withdraw their support of Addams’ leadership. The vision allowed them to focus on their ultimate purpose. In today’s context, the divisive issue may not be pacifism, but rather disagreements over expressions of human love and sexuality or hugely complicated issues related to the termination of life, whether at its conception or at its end. Sixth, the example of Hull House suggests that communities thrive best when they are focused on actions and not on identical beliefs. This certainly was the idea behind the Moravian missionary and modern ecumenical movements, namely, that Christians—whatever their stripe—could work jointly without having to agree on doctrinal and theological matters. Addams expressed the idea that action is the only form for expressing ethics. THE
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Conclusion Addams often told a story about a woman dying and finding herself in a pit.25 It was an awful place. Everyone was in agony. One day she heard a voice: “Have you done any act of kindness while you were alive?” After thinking about it, the woman remembered that she had once given a rotten carrot to a beggar. A rotten carrot then descended into the pit. She grabbed hold of it, and to her relief it began to lift her up. But then someone grabbed hold of her ankles and someone else grabbed hold of those ankles, and a human chain was formed. Rather than being relieved that so many people could get out of the pit with her, the woman became angry. “Let go of me!” she shouted. “This is my carrot. It will break if you all hang on.” As soon as those words were out of her mouth, the carrot broke and everyone fell back into the depths of the pit.
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Focusing on actions and cooperation and not on ideas or ideals, theories or theologies, conveys, in Addams’ opinion, what people truly believe. Her intention was not be anti-intellectual—this she was not—but when all the words were spoken and ideas and sides conveyed, her ultimate tool for judging the quality of an idea was how people acted toward one another and for the betterment of all. Lastly, communities need to live with courage. The word courage comes from the Latin cor which means heart or inner strength. Courage evokes a kind of potency and presence that allows for all of the above points. Addams, in reflecting on her decision to move into a poor neighborhood in Chicago and rent a house that would welcome neighbors, said that it was a decision of “absolute recklessness.” She went on to add, but “if one is to die, one may as well die doing what she likes.”23 It takes courage to live as individuals, and perhaps even more courage to live in intentional communities that desire to influence our world in positive ways. Addams’ understanding of community, I suspect, would have had her affirm the often-quoted Moravian motto, “in essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, love,” especially as interpreted by Luke of Prague. Luke divided the essentials into that which is done by God for human salvation through Jesus and the Spirit, and that which is the human response of faith, hope, and love. Luke did not understand the essentials as including matters of doctrine, biblical interpretation, or sacramental practices. His understanding of the essentials was very much relational—namely, that which God offers to humans and that which humans offer to God, including their relationships with one another.24 Actions of kindness and goodness within the religious community—and in the world at large—were essentials for Luke. To push this idea further, Addams might even have claimed the motto for her own understanding of how society and the global community could operate in a spirit of cooperation.
Addams’ life of service, her understanding of Christianity, and her ability to nurture a multi-faceted community that was grounded in the experiences of her neighbors and yet reached out globally, is indicative of her belief that humans are interdependent and no one is disposable. Moravians have cared—and continue to care—for people. Moravians also try to act for justice. As a denomination we are grounded in hundreds of local communities, and yet we are transnational. Included in our tradition is a spectrum of theological positions, and although we are a small denomination, we have a huge amount of diversity in worship practices and in political and social engagements. Perhaps the legacy of Addams can help us appreciate our diversity, and both inspire and challenge us to embrace it. v
Endnotes 1 Alexandra Tolstoy, Tolstoy: A Life of My Father (London: Victor Gollancz Limited, 1953), 17. This story is also told in numerous other biographies on Tolstoy. 2
Ibid., 18.
3 Addams was especially influenced by Tolstoy’s 1886 book, What to Do Then. She also, like many others in the late nineteenth century, went on a pilgrimage to meet Tolstoy at his Yasnaya Poloyana estate. See Jane Addams, “A Book That Changed My Life,” The Christian Century, October 1927, 44. 4 Physcilla Payne Hurd, “Breaking Barriers,” Moravian College Magazine, Fall 2008, 3.
5 Priscilla Payne Hurd, “On what floor do you live your life?” (lecture, Candlelight Reception and Conference Center, Bethlehem, PA, October 16, 2007). http://diobeth.typepad.com/ diobeth_newspin/files/0710.Priscilla%20 Payne%20Hurd.Souper%20Day%20Talk.pdf. 6 Refer to http://www.thirdpresbyterian. org/worship/archive/windows/window00. html. For other stained glass depictions of Addams, refer to the websites of St. John’s Episcopal Church (Stamford, Connecticut), Northbrae Community Church (Berkeley, California), Grace Episcopal Cathedral (San Francisco, California).
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7 Jane Addams, The Excellent Becomes the Permanent (Freeport, NY: Books for Libraries Press, 1970 [1932]), 3. 8 For further discussion, see Eleanor Stebner “The Theology of Jane Addams: ‘Religion Seeking Its Own Adjustment’,” in Feminist Interpretations of Jane Addams, ed. Maurice Hamington, (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2010), 201–222.
9 Jane Addams, Twenty Years at Hull-House (New York: MacMillan Company, 1910), 68–69.
10 Churchmen, such as Walter Rauschenbusch, came to dominate the social gospel movement, although Addams—and numerous other women leaders, such as Vida Scudder— certainly shared their theological views. See Wendy J. Deichman Edwards and Carolyn De Swarte Giffors, eds., Gender and the Social Gospel (Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2003).; see also Elizabeth L. Hinson-Hasty, Beyond the Social Maze: Exploring Vida Dutton Scudder’s Theological Ethics (New York: Continuum International Publishing Group, Ltd., 2006). 11 Jane Addams, The Excellent Becomes the Permanent (Freeport, NY: Books for Libraries Press, 1970 [1932]), 5.
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13 Georgia Harkness, “Jane Addams in Retrospect,” Christian Century Vol. LXXVII, No. 2 (Jan. 13, 1960): 39.
14 The FCC was the forerunner of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA (NCCUSA) which was founded in 1950. A New Social Creed was written and adopted in 2007 by the NCC in honor of the original 1908 creed. 15 Alexandra Tolstoy, Tolstoy: A Life of My Father (London: Victor Gollancz Limited, 1953), 17. 16 Jean Bethke Elshtain, ed., The Jane Addams Reader (New York: Basic Books, 2002), xxxiii.
17 Jane Addams, “A Challenge to the Contemporary Church,” Survey 28 (1912): 195.
18 See Jane Addams, “The Subjective Necessity for Social Settlements,” 1–26 in Henry C. Adams, ed., Philanthropy and Social Progress (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1893). Available online through Google Books.
19 This did not prevent Roman Catholics fearing that the mostly Protestant Hull House residents, including Addams, were secretly proselytizing among the Italians in their neighborhood.
20 Richard Sennett, Together: The Rituals, Pleasures and Politics of Cooperation (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2012).
21 For an overview on the educational philosophy of Comenius, see Jean Piaget, “Jan Amos Comenius,” Prospects (UNESCO), Vol. XXIII, no. 1/2 (1993): 173–96. Online at http://www.ibe. unesco.org/publications/ThinkersPdf/comeniuse.PDF 22 Eleanor J. Stebner, The Women of Hull House: A Study in Spirituality, Vocation, and Friendship (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1997), 150. 23 Helen Campbell, “Jane Addams of Hull House, Chicago: Her Personality and Philosophy of Life,” The Congregationalist (Christian World), May 4, 1901.
24 Refer to Craig D. Atwood, The Theology of the Czech Brethren from Hus to Comenius (University Park, PA: Penn State University Press, 2009).
25 Addams first heard this story told by a Russian, Serge Wolkonsky, at the 1893 Congress of Religions in Chicago. She used it many times in her lectures and speeches. See, for example, Marilyn Fischer and Judy D. Whipps, Writings on Peace: Jane Addams’ Essays and Speeches (London: Continuum International Publishing, 2005), 366.
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12 “The Meeting of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People,” The Broad Ax (Chicago), April 27, 1912, http:// centenary.bahai.us/news/meeting-nationalassociation-advancement-colored-people-0.
Moravian Open Door in New York City Craig Atwood
Moravian Open Door (MOD) has been one of the most effective and enduring social ministries of the Moravian Church, Northern Province since it opened in September 1987. In honor of MOD’s 25th anniversary in 2012, David Schattschneider wrote a history of the organization, detailing its birth and development as a ministry to the homeless in Manhattan. Because Brother Schattschneider’s history was published by Moravian Open Door as a pamphlet and is now available online, this article will merely lift up some of the highlights from that history.1 “Moravian Open Door is a not-for-profit (501c-3) organization [located at 347 East 18th Street, New York, NY] committed to providing transitional housing and supportive services to the homeless, distressed, and underserved population of New York City. Our ministry serves those individuals who are fifty and older with the goal of helping them regain their independence and security, and assisting them in moving to appropriate, permanent facilities.”2 This mission statement, adopted in 2002, identifies the primary purpose of Moravian Open Door as assisting elderly homeless people by providing transitional housing and educational programs to encourage independent living. Three full-time staff members oversee the MOD Moravian House facility, its programs, and the work of numerous volunteers. Seminars are offered for residents and include topics like health care and personal finance. In 2010 a Life Skills Center was added to the facility to provide some computer training for residents. The Moravian House facility houses about forty residents at a time, and those residents typically live at MOD for fewer than two years. Some leave because they find permanent housing; others leave because they are hospitalized or enter another institution; a few are asked to leave because of rules violations. Each MOD resident is required to sign a “personal service plan” indicating their acceptance of aid from MOD staff and volunteers in obtaining government and insurance benefits, overcoming personal obstacles to employment through treatment programs, learning basic job interview skills, and obtaining a job. Each resident must be willing to make these personal growth changes in order to work with MOD. It is this personal service plan, the willingness of clients, and the dedication of MOD staff and volunteers that makes MOD a successful transitional housing ministry. Moravian Open Door began as an outreach of the First Moravian Church, which has been in Manhattan since the 1740s. In 1968, the Eastern THE
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District of the Moravian Church held a conference on “Church Extension in an Urban Society,� which addressed issues related to the social unrest of the 1960s. Robert Sawyer and Kenneth Hall proposed that First Moravian in New York begin a ministry to the homeless and hungry in the neighborhood of Kips Bay around the church. The congregation used funds from its endowment to purchase a building next to the church, which they called Moravian Church House. The top floor served as an apartment for the pastor and the first two floors were converted into the Coffee Pot Community Center. This was a drop-in center where as many as two hundred homeless people per day could receive assistance ranging from food, to showers, to counseling. In 1980 the Coffee Pot began receiving financial assistance from New York City, but it remained a ministry of the First Moravian Church congregation and the Eastern District of the Moravian Church. The congregation had to deal with vocal opposition from neighbors who objected to having a drop-in center for the homeless nearby. Eventually, relationships with neighbors improved, but allegations of financial mismanagement and fraud by the director of the agency led to its closure in 1993.3 Despite the circumstances that eventually led to its closing, the Coffee Pot was a thriving ministry that aided many homeless people; but during its existence there was one essential service that the Coffee Pot could not supply to the growing numbers of homeless people in New York: a safe place to sleep overnight. In 1982 Norman Butzow, Alfred Kilkenny, Barbara Lynch, and Dorothy Kobs formed a committee to investigate the possibility of expanding the work of the Coffee Pot to include overnight shelter. The Eastern District Executive Board endorsed this effort, and in 1984 a new non-profit (501c-3) entity called Moravian Open Door was created. A suitable building (owned by the state of New York) was found on 18th Street, and on November 13, 1984 Governor Mario Cuomo held a press conference at First Moravian to announce a partnership between the state and the church that would allow the building to be renovated into a shelter that could house up to forty-two homeless individuals. The building was purchased by First Moravian from the state for a nominal charge. The State of New York and civic organizations contributed more than $800,000 of the cost for the renovation of the building, and Moravians contributed an additional $220,000. MOD continued to receive grants from the City and State of New York until 1995 when the MOD Board of Directors decided that government regulations were impeding the work of the ministry. Since that time, funding has come from four main sources: various bodies within the Moravian Church, private foundations, individual contributions, and client fees. The first director of MOD, Wes Davis, reported in 1987 that there were thirty-eight residents at the facility, most of whom had previously been served by the Coffee Pot ministry. For $200 a month, residents received three
meals per day (two meals per day on weekends) and a place to live. Over the years, the meal program had to be curtailed because of problems with kitchen facilities and appliances. A flash flood in 2007 did major damage to the lower level of the building, including the kitchen, and it took nearly two years of legal wrangling with the insurer before funds were released to MOD to effect repairs. Other major expenses in the 21st century included a new boiler, a new roof, a new security system, new toilets, and a kitchen renovation. Much of the money for these renovations came from matching grants from the United Brethren’s Congregation on Staten Island. Moravian Open Door is one of the most ambitious and successful urban social ministry programs that the Eastern District of the Moravian Church has ever attempted. Some eighty different individuals have served on MOD’s Board of Directors and/or the MOD Public Relations and Development Committee and many more have volunteered at the ministry. Some of these people were ordained clergy, but most have been lay persons who have drawn on their expertise in public relations, law, building, music, art, vocational counseling, and dozens of other professions to build up the ministry of MOD. For more than a quarter of a century MOD has provided hope and help to homeless Americans living on the margins of society. Unfortunately, the needs of the homeless population have grown faster than the ministry. David Schattschneider summarizes the significance of MOD: “Moravians may regard MOD theologically, that is, as fulfilling the Gospel mandate to care for the poor. The need for its existence, however, may also be regarded morally as indicative of the failure of society to care for its neediest citizens.”1 v
Endnotes 1 David A. Schattschneider, “Moravians in the City Offering Hope for 25 Years” (Bethlehem, PA: Moravian Open Door, 2012) http:// www.moravianhouse.org/MOD%20Article%20 from%20Nov2012%20Moravian.pdf.
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3 Gloria Boyce, “Coffee Pot, First Moravian Church, New York City,” The Moravian Magazine, June 1993, 16.
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The GAPS Community in Los Angeles, Ca. Christie Melby-Gibbons
The Rev. Christie Melby-Gibbons was pastor of Downey Moravian Church in California until September 2014. Currently she is working in emerging church development for the Northern Province. “Thank you so much, cuz what you guys do for us is frickin’ awesome!” This is one of the kindest expressions of gratitude I have received in years; it came from our neighbor Matthew who is a recipient-volunteer in our twice-weekly grocery giveaway. We have been rescuing newly “expired” groceries, bread, and pastries (pre-dumpster) from local benevolent businesses for five years now. While creative, sustainable, and far-reaching—over 100 neighbors in need of food help receive bags of groceries weekly—this community-based ministry has been met with disdain and suspicion by some who would prefer that “their” church grounds not be used to welcome “those people.” “Those people” are the folks who make up our neighborhoods, but not necessarily our pews: impoverished immigrants (many without an official welcome from the US), adults with mental illness, friends who reside in their automobiles or under bridges, those in recovery who are struggling to find a place where they can belong now that sobriety has brought some clarity to their thinking and actions, and those who just can’t quite leave their habits of abusing various harmful substances. One place where these unlikely neighbors come together is Open Table—our weekly meal at Downey Moravian Church where all are welcome. Open Table is usually a vegetarian meal, and everyone who dines helps to set the table—which is really four large tables pushed together—chop the vegetables, and clean up. These meals are not particularly religious in their tone; however, there is something very “early church” about these feasts, with the least and the last being at a meal of coequal friends. Since beginning this ministry five years ago, only a few church members have ventured to be a part of it. The ones who have become involved—typically our older adult, single male population—remain devoted until they are no longer able to participate. Our motto is: “Open Table—it’s freegan delicious!” The healthiness and freeness of this meal is such a gift! In the LA area, the economic recession has rendered life difficult for many—regardless of recent positive stock market trends. Compassionate folks from our congregation and neighborhood have responded to the growing poverty around us by feeding our neighbors and also by clothing them.
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Three years ago Downey Moravian Church reclaimed an unutilized children’s Sunday School room for ClothesHelp—a pay-what-you-will clothing shop for neighbors in need of clothing and shoes. We began collecting used clothing donations and local volunteer shopkeepers began to sort and display the items. Over the years, we have expanded into three other rooms, and we have received a grant which funded industrial clothing racks, mannequins, hangers, and a dressing room. Each week, dozens of neighbors “shop” for clothing for their families. Last year, a local fashion designer donated one ton (literally) of extra women’s clothing from his company. Many neighbors sport that fancy attire with big smiles on their faces! One woman wept because she hadn’t been able to afford “nice” clothing before. One of the most rewarding parts of this ministry is watching homeless neighbors trade in their old shoes with holes worn through the soles for a new-to-them pair, and seeing them walk away happier with a bit of a bounce in their step. Local children from struggling families are also part of our community-based ministries. We offer MorArt ‘n Music classes for one hour each week where kids of any age may come and receive free music lessons—guitar and drums—and art lessons—painting, drawing, sculpting, beading, collage, etc. Not only are the artistic creations from these kids astonishing, but also the children are growing in confidence and kindness as they participate in these classes. We hope that they will always remember the welcome and joy that they experienced at MorArt ‘n Music no matter what hardship may come into their lives. That’s why we do these community-based ministries! We simply hope that people will have better lives because of our presence alongside them. We hope to turn the focus of the present-day church outward, which seems by design to focus solely on preserving itself. If the goal of the church is indeed to preserve itself, it will eventually ruin the very thing it sets out to preserve. The good news is that engaging in community-based ministries isn’t tricky. Rather, it’s entirely feasible, necessary, life-giving, fun, and what we were meant to do as the church! It’s what faithfully following “our Lamb” entails. v
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Common Ground in Edmonton Eileen Edwards
The Rev. Eileen Edwards is co-pastor of Good News Moravian Church and cofounder of Common Ground Community Cafe in Edmonton. I have two children; if one of them were hungry, I would do everything I could to help them get food. If one of them didn’t care whether or not I existed my heart would break; I believe that God’s heart breaks for many of the people, God’s children, in the place where I live and serve. Sherwood Park is an affluent community outside of Edmonton, Canada: an area where the schools are good, the amenities are plentiful, the majority of people do not attend worship services of any type (unless hockey counts), and where people in many different contexts have been identifying a need for community. My husband, Ian, and I were called to Sherwood Park to pastor at Good News Moravian Church and to plant a new church. We were dismal failures at the church planting process, but those failures started a long journey which led to the opening of Common Ground Cafe—a volunteer-staffed community cafe. Along the way, we discovered that in our particular context churches and homes are not neutral spaces—people rarely invite others to their homes unless they already know each other quite well. We have had people publicly express to us that they do not trust churches, even when the church is doing something that people would otherwise be interested in. Sociologists talk about the concept of a “third place,” a place other than home or work, where people can meet, connect, and find community. We wanted to create Common Ground Cafe as that sort of third place where people could engage in conversations about life and faith. We thought that a non-profit, volunteer cafe could help to meet the need for community in our area and give us opportunities to share the gospel with people with whom we are able to develop relationships. We have been fairly deliberate in our efforts to create a space where community can form. We have done this through the volunteers, the choice of products we sell and how we serve them, and the design of the cafe— tables can easily be rearranged and grouped together and the coffee bar, with low counters, allows our volunteers to be part of the larger room. Ample space between tables welcomes people with strollers, wheel chairs, and guide dogs. The cafe is the meeting place for non-profit boards, moms groups,
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book groups, bible studies, knitting groups, and more. Our volunteers are the core of the cafe; they range in experience and ability but all have a heart for community. Some volunteer for a bit of an escape from the pressures in the rest of their lives; for others, volunteering stretches them in ways that are sometimes uncomfortable; and for others still, volunteering is a building block to developing skills to help with eventual employment, and they come with their job coaches. We are cognizant that we are part of a community that extends beyond the doors of the cafe and beyond the place in which we live. We try to live out this awareness through such things as serving direct trade coffee and fair trade tea, serving with ceramic mugs and plates to reduce waste, and by using fully compostable to-go products made from post-consumer materials. We reach out to the arts community through a gallery wall which features an exhibit from a different artist each month and through the display and sale of pottery, jewelry, carvings, and other work by local artisans. We also hold weekly open mic nights and we frequently have craft materials available for children and adults. We post a question of the month on social media and in the cafe on chalkboards where people can add their answers to provide an opportunity for people to engage in written conversation. We also host a monthly discussion night and we have had presentations on different topics, such as organic gardening or how to tweet. Many in our community hold deep suspicion of the church. It is a balancing act for Common Ground to be a safe and inviting environment for all people in the community. As part of our effort to create that safe space, we do not accept any political or religious posters and we strive to be transparent with our customers and volunteers about who we are—we do not hide our church connection, and the fact that Ian and I are both pastors is easy information to find on our Facebook page and on our website. We have had pushback from Christians who want to advertise events with a faith component—community events like a Thanksgiving dinner are fine—as well as from people who will not even come into the cafe because it is has any connection with a church. As we walk the line between the two groups, we find that in creating a space that is free from religious advertising we actually have a space that is safer for faith conversation, and that transparency increases our trustworthiness. Creating the cafe—from incorporation, to renovations, to daily operations—has been all-consuming over the past few years and has been accompanied by both huge personal cost and the amazing opportunity to participate in what I believe to be God’s work in our world. It is a joy to watch people develop new friendships along with new skills and confidence. When I look at our volunteer staff—the variety of personalities and skills as they work together—I get a glimpse of the kin(g)dom of God. We have the
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opportunity to partner with community groups in ways that we can’t as a church. I have been privileged to watch people embrace the idea of the cafe, to use the space as a place to form connections, to grow, to dream, and to build something together. We hope that the cafe will become a sort of self-sustaining missionary outpost. I have glimpses of this as well: from conversations about the holy moments of life shared with volunteers when shifts were slow, to requests for prayer from customers who seek me out, to the privilege of walking with people—whom I met at the cafe—through some of the difficult times in their lives, to having some even wander through the doors at Good News Moravian Church. I am excited to see what God will do through Common Ground. It is amazing what can happen over a cup of coffee. v
Beyond Confusion to Shared Wisdom: Understanding Manna Ministries Andrew L. Heil
The Rev. Andrew Heil is a deacon in the Moravian Church and serves as pastor of the Hope Moravian Church congregation in Winston-Salem, N.C. Be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect (Romans 12:2). Following the 2010 synod of the Moravian Church, Southern Province, the congregations of the Southern Province were organized into Regional Conferences, seeking to promote shared vision and resources between Moravian communities of faith and the Board of Cooperative Ministries. During this time, individual congregations have continued to cultivate meaningful relationships with para-ministry organizations across denominations. Not all of these ministry partnerships look the same. In addition to the increase in collaborative ministry between congregations, there are Moravian-led ministries in our communities that do not fit within our current understanding of ministry models and categories; these ministries are reaching out to our neighbors to share the good news of Jesus Christ. Outreach worship ministries like Come and Worship in WinstonSalem offer unique experiences for those who are interested in varied expressions of church. With two services, held in non-traditional spaces, Come and Worship has a combined worship attendance of sixty people. Anthony’s Plot, a Moravian intentional community in Winston-Salem, offers residency, community development work, and a spiritually hopeful and socially relevant outreach program alongside the regular Christian practices of mealsharing, daily prayer, and hospitality. Both of these ministries are making a positive difference in the Winston-Salem community. What is more, both ministries have developed ongoing and meaningful relationships with individual congregations and Regional Conferences within the Southern Province. All of these experiences together give evidence that the landscape of ministry is changing. Knowing this, we need to develop healthy models for listening and dialogue if we are to discern God’s leading for the future. There is a desire among Moravians to recognize these ministries as partners. Even so, in the absence of language to identify and characterize these ministries—they do not fit within our understanding of existing
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categories—there remains disagreement with regard to the appearance of an official partnership. What does it look like for us to affirm these and other ministries as legitimate ministries within the current structure of the Southern Province? Must these ministries conform to our current understanding of ministry categories (i.e. congregation, fellowship, missional community, etc.) or are we being invited to expand our ecclesiology altogether, to re-imagine existing categories of ministry and to reconsider the necessary characteristics of what it means to be a church, a community of faith seeking to follow in the way of Jesus? In light of these questions, the 2014 synod of the Moravian Church, Southern Province passed a resolution designating the recognition of “Manna Ministries” for ministries that do not otherwise fit into the existing models and categories of ministry that are recognized by the Southern Province. The resolution itself derives its name from the sixteenth chapter of Exodus, wherein the Lord cares for the Israelites during a period of transition by providing them with strange bread that they called manna. Manna literally means “what is it?” In addition to seeking the recognition of such ministries as legitimate ministries of the Southern Province, the resolution advised the Provincial Elders’ Conference to designate an existing entity or form a new task force during the intersynodal period to develop guidelines for Manna Ministries that promote sustainability, offer accountability, foster collaboration and discernment, and facilitate the development of Manna Ministries under the oversight of the Provincial Elder’s Conference.1 The resolution promoting the establishment of Manna Ministries is not intended to be an end in itself. Likewise, the language of Manna Ministries should not be understood as a new permanent ministry category, but rather as the language of transition and an opportunity for conversation going forward. The establishment of Manna Ministries should provide us with opportunities for renewed collaboration and dialogue, a process to help us appreciate more fully the life of our shared ministries, a Spirit-led framework to assist us in identifying the many and varied ways that God is living and active among us. It is vital that we work together in seeking to fully understand the ecclesiological implications of what it means to formally recognize, identify, and support Manna Ministries within the current provincial structure, either as congregations, fellowships, or something else altogether. Also worth mentioning here, any decisions we make concerning the language of ministry partnerships are theologically significant and will serve as a reflection of our collective beliefs and convictions regarding the nature and character of the Church, what it is and what it is called to be. In this regard, there is certainly wisdom to be found in exploring the language of our ecumenical partners. Indeed, even if Manna Ministries are not recognizable according to current Moravian models and categories; this does not necessarily suggest that the ministry itself is new and emerging. In fact, many of
the leaders within these ministries recognize themselves to be reclaiming the heritage of Moravians and other Christian traditions throughout history. As Thomas Kelly has also expressed, “There stands the saints of the ages … their hearts are our heart and their hearts are the heart of the Eternal One.”2 We are all followers of Jesus. Remembering this will be an important part of the dialogue going forward. As Moravian Christians we recognize and celebrate the diversity of gifts that God has given to the Church. Our many vocations and skills are the evidence that God calls each of us differently. Still, the Ground of the Unity makes clear that we are joined together in fellowship and are members of a living Church. Likewise, the Moravian Covenant for Christian Living exhorts us also “to learn from one another, to rejoice together in the manifold wisdom of God, and to welcome every step that brings us nearer the goal of unity with him.”3 It is in relationship with one another that we grow in our faithfulness to God. In an effort to gain an ever-clearer proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Moravian Church throughout its history has diligently worked to sustain ecumenical partnerships with sister churches. For this reason we must also take advantage of every opportunity to recognize and to celebrate other Moravian-led ministries. It is a gift of grace that we are called to serve our Lord, a gift that can only be shared together. v
Endnotes 1 The full text of this resolution is available on the website of the Moravian Church, Southern Province, http://mcsp.org/wp-content/ uploads/2013/06/2014-Synod-Resolutions. pdf
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Book Review: Spiritual Accompaniment and Counselling: Journeying with Psyche and Soul Edited by The Rev. Dr. Peter Madsen Gubi, PhD London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2015; 192 pages, paperback Reviewed by R. Jane Williams, MDiv, PhD, Associate Professor of Pastoral Counseling at Moravian Theological Seminary. We are all, with our various theories, philosophies, and theologies, trying to make sense of that which is essentially mystery (13). While most current literature argues that counseling and spiritual direction are separate disciplines, Spiritual Accompaniment and Counselling explores how counseling and spiritual direction can and do cross-fertilize each other while remaining distinct. For Gubi and his fellow authors, the similarities between the two are more profound than the differences. Chapters in this edited volume cite specific areas of intersection between counseling and spiritual direction including the importance of relationships—described by Gubi as “the meeting of the soul, rather than of the mind”—taking on core qualities of empathy, unconditional positive regard, and authenticity; the role of supervision; life-span and developmental issues; spiritual and mental health crises; and grief work (31). Gubi suggests that distinctive elements of counseling and spiritual direction and accompaniment include the focus and the language utilized by counselors and spiritual directors with clients. Counselors tend to focus on emotional issues and use psychological language, concepts, and resources to work with issues, whereas spiritual directors focus on spiritual or faith issues and one’s relationship with God and use the language of faith and spiritual resources to work with those issues. Both disciplines’ relational skills and goals for helping clients to achieve well-being and discovery of meaning are consonant with one another. Gubi uses the term oscillation to describe the way in which a practitioner trained in both disciplines may move between psychological issues and a “soul-oriented” focus in sessions, depending on client need. The authors highlight what each field lacks and could learn from the other. Gubi urges counselors and psychotherapists to be open to understanding the importance of spirituality to clients of faith and to understand
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that spiritual language and concepts can be translated into emotional and psychological language and processes. Phil Goss, author of the second chapter in the book—“Touching the Depths”—explores depth psychology as one example of such “translation” in its approach to therapy and research, consulting archetypes and honoring numinous experiences. One of the most personal chapters of this book—and (in this reviewer’s opinion) one of the most moving—is Ruth Bridges’ discourse on the experience of pain and suffering, and the potential of these types of experiences to plunge the sufferer into existential or spiritual crisis. Sufferers of deep physical, emotional, or spiritual pain often feel abandoned by the human community and by God; additionally, it is common for these people to experience a shattering of their expectations of safety and to develop a distrust of life’s goodness and predictability. When foundational beliefs and assumptions about life are destroyed by suffering, spiritual directors and counselors can be most helpful by remaining emotionally and spiritually present to their clients. Being present requires practitioners to accompany clients to potentially raw and seemingly hopeless places while holding existential and spiritual hope that the client’s scattered pieces of life’s meaning can be reassembled into new patterns and relationships as part of the journey through the experience of suffering. To do this, practitioners must have worked through their own painful life histories to a place of hope and meaning. Bridges observes that, “Through our work, we are faced with the searing truth that every moment contains within it the potential to redefine all that life means. . . . The boundaries between the physical, emotional, and spiritual may collapse in upon one another” (89). Lynette Harborne’s chapter, titled “The Importance of Supervision,” emphasizes that counseling practitioners are required or strongly encouraged by law to be accountable to supervisors and ethics codes. Counselor licensure certifies appropriate training, supervised internships, and exams demonstrating a defined body of knowledge. Spiritual directors/accompaniers are currently not officially accountable to supervisors, ethics codes, or licensure and such lack of accountability may leave directees and directors vulnerable to intentional or unintentional misconduct. Spiritual Accompaniment and Counselling is a warmly accessible book for students, practitioners, and educators of counseling and spiritual direction. Without pointing fingers or attempting to elevate one discipline over another—a refreshing change from literature that often disparages disciplines other than itself—the writers start from an assumption that spiritual accompaniment and counseling deal with similar questions of meaning and purpose, and frequently encourage use of skills and core conditions common to both disciplines. So, shouldn’t accompaniment and counseling seek ways to enrich and deepen each other’s repertoire of healing skills? The authors THE
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make a strong case for both disciplines to offer appropriate levels of training and certification of competencies, to stress the need for practitioners’ own therapy or direction experience to deepen self-awareness, to urge that professional supervision be required, and to advocate for ethical codes and practice guidelines. Gubi’s choice of practitioners and educators as authors of chapters lends authenticity and legitimacy to such proposals. I urge students and practitioners of either or both spiritual accompaniment and counseling to read and discuss this book with colleagues—it promises to enhance their practices and to increase the safety of those they serve. v
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