Linda Valentine

A Glimpse of the Kingdom

I had been told that the Multicultural Conference was one of the most inspiring and energetic gatherings of the church, and last week I discovered for myself how true that really is. There were approximately 480 participants – including volunteers and walk-in local attendees – in San Antonio, Texas, for the Ninth Annual Multicultural Conference. They represented congregations, presbyteries, synods, seminaries and agencies, all coming together to celebrate, learn, build relationships, worship, pray and support one another. This conference started in 2000 with less than 80 participants, and has been growing every year ever since.

In the light of the Kingdom vision, which I personally experienced there, it is interesting to note that the demographics of the United States have changed dramatically in the past 25 years. In 1985, the PC(USA) was 95.8% White/Non-Hispanic; 2.2% African-American; .7% Hispanic; 1.1% Asian & Pacific Islander; and .2% Other. By 2006, the percentages were 91.7% White/Non-Hispanic; 3.2% African-American; 1.3% Hispanic; 3.1% Asian & Pacific Islander; and .6% Other. Thus, in spite of a goal set by the General Assembly for the PC(USA) to be 20% racial ethnic by 2010, we are lagging both behind our PC(USA) goal as well as the country as a whole.

Of course, this is just a measure of membership, and does not include worship attendance at immigrant and other fellowships, which are not counted in the annual statistical report. According to church development and redevelopment congregational grant proposals that we receive each year, more than 60% of the proposals are coming from multicultural and racial ethnic churches, with 60% of the eventual grant recipients being congregations that are racial ethnic and multicultural. Even so, and aside from numerical goals, it is our intention as well as our constitutional mandate to be diverse!

"The Church is called to a new openness to its own membership, by affirming itself as a community of diversity, becoming in fact as well as in faith a community of women and men of all ages, races, and conditions, and by providing for inclusiveness as a visible sign of the new humanity.” (The Book of Order of the PC(USA) G-3.0401b)

“The Church in its witness to the uniqueness of the Christian faith is called to mission and must be responsive to the diversity in both the church and the world. Thus the fellowship of Christians as it gathers for worship and orders its corporate life will display a rich variety of form, practice, language, program, nurture, and service to suit culture and need.” (BOO, G-4.0401)

“The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) shall give full expression to the rich diversity within its membership and shall provide means which will assure a greater inclusiveness leading to wholeness in its emerging life. Persons of all racial ethnic groups, different ages, both sexes, various disabilities, diverse geographical areas, different theological positions consistent with the Reformed tradition, as well as different marital conditions … shall be guaranteed full participation and access to representation in the decision making of the church.” (BOO, G-9.0104ff)

And numbers aside, there are many places in which cultures other than English- speaking Anglos are represented, or even predominant. Leading up to this conference, I met in Synod forums with both the Synod of South Atlantic and the Synod of the Sun. As executive presbyters and other presbytery representatives at the Synod of the Sun shared news of their presbyteries, I was struck with how many times racial ethnic fellowships, congregations and initiatives were mentioned. Two of the presbyteries in Synod of the Sun have worship in 11 languages, "and growing" as one said.

Multicultural does not mean in all cases that multiple cultures are represented in a congregation. While there is repeated bemoaning that "Sunday morning is the most segregated hour of the week," there is a place for congregations predominantly of one racial ethnic culture or language, and the Presbyterian Church celebrates and encourages those as well as congregations that combine two or more cultures. As we move forward in faith to grow our PC(USA) deep and wide, may we be always mindful and intentional about welcoming and encouraging all such expressions of the Kingdom.

Read a related feature -  9th annual multicultural conference kicks off in Texas - by Evan Silverstein of the Presbyterian News Service.

Petition for Fair Food and Human Rights

Among my most memorable encounters on a recent visit to Peace River Presbytery was a frank conversation with the presbytery’s key leaders in farmworker outreach ministries, especially those efforts based in Immokalee, Florida. A number of congregations and agencies in the area relate to Florida’s farmworkers and its new immigrant populations in a variety of mission and outreach activities.

The persons seated around the table – and the groups they represented – all had ongoing partnerships and many points of connection with the work of the General Assembly Council.  They included Graham Hart, general presbyter of Peace River, Dave Moore, director of the Beth-El Farmworker Ministry in Wimauma, which offers a ministry to farmworkers there as well as at Immokalee, where pastor Miguel Estrada has provided worship, Bible study and a host of outreach services through its Misión Peniel since April 2007.  Miguel, who was also present, is a Presbyterian pastor and a native of Guatemala City. Others whom Graham Hart had assembled for our visit were members of the Vanderbilt Presbyterian Church, including Tom Harp, whose congregation has been a stalwart supporter of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers; Ed Grey, organizing pastor of the New Life Presbyterian Church (NCD), which is involved in Misión Peniel; Jim Berger, another interested NCD pastor; Steve Smith, presbytery council chairperson; Jim Kirk of IHOPE, Immokalee Disaster Assistance, which is related to Presbyterian Disaster Assistance; and Silva Franco, pastor of the Portuguese Brazilian Presbyterian Fellowship of Naples and Southwest Florida.  Silva, a native Brazilian, is reaching many new immigrants through her exciting ministry.

Immokalee has been much in the news through the years and also very recently, as members of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) – a community-based worker organization headquartered there – have become leaders in the fight to end slave labor, human trafficking, and exploitation in agricultural fields across the United States. 

Last month, I joined my colleague, Cliff Kirkpatrick, stated clerk of the General Assembly, in taking a bold step toward addressing egregious injustices toward farmworkers in our nation by signing the Coalition of Immokalee Workers’ (CIW) Petition to End Modern-Day Slavery and Sweatshops in the Fields.

The CIW’s current petition calls on Burger King and other food corporations to immediately work with the CIW to increase farmworkers’ wages and establish an enforceable human-rights based code of conduct.  Signatories of the petition pledge that “they are prepared to cease patronizing Burger King now” if the company continues to refuse to do these things.

Since Cliff and I signed the petition, our signatures have been joined by those of Rev. Dr. Tom Taylor, Rev. Dr. Arlene Gordon (executive presbyter of Tropical Florida Presbytery, where Burger King is headquartered), Rev. Greg Bentley (President of the National Black Presbyterian Caucus), Rev. Alfredo Miranda (President of the Presbyterian Hispanic/Latino Caucus), and former PC(USA) General Assembly Moderators Rick Ufford-Chase and Rev. Susan Andrews.

A number of networks and advocacy groups across the PC(USA) are encouraging Presbyterians to sign this important petition as a way of signaling to Burger King and other retail food corporations, the church's serious commitment to advancing farmworkers' human rights, particularly on this, the 200th anniversary of the US ban on the importation of slaves.

To learn more about the PC(USA) Campaign for Fair Food and the Burger King Campaign – as well as to read Cliff’s public statement and an article by the Presbyterian News Service – see www.pcusa.org/fairfood. 

To view the CIW's Petition (which can be signed online) as well as the background on why it is important to take action, visit http://ciw-online.org/2008_Petitions/index.html  Those who act before April 25 will have their signatures on the petition when it is presented to Burger King at their headquarters in Miami, Florida, by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, representatives from the PC(USA), and other friends of the CIW.

The current CIW efforts are similar in nature to their previous, successful campaigns that targeted Taco Bell, and its parent company, Yum Brands, and McDonald’s and which were supported by the General Assembly. In an historic agreement made by the CIW and Yum Brands on March 8, 2005, which was emulated by McDonald’s, these two fast-food giants agreed to all of the farmworkers’ demands, especially to paying farmworkers a penny a pound more for tomatoes harvested. The PC(USA) had been at the heart of this struggle for fair food and human rights from the very beginning.  Not only did the CIW’s agreements with Yum Brands and McDonald’s result in the near doubling of workers’ wages, it laid the cornerstone for socially responsible purchasing in the fast food industry.  Presbyterians’ prayers and involvement are needed now to ensure that progress continues to be made.

APCU, Savannah, April 3

When I first began blogging during my extensive travels through Asia last fall – observing in October 2007 that Hannam University, started by Presbyterians 50 years ago in Korea, had just joined the Association of Presbyterian Colleges and Universities (APCU) – little did I know that I would have the opportunity to personally greet three delegates from Hannam at the recent APCU Presidents’ Conference in Savannah, Georgia.  Dr. Hyung Tae Kim, Hannam’s president, the Rev. Dr. Dal Lee, the university’s head chaplain, and Dr. Seungho Lee of the global relations office, were all attending the APCU conference for the very first time.

Hannam has connections with colleges all over the world, including 20 in the United States. Among them are six of our Presbyterian-related colleges: King College, Maryville College, Montreat College, St. Andrews College, Presbyterian College, and Warren Wilson College.

I was honored and delighted to have been included in such august company – the presidents of our Presbyterian colleges and universities – who take a few days’ leave from their huge jobs addressing issues of faculty, students, budgets, and accreditation to support, resource, and enjoy one another as peers.

There were many outstanding points of connection - and potential for more connection - between the college presidents and the ongoing work of the General Assembly Council.  A subject on the APCU’s executive committee agenda, for example, was the many international programs in which the colleges are engaged.  Over dinner, we spoke about possibilities to connect with PC(USA) mission partners and World Mission. The GAC is revitalizing Collegiate Ministries under the leadership of former college chaplain, Sylvia Wilson.  Sylvia, along with Eric Hoey, Rhashell Hunter, and other GAC staff members, joined the APCU. Many new acquaintances were made and lots of ideas generated. 

In other international connections, Dr. Gerishon Kirika, vice chancellor of the Presbyterian University of East Africa, also attended the conference.  He and the president of Warren Wilson College have already discussed a number of potential partnership opportunities. The Presbyterian University of East Africa is the same school which James Costen, moderator of the 1982 General Assembly of the former United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, helped to create.  Until his death in 2003, Costen continued in his commitment to theological education in Africa, having arranged for a portion of his estate to go to the university for student scholarships through the Presbyterian Foundation.  This legacy is being carried on by Costen’s widow, Melva, the recently retired Helmar Emil Nielsen Professor of Music and Worship at the Interdenominational Theological Center (ITC) in Atlanta, and all three of the Costen children.

I was deeply impressed by the new chair of APCU, Dr. Lorna Duphiney Edmundson, president of Wilson College in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. Having two daughters attending all women's colleges, I have a new appreciation for colleges like Wilson that focus so intentionally on the education and development of college women.

While in Savannah, we also honored Tom Williamson, the retiring president of Westminster College, who is also the immediate past chair of APCU.

I give thanks to God that our Presbyterian colleges and universities are in such capable hands.  John Griffith, president of Presbyterian College in Clinton, S.C., observed that while young people had long been doing volunteer work, he sees a new energy among today’s students to really want to change the world.  And, with God’s help, so they shall!