Swords into Plowshares

Study resource on Africa

Resolution on Africa: A Guide for Study and Reflection [PDF] is now available for download.

Based on "Resolution on Africa" approved by the 215th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the study is intended for youth of all ages. Former Stated Clerk, the Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, notes that the study guide invites us to explore "our calling to be partners with Christians in Africa—and to do something about it!"

The study guide [PDF] has six sessions, but there probably is more material than can be covered in six one-hour sessions. Options are to expand the number of sessions or to be selective about the discussion questions to keep to a shorter time frame. The guide includes the resolution.

The sessions address a comprehensive range of topics and concerns:

• Introduction to Africa and the Church in Africa
• Singing a New Song:The African Church
• Diseases of Poverty (HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis) and Health Issues
• Human Rights
• Development
• The Role of the PC(USA) with the Churches in Africa

In the closing words of the resolution [PDF]:

"Christians in Africa sing and pray every day for the kingdom of God. We can do no less than join them—and in so doing fortify and renew our faith by sharing the pilgrimage of God’s people everywhere who seek justice, peace, and freedom. The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) joins African church partners in working for the liberation of all people worldwide."

Congregational-based community organizing

Remember the important role of congregational-based community organizing in renewing congregations and communities and seeking justice. Don't judge all community organizers and community organizing by a few bad apples.

That's the message of a recent post on Vital Signs, the blog of the Small Church and Community Ministry Office of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

Presbyterians and Presbyterian congregations have witnessed to their faith in Jesus Christ through community organizing and congregation-based community organizing for more than fifty years. These efforts have strengthened congregations and communities while addressing issues of poverty, predatory lending, crime, economic development, hate crime, educational systems, and more.

Vital Signs reminds us that as in any group or profession, there have been mistakes and abuses by individuals and organizations involved in community organizing.

But there has also been and there will continue to be good, solid, important work and profound ministry done through community organizers and congregational-based community organizing.

A prayer for United Nations Day

Here is a prayer for the United Nations for use in relation to United Nations Day (October 24) or any appropriate time:

God of compassion, walk alongside all of your global stewards who work to create a more just and peaceful world. Equip the United Nations community with a sense of urgency and humility that lets your will be done. Each day you give bread enough for all, grant us also the wisdom to ensure that everyone has enough.Teach the world’s leaders to forgive, to extend welcome across borders. Show the world a new path beyond greed, oppression, and division. We pray for a world united. We pray for the power to save succeeding generations from war. We pray for a glory that reaffirms the dignity and worth of every person. We pray that your grace might ensure life in larger freedom forever, for all of your children. Amen.

Jessica Hawkinson
Associate for International Relations and Education
Presbyterian United Nations Office

Photo of the United Nations General Assembly by UN Photo/Paulo Filgueiras.

Worship resources for United Nations Day

October 24 is United Nations Day. The Presbyterian Peacemaking Program and the Presbyterian United Nations Office offer worship materials for use on Sunday, October 25 or another time.

Download O God Who Formed Creation [PDF], a hymn by the Rev. Carolyn Winfrey Gillette, co-pastor of Limestone Presbyterian Church.

Find prayers, bulletin inserts, and more.

Here is one prayer:

Great God,
supreme ruler of all the earth,
give vision to those who serve the United Nations.
With justice and goodwill, may they take down barriers
and draw the world together in peace;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and forever.
Amen.

— from Peacemaking through Worship: Volume I by the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program

How will your congregation use its share?

Congregations that receive the Peacemaking Offering are encouraged to keep 25% of the offering for use in peacemaking ministries of their choice. These funds are used in many creative ways by different congregations. Ministries supported by the Peacemaking Offering include:

providing scholarships to peace and justice events

helping build a child care center in Malawi for children impacted by the HIV/AIDS pandemic

taking high school students on a journey through civil rights history

working with an interfaith group to build Habitat for Humanity houses

addressing gun violence

teaching children alternatives to violence

caring for veterans

and more.

How will your congregation use its portion of the Peacemaking Offering? Tell the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program so we can share your story.

The theme for the 2009 Peacemaking Offering is taken from Psalm 85:10, “Justice and peace shall kiss each other.”

The art is a serigraph by John August Swanson titled PSALM 85.

Support the Grocery Campaign

Tomato pickers toil long days for 45 cents per 32-lb bucket of tomatoes, with no right to overtime pay, no health insurance, no sick leave, no paid vacation and no right to organize to improve these conditions. In the most extreme cases, workers are held against their will and forced to work in modern-day slavery rings. The PC(USA) has been among those who have helped the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) reach groundbreaking agreements with Yum! Brands (Taco Bell, KFC, Pizza Hut and others), McDonald’s, Burger King, Subway, Whole Foods Market and Bon Appétit foodservice to

1. pay a penny per pound increase to farmworkers harvesting for suppliers of these companies and
2. work with the CIW to develop a human-rights-based code of conduct to address abuses in the fields, which includes a zero tolerance policy for modern-day slavery.
3. ensure a voice for farmworkers in monitoring improvements and reporting abuses.

Now the Fair Food Campaign is working with the CIW and others to ask three prominent grocery chains, Kroger, Ahold, and Publix, to forge agreements with the CIW that embrace these principles.

To support the Grocery Campaign:

• Send an email to the Rev. Noelle Damico for postcards to send to the CEO of the corporation whose grocery store is in your neighborhood.
• Meet with managers of your local Kroger-, Publix- or Ahold–owned grocery store. 
• Send an email to Kroger's CEO.
• Download a flyer on the Grocery Campaign. [PDF]
• View a video about the Labor Day Freedom Ride to advocate with Publix grocery stores in Sarasota. Riders included Presbyterians from the First Presbyterian Church of Sarasota.

Respond to God's call to do justice

Celebrate Labor Day this year by examining the PC(USA)’s work with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers on the Campaign for Fair Food. Get resources for preaching and worship including lectionary commentary [PDF], a prayer of confession [PDF] and a prayer for the church at work [PDF].

Peace Notes Summer 2009

The Summer 2009 issue of Peace Notes, the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program's print newsletter, is available for download. It will come out in print later this month. But you can download it from this blog. Download Peace Notes Summer 2009 [PDF]

Stories include information about the 30th anniversary of Peacemaking: The Believers' Calling [PDF], work of RECONCILE in Sudan, accompaniment in Colombia, efforts to create a nuclear free world, a way to support our partners in the United Church of Christ in the Philippines, the 2010 Peacemaking Seminar, a January term D.Min. class at the Presbyterian United Nations Office, new resources, including a book of hymn by the Rev. Carolyn Winfrey Gillette, a book of prayers by the late Jim McGinnis, and 50 Ways to Save the Earth by Rebecca Barnes-Davies.

Download Peace Notes Summer 2009 [PDF]

Help protect the world's poorest countries

Call your US Representative today and ask him or her to co-sponsor the Stop VULTURES Fund Act (HR 292\32). On June 18th, Representatives Maxine Waters (D-CA) and Spencer Bachus (R-AL) re-introduced , a bill in the House of Representatives that would prevent vulture funds from making this excessive profit at the expense of poor countries. 

'Vulture fund' [PDF] is a name given to a company that seeks to make profit by buying up debt in default on the secondary market for pennies on the dollar, then trying to recover up to ten times the purchase price, often by suing impoverished countries in U.S. or European courts. Some vulture funds target failing companies but others target the sovereign debts of impoverished countries.

Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) are particularly vulnerable to vulture funds who purchase the defaulted debts of HIPC countries at much reduced prices and litigate against the debtor for inflated sums, making huge profits on the backs of the world's poorest citizens.  

The Stop VULTURE Funds Act would prevent these funds from using US courts to collect more than 6% interest above the amount they paid to purchase the debt.  It also would require vulture funds to operate in a more transparent and fair manner.

Call your US Representative today.

Simple Dinner, Amazing Ministry

The Big Tent
Friday, June 12
Dinner

Friday evening, peacemakers gathered for a simple meal at Atlanta's North Avenue Presbyterian Church, sponsored by the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program and hosted by the Peacemaking Committee of the Presbytery of Greater Atlanta. The church’s food service ministry provided the meal. Proceeds benefited peacemaking ministries of the church and the presbytery. As the peacemakers enjoyed the dinner, amazing stories of ministry in the name of Jesus Christ were shared.

Jeff Meyers told of North Avenue’s weekly Men’s Community Bible Study. Participants in the study include homeless men and college students. Grace abounds as the love of Christ is shared and new understandings and relationships are formed.

The Rev. Dr. Scott Weimer, senior pastor at North Avenue, spoke about Street GRACE (Galvanizing Resources Against Child Exploitation) is a non-denominational alliance of churches dedicated to ending the commercial sexual exploitation of children. North Avenue leaders played a key role in creating this ministry which could serve as a model for other communities.

The Rev. Dr. Betsy Lunz spoke about The Open Door Community’s ministry to build relationships with and support of some of the most neglected and outcast of God’s children: the homeless and our sisters and brothers who are in prison. The Open Door also seeks to dismantle racism, sexism and heterosexism, abolish the death penalty, and proclaim the Beloved Community. The Peacemaking Committee of the Presbytery of Greater Atlanta is among the partners of The Open Door.

Refreshed and inspired, the peacemakers returned to the Hyatt where the Big Tent continued.