Swords into Plowshares

Sudan in Transition

Thursday 2 June 2011

11:00 am- 1:30 pm

at

Presbyterian Ministry at the United Nations

777 UN Plaza, 7th Floor

New York, NY 10017

 

11:00 – Noon

Briefing - Humanitarian concerns and hopes for South Sudan and insight on the new mandate as well as the Security Council trip to Sudan in May.

• Ms. Aida Mengistu (confirmed)- Desk Officer for Sudan, Africa II Section, Coordination & Response Division,Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
• Ms. Lacey Stone(confirmed), NGO Officer, U.S. Fund for UNICEF

 

12:15 – 1:30

Conversation- The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in ministry in Sudan.

• The Rev. Roger Dermody- Deputy Executive Director for Mission, General Assembly Council for Mission, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

 

Lunch will be provided.

Please R.S.V.P. to 216-697-4568 or [email protected]

 

 

The Presbyterian Ministry at the United Nations equips and inspires Presbyterians for global discipleship following Jesus and advocates for peace and justiceguided by policies of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s General Assembly. 

 

A trip down memory lane

There were gulls in the background - or so they told me. I could only see a building.

This evening brought my second Skype presentation on behalf of the Presbyterian Ministry at the United Nations.

The Agape House Campus Ministry at the University of Illinois in Chicago invited me to join them for a conversation on The Theology and Praxis of Doing Good. The conversation specifically explored how we live our faith in the public sphere.

I had the opportunity to share what the Presbyterian Ministry at the United Nations does: equipping Presbyterians for global discipleship and advocating for peace and justice in the name of Jesus in the United Nations community guided by policies of the General Assembly.

I talked about my faith journey and my call to minstry. I shared that it is crucial to remember and proclaim and live that Christians engage in ministry in the public sphere out of our faith in Jesus Christ.

The group talked about opportunities for living their faith. They identified a number of ideas:

• watching the interactions between people to ensure that people are treating one another with dignity and respect
• participating in campus groups that work for social justice
• advocating for state legislation
• supporting the Chicago Religious Leadership Network on Latin America and similar organizations
• taking part in events such as the CROP Walk

The conversation provided me the opportunity to reflect on how and why I have engaged in ministry in the public sphere - and to do so in a familiar place - I had been a field education student in campus ministry based at Agape House when I was a student. It was great to return - at least in a virtual sense.

Hopefully this fall or early winter, Agape House will bring a group to New York for a seminar. There may well be gulls over the East River.

Your gifts make possible the Presbyterian Ministry at the United Nations.

Northminster Presbyterian Church puts mission into practice

The Northminster Presbyterian Church visited the Presbyterian Ministry at the United Nations on Saturday, April 16.

The group had the opportunity to tie mission into advocacy practice.  The group from Northminster had spent days doing mission work close to New York City, including some hands on work like painting.

The use of paint took another form of mission when the group completed participated in making Red Hands for the Red Hand’s Campaign to end the use of child soldiers.

The group also had the opportunity to learn about Presbyterian Mission partners in different countries and educate each other about the work of Presbyterians around the world and far off places.

Later in the day, the group visited the United Nations headquarters and spent some time in the United Nations meditation room. 

Contact the Presbyterian Ministry at the United Nations to schedule a seminar.

Your gifts make possible the Presbyterian Ministry at the United Nations.

 

Our biggest seminar . . .

. . . at least since October 2010 . . . took place on April 11, 2011.

On the side of the bus, we read that it was from Passaic, New Jersey. The Rev. Vicky Ney, pastor of Springfield Presbyterian Church, had called a few minute earlier to say they were getting close to the United Nations. We sprang into action.

Ricky entered the United Nations to purchase the tickets for their tour. Ryan and I stationed ourselves on the sidewalk outside the building to wait. "This must be our group," we said when we saw the bus.

There were thirty-five in the group, mostly Presbyterians - several of their friends from the Jewis community joined them.

We escorted them through security and into the United Nations. The group was divided into three smaller groups for the tour. After the tour, the group came to the Church Center for the United Nations where they had lunch.

The Rev. Dr. Don Shriver, president emeritus of Union Theological Seminary, joined the group. He made a presentation on the role of forgiveness in public life. Dr. Shriver reminded the group that Romans 3:23 is empirically verifiable: "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."

As individuals and as communities we sin. Because we sin, forgiveness is essential to allowing us to move forward - in our personal relationships and in our common life.

Recognizing the need to avoid cheap grace, Dr. Shriver said that what is needed is not "to forgive and to forget" but "to remember and to forgive." The process of forgiveness involves remembering and repenting of evil and misdeeds. True forgiveness - forgiveness which allows us to move forward - can only follow remembrance and repentance. True forgiveness often will involve repair and restoration and reparation for the wrong that has been inflicted.

Drawing on the work of his books An Ethic for Enemies and Honest Patriots, Dr. Shriver cited efforts by Germany to come to terms with evil of the Holocaust and efforts by South Africa to come to terms with the evil of apartheid as examples of countries engaged in the forgiveness process. In Germany and in South Africa, this takes place through monuments and  museums, conversations and public events, and in text books.

Dr. Shriver noted that the school curriculum in Germany explores the Holocaust on three occasions. He also recounted a conversation with a student who observed that even after that, there remained much to recall and explore and process.

As he had done with the seminar from the Boston University School of Theology, Dr. Shriver reminded the particpants the need of the United States to remember -- particularly in relation to the exploitation and violation of people of color.

Many of the participants had lived through the Second World War - at least as children - and were moved by Dr. Shriver's presentation. All of us went home with much to ponder.

At the end, Dr. Shriver presented a commercial: he will be featured in a new PBS film on forgiveness. Check your local listings for Forgiveness: A Time to Love and a Time to Hate.

View some additional photos of the seminar.

Contact the Presbyterian Ministry at the United Nations to schedule a seminar.

Your gifts make possible the Presbyterian Ministry at the United Nations.

Forgiveness: A Time to Love and a Time to Hate

Check your local PBS listings for a new film on forgiveness.

Forgiveness: A Time to Love and a Time to Hate, by Helen Whitney, explores a range of stories from personal betrayal to global reconciliation after genocide.

Don Shriver, author of An Ethic for Enemies and Honest Patriots and speaker at two recent seminars at the Presbyterian Ministry at the United Nations, appears in the film. Here's the description of the film from PBS:

Forgiveness: A Time to Love and a Time to Hate provides an intimate look into the spontaneous outpouring of forgiveness: from the Amish families for the 2006 shooting of their children in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania; the struggle of '60s radicals to cope with the serious consequences of their violent acts of protest; the shattering of a family after the mother abandons them, only to return seeking forgiveness; the legacy and divisiveness of apartheid and the aftermath of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings in South Africa; the penitential journey of a modern-day Germany, confronting the horrific acts of the Holocaust; and the riveting stories of survivors of the unimaginably, brutal Rwandan genocide.

Once a uniquely religious word, forgiveness now is changing and there is no consensus about what it is and what it is becoming. However you define forgiveness, its power is real — and never more so when it struggles with the unforgivable. Inevitably, as Whitney reveals, its new role in the world raises serious and complex questions: why is forgiveness in the air today; what does that say about us and the times we live in; what are its power, its limitations and in some instances its dangers; has it been cheapened or deepened... or both?

 

Signings

The day started with a seminar for Springfield Presbyterian Church (New Jersey). From there I took a plane to Louisville.

On the plane was Ashton Kutcher. He signed various items for a number of people.

At the seminar was Don Shriver. He signed my copies of his books An Ethic for Enemies and Honest Patriots.

I got the better deal.

The Principles and Practices of Forgiveness

How does repentance lead to forgiveness and reconciliation and the future in public life?

How do we learn to love a country enough that we remember its misdeeds?

What can other countries learn from the South African experience of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission?

Students and faculty from a class at the Boston University School of Theology held a seminar on April 1 at the Presbyterian Ministry at the United Nations where these and related questions were considered.

Their day began with a tour of the United Nations. They then crossed the street to the Church Center for the United Nations and the seminar.

Deputy Permanent Representative D. Mashabane of the Permanent Mission of South Africa to the United Nations spoke about South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). He noted that the TRC represented a third way between the option of forgetting the past and the option of a Nuremburg type trial. While not perfect, it presented an opportunity for remembrance, repentance and reconciliation.

Key to the TRC process was President Nelson Mandela. President Mandela articulated a vision of a free, multi-racial South Africa when he was imprisoned. He emerged from imrpisonment still committed to that vision. Archbishop Desmond Tutu, chair of the TRC was another key player in the process.

After his presentation, Deputy Permanent Representative Mashabane engaged in an extended period of discussion with the participants. The group was international in makeup with participants from Democratic Republic of Congo, Zimbabwe, Cote d'Ivoire, Kenya, Jamaica, South Korea, and the United States. They had an interest in the historical experience of the TRC as well as the possibilities of the model for their particular situations.

The Rev. Dr. Don Shriver, president emeritus of Union Theological Seminary then joined the group. Dr. Shriver addressed the theology of forgiveness in the public life. His book, An Ethic for Enemies, is one of the earliest works to consider this topic.

Repentance plays a key role in forgiveness. The first step in repentance is remembrance. Dr. Shriver's book, Honest Patriots, looks at the importance of remembering - even remembering a country's misdeeds. In such remembering lies the way forward.

He cited Germany and South Africa as two countries that have remembered their misdeeds well. This takes place through monuments and  museums, conversations and public events, and in text books. He recognized the need of the United States to remember -- particularly in relation to the exploitation and violation of people of color. The conversation explored the need for repair and reparation to follow remembering as the journey is made to reconciliation. Again the participants engaged in a significant discussion, pondering how to appply these ideas in their own particular contexts.

Thanks to Deputy Permanent Representative Mashabane, the Rev. Dr. Don Shriver, and the participants in the Boston University School of Theology class for a profound seminar.

Contact the Presbyterian Ministry at the United Nations to schedule a seminar.

Your gifts make possible the Presbyterian Ministry at the United Nations.

 

 

 

What do we do?

We ansered that question on Friday for a group from First Presbyterian Church in Bloomington, Indiana.

At the end of a long day, at the end of a long week, the group arrived at the Presbyterian Ministry at the United Nations.

As they enjoyed cookies and pizza, we asked about what they had been doing. Their trip had included worship, visits to churches, learning about and participating in mission projects such as food pantries and soup kitchens, reflecting on the importance of advocacy, and exploring New York.

After a number of questions to the group, the group posed a question of their own: "So what do you do?"

There are two broad answers to that question. We help Presbyterians live as global disciples of Jesus. We engage in advocacy for peace and justice within the UN community, guided by policies of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

Here are some of concrete ways we do that:

We engage in advocacy:

• We set up meetings for Presbyterians and our partners with UN officials and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) working at the UN
• We participate in a working group of NGOs that meets with representatives of the States sitting on the Security Council
• We partner with NGOs to work on issues of food and hunger, human trafficking, and peace and justice in Israel and Palestine, Sudan, and other places
• We offer resources to individuals, congregations and other groups such as those on Libya and Cote d'Ivoire created with our partners at the Commission on the Status of Women

We help Presbyterians live as global disciples:

• We facilitate Presbyterian participation in the Commission on the Status of Women
• We host seminars for Presbyterian groups
• We create and share worship resources for dates related to the UN
• We encourage Presbyterians to Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF

We then offered our new friends from First Presbyterian Church an immediate opportunity and two future invitations to be global disciples.

The opportunity

We described the Red Hand Campaign to address the use of children as soldiers around the world. This campaign seeks to build international consensus and political will to halt the exploitation of children as soldiers by asking States to ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict. The disciples from First Presbyterian Church made Red Hands that will be combined with those made by other Presbyterians (see the photo) and delivered to States that have yet to ratify the protocol.

Invitation one

We asked the group to invite others in their congregation to make Red Hands and return them to us. We encouraged the group to learn more about child soldiers and other ways to protect children from being used as soldiers.

Invitation two

We asked the group to consider supporting the UNICEF Tap Project which raises money to provide clean water to children around the world. One way to support the Tap Project is to visit a participating restaurant and pay for the tap water. Direct contributions can be made. We suggested that the group approach their Session about the possibility of inviting members to make a contribution at an upcoming coffee hour.

It was great fun meeting our brothers and sisters - and to see again the Rev. Rachel Pedersen who had once served as an intern in the Presbyterian Ministry at the United Nations and who now is the associate pastor at First Presbyterian. We look forward to hearing about their future steps as global disciples.

Your generous gifts help support the Presbyterian Ministry at the United Nations.

Note: providing clean water helps achieve Millennium Development Goal 4: Reduce by two thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under-five mortality rate.

The photo of the group is by Ryan Smith (apologies to any folks from First Presbyterian that did not get included - we decided to do a picture on the spur of the moment as the group was leaving). The photo of the collection of Red Hands is by Ricky Velez-Negron.

What will I do?

Participants were asked to ponder "What will I do with what I have learned?" at the close of the Fab Five Seminar on climate change and its impacts at the Presbyterian Ministry at the United Nations. Responses included:

Push my church to go green.

Have my congregation assist me in raising money for a UNICEF School-in-a-Box.

Lower my carbon dioxide footprint.

Find out what has already been done to go green and push for us to keep changing.

Save the world, go green!

I have catalogued the ideas for informing our congregation about our experience here and all the individual ideas for projects that were suggested by the youth as a result of the experience. We will implement these ideas over the coming months.

Sell fair trade products at church.

Write to our congressperson about our views and ideas on global climate change.

Adopt a highway.

Pick up garbage on the sidewalk of Albany.

Sell natural green vegetables from our garden and use the money to buy eco-friendly cleaning supplies for our church.

Hold a bake sale with green frosting on the items.

Petition my school to place bricks in the tanks of toilets to reduce the amount of water used when flushed.

Reduce my carbon footprint by walking more or opting to carpool or use public transportation.

Talk to my pastors and tell them about all the green ideas my youth group has come up with.

Talk to my parents and make sure we are using as many energy-saving and eco-friendly products as possible.

Change the lighting in my house so it doesn't take up as much energy.

Buy locally grown produce

Switch to CFLs.

Remember to reuse bags.

Continue to recycle as much as possible.

Spread awareness of climate change to my community and peers.

And the only responses to all these ideas can be: Amen. You go!

What did I learn?

Several times the question "What did I learn?" was posed to participants (young people and adults alike) in the Fab Five Seminar on climate change and its impacts at the Presbyterian Ministry at the United Nations. At the closing of the seminar, responses included:

Climate change is more dangerous than we think.

We can make a difference and changing to a fluorescent light bulb is a perfect start.

Natural disasters are not gender neutral.

If we don't change the way we live, life as we know it will not exist.

There are five major organs that make up the United Nations; there are 192 member states in the UN - 193 when South Sudan is born and joins this summer.

There are more areas of the world that would be affected by melting ice caps than I thought.

A simple mosquito net can save 70% of a population.

I learned about the extent of the refugee operations by the United Nations High Commission on Refugees.

The east-west blocks in New York are long.

The north-south blocks are shorter than the east-west blocks.

I learned that scientists say the safe limit is 350 parts per million of carbon-dioxide in the atmosphere - we are at about 388; the United States emits the mosts carbon dioxide per person.

I learned so much about the structure and mission of the UN in broad terms.

I learned that many of the women who died in the 2004 tsunami in Asia, most likely died because they had not been taught to swim or climb trees.

Bangladesh has a small space and a large population.

Subways don't run across Manhattan at 44th Street.

I learned, very specifically, a great deal about the Sudan, the referendum and upcoming changes in the country, and the climate change issues that have impacted this country in the past and that will impact the two countries in the future.

Learning occurred in conversations with other participants, activities, presentations by speakers, and experiencing New York.