Presbyterian Women gathering preaches inclusion — for some
By Marie Bowen, Special to The Layman, July 25, 2012
ORLANDO, Fla. — Attendees at the Churchwide Gathering of Presbyterian Women seemed relaxed and joyful on Saturday morning after a free Friday evening.
The morning plenary included expressions of thanks to PW sponsors like Presbyterian Church (USA) Foundation and PILP (Presbyterian Investment and Loan Program).
Leaders also thanked contributors in the synods and presbyteries.
Linda Valentine, Executive Director of Presbyterian Mission Agency (formerly General Assembly Mission Council) brought greetings via video saying, “Oh, how I wish I were there with you!” She thanked Presbyterian Women for their commitment to mission and ministry. “You never shy away from challenges,” she praised, and you are a “voice to the voiceless.” She applauded PW’s care for the poor and their work for inclusion.
“My prayer for you is that you will go forth, witnessing to the love of Christ, and renewed and filled with the ‘rivers of hope’,” Valentine said, invoking the conference theme.
Presbyterian Women bestowed an honorary life membership on Scott Dowd, introducing him initially as Scott Dowd Jackson. Dowd is married to PW Communications Coordinator Susan Jackson Dowd. He has been video taping in the background and serving PW for many years and was visibly moved by the honor.
A contribution made in his name will be used for training women for leadership in the church. Dowd was told, “You are part of the caring inclusive community of Presbyterian Women.” Hints of what PW means by “inclusive” have been evident as spouses throughout the week have been introduced as “partner” rather than “husband.”
Inclusion was emphasized on Saturday morning with a dramatic reading by women representing the colors of yellow, brown, black, red, white and olive —“all part of the beautiful tapestry of God’s creation.”
The program also focused on “God’s people on the move” — immigrants who came seeking new land, economic security, religious freedom or escape from persecution as well as some brought here against their will.
“They prayed to God for strength” the readers spoke, and God responded, the program stated, “I delivered Israel from bondage. I sent my Son to make you free.”
“We are all family” the readers intoned, “We are all one.” The readers made a point to include those who are “pro-choice,” “no choice” and “my choice.” Pro-life women were omitted from their litany.
The reading ended with the claim that Presbyterian Women are women of vision—“a vision of peace, true reflection, a vision of one world … We are seekers of that vision.” As they finished some in the crowd stood and clasped hands and took up the chant “We are seekers of that vision.” Not all stood and not all chanted. Not all felt included.
There was a highlight in the morning plenary. Women heard reports of how God is working among two groups that are beneficiaries of the mission giving of Presbyterian Women.
Beth-El Farmworker Ministry, Inc. was founded in 1976 by Cumberland Presbyterian Church, reported Dave Moore. The ministry helps migrant farm workers in Wimauma, Immokalee and Arcadia — three Florida communities. The ministry provides worship services educational programs a food pantry and child care for migrant workers.
The ministry has a covenant relationship with three presbyteries and has received grants from both PCUSA and Cumberland Presbyterian Church. They have also been supported by grants from the Synod of South Atlantic and Presbyterian Disaster Association (2010) to assist farm-workers coping with crop freezes.
Presbyterian Women supported Beth-El with their 2003 Birthday Offering. Their support enabled construction of a 265-seat sanctuary on the 27-acre campus. Moore described it as “a space in which to lead Hispanic farm workers to God in the Reformed tradition.” It continues to “run like a river giving life to those who stop — drink to the thirsty, clothes to the naked.”
“When God is in the midst of a city it cannot be moved,” Moore said.
Moore also advocated extensive immigration reform. “Jesus didn’t say clothe the naked but check for documentation, he noted.” The average Hispanic farm worker comes to the United States in order to feed his family and works about seven months for $8,500.
Presbyterian Women are known for their generous, enthusiastic support of mission. As a mission project in conjunction with the Gathering, Presbyterian Women brought $20 gift cards and offerings totaling $39,250.15 which were presented to Moore for the Beth-El Farm-workers Ministry.
“What really touched my heart at this Gathering was the Native American woman this morning,” said a participant from Washington Presbytery encountered in the hallway following plenary. She was speaking of a report on the Dakota Mission.
Alexis Maloot began the report with a description of the Dakota reservation. She referenced a television special by Diane Sawyer who reported on the “shocking poverty” of the region and the paralyzing alcoholism and unemployment.
Sawyer’s report contained “visible and powerful images” Maloot said, but those images are problematic in that they are from a non-native perspective.
“It is important to pay attention to the visible,” she said, “but perhaps more important to pay attention to the invisible—the voices and perspectives of actual native peoples … speaking for and about themselves.”
To illustrate, she showed a short video produced by Native American students at Rosebud High School who wanted to show “we’re more than that.” In silence, letting words printed on their hands and arms speak for them, the students self identified traits like: honesty, faith, love, life, bravery, individualism and more. Their purpose was “to give the world a different vision of who they are.”
Maloot reminded listeners of Jesus’ exhortation in Mark 8:18, “Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear?”
“To see the invisible and hear the silent we must do our own work,” she said.
“Hope is new transformation and communication across diverse cultures that will help make the invisible visible.”
Maloot then turned the presentation over to Running Woman (aka Danelle Crawford McKinney), a descendant of one of the first Dakota Indian ministers. McKinney showed a video trailer for Smooth Feather, a movie inspired by Jim Miller, a man who saw the invisible in a vision. The movie website tells the story:
In the spring of 2005, Jim Miller, a Native spiritual leader and Vietnam veteran, found himself in a dream riding on horseback across the great plains of South Dakota. Just before he awoke, he arrived at a riverbank in Minnesota and saw 38 of his Dakota ancestors hanged. At the time, Jim knew nothing of the largest mass execution in United States history, ordered by Abraham Lincoln on December 26, 1862. “When you have dreams, you know when they come from the creator. As any recovered alcoholic, I made believe that I didn’t get it. I tried to put it out of my mind, yet it’s one of those dreams that bothers you night and day.”
Now, four years later, embracing the message of the dream, Jim and a group of riders retrace the 330-mile route of his dream on horseback from Lower Brule, South Dakota to Mankato, Minnesota to arrive at
the hanging site on the anniversary of the execution. “We can’t blame the wasichus anymore. We’re doing it to ourselves. We’re selling drugs. We’re killing our own people. That’s what this ride is about, is healing.” This is the story of their journey- the blizzards they endure, the native and non-native communities that house and feed them along the way, and the dark history they are beginning to wipe away.
In 1835, the first Dakota Mission was established — 130 years later Dakota people still struggle, McKinney shared.
“The time is now for Presbyterian women to come help Dakota women” to find reconciliation and the vision that Jim Miller has given to people,” she said.
“We don’t have to blame white people anymore,” she added; “the struggle has been to love freely and wholeheartedly as Christ has loved us and sustains us.”
With emotion she thanked Presbyterian women for their love and support “as we take up the challenge.”
“Thanks will come 150 years from now when my great-great-grandchildren will look back. In time we will gather at the Great Feast I have no words to say thank you and no gift to give,” McKinney said.
McKinney added that all she had to give was a song — “Many and Great,” in the new Presbyterian Hymnal. The men of the Dakota people sang the song in their last moments before being hanged.
McKinney sang it for PW as a prayer in her own native language.