We recognize Christ’s urgent call to be vital congregations and worship communities, where God’s love, justice and mercy shine forth and are contagious. Faith comes alive when we boldly engage God’s mission and share the hope we have in Christ. This Earth Day, the Presbyterian Hunger Program is again reminded of the 277 Earth Care Congregations (ECCs) and all the ways in which they turn their commitments into caring for God’s Creation into ministry that rejuvenates, restores and revitalizes their own communities.
Agriculture is the main source of livelihood for farmers in the Anglophone regions of Cameroon (English-speaking Northwest and Southwest regions). About 75% of the population earns their livelihood through farming. Many of these farmers are women who produce the bulk of food eaten in most households across the regions and beyond. Farmers in these regions are faced with many challenges from the impacts of climate change and the current Anglophone crisis.
It humbles me the extent to which our Roma friends and colleagues practice hospitality, always laying a table for us with whatever they have. They are among the poorest of the poor, marginalized by a society that feels threatened by an alien culture living in their midst. I don’t use the word alien as a negative, just a reality. They are a people with deep traditions, a strong sense of family and community, their own language, their own music, their own style of dress. They do not wish to be assimilated, but they do wish to live in peace with their neighbors, if it is only possible. Often, should a job be posted, as soon as a Roma man or woman applies, it is not available. The Roma are also subject to violence (pogroms) and blamed for any bad incident that takes place in a community. It is assumed that they will steal what is not nailed down.
Henry owned a parcel of land. He had bought a 100-by-100-foot lot in a dangerous part of town years ago hoping to make a profit when the neighborhood improved. For a time, he lived in the vacant building on the lot to chase away squatters and even got beat up a few times. Henry was a big man. What I remember most about Henry was the way he walked, with a purposeful stride, wearing a white button-down shirt with the sleeves rolled up. My partners and I had gone to see him about buying that piece of property. He was a tough negotiator, but eventually we came to an agreement.
The pandemic has stretched the Church in many ways — but we are still very much … here. Although it was hard at first, we have expanded our thinking, and our doing, in new and innovative ways to close the distance and be together. We have continued to worship. We have continued to build and shape community; we have continued to take care of one another. And on top of all that, we have continued to come together to serve those in need; both here in our own community and all over the world. Despite the difficulty, struggle and loss, the Church continues to declare its presence in the world, through different means, certainly, but toward the same purpose.
When I close my eyes, I can see Mr. Rogers changing his shoes, putting on his sweater and singing … “Won’t you be my neighbor?” Growing up in the early 1970s, “Mister Rogers Neighborhood” was one of several PBS shows my younger sister and I watched. And when I reflect now on over 30 years of educational ministry, it’s easy to see how he influenced me, whether through his gentle, direct, respectful voice or the use of puppets and music or his emphasis on neighborliness, inclusion and peacemaking.
“Necessity is the mother of invention” is a term that we often hear when talking about those who have become successful in their endeavors. There is no doubt that the yearning to resolve difficult situations inspires ingenious solutions! Les Brown, a motivational speaker who overcame overwhelming odds of poverty and family tragedies, says, “you gotta be hungry, and when you are hungry, it is necessary, and when it is necessary, you understand and believe it is possible!”
International Women’s Day is a day set aside each year to address challenges that are unique to women and girls. For 2021, U.N. Women has chosen the theme “Women in Leadership: Achieving an Equal Future in a COVID-19 World.” According to U.N. Women, this theme “celebrates the tremendous efforts by women and girls around the world in shaping a more equal future and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.”
As a young adult, I moved to New York City. I wanted to know what it was like to ride in a crowded subway right underneath another person’s armpit. I wanted to know what it was like to walk down a crowded Manhattan street and have to engage with some people who were well and some who were not so well, all co-existing together.
On this Health Awareness and Day of Prayer for Healing and Wholeness, it seems clear that most people who read this will have been acutely aware of their own health and that of their loved ones and indeed, perfect strangers, as we have navigated the COVID-19 pandemic in the past 11 months. The challenges posed by the restrictions and practices we have followed have brought far-reaching and long-lasting changes to nearly every aspect of our individual and communal lives. Issues of racial and economic injustice have demanded our attention and action. As a result, we have been lifting up prayers for healing and wholeness for a world that has known trauma and loss as we seek to carry on and support one another in the midst of this time of heartache and brokenness.
