Golden Moments Part -1- Advent 2009

It has been a puzzle for me for many years why there are times when everything is going well, you know the feeling “God’s in His Heaven, all’s well with the world” sort of stuff, and then without warning things seem to go astray and on the face of it there seems to be no rhyme or reason. A few years ago I was at a garden show with some of my family, they were very keen to see some of the vegetarian cooking demonstrations but, being a foodie philistine and a committed carnivore, this was not the highest item on my agenda and so I went and had a coffee, again, and on the back of a program for an organic vegetable steamer I started writing about these high and lows.

It was Socrates who said that the unexamined life is not worth living and I sometimes think that he went a little bit over the top for most people but he did have a point. It’s a shame that he did not put it into the positive vein by saying that the examined life if lived well can bring about a great deal of enjoyment; at the time and in the remembering and so it was for me on this Saturday afternoon at the National Arboretum in Coventry UK.

It was a great time to actually just sit, think and remember some of the parts of my life that in the everyday run of life seem to get lost and as I wrote about these perceived ‘Golden Moments’ a pattern begun to emerge that really made me sit up and start to take this quest a little more seriously than I have ever done before. Here before my eyes I saw what seemed to be the building blocks of creating a future of golden moments lasting long into the future. Could there really be a clue here for the future? Or maybe just an answer for some of those up and down experiences that I seemed to dog my life.

As I sat and scribbled I came up with some ‘Golden Moments’ in my life that I look back to and really enjoy the memories. This was not an extensive list and there were times that did not get a jersey although I remembered with a great deal of satisfaction and emotion. Sometimes they were brief moments but there were some that lasted over a number of years like bringing up my family with my wife, the years of Officership, different places that I served, and a number of events in my ‘new life’.

So why did these times stand out for me? What made me remember them over all the other things that have happened? What was it that always makes me look back and feel that warm comfortable feeling, sometimes of loss, sometimes of pain but always cherished and good memories that I sometimes feel that I just cannot lose. Without them I would be the poorer and just a spectator in life rather than a participant.

As I searched for words the building blocks became quite evident for me and off the page leapt some common denominators that marked these Golden Moments. There is nothing really new about all this but sometimes we forget to look at the big picture of our lives and simply focus on the negative and so the negative takes over and that is what it becomes. Many successful people have always promoted the fact that ‘you get what you focus on’ and how true it is for so many of us. Three common denominators came to the fore for me in this little reverie in Coventry. I do not propose that this is an extensive list for everyone but we will all, if we go through this simple exercise come up with different denominators but there will be common denominators for your Golden Moments.

For me as I expanded on these good memories there were three criteria that seemed to stand out among all the others. There were other things that happened but it seemed for me that these three helped me to create my own future. I am fortunate that there is good alliteration to help me remember them but they were
Competence
Community
Commitment
Are they easy to remember or what? So when I look to the future; ease of remembering these is very important to me when I get a serious attack of ‘CRAFT’.


Fletch
Peter Fletcher
Former
Australia

THE SEAT OF POWER FAR REMOVED...

It’s no secret that I sometimes have issues with the systems of The Salvation Army. Like most people, I didn’t choose to enter officership because of its specific doctrinal stance on eschatology or the structure of its church polity. I came because of open doors and a gentle nudging of the Spirit, and I’ve stayed because of the work that I do and the gentle constraints of the Spirit.

When I think of structure, my personal preference would be towards a congregational or presbyterian form of church governance rather than the episcopal (centralized) form that we hold. Yet just as if I worked at Wal-Mart, I can’t walk in and say, “O, my personal preference is . . .” and expect the corporation to bow at my feet and change the way it is organized.
So for more than a hundred years, officers have both sat in the seats of power and have learned to adapt to the system as it is. While it may seem paternalistic, I’ve encountered many with good hearts who attempt to work within the system as it stands and provide support to those who need it, particularly in regards to officership.

To those who’ve been hurt through this system, I’ve seen enough over thirty-plus years to know that there are some leaders who will risk their necks to find solutions. We’ve had the calls from the D.C. requesting that we make room for another officer for a while until their situation can be sorted out. We’ve been asked about employment opportunities for someone transitioning out of officership. Could I recommend a therapist in a certain area?

The difficulty is that nobody really knows, and due to its concern over confidentiality as well as its structure of leadership, it’s likely that no one will ever know the full story. It ends up feeling as though there are too many secrets that are fueled by behind-the-scenes maneuvering. Can’t we just sit down at the table and talk it out?

In our community, there is a Family Care Team that provides intervention to families who are at risk or in crisis. They meet at the Kroc Center in the room we’ve named the Sacred Space and wrestle through the issues facing the family. Professionals come from groups that have some contact with the family (school, church, private agencies, mental health, etc.) and discuss what supports can be offered. Here’s the hint of a difference between that model and the Army’s system – the family is in the room, participating fully in the conversation.

Could it ever happen in our organization? They’ve been officers for ten years, but the marriage is shaky and the future is unknown. What if the counselor, the D.C., a supportive staff member, the pastoral care officer, a representative from the personnel secretary’s office, a family friend and the officer couple met together to work out a plan. Would it make a difference? And, dear ones who’ve joined the fellowship of former officers, could it have made a difference for you?

Major JoAnn Shade ministers with her husband Larry as the corps officers and Directors of the Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community Center. She received a B.A. in sociology from S.U.N.Y. at Binghamton, a M.A. in Pastoral Counseling, and a Doctor of Ministry degree from Ashland Theological Seminary in June, 2006. She is a prolific writer, lecturer, and busy counselor and has been a valued contributor to this blog since its inception.

LOSS AND ITS LEGACY IN MINISTRY

Sometimes, it takes a 2 x 4 to get our attention.

In April 1991, my wife, Cindy, went into the hospital for a routine hysterectomy (that sounds like a typically male way of putting such surgery). She had put off the surgery until after our daughter’s wedding. Cindy’s children were her life and delight.

The Monday after she returned home from the hospital, her gynecologist telephoned informing her that the some of the fibroid tumors were malignant.

This call began a long, losing battle to defeat the cancer that had spread to her spine and to her lungs. Three years of a reasonably productive and full life quickly descended into weeks of unbearable pain, and then she was swallowed in a coma of silence. Finally, death drank deep from her spirit and it was over.

On that day, my life ended and began again. I didn’t know just how radical it would be. My job was now to finish our un- finished symphony. For thirty-three years we had written movements together – movements of pensive pleasure, agony of conflict and struggle, deep joy and pain of birthing and parenting, and mundane daily notes of scarcity of money and wealth of creativity. But now it was time for me to write the last movement alone. To do this, I needed to listen to the other movements of our life. I needed to play them back in agonizing detail, to feel them as they were lived and to see how they might be resolved in the last movement.

A strange, but, as I have discovered, not so uncommon thing happened. I didn’t have time to listen. Or rather, it was too painful, and so I refused to listen. I kept myself busy. After all, I had a daughter living at home and I had a congregation of 800 people to take care of. I had bouts of anger and screaming. I drove thousands of miles in search of nothing, in hope of peace.

I have a staff and a congregation to nurture. Three months after my wife’s death, the organist of sixteen years went out to the garage behind her parents house and found her father with a gunshot wound through the roof of his mouth and out the back of his head. She had suffered the death of her husband twenty years earlier by suicide.

Eighteen months after Cindy died, my second-born daughter was married and moved out of my home. The same family who had gathered for my wife’s funeral gathered to celebrate with us. Two weeks after my daughter left home, I went to Florida to fish. I received a call on the car phone that the custodian of the church who had been with us for six years had taken his lover and her children hostage. I turned the car around and five hours later was at the scene of the stand-off. The children had been released. The place looked like a war zone. I stood silent vigil with friends and family – and at
about midnight the police stormed the house. Tony and his lover
were found dead – murder/suicide.

The congregation and staff were in shock. Anger and confusion was the order of the day. We pulled ourselves together and took care of youth, children, and adults, all of whom had loved and trusted Tony. How did we miss this coming? Who can we trust? We hosted the service of memorial and shared leadership with his congregation. We gave thanks for his life and prayed mercy on his soul.

On a Saturday night two weeks after Tony’s death, I received a call that my dad was dying in Kansas City. An hour later the call came that he was dead. I called my associate – who had been caring for everyone else – and again she stepped up and covered for me. I flew off to be with my family who had gathered to help me grieve my wife’s death and to celebrate my daughter’s marriage. I put on my best professional demeanor and worked with the funeral home and the church. After all, I knew how to do this.

A couple of months later, my first-born daughter and her two- year-old son left her husband and divorced. She struggled with her life and making it alone.

I returned to my work at my church the week after my dad died. But it had gotten harder to do. I found that hospital visits would literally make me sick to my stomach. I discovered normal conflict and negotiation at the church more than I could deal with. I had little energy to preach – something that I have loved to do throughout my ministry. I began to struggle – what shall I do with my life? I don’t feel like I am doing a good job at the church. They
need more leadership than I am offering. I struggled to speak words
and doubted the ones I came up with.

Dan Moseley was named the Herald B. Monroe Professor of Practical Parish Ministry at CTS in 1997. Prior to coming to CTS, Moseley was the executive minister of Vine Street Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Nashville, Tennessee for 15 years. He has also served other churches in Kansas and Oklahoma. Moseley earned both a B.D. in ethics (1968) and a D.Min. (1970) in ethics from Vanderbilt Divinity School where he also served as adjunct professor in church ministries (1984-1990). He has also been adjunct faculty at St. Paul Seminary in Kansas City, MO. He has done further study at the Ecumenical Institute in Switzerland. Moseley is very active in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) having served on the General Board of the Christian Church of Tennessee, the Regional Education Committee and the Committee on the Ministry as well as other regional and general units. Moseley has also been active in co

An Important Chapter in Church History

URGENTLY Published: 2009-11-26

I want to talk about church father Athanasius in Egypt. He was only twenty-three when he wrote his most famous book that explained the Incarnation, that Jesus is divine and that he came in human form when he was born of the Virgin Mary. Athanasius taught that Jesus is identical with God, but that he must come in human form to his death on the cross allow us to salvation.

It was in the early 320s. Christianity became the state religion. Now, no more need to be persecuted or killed for their faith in Jesus. It was then that the Assembly was attacked from within, by priests and church leaders who wanted to bring Christianity to the surrounding pagan culture and demands of intellectual understanding. Jesus was described as an ordinary person who had been unusually blessed of God. Some have found that Jesus was created in the same way as the angels had been added. Human sin and denied the need for reconciliation was rejected.

The 23-year-old young priest Athanasius boldly step forward and preached that if Jesus is equal with the Father, but created just like everything else has become, he is not worthy of worship. The conflict led to the church meeting in Nicaea in 325. A creed was formulated and adopted by 300 priests who had come. It is said that many of them had survived torture and periods when they had their eyes utstuckna, arms twisted, limbs amputated. They were poor, ragged and hungry, those who were persecuted, had only recently been rehabilitated. How could they deny the faith that led them through all the years of martyrdom?

Revenge
Five years later, Athanasius had been elected bishop of the Church in Egypt and Libya. Those who had lost the battle of Nicea and still wanted to create a more humane vision of Jesus, now planned his revenge. A bishop named Arsenius agreed with some colleagues in the Arianism that he would hide in a monastery in the desert, then the others would spread a rumor that Athanasius had murdered Arenius to silence opposition.

In connection with the trial of Athanasius, his enemies with a proof that there really had been a murder. One had a hand chopped off to show the court and it was alleged to belong to the murdered bishop Arsenius.
Now it was in a hurry, and Athanasius of honor was deeply challenged. The boldly preacher would be tried for murder. But his friends had begun to suspect fraud and some young fellow had ridden into the desert to the monastery where the bishop Arsenius was hidden. They took him with chained arms and his head hidden behind a piece of cloth. So they brought him into court. The witnesses who had appeared and suggested that the bishop had been murdered was now to be there when her face uncovered, and the "murdered" the bishop was forced to stretch out their hands. The accusation against Athanasius had been false.

Prolonged conflict
The conflict lasted long. Arianism did everything to defeat the faithful. We wanted to reassess the Christian faith to make it easier for pagans to accept. Athanasius was subjected to attempted murder and slander. At one point the enemy paid a prostitute who hid in the bedroom of Athanasius and "revealed" to accuse him of hypocrisy. On 8 February 356 surrounded the church where Athanasius preached before a large collection. The soldiers rushed in with drawn swords and killed many worshipers, but some friends were afraid that Athanasius fled and thereby saved his life.
He died at the age of 77 and had experienced how Bible-believing Christianity had won in the struggle against delusion. Later, Mohammed took up Arianism ideas and formed a religion where Jesus admired as a man and prophet, but not recognized as divine.

Similar struggles today
Right now, there is a similar struggle for Christian faith in Sweden and the rest of Europe. Dean Åke Bonnier in the Great Church in Stockholm said on 14 November in his blog and made it clear that the testimony of the Gospel of Jesus should not be perceived as credible historical depictions. He mocks those who believe in the virgin birth and reject several large and important contexts in both the Old and New Testaments. What we are seeing now is an equally dramatic campaign of denial as those in the 4th century.

It is important to read John's 1st letter and see what the Bible considers the denial. "Whoever denies the Son has not the Father" (2:23). "So you know again the Spirit of God: every spirit which confesses that Jesus is the Christ, who came in the flesh is from God" (4:2). The denial of the Bible tells how Jesus became a man, revealing the disbelievers who then not be able to count themselves as Christian in the Biblical sense.

Stanley Sjoberg, Sweden

Latvia Update - First SA Soldiers enrolled in Seda

SEDA, LATVIA

Morning! It is still very warm in Riga. About 10 degrees and it lends itself to long walks in the city at night. Riga is a beautiful city, although there are plenty of completely derelict houses, among the few renovated.

EAPN Network
On Tuesday we were with the formation EAPN - European Anti Poverty Network. It has not previously been such a network in Latvia. The purpose metd EAPN is to be an advocacy group for government and other decision makers to fight fatigdomen in the country.

Salvation Army has always worked in these two directions:
-down by providing food to those who are starving (even if it does not solve the problem of poverty)
-up by influencing policy makers to structural changes in society so as to reduce poverty in the country.

Independence Day
On Tuesday, it was also the National Day of Latvia.

Ice Hockey
Last Saturday, I received a belated birthday present. Ruth had bought two tickets to the Dynamo Riga's home game. Dynamo Riga players in the Russian league and is the only team in Latvia as part of the league. I read this week that AIK has applied to play in Russian league, and even a couple of other Swedish teams were interested. In the future, we may see the Swedish team play in Riga.

The match saw us together with over 10,000 other spectators. It was an exciting game with both extension and punishment orientation. In the end we lost (we = Riga). But it was fun anyway.


Soldier enrollment of Seda
Today is Sunday. Ruth and I are going to Seda, a few mil north of Skangale to be part of the first soldier opening ever in the village. Seda is still an outpost and is now starting to gather soldiers to qualify to become a corps.


Only a few weeks ago we were with the enrollment of the first soldier in Drusti few mil from there. Drusti is also an outpost on the road to becoming a corps.

Salvation Army in Seda collected in two small rooms in a rather dilapidated house in Seda (see picture below). Places of worship, where we will have the opening is smaller than a normal-sized Swedish living room.
The second part of the house is an ambulance center, which is about to move out. After Christmas, we expect to hire even the part of the building of the municipality. The rent is 0 Lat month, but we will pay for electricity and heating. The house is in great need of renovation.
Prayer Week in Latvia
Next week is Prayer Week for The Salvation Army in Latvia. Every hour around the clock for seven days, it is someone who has assumed the responsibility to ask. There are plenty of Prayers here in Latvia. But there are also plenty of [rayers of thanksgiving.!

Have a blessed week!
Peter Baronowsky

----------------------------


This government owned building has been abandoned... a bit of Kroc money, a SA Crest, flags, Bibles, mission minded Christians and ???

Broken Covenant…? -2-

She had relapsed and this time felt genuine remorse for her actions. Maybe it was caused by the emptiness felt since her father’s death at age 5, or perhaps it was because of her new boyfriend (a drug addict himself and currently attending our church with his mother). Whatever it was that triggered the relapse she knew she had hurt her mom, and 2 brothers, but most of all realized this brand new relationship with Christ meant things could be different.

I asked her how things were going and she proudly shared that she had been reading the Max Lucado Study Bible secured on that second visit to our church. She said she’s been journaling about God, and sharing about her new life with new friends at the rehab.

She introduced me to the guard who had recognized me when I first came in, followed by her new best friend, a woman who was searching for God. “This is my pastor, Pastor Jeff, you would like it at our church.”

Before I knew it the hour was up and we spent the last 60 seconds praying that God would continue the work of healing and grace He had begun in her a few weeks ago.

On June 7, 1987 I signed my Officer Covenant which said…

CALLED BY GOD
to proclaim the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ
as an officer of The Salvation Army

I BIND MYSELF TO HIM IN THIS SOLEMN COVENANT
to love and serve him supremely all my days,

to live to win souls and make their salvation the first purpose of my life,

to maintain the doctrines and principles of The Salvation Army, and, by God's grace to prove myself a worthy officer.

Almost 2 years ago Jessica and I sensed that God was leading us into new opportunities and possibilities to fulfill the covenant we made while kneeling at the altar in front of our Saviour, our session mates, the Territorial Commander, and our Training Principal. In an attempt to validate this change to many who still serve as officers I have continued to compare our new ministry to the years we served as officers.

It is different…not better, not worse, not more spiritual or less ordained…just different.

As we enter into the Advent season I thank God every day for The Salvation Army and the special impact it will have on millions of people this year. And now I can also thank God every day for our new little church Living Water Church Ministries, knowing that we may only minister to one recovering crack head, but it’s what He has called us to do!

Blessings!



Jeffery Bassett

Jeffery is the Founding Pastor of Living Water Church Ministries. He has a BS in Bible and MS in Organizational Leadership from Philadelphia Biblical University where he teaches as an adjunct professor. Jeffery is employed full time by the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association where he serves as the Director of Development.
Living Water Church Ministries
1813 Central Avenue
Wall, NJ 07719
USA 1-732-280-1690
pastor@livingwaterchurchministries.org

Broken Covenant…? -1-

The early Saturday morning drive was marked by a brisk fall breeze as I got into my 2004 Honda Civic to visit Sue (not her real name) at the rehab center 40 minutes away. A couple of weeks ago she showed up with her mom at our little ‘home church’. Mom traveled 30 minutes up the Garden State Parkway, desperate for something or someone to help her beautiful 19 year old daughter kick her crack addiction.

We didn’t have any money, no food, clothing or rent assistance to give. While I am sure they could have used all of these services they weren’t the purpose of their visit. That evening huddled in our living room we shared the only thing we had to give…His name is Jesus. They came back the next week and asked for a Bible. We have been focusing on the importance of staying in the Word every day.

As I drove to see her I knew there would be no one to approve a voucher for my gas expenditure, there would be no one asking for an account of my visitation schedule, and instead of catching some extra sleep Monday morning, I would be back at my little office working the first of 2 jobs in order to pay our bills.












I walked past the guard at the door, dressed in my 15 year-old sports jacket, purchased prior to one of the Officer Family Life retreats our family was privileged to attend. He looked at me and said, “Salvation Army Man” My immediate response was, “Yes” then that changed to, “Not any more”

Where did he know me from, how did he connect me with The Army? Maybe it was the 4 year-old navy blue pants I was wearing that got hours of use while serving in the Salvation Army canteen following Hurricane Katrina? Perhaps it was the Bible in my hand, yea, I carried it everywhere as an officer, and it has my name embossed on it.

As I sat through the required 1 ½ hour orientation before seeing Sue that was led by 2 Nar-A-Non mothers, who volunteered to share their own journeys about their loved ones addicted to drugs, I wondered what it was that tipped him off to my 21 years as an officer.

The visit with Sue went great.


Blessings!



Jeffery Bassett

Jeffery is the Founding Pastor of Living Water Church Ministries. He has a BS in Bible and MS in Organizational Leadership from Philadelphia Biblical University where he teaches as an adjunct professor. Jeffery is employed full time by the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association where he serves as the Director of Development.
Living Water Church Ministries
1813 Central Avenue
Wall, NJ 07719
USA 1-732-280-1690
pastor@livingwaterchurchministries.org

Womanist Theology PART -2-

African-American Officers; USA Eastern Territory

From: Journal of Aggressive Christianity, Issue 45, October - November 2006 21

I’ve especially appreciated the writings of Renita Weems, who definitely has the ability to “cross-over,” for she makes the leap from learned theologian to conversational writer, and she is able to use her African-American womanist background to speak broadly to women of varying ethnicities and backgrounds. Weems is currently the William and Camille Cosby Visiting Professor at Spelman College, and has spent many years on the faculty at Vanderbilt University. Weems has also been ordained in the African Methodist Episcopal Church since 1984. Of her ordination, she says, “I didn’t choose ministry so much as ministry chose me. I hope I heard correctly, but I can’t always be sure” (Weems 1999, 115).


Her personal story shines through her writing for women. Rooted in a small storefront Pentecostal church in Atlanta, she speaks of those days: Of course, education tends to make us look back at our conservative, working-class origins with contempt. In order to gain acceptance into the upper classes, in order to buy into academia, in order to move around in a class of educated clergy, for the sake of upward mobility, we must denigrate the people, the experiences, and all the
memories that shaped us . . .

Yet, Weems recognizes, that grounding provided her with “a heart full of hope which keeps me tiptoeing to the altar” (Weems 1999, 97).

Role in the Church

It may be too early to judge the impact of womanist theology on the church at large, and on the Black church in particular. Baker-Fletcher suggests that, “Black women and men can transform present existence by actively remembering and practicing the prophetic, generational wisdom of the past . . . in a way that is salvific and communal.” She also believes that its purpose is to “ remember the heritage of creative, prophetic wisdom in African-American culture “(Baker-Fletcher 1993, 8). Linda Thomas knows that “womanist theologians can bring the experience and knowledge of the marginalized to the center by standing aside to let the community speak for itself” (Thomas 2003, 2).

One of the questions to be answered, although it may be too early to do so, is this: Is womanist theology just a flash in the pan of the late twentieth century, or will it have value in the history of the church? Townes asks a similar question in a different form:

I think it telling that in this late modern/postmodern theological world academic denominational local church that the work of men and women of African descent, the work of other racial ethnic women and men remains off the radar screen of so many who declare what is perfect and imperfect in theological thought church doctrine and righteous living
our lives
our experiences of God
our strivings to understand the nature and work of the church
our yearnings for the spirit
our cries and shouts to Jesus
oddly enough remain categorized as drama or theater or “interesting’ some have noticed our absence in their thought
but have faulted us for not using the masters’ and mistresses’ tools with the same kind of ghastly precision they do to annihilate or obscure the vastness of God’s ongoing revelation and God’s eternal and unrelenting call to all of us to grow in grace from right where we have been planted to celebrate the richness found in being created in the image of a god who is quite simply limitless they have forgotten a cardinal rule that many of us learned in nursery school or perhaps kindergarten: sharing (Thomas 2004, 189-190).

Another question of importance is this: Can womanist theology impact the lives of the average church-going woman of color, or is it, like many other theological positions, potentially only for the theologians to discuss? How can it impact the lives of poor black women in the neighborhoods where Salvationists minister?

It will be up to scholars such as Renita Weems to find ways to communicate outside of the ivory towers of academia, as she had through her column in Essence and in her recent writings such as Showing Mary and What Matters Most, in which she has been
able to speak to every-day women about common life situations from a theoretical base of womanist theology. She, like Sojourner Truth, is finding ways for ‘keeping things going while things are stirring’” (West and Glaude 2003, 845). But it will also be the responsibility of the ordinary woman of color to tell her story, and so to keep alive the
tradition of faith and practice into the twenty-first century.

Practical Implications

While the Salvation Army is not considered a black denomination, in the US quite a number of its congregations are predominantly African-American, and so the lack of exposure to this way of looking at theology is of concern, even considering the Salvation Army’s conservative theological bent. Yet I am not a woman of color, so how can I
speak to this topic? In 1994, Jane Evershed coined a new term, “sisterist”. “To be sisterist is to recognize and celebrate diversity among women, to work towards a common goal regardless of race, creed, nationality, or sexual preference, to disregard social structures which place women in groups that separate them from each other”
(Baker-Fletcher 1998, v). As a white woman of relative privilege who has worked for a number of years among poor African-Americans, as much as I might long to be, I cannot truly be a womanist, but I can, by Evershed’s definition, be a sisterist, and I
would suggest that can be a start for those of us who minister across cultures.

We are able to adopt the spirit of womanist theology as described by Townes: [Womanist spirituality] is the deep kneading of humanity and divinity into one breath, one hope, one vision. Womanist spirituality is not only a way of living, it is a style of
witness that seeks to cross the yawning chasm of hatreds and prejudices and oppressions into a deeper and richer love of God as we experience Jesus in our lives…

This understanding of spirituality seeks to grow into wholeness of spirit and body, mind and heart – into holiness in God. Such cogent holiness cannot hold its peace in a world so desperately separate from the new earth (Riggs 1997, 190).

As Salvationist women in particular, we can also take courage from Weems, to be the kind of woman that she and her womanist sisters are, women who “know how to dive deep within and tap into the inner resources God has given them” (Weems 2004, 84). She reminds us that, “You have to learn how to focus your energies and intelligence on what you want” (Weems 2004, 90). Her belief that “You will never become the woman you want to become until you learn how not to disintegrate in the face of difficulty, learn how to stay focused despite whatever difficulties that come your way, and learn how to disarm difficult people” (Weems 2004, 93), is a powerful perspective to offer to those we work with. Her words remind us that although womanist theology may be a theoretical discipline, it is also a way of seeing God that gives hope to everyday people.

As a start, might I suggest two options for a better understanding of womanist theology. The first is to read one of the authors listed in the reference section or the paragraph on womanist theologians. The second is to seek out a woman of African descent and truly listen to her story – her hopes and fears and her love for Jesus. For it is in the stories of
real women who seek to grow into wholeness of spirit and body, mind and heart, that we find the essence of womanist theology.

JoAnn Shade currently ministers with her husband, Larry; they are C0-Directors of the Ray & Joan Kroc Corps Community Center in Ashland, Ohio. JoAnn is a trained counselor who holds a D.Min. from Ashland Theological Seminary, where her doctoral thesis was on Women in Prophetic Leadership.

REFERENCE LIST: Available on request

Womanist Theology Part -1-

Journal of Aggressive Christianity, Issue 45, October - November 2006 19
I recently asked twenty women officers in the USA Eastern Territory if they could define the term “womanist,” and only two of the twenty could do so. That didn’t surprise me, for I had spent six years serving predominantly African-American congregations in Philadelphia and Cleveland in the 1990’s, but I wasn’t exposed to this term until enrolling in the Women in Prophetic Leadership track at Ashland Theological Seminary.

As Salvationists, all too often we find ourselves so busy in ministry that we lose track of the various theological ideas that are introduced in the years following our own training. This article is an overview of womanist theology and offers a few thoughts for its application to Salvation Army ministry, particularly among women of African descent.

The term ‘womanist’ is attributed to Alice Walker, writing in In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens, but aspects of womanist theology are as ancient as Hagar naming God, Vashti saying no, and the slave-woman Felicitas facing the death of a martyr. Carried forth in spirit on the lips of Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth, it began to have the hint of a theology (although still unnamed) in the writings of women such as Anna Julia Cooper, Maria Stewart, Mary Church Terrell and Ida B. Wells-Barnett. Cooper’s work in A Voice from the South is described as “forcefully arguing for the unmuting of Black women’s voice and the telling of their own stories so that everybody would know their precise status as told by them, and not by Black men or well meaning Whites” (Burrow 1998, 19). This, in essence, is womanist theology.

Womanist has its origins in “the black folk expression You acting womanish,” meaning, according to Walker, “wanting to know more and in greater depth than is good for one – outrageous, audacious, courageous and willful behavior.” A womanist is also
‘responsible, in charge, serious.’ She can ‘walk to Canada and take others with her.’ She loves, she is committed, she is a universalist by temperament” (Williams 1987, 68).

Defined early on as a black feminist or feminist of color, Walker uses the analogy that womanist is to feminist as purple is to lavender (Williams 1987, 69). In doing so, Walker provided “a way of thinking, talking, writing about, and doing theology and ethics” based on the experience of Black women (Burrow 1998, 20).

William’s comments add theology to the definition. “Womanist theology attempts to help black women see, affirm and have confidence in the importance of their experience and faith for determining the character of the Christian religion in the African-American community” (Williams 1993, xiv). Thomas proposes that, “Womanist theology is critical
reflection upon black women’s place in the world that God has created and takes seriously black women’s experience as human beings who are made in the image of God” (Thomas 2003, 1). As an alternate explanation, Mitchem writes that womanist theology is “an opportunity to state the meanings of God in the real time of black women’s lives” (Mitchem 2002,60).

If a theologian is both black and female, does that make her a womanist? JoAnne

Marie Terrell would answer “no” to that question. She suggests that it is also necessary that “Black women entering the womanist enterprise commit to exploring further the Journal of Aggressive Christianity, Issue 45, October - November 2006 20 contradictions that shape their collective and personal lives in the spirit of critical inquiry and in the spirit of hope” (Terrell 1998, 188). Womanist theology is a way of thinking, feeling and living, rather than simply a school of thought.

While womanist theology owes much to feminist theological thinking, it has had its clashes with what has been seen as white, upper middle class privilege. Rosemary Radford Ruether addresses that perception:

Let me make clear that I do not think that white feminists, such as myself, are innocent of racism just because we have consciously adopted a certain rhetoric of pluralism . . . I still live in a context of race and class privilege that is automatically accorded to me no matter what my personal views may be . . . [Yet] I affirm a plurality of feminist theologies both in various Christian racial and cultural contexts and in various inter- religious contexts and I reject any dominant form of feminist theology that claims to speak for the whole of womankind (Thomas 2004, 57).

It would appear that in pointing out valid concerns regarding perspective, grace has not always been extended to the other. And of course, in comparison to women who live in poverty and/or in third world cultures, the privileged womanist of North America has the same difficulty as the feminist in attempting to find ways to cross those cultural divides and speak to all who live under oppression.

Voices of Note

There are many African-American women with a role in the on-going development of womanist theology. Names associated with womanist theology in the USA are Emilie Towns, Katie Cannon, Delores S. Williams, Cheryl Townsend Gilkes, Kelly Brown
Douglas, Shawn Copland, Clarice Martin, Francis Wood, Jamie Phelps, Marcia Riggs, Jacquelyn Grant, Karen Baker-Fletcher and Cheryl Kirk-Duggan. Thomas describes these women:

We are university, seminary, and divinity school professors. We are ordained and lay women in all the Christian denominations. Some of us are full-time pastors; some are both pastor and professor. We are preachers and prayer warriors. We are mothers,
partners, lovers, wives, sisters, daughters, aunts, nieces – and we comprise two-thirds of the black church in America . . . We are charcoal black to high yellow women
(Thomas 2003, 3).

JoAnn Shade currently ministers with her husband, Larry; they are C0-Directors of the Ray & Joan Kroc Corps Community Center in Ashland, Ohio. JoAnn is a trained counselor who holds a D.Min. from Ashland Theological Seminary, where her doctoral thesis was on Women in Prophetic Leadership.

Books
Seasons: A Woman's Calling to Ministry published by Salvation Books, explores the life of women in leadership, drawing on the author's own 30 years of experience as a Salvation Army officer in the USA. Unique in the Christian world is the team-ministry concept, in which both husband and wife are ordained.Seasons explores the distinctive challenges faced by women in Christian leadership and provides theological and practical support through biblical character studies and wisdom gleaned from Shade's experience.

Heartwork of Hope: A Directed Journal
Major JoAnn Shade’s 2006 work published by Others Press, is designed to take the reader on a journey of discovery — through Scripture and quotations from a wide variety of authors, poetry and the experiences of the author herself — and into a deeper walk with the Lord.

“This directed journal opens new possibilities for the soul to breathe the presence of God.”
— Elaine Heath, Ph.D., Perkins School of Theology

“A tool for discovering the ‘more’ that God has for you.”
— Lucinda Secrest McDowell, author, Spa for the Soul

“A treasure to mine and a trail to follow.”
— Jerry R. Flora, Th.D., Ashland Theological Seminary

THANKSGIVING

Admittedly an American holiday and not one we should be particularly proud of it is still a good day to consider thankfulness. Sitting at my desk this morning I decided to start a list to see how it progressed as the day went on. We’ll see how much I do or do not have to be thankful for.

1) My job. I really quite like it. It came to me thru a strange turn of events. I was in a situation where I was unable to learn database management (hey, I’m a business major and a TSA former, what do I know about db management) and was moved to a different job that changed dramatically between the time I interviewed and the time I arrived. Quite frankly, it was miserable. But I did what I do. I put on a cheery face and went in each morning and did the best I could. Meanwhile a new branch was being built not far up the road from my home. When I would drive by I would get out and walk around it and peek in the windows and try to figure out what the heck they were going to do in there. I did this many, many times just out of curiosity. When the construction crew was on site they would even let me wander inside the building. I was totally convinced that what is the conference room was a giant terrarium. I mean it was a science building and it had three glass walls. What else could it be? Then one day the VP for this area showed up at my desk and asked me if I would like to go work there. There were quite a few angry people who wanted the job themselves and told me so. Since it was never posted they never had the chance to apply which really irked them but it was me they wanted and me they got. And I needed that in my life. So here I am in this magnificent new facility surrounded by windows and sunshine. There are only six of us out here so the dramarama is low and the atmosphere is calm. Talk about God watching over me.

2) The students. Ann just stopped in to tell me about a problem with the Student Senate. Sometimes she brings me coffee. Sometimes she makes it in the break room for the other students. We have about a hundred students on site already. Some I never see. Some I see every day. Many I now know by name. The student drama has been very low as well in huge part by design. Again, a spectacular building and specially designed for the programs that are here. Huge, sparkling labs with state of the art equipment. They frequently bring in cupcakes and snacks and treats and seem to enjoy little parties on a regular basis. We provide them with a big lunch once a month.

3) Planning the parties. This month it’s wings.

4) Florida weather in November. Clear, cool, bright, sunny, slight breeze. This is the weather we move to Florida for but rarely have. Last night was in the low 50’s and today will be in the mid 70’s. Perfect for sure.

5) Coworkers from the main campus. Our advisor is a gem. Instead of me stumbling along telling someone info that may well be incorrect a mere transfer of the phone and voila….excellence.

6) Technology. I mean really, where would we be without it? Here I sit writing something that will fly across the sky this afternoon to Sven. He will fly it again to his site. It’s like magic and I like magic

7) Coffee. Fletch and I haven’t had a cyber coffee chat in a while. My brother drank his black. My dad drank his black. When I pour a cup I remember many people in my life past and present who drank coffee and I have a brief commune with their spirits.

8) Our construction crew. Yes, even though we are here we are still under construction. The first addition is almost complete but it requires an enormous amount of work that seems to go on right over my head and on into the ladies room. Honestly, I couldn’t make that up. Evidently that is the wiring path and I am mostly in the way but they are gracious and safe. Mostly. And the project manager, his assistant, and our liaison are all awesome. They are an absolute joy to work with.

9) Visitors. Today we have staff onsite from the main campus. They are here to photograph students in action in the labs for future brochures. One of them had not been here before so I got to take her on the tour. That’s always a fun thing for me.

10) UPS. My delivery guy actually is a bit crabby but, still, he brings cool things every morning.

11) Clothes. Having a closet with choices is not to be taken for granted. I have more than I need. I will cull and share the wealth with others via thrift store donations.

12) Home. That closet has to dwell somewhere. I love my house. It’s small and cozy and all about me and only me. It’s the perfect place to head to at the end of the day.

13) Girlfriends. The big girls are making plans for tomorrow evening dinner as we oft do on Friday. It’s when the single chicks get together for family night. In the last year we have split the group a little into the younger and older brackets so we could have a quieter evening. We still see the young ones just in different settings.

14) The same girlfriends including one of the young ones with a 4 year old. Because they are willing to do doggie duty for a day or two so I can visit with my sister and her granddaughter.

15) My sister, her son (he’s 29), his daughter (she’s 6). Always a delight to spend time with them. We will spend Saturday at the Pioneer Days at Chinsegut and eat funnel cake and hot dogs.

16) My car. Having the ability to run off for the weekend is something many do not have. I do not take that for granted.

17) Non friends. Yep, even them I am grateful for because they made me realize priorities and true friendship. I had to let some go. Too much negative energy and whining. It’s one thing to have a bad spell. It’s another to choose misery. I feel better out of their company.

18) Weddings. Last week a friend got married. Her father is Indian so it was traditional saris and garb. Her mother is Jewish so it was a traditional Jewish ceremony. The groom and his family are Christian so I was asked to take part by offering a Christian blessing.

19) Good health. The guy next to me has a migraine today. I’ve had and have my physical issues, some of them fairly substantial, but all in all I’m pretty well off. I do not take this likely especially since the death of a younger brother earlier this year.

20) Art. On my desk is a spectacular alabaster lamp. It was made by the artist we had do an installation for our grand opening. My boss purchased it and it will be here until she finishes painting her house. Lucky for me that will be a while.

21) Yogurt. Call me crazy but I eat the Greek stuff every day with fruit and granola. I have for years. I believe it is the perfect food.

22) Pink shoes. Today I am wearing pink shoes. They make me smile every time I look down.

That’s about it for now. And that was all in about an hour while I sat at my desk in between all the other activity. Given any length of time this could become quite a missive. I believe the blessings are there if you choose to look. In spite of American history I will celebrate Thanksgiving and recognize as many as blessings as I can, be they large or small.

Deb Taube
Former
USA East