Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Symbolism in Worship
Evening all y’all,
This Amy Robinson, chiming in again. This’ll be my final guest post this time around.
As I’m sure most of you are aware, mainline churches today have devoted a lot of time, energy, and devotion to what they refer to as the "Worship Wars." We embroil ourselves in an ongoing debate on whether it’s more reverent to use a guitar or an organ; to sing "Lift Up Ye Heads" or "Shout to the North." Marilynne Robinson, the Pulitzer Prize winning author, came to speak to one of my classes at the seminary. I must tell you, many people’s ire was kindled as she wrote off the entire genre of praise and worship music as worthless fluff and not true worship. I’ve also heard those argue that traditional services are simply formulaic and without any emotional meaning. I’m, personally, rather ambivalent. While I appreciate the need for the style of music to be accessible and welcoming to new comers, I have grave concerns about a lot of the imagery used. I think a lot of our theological depth of hymnody is lost through repetitive phrasing. In addition, throughout both many of the old hymns and quite a few of the new praise songs, I see the glorification of war and the masculinization of God, two of the theological issues that have plagued our church for generations.
However, it seems that in the pews of the Catholics churches in California, the worship wars have taken a turn I never quite expected (See link below). This afternoon, one of the scintillating blogs I read daily pointed out a skirmish in a parish in Huntington Beach. It seems, indeed, that approximately four years ago, Pope John Paul II lifted the requirement for kneeling in service and left that decision up to the individual bishops in the various diocese. Since that time, some congregations have been built without the equipment for kneeling because of the position of their bishops in favor of standing instead of kneeling. However, certain parishioners within the congregations have chosen to maintain their tradition posture of prayer throughout the service, despite the instructions of their priest, and so kneel as the rest of the congregation stands.
Great fervor has built up around this act of disobedience; indeed, one Father Martin Tran is quoted as stating that kneeling "is clearly rebellion, grave disobedience, and mortal sin." Those who support kneeling state that it is a physical manifestation of humility before God; others claim that standing during prayer is a recognition of human dignity. Behind this debate lies the history of domination and oppression within the church (as kneeling is read as a sign of submission), the interpretation of our own physical symbols and their place in acts of devotion (as we read the actions theologically), and the ongoing struggle to understand where we lie in the tension between finding a authentic personal expression of the faith and developing our relationship to church authorities.
As a good little Presbyterian, I don’t feel qualified to weigh in on this one. I’ve visited my share of Catholic masses, attempted to pray the rosary nightly for Lent, and even occasionally cross myself, which makes me much more "Catholicized" than many of those I sit beside on the pews :) However, it would be rather cocky of me to name myself an expert on reading the symbology of kneeling and standing in the course of worship; I think that’s up to the Roman Catholics of Huntington Beach to figure out.
What this does highlight, through, is the importance of striving to understand what we do during worship, and why we do it. Have you every really dove into the symbols within the actions you take during worship? Do you find yourself contemplating the messages your actions in church are giving about the nature of God? What does our ritual say about our relationship to the divine and to each other?
One of our responsibilities as members of the church is to challenge our congregations on these issues. We, too, need to make sure that our rites and symbolism represent the theology we preach. We, too, need to examine what is expressed every Sunday morning through the nonverbal aspects of our worship. Through it, we will understand with greater depth the nature of our own worship, and learn to express our faith in a manner that embodies the beliefs that we practice.
Miz Pah,
Amy
"So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." 1 Cor 10:31 (NIV)
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-me-kneel28may28,1,6981595.story?coll=la-headlines-frontpage&ctrack=1&cset=true
This Amy Robinson, chiming in again. This’ll be my final guest post this time around.
As I’m sure most of you are aware, mainline churches today have devoted a lot of time, energy, and devotion to what they refer to as the "Worship Wars." We embroil ourselves in an ongoing debate on whether it’s more reverent to use a guitar or an organ; to sing "Lift Up Ye Heads" or "Shout to the North." Marilynne Robinson, the Pulitzer Prize winning author, came to speak to one of my classes at the seminary. I must tell you, many people’s ire was kindled as she wrote off the entire genre of praise and worship music as worthless fluff and not true worship. I’ve also heard those argue that traditional services are simply formulaic and without any emotional meaning. I’m, personally, rather ambivalent. While I appreciate the need for the style of music to be accessible and welcoming to new comers, I have grave concerns about a lot of the imagery used. I think a lot of our theological depth of hymnody is lost through repetitive phrasing. In addition, throughout both many of the old hymns and quite a few of the new praise songs, I see the glorification of war and the masculinization of God, two of the theological issues that have plagued our church for generations.
However, it seems that in the pews of the Catholics churches in California, the worship wars have taken a turn I never quite expected (See link below). This afternoon, one of the scintillating blogs I read daily pointed out a skirmish in a parish in Huntington Beach. It seems, indeed, that approximately four years ago, Pope John Paul II lifted the requirement for kneeling in service and left that decision up to the individual bishops in the various diocese. Since that time, some congregations have been built without the equipment for kneeling because of the position of their bishops in favor of standing instead of kneeling. However, certain parishioners within the congregations have chosen to maintain their tradition posture of prayer throughout the service, despite the instructions of their priest, and so kneel as the rest of the congregation stands.
Great fervor has built up around this act of disobedience; indeed, one Father Martin Tran is quoted as stating that kneeling "is clearly rebellion, grave disobedience, and mortal sin." Those who support kneeling state that it is a physical manifestation of humility before God; others claim that standing during prayer is a recognition of human dignity. Behind this debate lies the history of domination and oppression within the church (as kneeling is read as a sign of submission), the interpretation of our own physical symbols and their place in acts of devotion (as we read the actions theologically), and the ongoing struggle to understand where we lie in the tension between finding a authentic personal expression of the faith and developing our relationship to church authorities.
As a good little Presbyterian, I don’t feel qualified to weigh in on this one. I’ve visited my share of Catholic masses, attempted to pray the rosary nightly for Lent, and even occasionally cross myself, which makes me much more "Catholicized" than many of those I sit beside on the pews :) However, it would be rather cocky of me to name myself an expert on reading the symbology of kneeling and standing in the course of worship; I think that’s up to the Roman Catholics of Huntington Beach to figure out.
What this does highlight, through, is the importance of striving to understand what we do during worship, and why we do it. Have you every really dove into the symbols within the actions you take during worship? Do you find yourself contemplating the messages your actions in church are giving about the nature of God? What does our ritual say about our relationship to the divine and to each other?
One of our responsibilities as members of the church is to challenge our congregations on these issues. We, too, need to make sure that our rites and symbolism represent the theology we preach. We, too, need to examine what is expressed every Sunday morning through the nonverbal aspects of our worship. Through it, we will understand with greater depth the nature of our own worship, and learn to express our faith in a manner that embodies the beliefs that we practice.
Miz Pah,
Amy
"So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." 1 Cor 10:31 (NIV)
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-me-kneel28may28,1,6981595.story?coll=la-headlines-frontpage&ctrack=1&cset=true
posted by Noelle at 9:28 PM
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Monday, May 29, 2006
A Christian Response to Violent Conflict
Dear Readers,
My name is Amy Robinson, and I am your guest writer for today and tomorrow. I’ve just finished my first year at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. Like you all, I’m excited about the joys that summer holds. There will definitely be a good bit of traveling involved, and that’s the way I like it.
When I was a bit younger than you all, around 18, I remember my imagination being captured by the magical world of the novels of Gabriel Garcia Marquez. With the citizens of his fictional town of Macondo, I felt the disillusionment that came from a city wide plague of insomnia; the grief over a massacre expressed by the very heavens in a five-year-long deluge, and the longing and confusion that came from a civil war always on the outskirts of the village but always capturing those they loved. Through his writing, I felt as if I had come to experience the Colombia he loved, the Colombia of his creation. Since that time, it has always piqued my interest.
As you may, or may not, have read, Colombia is still racked by a war that had left its citizens displaced and in fear for their lives. In the weeks before their presidential election yesterday, certainly para-military forces threatened to kill all those who voted against their candidate if the elections did not turn out in their favor. Homes are devastated by the affects of forced fumigation that too often misses its target in the fight against cocaine. Colombia is still in mourning each day, as it suffers through a war that has taken them captive for more than 40 years.
In the midst of this conflict, the Presbyterian Church of Colombia (IPC) has spoken out in favor of reconciliation, rejecting the use of armed forces by all actors. They have made a commitment to speaking with and ministering to those who have been forced from their homes, looking after them and living into Christ’s calling. They have been vocal proponents in the quest for awareness of human rights throughout this ravaged land. Because of their efforts, the leaders of the IPC have received mounting threats against the lives of these leaders and those they love. They are, as stated in the Beatitudes, "persecuted for the sake of righteousness." "And yet, courageously, the IPC has refused to fall silent.
Close to two years ago, the IPC requested assistance from our own denomination, the Presbyterian Church (USA), in their struggle to speak truth in love. In January 2005, the PC (USA) began, in partnership with Presbyterian Peace Fellowship (a separate organization that advocates to the PC (USA)) to send pairs of accompaniers to Barranquilla for a month at a time, in order to work alongside leaders in the national offices of the IPC. There, they make visible the international partnership in peacemaking, boost confidence, and serve in a way as nonviolent bodyguards to those who have been threatened for their work. At this moment, as the pivotal repercussion of the election play out, Paige Stephan and Sarah Henken are working to resolve this war and support our brothers and sisters who have acknowledged the call to make peace. Paige and Sarah are also seminarians, not much older than yourselves. They are living into a greater vision for God’s creation.
I, too, intend to participate in this inspiring program of accompaniment, this new vision of mission. My dates are pending, but hopefully this summer, I will be able to number myself among those who have seen the violence firsthand and worked for its cessation. Someday, possibly, I will be able to return to Colombia to celebrate rather than to grieve, in a time when peace is re-established. I hope to seek out that mythical Macondo that so entranced me. I hope to see a healed countryside. But there is a long and arduous work ahead before that time can come.
You can join in this effort. For more information, you can look to the website for Presbyterian Peace Fellowship at www.presbypeacefellowship.org, look through the news bites on the PC (USA)’s website, and even apply through One Door. Feel free to write me, as well, at a robinson at lpts dot edu if you have any more questions. Blessings to you all, and thank you for reading!
Amy
"Thus He will judge among the nations
And arbitrate for many peoples,
And they shall beat t heir swords into plowshares
And their spears in to pruning hooks:
Nation shall not take up
Sword against nation;
They shall never again know war."
Isaiah 2:4 (TNK)
My name is Amy Robinson, and I am your guest writer for today and tomorrow. I’ve just finished my first year at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. Like you all, I’m excited about the joys that summer holds. There will definitely be a good bit of traveling involved, and that’s the way I like it.
When I was a bit younger than you all, around 18, I remember my imagination being captured by the magical world of the novels of Gabriel Garcia Marquez. With the citizens of his fictional town of Macondo, I felt the disillusionment that came from a city wide plague of insomnia; the grief over a massacre expressed by the very heavens in a five-year-long deluge, and the longing and confusion that came from a civil war always on the outskirts of the village but always capturing those they loved. Through his writing, I felt as if I had come to experience the Colombia he loved, the Colombia of his creation. Since that time, it has always piqued my interest.
As you may, or may not, have read, Colombia is still racked by a war that had left its citizens displaced and in fear for their lives. In the weeks before their presidential election yesterday, certainly para-military forces threatened to kill all those who voted against their candidate if the elections did not turn out in their favor. Homes are devastated by the affects of forced fumigation that too often misses its target in the fight against cocaine. Colombia is still in mourning each day, as it suffers through a war that has taken them captive for more than 40 years.
In the midst of this conflict, the Presbyterian Church of Colombia (IPC) has spoken out in favor of reconciliation, rejecting the use of armed forces by all actors. They have made a commitment to speaking with and ministering to those who have been forced from their homes, looking after them and living into Christ’s calling. They have been vocal proponents in the quest for awareness of human rights throughout this ravaged land. Because of their efforts, the leaders of the IPC have received mounting threats against the lives of these leaders and those they love. They are, as stated in the Beatitudes, "persecuted for the sake of righteousness." "And yet, courageously, the IPC has refused to fall silent.
Close to two years ago, the IPC requested assistance from our own denomination, the Presbyterian Church (USA), in their struggle to speak truth in love. In January 2005, the PC (USA) began, in partnership with Presbyterian Peace Fellowship (a separate organization that advocates to the PC (USA)) to send pairs of accompaniers to Barranquilla for a month at a time, in order to work alongside leaders in the national offices of the IPC. There, they make visible the international partnership in peacemaking, boost confidence, and serve in a way as nonviolent bodyguards to those who have been threatened for their work. At this moment, as the pivotal repercussion of the election play out, Paige Stephan and Sarah Henken are working to resolve this war and support our brothers and sisters who have acknowledged the call to make peace. Paige and Sarah are also seminarians, not much older than yourselves. They are living into a greater vision for God’s creation.
I, too, intend to participate in this inspiring program of accompaniment, this new vision of mission. My dates are pending, but hopefully this summer, I will be able to number myself among those who have seen the violence firsthand and worked for its cessation. Someday, possibly, I will be able to return to Colombia to celebrate rather than to grieve, in a time when peace is re-established. I hope to seek out that mythical Macondo that so entranced me. I hope to see a healed countryside. But there is a long and arduous work ahead before that time can come.
You can join in this effort. For more information, you can look to the website for Presbyterian Peace Fellowship at www.presbypeacefellowship.org, look through the news bites on the PC (USA)’s website, and even apply through One Door. Feel free to write me, as well, at a robinson at lpts dot edu if you have any more questions. Blessings to you all, and thank you for reading!
Amy
"Thus He will judge among the nations
And arbitrate for many peoples,
And they shall beat t heir swords into plowshares
And their spears in to pruning hooks:
Nation shall not take up
Sword against nation;
They shall never again know war."
Isaiah 2:4 (TNK)
posted by Noelle at 7:12 PM
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Wednesday, May 24, 2006
A few days in New York
Hey Everybody,
It's Jennifer again. I am sorry that it has taken me so long to update today, but I just got back from a trip to NYC with Rhodes College to the Presbyterian UN office.
What is the Presbyterian UN Office you ask? Just like the Presbyterian Church (USA) has its headquarters in Louisville, KY, it also has an office in NYC right across the street from the United Nations. The Presbyterian UN Office (PUNO) keeps the church up to date on issues that are going on in the world and brings the voice of the church to the work of the United Nations. This office is one way that the work of the church of bringing good news to the poor, proclaiming release to the captives and letting the oppressed go free is brought about. The PUNO has two main goals: education and advocacy.
What I did when I was at the PUNO was really exciting and unique. The PUNO offers seminars to groups who are interested in different global issues. PUNO have hosted youth groups, adult groups, presbytery committees, educators, intergenerational groups, mission committees, ecumenical groups, summer camps, confirmation classes, campus ministry groups and seminary classes/organizations. The only requirement for the group is the desire to explore our Christian calling in today's globalizing world. Possible seminar topics include: Conflict in the Middle East, Building a Culture of Peace, Religious Conflict, Health Issues, Environmental Issues, International Debt, Homelessness, Disarmament, US Foreign Policy and the United Nations, and Regional and/or Country Specific Concerns.
The Rhodes group had three seminars (International Debt, Sustainable Living and Religious Conflict) and took a tour of the UN (which is really cool!). This is an amazing experience that the PUNO office offers and is a really great opportunity for students to get up close and personal to the UN and really see how it works with a faith perspective.
Another really cool thing about the PUNO is the Internship at the office. This is part of the Young Adult Intern Program of Mission Service Recruitment. It is a 1 year internship program for people 19-30. For more information on the internship, check out the mission service recruitment page at http://www.pcusa.org/msr/.
For more information about the Presbyterian UN office, here is the website for the PUNO office http://www.pcusa.org/peacemaking/un/. Check it out!
Peace in Christ,
Jennifer
"They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nations shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore." Isaiah 2:4
It's Jennifer again. I am sorry that it has taken me so long to update today, but I just got back from a trip to NYC with Rhodes College to the Presbyterian UN office.
What is the Presbyterian UN Office you ask? Just like the Presbyterian Church (USA) has its headquarters in Louisville, KY, it also has an office in NYC right across the street from the United Nations. The Presbyterian UN Office (PUNO) keeps the church up to date on issues that are going on in the world and brings the voice of the church to the work of the United Nations. This office is one way that the work of the church of bringing good news to the poor, proclaiming release to the captives and letting the oppressed go free is brought about. The PUNO has two main goals: education and advocacy.
What I did when I was at the PUNO was really exciting and unique. The PUNO offers seminars to groups who are interested in different global issues. PUNO have hosted youth groups, adult groups, presbytery committees, educators, intergenerational groups, mission committees, ecumenical groups, summer camps, confirmation classes, campus ministry groups and seminary classes/organizations. The only requirement for the group is the desire to explore our Christian calling in today's globalizing world. Possible seminar topics include: Conflict in the Middle East, Building a Culture of Peace, Religious Conflict, Health Issues, Environmental Issues, International Debt, Homelessness, Disarmament, US Foreign Policy and the United Nations, and Regional and/or Country Specific Concerns.
The Rhodes group had three seminars (International Debt, Sustainable Living and Religious Conflict) and took a tour of the UN (which is really cool!). This is an amazing experience that the PUNO office offers and is a really great opportunity for students to get up close and personal to the UN and really see how it works with a faith perspective.
Another really cool thing about the PUNO is the Internship at the office. This is part of the Young Adult Intern Program of Mission Service Recruitment. It is a 1 year internship program for people 19-30. For more information on the internship, check out the mission service recruitment page at http://www.pcusa.org/msr/.
For more information about the Presbyterian UN office, here is the website for the PUNO office http://www.pcusa.org/peacemaking/un/. Check it out!
Peace in Christ,
Jennifer
"They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nations shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore." Isaiah 2:4
posted by Noelle at 7:21 PM
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Tuesday, May 23, 2006
A New Discovery
Hello again everyone! It’s Lindsey again. I apologize for posting this so late in the day. I had an insanely busy day at work. But I’m now done with the insanity that is known as attending a wedding. It was my boyfriend’s brother’s wedding, and despite not being in the wedding party, I’m completely wiped out from the weekend. I can only imagine how Kelsey and all the other newlyweds must feel!
So today I thought I would blog a little about the intersection of science, morals, and religion using a current event as an example. There was a very significant meeting that was held last week, and its results were groundbreaking and put out on all the major news outlets. I’m referring to the FDA panel that reviewed the HPV vaccine and concluded it was effective. I’m gonna try not to bore you with all the science, but HPV is basically a cause of cervical cancer. So by preventing the most common viral STD in America, we can prevent women from getting cancer of the cervix. It’s a landmark discovery that could potentially save thousands of women’s lives around the globe. And let me tell you, the public health community is really celebrating it.
However, like most new discoveries, it is fraught with criticism. For starters, they estimate that the cost for the three dose vaccine will be around $300 for the series. That’s an expensive vaccine by just about anyone’s standards! Officials are starting to worry that the cost will be a barrier to females getting this important vaccine, not just in the US, but around the world, possibly making cervical cancer even more of a “disease of poverty” than it currently is. Additionally, officials say that to be most effective, the vaccine should be given to females (and eventually males) before they reach the age of sexual activity. They want to target girls around the age of 11 or 12, and the critics have started having a field day saying that if girls that young get the vaccine, they will be more likely to participate in risky sexual behavior than they would if they didn’t get it and at an earlier age.
I personally think that the first point is quite valid. After all, cervical cancer rates are lowest in developed countries because of the widespread routine of getting pap smears every year. Women in developing countries (and those in the lower social economic classes here in the US) cannot access this service, either because of cost or because of other barriers. So cervical cancer is already a disease of the poor, and this vaccine, unless the cost is subsidized, might make this health disparity even more serious. For the second point, I think it is ridiculous to think that an 11 year old girl would be more likely to take more risks sexually just because she has the HPV vaccine; it’s the same faulty logic that keeps abstinence-only education funded and in our schools. I personally wouldn’t mind getting the vaccine myself, and I would seriously consider getting my daughter vaccinated when and if I ever have one.
So my challenge tonight to each of you is to get educated and to get tested. Learn more about HPV and the upcoming vaccine. Get your yearly pap smear; it’s the best way to get tested for cervical cancer. Knowledge is power, and you owe it to yourself to know the truth.
This is Lindsey, NNPCW alumna signing off. If you can’t get enough of me, check out my personal blog (http://corevalues5.blogspot.com/). (shameless plug, I know) ~Lindsey
“…you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.” John 8:32
So today I thought I would blog a little about the intersection of science, morals, and religion using a current event as an example. There was a very significant meeting that was held last week, and its results were groundbreaking and put out on all the major news outlets. I’m referring to the FDA panel that reviewed the HPV vaccine and concluded it was effective. I’m gonna try not to bore you with all the science, but HPV is basically a cause of cervical cancer. So by preventing the most common viral STD in America, we can prevent women from getting cancer of the cervix. It’s a landmark discovery that could potentially save thousands of women’s lives around the globe. And let me tell you, the public health community is really celebrating it.
However, like most new discoveries, it is fraught with criticism. For starters, they estimate that the cost for the three dose vaccine will be around $300 for the series. That’s an expensive vaccine by just about anyone’s standards! Officials are starting to worry that the cost will be a barrier to females getting this important vaccine, not just in the US, but around the world, possibly making cervical cancer even more of a “disease of poverty” than it currently is. Additionally, officials say that to be most effective, the vaccine should be given to females (and eventually males) before they reach the age of sexual activity. They want to target girls around the age of 11 or 12, and the critics have started having a field day saying that if girls that young get the vaccine, they will be more likely to participate in risky sexual behavior than they would if they didn’t get it and at an earlier age.
I personally think that the first point is quite valid. After all, cervical cancer rates are lowest in developed countries because of the widespread routine of getting pap smears every year. Women in developing countries (and those in the lower social economic classes here in the US) cannot access this service, either because of cost or because of other barriers. So cervical cancer is already a disease of the poor, and this vaccine, unless the cost is subsidized, might make this health disparity even more serious. For the second point, I think it is ridiculous to think that an 11 year old girl would be more likely to take more risks sexually just because she has the HPV vaccine; it’s the same faulty logic that keeps abstinence-only education funded and in our schools. I personally wouldn’t mind getting the vaccine myself, and I would seriously consider getting my daughter vaccinated when and if I ever have one.
So my challenge tonight to each of you is to get educated and to get tested. Learn more about HPV and the upcoming vaccine. Get your yearly pap smear; it’s the best way to get tested for cervical cancer. Knowledge is power, and you owe it to yourself to know the truth.
This is Lindsey, NNPCW alumna signing off. If you can’t get enough of me, check out my personal blog (http://corevalues5.blogspot.com/). (shameless plug, I know) ~Lindsey
“…you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.” John 8:32
posted by Noelle at 9:28 PM
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GA or BUST
So we are getting things ready for General Assembly here around Women's Ministries. There are boxes, booklets, and pamphlets flying around like bees at the hive. We all feel like the bees too. Scurrying around to make sure things get where they are supposed to be. Always something to do and things to pack.
Amongst packing for GA, Bridgett Green (REYWT Associate) and I are traveling to Orlando, FL for the Multicultural Event. Rev. Green is hosting a workshop about Young Adults in the church.
Sorry for the short post, but I have to continue packing for the offices. Hope you all are resting well after your finals. Hooray for SUMMER! Enjoy the photo from the Spring CoCo Meeting to make up for the lack of words. Hey, a picture is worth a 1000 so here you go!
1 Kings 18:28
"At noon Elijah began to taunt them. "Shout louder!" he said. "Surely he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy, or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened."
~Brianne
posted by Noelle at 2:21 PM
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Friday, May 19, 2006
Following Conviction
Have no fear, the intern is here!
While I was working out with my friend, and soon-to-be roommate Jennifer Jarvis (ad-hock Spring CoCo Chaplain) yesterday I remembered Kelsey Rice is to be married TOMORROW! We both are Kelsey’s age and the conversation volleyed back and forth about how neither of us are even CLOSE to getting married, and how we felt about it.
Now, I don’t want you to think I am “looking” get married, but when all those around you are walking down the aisle one has to dwell on it for a brief moment. It seems as though weddings are in the air right now. June is approaching and that, I guess, is the huge wedding month. I have already attended one wedding (last weekend, congrats Kira and Kyle) where we talked with our friends at the table when they would be doing the same. Two of the couples were talking about getting hitched in the next year or year and a half. I also heard this week my cousin was proposed to by her boyfriend of three years (congrats Joneil and Brian!). My aunts and grandma are on their way down to New Orleans to start planning for a wedding that will take place next May. And then there is Kelsey’s wedding. Geeze, wedding wedding, wedding!
Now weddings don’t make me automatically start thinking about babies, but who can disconnect the two? The conversations naturally flow from wedding to wedding night to children. Which I have been thinking a lot about lately. I picked up the latest issue of "Bitch" magazine while I was in the friendly bookstore searching for books for my workshop for the Leadership Event (insert shameless plug here!), Female Friendship. I grabbed my usual fix of magazines, "Ms" and "Cosmo" (I know, why bother?) when I was looking at the others. I usually pick-up "Bust", but I had already read it earlier from a friend, so I moved on. I was going to pass by, but while I was leafing through "Bitch" I found an article that was aimed directly at me, so, I bought.
The article “On Trends—The new breed: Defending the choice to be childfree” hit home with me after all of this wedding talk and consequentially baby conversation. My choice to be childfree is one, which has taken many years to decide to become. No, it’s not that I dislike children. I also spoke about it over lunch with a fellow intern, Laura Polk. Recently the subject has been on the news and on the Colbert Report (her most reliable news source) about how many women are deciding not to have children. Many say I will change my mind when I get married, but to those people I say, why? I think about this world with its overpopulation, abundance of landfills and lack of resources, and wonder, how I could do it? There are many other reasons, but they are not the reason for the blog this day. I respect the women and couples who decide to have children.
After reading the article in "Bitch", I no longer felt alone. Many have asked me, point blank, if I want children. First, I wonder why they are inclined to ask. Then, as I get over the initial shock of them asking, I respond with, “no, thanks.” My friends who want children are never asked, “why?” I , on the other hand, am always asked, “why,” where I must regurgitate my reasons.
The reason for the blog this day is being a person of convictions (not of reasons to why I am not having children). I think about all of the apostles who made a conscience decision to follow what they knew to be true, Jesus. I am sure they were asked “why” over and over. They probably had an answer they regurgitated as well. I like to think they looked back at those asking, “why?” and responded, “Why aren’t you?” I am sure others tried to talk them out of it. Giving up everything to follow a Christ around who would leave them seems, unfulfilling. But, on the contrary, it was (and is) the most fulfilling thing they (and we) ever do.
Luke 9:57
As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go."
PS: GOOD LUCK AND CONGRATS KELSEY!
~Brianne
While I was working out with my friend, and soon-to-be roommate Jennifer Jarvis (ad-hock Spring CoCo Chaplain) yesterday I remembered Kelsey Rice is to be married TOMORROW! We both are Kelsey’s age and the conversation volleyed back and forth about how neither of us are even CLOSE to getting married, and how we felt about it.
Now, I don’t want you to think I am “looking” get married, but when all those around you are walking down the aisle one has to dwell on it for a brief moment. It seems as though weddings are in the air right now. June is approaching and that, I guess, is the huge wedding month. I have already attended one wedding (last weekend, congrats Kira and Kyle) where we talked with our friends at the table when they would be doing the same. Two of the couples were talking about getting hitched in the next year or year and a half. I also heard this week my cousin was proposed to by her boyfriend of three years (congrats Joneil and Brian!). My aunts and grandma are on their way down to New Orleans to start planning for a wedding that will take place next May. And then there is Kelsey’s wedding. Geeze, wedding wedding, wedding!
Now weddings don’t make me automatically start thinking about babies, but who can disconnect the two? The conversations naturally flow from wedding to wedding night to children. Which I have been thinking a lot about lately. I picked up the latest issue of "Bitch" magazine while I was in the friendly bookstore searching for books for my workshop for the Leadership Event (insert shameless plug here!), Female Friendship. I grabbed my usual fix of magazines, "Ms" and "Cosmo" (I know, why bother?) when I was looking at the others. I usually pick-up "Bust", but I had already read it earlier from a friend, so I moved on. I was going to pass by, but while I was leafing through "Bitch" I found an article that was aimed directly at me, so, I bought.
The article “On Trends—The new breed: Defending the choice to be childfree” hit home with me after all of this wedding talk and consequentially baby conversation. My choice to be childfree is one, which has taken many years to decide to become. No, it’s not that I dislike children. I also spoke about it over lunch with a fellow intern, Laura Polk. Recently the subject has been on the news and on the Colbert Report (her most reliable news source) about how many women are deciding not to have children. Many say I will change my mind when I get married, but to those people I say, why? I think about this world with its overpopulation, abundance of landfills and lack of resources, and wonder, how I could do it? There are many other reasons, but they are not the reason for the blog this day. I respect the women and couples who decide to have children.
After reading the article in "Bitch", I no longer felt alone. Many have asked me, point blank, if I want children. First, I wonder why they are inclined to ask. Then, as I get over the initial shock of them asking, I respond with, “no, thanks.” My friends who want children are never asked, “why?” I , on the other hand, am always asked, “why,” where I must regurgitate my reasons.
The reason for the blog this day is being a person of convictions (not of reasons to why I am not having children). I think about all of the apostles who made a conscience decision to follow what they knew to be true, Jesus. I am sure they were asked “why” over and over. They probably had an answer they regurgitated as well. I like to think they looked back at those asking, “why?” and responded, “Why aren’t you?” I am sure others tried to talk them out of it. Giving up everything to follow a Christ around who would leave them seems, unfulfilling. But, on the contrary, it was (and is) the most fulfilling thing they (and we) ever do.
Luke 9:57
As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go."
PS: GOOD LUCK AND CONGRATS KELSEY!
~Brianne
posted by Noelle at 2:42 PM
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Wednesday, May 17, 2006
Hello Everyone! My name is Jennifer Ross and I will be guest blogging for the next three Wednesday's. You may remember me from my post on V-Day and the prevalence of sexual assault on April 17.
Last year, while moving out of my dorm after my first year in college, I was astounded by the amount of "stuff" that was being thrown away, including clothes, DVDs, jewelry, books, televisions, refrigerators, and microwaves. How could so much stuff be thrown away and not be noticed? How could good people allow for such wasteful behavior? Is it not the duty of the privileged to make sure that everything is evenly dispersed, that everyone is well cared for?
Anyway, this year NNPCW member Alex Chambers took what she saw last year and decided to make a change. Almost single-handedly, Alex organized a MIFA move out (MIFA stands for Memphis Interfaith Association, an organization that comprises of 20 programs and that serves approximately 60,000 people a year). Alex asked students to donate clothes, furniture, electronics, food and cleaning supplies, the most commonly thrown out stuff at the end of the year. It was amazing to see how much stuff was donated for MIFA. More importantly, it was amazing to see how much difference one person could make when that person is dissatisfied with the current way things are being done.
As Christians, I think that we are supposed to take action, like Alex did, in the face of oppression or dissatisfactory conditions. We have the strength and the spirit to make change in any arena that we so choose, we only have to realize our inner strength. We cannot simply sit idly by as those around us are being forced down.
So let us take action, stand up and speak out, guided by the love of Christ and the strength of the Spirit.
-Jennifer
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor." Luke 4:18-19
Last year, while moving out of my dorm after my first year in college, I was astounded by the amount of "stuff" that was being thrown away, including clothes, DVDs, jewelry, books, televisions, refrigerators, and microwaves. How could so much stuff be thrown away and not be noticed? How could good people allow for such wasteful behavior? Is it not the duty of the privileged to make sure that everything is evenly dispersed, that everyone is well cared for?
Anyway, this year NNPCW member Alex Chambers took what she saw last year and decided to make a change. Almost single-handedly, Alex organized a MIFA move out (MIFA stands for Memphis Interfaith Association, an organization that comprises of 20 programs and that serves approximately 60,000 people a year). Alex asked students to donate clothes, furniture, electronics, food and cleaning supplies, the most commonly thrown out stuff at the end of the year. It was amazing to see how much stuff was donated for MIFA. More importantly, it was amazing to see how much difference one person could make when that person is dissatisfied with the current way things are being done.
As Christians, I think that we are supposed to take action, like Alex did, in the face of oppression or dissatisfactory conditions. We have the strength and the spirit to make change in any arena that we so choose, we only have to realize our inner strength. We cannot simply sit idly by as those around us are being forced down.
So let us take action, stand up and speak out, guided by the love of Christ and the strength of the Spirit.
-Jennifer
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor." Luke 4:18-19
posted by Noelle at 12:51 PM
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Tuesday, May 16, 2006
What is Public Health?
Greetings from
Today I want to talk a little bit about the field of public health. It’s a field that impacts our daily life and yet people know very little about it. In fact, I often get just a blank stare and a hesitant nod when I tell people I have an MPH. Basically, public health is the study of the health of groups of people: communities, ethnic/racial groups, genders, nations, and ultimately, the world. There are 5 basic fields of public health: health policy and management, environmental/occupational health, epidemiology, biostatistics, and community and family health. Everyone who receives a MPH degree must take at least one introductory course in each of the 5 basic fields. The sort of sixth field is global health, which is what my concentration was in during my master’s. (I also had a certificate in clinical epidemiology.)
So what does public health do? Most if not all of you remember at some point getting vaccinated for something at the local health department. That’s one of the most common public health functions that the general public is aware of. But public health is responsible for many other different things as well: motor-vehicle safety, safer workplaces, control of infectious diseases, reduction of deaths from coronary heart disease and stroke, safer and healthier foods, healthier mothers and babies, family planning, fluoridation of drinking water, and recognition of tobacco use as a health hazard. Those are the 10 greatest public health achievements according to the What is Public Health Web site. That’s a pretty diverse list, which shows how broad the public health field is.
In my 5 semesters studying public health, I worked with domestic violence projects, health education projects, infectious disease projects, and pharmaceutical regulatory affairs projects. And all of that was in less than 2 years! My study of public health has taken me to
Public health fits so well with Christian doctrine. It focuses on eliminating health disparities between groups of people, whether male/female, white/black, American/non-American, etc. It is truly one of those fields that an individual can radically change the lives of others. So for all of you who are justice-minded, I suggest you look into public health topics, even if it’s just finding out more for yourself or so that you can use it somehow in your career.
“Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’ ” –Matthew 25:34-40
(my apologies for not using inclusive language; this is the best I could do while at work!)
posted by Noelle at 12:07 PM
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Monday, May 15, 2006
Interfaith Theological Education
Hello NNPCW friends old and new! This is Gusti Newquist, former NNPCW Associate (I can't figure how to change the tag-line at the bottom of the page). Many thanks to Kelsey for giving me this opportunity to reconnect with everyone . . .
I write from Boston, MA where I’m in the last week of final papers and projects in my first year at Harvard Divinity School. After having lived my entire life in the southeast, it’s definitely been an adjustment (mostly good) to be in Boston and at Harvard. Feminism is so . . . normal. Expected. Old School, even.
Presbyterianism, on the other hand, is far outside the mainstream! There are a whopping FIVE of us in the first-year class of roughly 150 students. Most of the student body is here for the academic study of religion, with plans to pursue any number of PhD programs. Others plan to work in faith-based non-profit organizations. Many are preparing for leadership in a diverse range of faith traditions, Christian and otherwise. And I’ve never seen so many Unitarian Universalists in my life!
While I wouldn’t recommend HDS for everyone, I have to say it’s been an incredible experience for me. After working at the Presbyterian Center for almost eight years, my world had become SO Presbyterian! I felt a strong call to theological education in an interfaith setting, and it has proven to be well worth the cost of admission.
Take, for example, my class this semester on the Passion Play. Where else could an aspiring Presbyterian minister have participated in a pedagogical Passion Play with a Jew, a skeptic, two Catholics, and two Lutherans?
It was a different kind of Passion Play than anything I’ve ever known before. Rather than collapse the four gospels into one narrative and assign characters, we made an intentional effort to tell the story from the perspective of all four gospels. I played “The Gospel of Matthew,” telling various parts of the Passion narrative in conversation with those who played the other three gospels. Another student played a contemporary “disciple” of Jesus who shared relevant traditions from the Hebrew Scriptures and commented upon the imperial reality of Roman occupied Judea and the role of women in Jesus’ ministry. Two “commentators,” one Jewish and one Christian, debated the role these narratives have played in Christian anti-Judaism throughout the centuries. And in the end, we told the “old, old story of Jesus and his love” in a deeply reverent, yet contemporary way. Pretty good training for ministry, I would say!
In fact, the experience of “embodying” the Gospel of Matthew completely transformed my understanding of the calling to “ministry of the Word and Sacrament.” As my body enfleshed the Scriptural Word in performance, I took on the various character roles recounted in the words of Matthew’s Gospel. I experienced the “Word” of Scripture “becoming flesh” in my own body, a woman’s body, and I wanted to explore the implications of that for ministry. In the next hour, I will start work on my final project for this class: “Word Made Flesh: Proclaiming Incarnation and Atonement in a Woman’s Body,” in which I will explore this topic through poetry, artwork and prose. I’ll let you know how it goes in next Monday’s blog. Wish me luck!
(Read the Boston Globe article about our Passion Play.)
--“And the Word became flesh and lived among us . . .” –John 1:14
I write from Boston, MA where I’m in the last week of final papers and projects in my first year at Harvard Divinity School. After having lived my entire life in the southeast, it’s definitely been an adjustment (mostly good) to be in Boston and at Harvard. Feminism is so . . . normal. Expected. Old School, even.
Presbyterianism, on the other hand, is far outside the mainstream! There are a whopping FIVE of us in the first-year class of roughly 150 students. Most of the student body is here for the academic study of religion, with plans to pursue any number of PhD programs. Others plan to work in faith-based non-profit organizations. Many are preparing for leadership in a diverse range of faith traditions, Christian and otherwise. And I’ve never seen so many Unitarian Universalists in my life!
While I wouldn’t recommend HDS for everyone, I have to say it’s been an incredible experience for me. After working at the Presbyterian Center for almost eight years, my world had become SO Presbyterian! I felt a strong call to theological education in an interfaith setting, and it has proven to be well worth the cost of admission.
Take, for example, my class this semester on the Passion Play. Where else could an aspiring Presbyterian minister have participated in a pedagogical Passion Play with a Jew, a skeptic, two Catholics, and two Lutherans?
It was a different kind of Passion Play than anything I’ve ever known before. Rather than collapse the four gospels into one narrative and assign characters, we made an intentional effort to tell the story from the perspective of all four gospels. I played “The Gospel of Matthew,” telling various parts of the Passion narrative in conversation with those who played the other three gospels. Another student played a contemporary “disciple” of Jesus who shared relevant traditions from the Hebrew Scriptures and commented upon the imperial reality of Roman occupied Judea and the role of women in Jesus’ ministry. Two “commentators,” one Jewish and one Christian, debated the role these narratives have played in Christian anti-Judaism throughout the centuries. And in the end, we told the “old, old story of Jesus and his love” in a deeply reverent, yet contemporary way. Pretty good training for ministry, I would say!
In fact, the experience of “embodying” the Gospel of Matthew completely transformed my understanding of the calling to “ministry of the Word and Sacrament.” As my body enfleshed the Scriptural Word in performance, I took on the various character roles recounted in the words of Matthew’s Gospel. I experienced the “Word” of Scripture “becoming flesh” in my own body, a woman’s body, and I wanted to explore the implications of that for ministry. In the next hour, I will start work on my final project for this class: “Word Made Flesh: Proclaiming Incarnation and Atonement in a Woman’s Body,” in which I will explore this topic through poetry, artwork and prose. I’ll let you know how it goes in next Monday’s blog. Wish me luck!
(Read the Boston Globe article about our Passion Play.)
--“And the Word became flesh and lived among us . . .” –John 1:14
posted by Noelle at 9:19 AM
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Friday, May 12, 2006
A Farewell Ode to the Single Life
So Women’s Ministries/Presbyterian Women threw me a wedding shower just now. For those of you under the impression that we are man-hating bra-burners who don’t shave, quite the contrary—we actually do our wedding parties with quite a bit of class around here. We started off with toasts (using sparkling cider, of course) to David and me led by Mary Elva and Bridgett. No games, either—just a great salad potluck with some yummy cake. I ate so much frosting that it almost made me sick.
And I now have a recipe box from the office that says, “From the Kitchen of Kelsey and David,” on it, complete with a personalized embosser to stamp our recipe cards. Now if that isn’t just awesome, I don’t know what is. And note the egalitarian language….
My colleagues also gave me a hard time about my honeymoon. You see, David and I are jetting off to Switzerland for eight days after the wedding. We’ll take in Zurich, Lugano, Lausanne, and Geneva while we’re there. Now, I read in the last Presbyterians Today that a new Reformation museum has opened up in Geneva. I’m pretty excited about said museum—as a former history major and Presbyterian, I think it is a GREAT honeymoon excursion to walk where Calvin walked, explore the rich history and tradition of our Reformed faith, etc. (yeah, so what if David is Baptist). Anyway, my co-workers think that I’m a dork. But surely if YOU, gentle reader, were honeymooning in Geneva, as a good Presbyterian wouldn’t you want to visit the Reformation museum?
Thank you for your kind notes from yesterday—I really appreciate them. I may take up some of the offers from you all to fill in with the blog, and I’ve asked the Coordinating Committee if they’d be willing to take on some blogging, too. So you can look forward to all sorts of miscellany in my absence.
I don’t know if you’re aware of this yet, but you may have caught on that this is my last blog to you all as a single woman. The next time you hear from me (June 5), I will be a KARB (click here to read about KAR vs. KARB). So perhaps I’ll take a few brief moments to pay homage to singlehood before I depart it.
Being single, I’ve noticed, gets a lot of hard knocks. For the first 22 years or so of my life, I was almost perpetually single—so I still feel qualified to speak with some confidence on this subject. On family holidays, you always have to put up with people slyly asking whether you’re seeing someone. The only flowers you get on Valentine’s Day are from your grandpa. And every once in a while, you wonder if maybe all those friends and family and society are right, and maybe there is something “wrong” with you because you haven’t found someone.
Well, don’t believe that for a minute! That’s the point where you should say, in the words of none other than Jesus, “Satan, get behind me!” Because singlehood is awesome, too. Here are the top ten things I’ll miss about being single:
10—If you want to pick up and move to Louisville, Kentucky, why not?
9—Eating out five meals a week is a totally acceptable option.
8—You can visit any city in the world where you have friends, and the only accommodation you need consists of a spare couch.
7—You don’t have to check another person’s schedule before accepting a party invitation.
6—No décor compromising!
5—You can spend all weekend watching Pride and Prejudice in your PJs. And no one can say anything about your running commentary of romantic sighs and shrieks of outrage.
4—No one expects you to bring food to the church potluck, but you’re always the first in line to eat.
3—You have a valid and productive purpose in people-watching.
2—It is easy to find friends to go watch stupid romantic comedies with.
1—You have the room to grow as an individual.
Now, I am not saying that I wish I were single—I am quite happy being in a couple at this point in my life. But all those years in which I was single were critical in my spiritual growth, my intellectual development, and my emotional maturity. Just as I live a rich and full life now in a relationship, I had a wonderful and rich experience of development in singlehood.
So I say farewell to the single life by encouraging all of you who are in the single state to live it up! There are too many adventures to be had, friends to make, and growth to happen for you to dwell on what’s not there. And if you do ever decide to commit to someone, you’ll do it knowing that you wanted to and didn’t have to.
I’ll see you all on the other side!
“I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or the wild does: do not stir up or awaken love until it is ready!” --Song of Solomon 3:5
Kelsey
And I now have a recipe box from the office that says, “From the Kitchen of Kelsey and David,” on it, complete with a personalized embosser to stamp our recipe cards. Now if that isn’t just awesome, I don’t know what is. And note the egalitarian language….
My colleagues also gave me a hard time about my honeymoon. You see, David and I are jetting off to Switzerland for eight days after the wedding. We’ll take in Zurich, Lugano, Lausanne, and Geneva while we’re there. Now, I read in the last Presbyterians Today that a new Reformation museum has opened up in Geneva. I’m pretty excited about said museum—as a former history major and Presbyterian, I think it is a GREAT honeymoon excursion to walk where Calvin walked, explore the rich history and tradition of our Reformed faith, etc. (yeah, so what if David is Baptist). Anyway, my co-workers think that I’m a dork. But surely if YOU, gentle reader, were honeymooning in Geneva, as a good Presbyterian wouldn’t you want to visit the Reformation museum?
Thank you for your kind notes from yesterday—I really appreciate them. I may take up some of the offers from you all to fill in with the blog, and I’ve asked the Coordinating Committee if they’d be willing to take on some blogging, too. So you can look forward to all sorts of miscellany in my absence.
I don’t know if you’re aware of this yet, but you may have caught on that this is my last blog to you all as a single woman. The next time you hear from me (June 5), I will be a KARB (click here to read about KAR vs. KARB). So perhaps I’ll take a few brief moments to pay homage to singlehood before I depart it.
Being single, I’ve noticed, gets a lot of hard knocks. For the first 22 years or so of my life, I was almost perpetually single—so I still feel qualified to speak with some confidence on this subject. On family holidays, you always have to put up with people slyly asking whether you’re seeing someone. The only flowers you get on Valentine’s Day are from your grandpa. And every once in a while, you wonder if maybe all those friends and family and society are right, and maybe there is something “wrong” with you because you haven’t found someone.
Well, don’t believe that for a minute! That’s the point where you should say, in the words of none other than Jesus, “Satan, get behind me!” Because singlehood is awesome, too. Here are the top ten things I’ll miss about being single:
10—If you want to pick up and move to Louisville, Kentucky, why not?
9—Eating out five meals a week is a totally acceptable option.
8—You can visit any city in the world where you have friends, and the only accommodation you need consists of a spare couch.
7—You don’t have to check another person’s schedule before accepting a party invitation.
6—No décor compromising!
5—You can spend all weekend watching Pride and Prejudice in your PJs. And no one can say anything about your running commentary of romantic sighs and shrieks of outrage.
4—No one expects you to bring food to the church potluck, but you’re always the first in line to eat.
3—You have a valid and productive purpose in people-watching.
2—It is easy to find friends to go watch stupid romantic comedies with.
1—You have the room to grow as an individual.
Now, I am not saying that I wish I were single—I am quite happy being in a couple at this point in my life. But all those years in which I was single were critical in my spiritual growth, my intellectual development, and my emotional maturity. Just as I live a rich and full life now in a relationship, I had a wonderful and rich experience of development in singlehood.
So I say farewell to the single life by encouraging all of you who are in the single state to live it up! There are too many adventures to be had, friends to make, and growth to happen for you to dwell on what’s not there. And if you do ever decide to commit to someone, you’ll do it knowing that you wanted to and didn’t have to.
I’ll see you all on the other side!
“I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or the wild does: do not stir up or awaken love until it is ready!” --Song of Solomon 3:5
Kelsey
posted by Noelle at 4:06 PM
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Thursday, May 11, 2006
Asking the Questions
It is Thursday, and the rat race is almost over. Tomorrow the office is throwing a wedding shower for me, and after that I ride off into the sunset for three weeks while someone else takes over blog-writing responsibilities. I’m not sure who will do this yet, but I have until tomorrow to find out!
To be perfectly honest, I’ve been a bit discouraged writing the blog of late. There are a couple of reasons for this. First, I think I’ve been feeling my own fallibility, my own brokenness. I can posit my opinions on particular topics, and perhaps you take them as true. You assume that I know what I’m talking about, you like how I say it, whatever.
But really, in many ways I am just like you all. I see and react to the world around me, doing my best to understand it through the promptings of the Holy Spirit. Yet my worldview is also swayed by a variety of influences, just as yours is. I am a white woman, daughter of union-wage middle class parents, product of a private college, in a good job, soon-to-be wife of someone with a good job. I look at the Bible, too, from the scarred eyes of a former Pentecostal-turned Presbyterian-turned who knows what in the years to come. I come from a family that has not always had privilege, but I have a lot of privilege myself.
I often feel like I sway between those competing perspectives, too. Sometimes those conflicting identities impact how I react to certain topics. There are times when I wonder whether I am the rich young man in the Bible, who loves the faith but isn’t willing to give up all he has for it. I struggle with call, feeling that God put me in this place and gave me these tools to work for greater good, but not being sure how to best live it out.
Change brings out funny things in us, doesn’t it? The changes coming in my life—getting married, quitting my job, moving to a new city, starting graduate school—have put me in a place of questioning unprecedented since I graduated from college. At that time, though, I don’t think I even had the social consciousness or theological depth to know the questions to raise. My three years in Louisville have been immense years of spiritual and personal growth. And in that growth, I’ve become even more aware of how long the journey of discipleship really is.
When I came out of college, I had a very clear sense of call to this work. The call to the new life is there, too, as I continue that growth. But as I move forward, I am more concerned than ever to remain faithful to the call God has placed upon me.
As for the blog, the other part of my discouragement is that even as I struggle with these questions of call and purpose at this critical juncture of my life, I’m afraid to open up that journey to you. I’ve hoped that Network Notes would be meaningful not because I necessarily said anything profound every day, or told you all about the workings of the Network, but rather because I had enough honesty and courage to walk on this journey with you. I coveted your respect as a writer because I had enough integrity to ask the hard questions. And I don’t really feel like I’ve been doing that lately.
I’m hoping that my long hiatus from blogging, and getting over the hump of the wedding, will bring me back to a place where together we can ask those questions. And as we all face change, may we be guided and comforted by knowing that God is on this journey with us, working through us to show love to all humanity.
“Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.” --Philippians 3:12
Kelsey
To be perfectly honest, I’ve been a bit discouraged writing the blog of late. There are a couple of reasons for this. First, I think I’ve been feeling my own fallibility, my own brokenness. I can posit my opinions on particular topics, and perhaps you take them as true. You assume that I know what I’m talking about, you like how I say it, whatever.
But really, in many ways I am just like you all. I see and react to the world around me, doing my best to understand it through the promptings of the Holy Spirit. Yet my worldview is also swayed by a variety of influences, just as yours is. I am a white woman, daughter of union-wage middle class parents, product of a private college, in a good job, soon-to-be wife of someone with a good job. I look at the Bible, too, from the scarred eyes of a former Pentecostal-turned Presbyterian-turned who knows what in the years to come. I come from a family that has not always had privilege, but I have a lot of privilege myself.
I often feel like I sway between those competing perspectives, too. Sometimes those conflicting identities impact how I react to certain topics. There are times when I wonder whether I am the rich young man in the Bible, who loves the faith but isn’t willing to give up all he has for it. I struggle with call, feeling that God put me in this place and gave me these tools to work for greater good, but not being sure how to best live it out.
Change brings out funny things in us, doesn’t it? The changes coming in my life—getting married, quitting my job, moving to a new city, starting graduate school—have put me in a place of questioning unprecedented since I graduated from college. At that time, though, I don’t think I even had the social consciousness or theological depth to know the questions to raise. My three years in Louisville have been immense years of spiritual and personal growth. And in that growth, I’ve become even more aware of how long the journey of discipleship really is.
When I came out of college, I had a very clear sense of call to this work. The call to the new life is there, too, as I continue that growth. But as I move forward, I am more concerned than ever to remain faithful to the call God has placed upon me.
As for the blog, the other part of my discouragement is that even as I struggle with these questions of call and purpose at this critical juncture of my life, I’m afraid to open up that journey to you. I’ve hoped that Network Notes would be meaningful not because I necessarily said anything profound every day, or told you all about the workings of the Network, but rather because I had enough honesty and courage to walk on this journey with you. I coveted your respect as a writer because I had enough integrity to ask the hard questions. And I don’t really feel like I’ve been doing that lately.
I’m hoping that my long hiatus from blogging, and getting over the hump of the wedding, will bring me back to a place where together we can ask those questions. And as we all face change, may we be guided and comforted by knowing that God is on this journey with us, working through us to show love to all humanity.
“Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.” --Philippians 3:12
Kelsey
posted by Noelle at 10:03 AM
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Wednesday, May 10, 2006
A Brief Pause
Oh my goodness!! Here it is, the end of the day, and I totally forgot to blog. I'm sorry-- getting out of the office in one piece has consumed most of my time. But I'll be back tomorrow, with an insightful, entertaining, exciting blog post (or something akin to that). In the meantime, I'm off to continue the rat race called "getting ready for the wedding."
Kelsey
Kelsey
posted by Noelle at 4:58 PM
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Tuesday, May 09, 2006
New Leaders for a New Time
I’ve been reading the Margaret Wheatley book again for our staff meeting. Whenever I read it, I’m reminded of the fact that she wouldn’t come to the Leadership Event this year because we couldn’t meet her price tag. Ah well, she’s an internationally-known speaker who does a lot of charity appearances abroad. I guess somebody has to pay her.
Once I get past that, though, I am again and again inspired and challenged by what she has to say in Finding Our Way: Leadership for an Uncertain Time. The chapter I read today was about supporting and nourishing pioneering leaders in a system that often, in attempting to maintain the status quo, discourages them. What struck me today is how what she said in many ways reflected you all.
Have any of you ever heard the term “paradigm shift?” I seem to remember some classes shoving it down our throats at Whitworth. But the basic term, as today’s reading reminded me, comes from the mid-20th century work of Thomas Kuhn in science. He studied the reactions of scientists when they were presented with unexpected data from experiments, data that didn’t fit the framework of how they understood a particular process. Kuhn found that these scientists would often unconsciously throw out or reinterpret data to make the results fit their parameters. Sometimes, they literally couldn’t see the new data, their preconceptions were so strong.
Wheatley relates Kuhn’s work on paradigms to leadership theory, arguing that the data is moving us toward new systems of leadership and collaboration that defy the old way of hierarchy and bureaucracy. Though our larger culture often ridicules and ignores innovate problem-solving and leadership, such leaders are working to create new and better systems to replace the failing ones.
As I was reading, NNPCW came to my mind quite a bit. We are a small ministry, one born from the work of visionary leaders in response to a system that is faltering (the church losing young people, especially young women). We operate on alternative leadership and decision-making models that are often criticized by the mainstream. We certainly work with limited resources.
And yet, I’ve always felt like you all are blazing a new path for the church. It isn’t because you are going to do what some in the older generations might like—become good pew warmers who bring the donuts for fellowship hour. But I think this generation is beginning to challenge our religious systems to rethink the old ways of doing business and become open to the new.
This isn’t an attack on what the church stands for at all—the loving mercy of God expressed through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Rather, NNPCW members are the pioneering leaders who question the hierarchies and power structures of the religious institution. You are creating, in your campus women’s groups and your grassroots networking, those alternative spaces where the church can grow.
Wheatley comments that such new ideas often begin in isolation, with people like you out there thinking that you’re working all alone. But great changes happen when we discover we’re not isolated. Even events like the fall of the Berlin Wall, which seemed to be sudden and huge, were the work of isolated, seemingly insignificant pockets of action that, when joined together, found their strength to create large-scale change.
I hope that NNPCW has helped you realize that you’re not alone—in the church or in society. Many others like you are out there, thinking of new ways to serve Christ and serve humanity that break out of the old paradigms of power, violence, and control. And by the grace of God, together you will find new ways to carry God’s love to the whole world.
“He told them another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.’” --Matthew 13:33
Kelsey
Once I get past that, though, I am again and again inspired and challenged by what she has to say in Finding Our Way: Leadership for an Uncertain Time. The chapter I read today was about supporting and nourishing pioneering leaders in a system that often, in attempting to maintain the status quo, discourages them. What struck me today is how what she said in many ways reflected you all.
Have any of you ever heard the term “paradigm shift?” I seem to remember some classes shoving it down our throats at Whitworth. But the basic term, as today’s reading reminded me, comes from the mid-20th century work of Thomas Kuhn in science. He studied the reactions of scientists when they were presented with unexpected data from experiments, data that didn’t fit the framework of how they understood a particular process. Kuhn found that these scientists would often unconsciously throw out or reinterpret data to make the results fit their parameters. Sometimes, they literally couldn’t see the new data, their preconceptions were so strong.
Wheatley relates Kuhn’s work on paradigms to leadership theory, arguing that the data is moving us toward new systems of leadership and collaboration that defy the old way of hierarchy and bureaucracy. Though our larger culture often ridicules and ignores innovate problem-solving and leadership, such leaders are working to create new and better systems to replace the failing ones.
As I was reading, NNPCW came to my mind quite a bit. We are a small ministry, one born from the work of visionary leaders in response to a system that is faltering (the church losing young people, especially young women). We operate on alternative leadership and decision-making models that are often criticized by the mainstream. We certainly work with limited resources.
And yet, I’ve always felt like you all are blazing a new path for the church. It isn’t because you are going to do what some in the older generations might like—become good pew warmers who bring the donuts for fellowship hour. But I think this generation is beginning to challenge our religious systems to rethink the old ways of doing business and become open to the new.
This isn’t an attack on what the church stands for at all—the loving mercy of God expressed through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Rather, NNPCW members are the pioneering leaders who question the hierarchies and power structures of the religious institution. You are creating, in your campus women’s groups and your grassroots networking, those alternative spaces where the church can grow.
Wheatley comments that such new ideas often begin in isolation, with people like you out there thinking that you’re working all alone. But great changes happen when we discover we’re not isolated. Even events like the fall of the Berlin Wall, which seemed to be sudden and huge, were the work of isolated, seemingly insignificant pockets of action that, when joined together, found their strength to create large-scale change.
I hope that NNPCW has helped you realize that you’re not alone—in the church or in society. Many others like you are out there, thinking of new ways to serve Christ and serve humanity that break out of the old paradigms of power, violence, and control. And by the grace of God, together you will find new ways to carry God’s love to the whole world.
“He told them another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.’” --Matthew 13:33
Kelsey
posted by Noelle at 4:42 PM
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Monday, May 08, 2006
The Earth is the Lord's
Another Kentucky Derby has come and gone… this year Barbaro took home the garland of roses. If you were watching the Derby on TV, you probably knew at least one person in the crowd, our own Brianne Jurs.
I, on the other hand, did NOT attend the Derby, thus avoiding sunburns, rainstorms, and other inclement weather patterns I’ve experienced at previous races. Rather, I enjoyed Derby Day (a de facto state holiday) by having all my friends over for brunch and my own Derby Pie, followed by a relaxed dinner at Eun-hyey Park’s apartment during the race. Best of all, I didn’t wait in line for an hour with all the rowdy drunk people to get off the racetrack infield.
However, I did see the results of drunken revelry the following day, when I went with our church’s youth group to pick up litter at the local state park. First of all, I should point out that I am a complete germophobe—I don’t think CoCo members will soon forget my horror the time Sacha Maxim picked up a stepped-on Twizzler from the floor and ate it.
As you can imagine, then, trash pickup is hardly a favorite activity of mine. Combine that with my trash cleanup experience as a sophomore in college: my group of naïve Whitworth students found and carried a mysterious garbage bag all over the park, only to discover in the end that it held several pounds of marijuana (which, for the record, we were immediately relieved of by the park ranger). So I don’t have a good history.
No illicit drugs this time, but me and my little cohort of three twelve year olds did manage to find plenty of liquor bottles, tires, cigarette butts, and, strangely enough, what we can only assume is human feces at the park (a word of advice—when you see a little napkin sticking up out of a pile of rocks, leave it behind! You may discover a bit more than a discarded napkin. And poop is biodegradable anyway).
Growing up, I was never big on what I now know as eco-justice, maybe because “environmentalist” is a dirty word in agriculture-driven Eastern Washington. I learned enough early on to believe that littering is bad, though, that we needed to have some level of respect for the world around us. Interestingly enough, I didn’t learn that lesson at church—public schools taught me that one.
Yet there is a strong theological basis for environmental care. Presbyterian General Assemblies have been making statements since 1951 about our stewardship responsibility of God’s good creation, realizing that we are only tenants of the land God has blessed us with. In fact, the original Hebrew word used in Genesis, the one we translate as “dominion” over the earth, is really closer to “steward” or “caretaker.”
Going to the park and picking up tires is a start on that journey toward being a good steward. But it really only scratches the surface of how deeply interconnected this issue is to many other justice issues. For instance, one statistic quoted in NNPCW’s discussion resource (which you can get free from our office if you contact me!) says, “Communities with one commercial hazardous waste facility had, on average, twice the minority composition of communities without facilities.”
As women, moreover, the tampons many of us use have been treated with dioxin chemicals that are harmful to our bodies. Our sisters internationally struggle to keep families alive as water sources are polluted and forests are cut down, contributing to global hunger and poverty. As young people in this country, who can say what effect the enormous amounts of electricity needed to run our cell phones, our computers, even our microwaves, will have on our bodies long-term? Poor stewardship of our world goes far beyond our local parks—in an interconnected ecosystem, it impacts each and every one of us on a global scale.
There are lots of suggestions for ways to be more environmentally-conscious in the NNPCW discussion resource. Hold a swap meet in your dorm so that people can exchange goods instead of throwing them away and buying new ones. Use less water by turning off taps when you’re brushing teeth or in the shower. Use public transportation, buy at yard sales, write your class notes on clean backs of used paper. Get involved in the political process around environmental issues. And of course, recycle!!!
I used to feel that such activities were sort of pointless, since other people weren’t doing them. But it isn’t about whether you’re doing such activities with a bunch of other people. What matters is whether you’re living faithfully to God’s commandments as a tenant of God’s good creation—because after all, it only takes a little bit of yeast to work into the whole dough.
“The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it; for God has founded it on the seas, and established it on the rivers.” --Psalm 24:1-2
Kelsey
I, on the other hand, did NOT attend the Derby, thus avoiding sunburns, rainstorms, and other inclement weather patterns I’ve experienced at previous races. Rather, I enjoyed Derby Day (a de facto state holiday) by having all my friends over for brunch and my own Derby Pie, followed by a relaxed dinner at Eun-hyey Park’s apartment during the race. Best of all, I didn’t wait in line for an hour with all the rowdy drunk people to get off the racetrack infield.
However, I did see the results of drunken revelry the following day, when I went with our church’s youth group to pick up litter at the local state park. First of all, I should point out that I am a complete germophobe—I don’t think CoCo members will soon forget my horror the time Sacha Maxim picked up a stepped-on Twizzler from the floor and ate it.
As you can imagine, then, trash pickup is hardly a favorite activity of mine. Combine that with my trash cleanup experience as a sophomore in college: my group of naïve Whitworth students found and carried a mysterious garbage bag all over the park, only to discover in the end that it held several pounds of marijuana (which, for the record, we were immediately relieved of by the park ranger). So I don’t have a good history.
No illicit drugs this time, but me and my little cohort of three twelve year olds did manage to find plenty of liquor bottles, tires, cigarette butts, and, strangely enough, what we can only assume is human feces at the park (a word of advice—when you see a little napkin sticking up out of a pile of rocks, leave it behind! You may discover a bit more than a discarded napkin. And poop is biodegradable anyway).
Growing up, I was never big on what I now know as eco-justice, maybe because “environmentalist” is a dirty word in agriculture-driven Eastern Washington. I learned enough early on to believe that littering is bad, though, that we needed to have some level of respect for the world around us. Interestingly enough, I didn’t learn that lesson at church—public schools taught me that one.
Yet there is a strong theological basis for environmental care. Presbyterian General Assemblies have been making statements since 1951 about our stewardship responsibility of God’s good creation, realizing that we are only tenants of the land God has blessed us with. In fact, the original Hebrew word used in Genesis, the one we translate as “dominion” over the earth, is really closer to “steward” or “caretaker.”
Going to the park and picking up tires is a start on that journey toward being a good steward. But it really only scratches the surface of how deeply interconnected this issue is to many other justice issues. For instance, one statistic quoted in NNPCW’s discussion resource (which you can get free from our office if you contact me!) says, “Communities with one commercial hazardous waste facility had, on average, twice the minority composition of communities without facilities.”
As women, moreover, the tampons many of us use have been treated with dioxin chemicals that are harmful to our bodies. Our sisters internationally struggle to keep families alive as water sources are polluted and forests are cut down, contributing to global hunger and poverty. As young people in this country, who can say what effect the enormous amounts of electricity needed to run our cell phones, our computers, even our microwaves, will have on our bodies long-term? Poor stewardship of our world goes far beyond our local parks—in an interconnected ecosystem, it impacts each and every one of us on a global scale.
There are lots of suggestions for ways to be more environmentally-conscious in the NNPCW discussion resource. Hold a swap meet in your dorm so that people can exchange goods instead of throwing them away and buying new ones. Use less water by turning off taps when you’re brushing teeth or in the shower. Use public transportation, buy at yard sales, write your class notes on clean backs of used paper. Get involved in the political process around environmental issues. And of course, recycle!!!
I used to feel that such activities were sort of pointless, since other people weren’t doing them. But it isn’t about whether you’re doing such activities with a bunch of other people. What matters is whether you’re living faithfully to God’s commandments as a tenant of God’s good creation—because after all, it only takes a little bit of yeast to work into the whole dough.
“The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it; for God has founded it on the seas, and established it on the rivers.” --Psalm 24:1-2
Kelsey
posted by Noelle at 11:44 AM
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Friday, May 05, 2006
Seeds of Peace in Blogger's Block
I must confess that I’m suffering from a case of blogger’s block today. I’ve done everything I can think of to jog my creative juices—scanned the New York Times, leafed through the new issue of Horizons, stared at my Bible hoping that the Spirit would speak to me. I’ve gone away and done other work, and then come back. Nothing seems to be helping much.
And then I read the following passage on the inside front cover of Horizons, the magazine for Presbyterian Women:
“This, then, is the beginning of my advice: make prayer the first step in anything worthwhile that you attempt. Persevere and do not weaken in that prayer. Pray with confidence, because God, in his love and forgiveness, has counted on us as his own sons and daughters.” --Prologue, St. Benedict’s Rule
In these last few weeks leading up to my wedding, with important project goals to meet before I leave, craft projects to finish, and bills to pay, I’m finding it increasingly hard to stop and pray. Maybe some of you feel like this too right now, rocks tumbling down a hillside, faster and faster and faster until you smack the ground at the bottom when the semester ends. I remember going to the waterslides park as a kid and riding the inner-tube slides. There was always that last waterfall, that last second hanging suspended on the lip of the slide before you plunged down and landed in the pool below. You couldn’t stop the progression.
It is hard to sit back and be reflective, to pray, when you’re in that mode. Many times I feel like these blog posts are prayers of sorts, so the futility of my rush to find a topic makes sense. You simply cannot hear the voice of God when your mind is so cluttered.
And yet the early medieval monk St. Benedict tells us to make prayer the first step in anything worthwhile that we attempt. True confession—I always prayed before tests in school, as nerdy/Bible-thumping as that sounds. I took great pains to hide this, actually. To the outside observer it probably looked like I was just taking a deep breath before I began the exam. Yet that moment of focus, center, and even that sense that my toil was for a purpose greater than myself was exactly what I needed to get down to business.
Perhaps that’s what St. Benedict means. In praying, we focus outside ourselves toward the God that loves us and calls us by name. The things we do, no matter how much we screw them up, have meaning and value in the context of our calling to be God’s agents of love and reconciliation in the world. Just as prayer invokes God’s blessings on our work, it also serves to remind us that God is already present.
Some of my most meaningful moments of prayer are prayers of presence, not necessarily the prayers of supplication that we’re more accustomed to. Last night, walking in the park, my only prayer was the Taize chorus:
“Come and fill our hearts with your peace,
You alone, O Lord, are holy,
Come and fill our hearts with your peace,
Allelujah.”
Perhaps my blogger’s block, this whole annoyingly time-consuming process of writing today when I just can’t find something to write about, is God’s way of forcing me to slow down and listen for the Spirit. To feel God’s presence. To realize that this work is for something greater than itself, something greater than myself, something greater than you all. And it all starts in prayer.
“God said, ‘Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.’ Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. Then there came a voice to him that said, ‘What are you doing here, Elijah?’” --1 Kings 19:11-13
Kelsey
And then I read the following passage on the inside front cover of Horizons, the magazine for Presbyterian Women:
“This, then, is the beginning of my advice: make prayer the first step in anything worthwhile that you attempt. Persevere and do not weaken in that prayer. Pray with confidence, because God, in his love and forgiveness, has counted on us as his own sons and daughters.” --Prologue, St. Benedict’s Rule
In these last few weeks leading up to my wedding, with important project goals to meet before I leave, craft projects to finish, and bills to pay, I’m finding it increasingly hard to stop and pray. Maybe some of you feel like this too right now, rocks tumbling down a hillside, faster and faster and faster until you smack the ground at the bottom when the semester ends. I remember going to the waterslides park as a kid and riding the inner-tube slides. There was always that last waterfall, that last second hanging suspended on the lip of the slide before you plunged down and landed in the pool below. You couldn’t stop the progression.
It is hard to sit back and be reflective, to pray, when you’re in that mode. Many times I feel like these blog posts are prayers of sorts, so the futility of my rush to find a topic makes sense. You simply cannot hear the voice of God when your mind is so cluttered.
And yet the early medieval monk St. Benedict tells us to make prayer the first step in anything worthwhile that we attempt. True confession—I always prayed before tests in school, as nerdy/Bible-thumping as that sounds. I took great pains to hide this, actually. To the outside observer it probably looked like I was just taking a deep breath before I began the exam. Yet that moment of focus, center, and even that sense that my toil was for a purpose greater than myself was exactly what I needed to get down to business.
Perhaps that’s what St. Benedict means. In praying, we focus outside ourselves toward the God that loves us and calls us by name. The things we do, no matter how much we screw them up, have meaning and value in the context of our calling to be God’s agents of love and reconciliation in the world. Just as prayer invokes God’s blessings on our work, it also serves to remind us that God is already present.
Some of my most meaningful moments of prayer are prayers of presence, not necessarily the prayers of supplication that we’re more accustomed to. Last night, walking in the park, my only prayer was the Taize chorus:
“Come and fill our hearts with your peace,
You alone, O Lord, are holy,
Come and fill our hearts with your peace,
Allelujah.”
Perhaps my blogger’s block, this whole annoyingly time-consuming process of writing today when I just can’t find something to write about, is God’s way of forcing me to slow down and listen for the Spirit. To feel God’s presence. To realize that this work is for something greater than itself, something greater than myself, something greater than you all. And it all starts in prayer.
“God said, ‘Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.’ Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. Then there came a voice to him that said, ‘What are you doing here, Elijah?’” --1 Kings 19:11-13
Kelsey
posted by Noelle at 2:53 PM
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Thursday, May 04, 2006
Staying Connected After Graduation
Another school year, another commencement celebration, another influx of recent graduates forging their way into the world. Just as Holy Week provided me with a whole litany of themes to draw upon for blog posts, the end of the academic year provides a host of topics of its own to mull upon. Since I’m not feeling particularly inspired regarding any current events or deep-fried candy bars this morning, I’ll reflect on a much more prosaic issue….
“How do I get involved or stay involved with a faith community after I graduate?”
First of all, let me say that we’re forging into territory that isn’t a strong suit of Christian denominations. Churches tend to be very family-oriented, as we all know. And up until the last, oh, say, 40 years, that has worked pretty well. Between 1900 and 1970, the average age of a woman at her first marriage was somewhere around 20 or 21 years old. We were getting married early and probably starting families early, too. The church was, and is, well adapted to that traditional structure.
In 2003, according to the Census Bureau, that median marriage age had jumped to 25.3 years old. We’re also delaying having children, and many of us aren’t getting married or having children at all for various reasons. Even for couples who are married, who do have children, family priorities mean something very different. Moms are working outside the home and can’t devote hours to volunteer work at the church. Dads understand that they also have a responsibility for childcare and home life—they can’t and often don’t want to abandon the wife and kids for a six hour session meeting or a week of travel to Louisville.
The women’s groups or campus ministries that may have nurtured you in college understood the new realities well, and are probably on the cutting edge of catering to the shift. But this is a wake-up call, for those of you living in that happy bubble—congregations aren’t necessarily like that. It will probably be a lot harder “out there” to find a place where you feel safe, where you feel comfortable, that really responds to your needs.
So how do you find that, outside of time-consuming and discouraging “church shopping?” If you need help, NNPCW is here to provide it! If you’re moving to a new city and looking for the buzz on churches, drop me an e-mail. I may know of some active alumnae in the area whom you can be in touch with, regardless of your denomination, or through our connections in other offices may be able to find out more about churches or Presbyterian Women’s groups in a city and make suggestions.
You may already know this, too, from college, but it bears revisiting—when you’re looking at faith communities, be realistic—not every church will have everything you’re looking for. Otherwise, it would be a carbon copy of your old church! Instead, evaluate the traits you value from your current faith community, and then prioritize them. Then look for communities that share similar values and who have ministries that you might like to get involved with. For instance, if your passion lies in anti-poverty initiatives, look for churches where members share that passion. Then you can either plug into what they are already doing, or you can start something up. If you love mission, look for a church that has a mission outreach in the community or regularly sends work groups to other places. If the worship puts you to sleep, though, that might be a sign…. You need to be in a place that challenges you to think, too.
And for those of you who can’t find that, perhaps you could start your own thing. Find friends seeking spiritual community, and start a group. Meet in a coffeeshop or church basement once a week, talk it up to your friends, advertise on Craig’s List or in the alternative weekly for new people. Create an atmosphere of laid-back hospitality by offering donuts or cookies. Use elements of formal worship, interspersed with pieces that address the group’s spiritual needs. Start with some sort of sacred space, and then see where it goes from there.
Don’t forget staying involved on the national level, too. There are loads of church committees, all looking for new members. Two committees in the Presbyterian Church (USA) you can apply to join are the Advocacy Committee for Women’s Concerns, which lifts up the voices of women to the church’s decision-making bodies, and the Advocacy Committee for Racial Ethnic Concerns, which focuses on people of color. You’ll get an in-depth knowledge of current church policy, and an opportunity to advocate directly to church leadership on behalf of the marginalized.
Again, don’t be afraid to utilize our office as a resource. If you have a particular passion, from reproductive issues to mission and evangelism, we can help you find the faith group that addresses it and get you involved. In fact, I like to think that this is something of a specialty of ours!
This may have provoked more questions than answers. But one thing to keep in mind—you’ll only be as successful finding faith community as you want to be. If you have a commitment to spiritual growth, know that we are also committed to helping you find spaces where that can happen. That support doesn’t end with your college experience.
“Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many.” --1 Corinthians 12:14
Kelsey
“How do I get involved or stay involved with a faith community after I graduate?”
First of all, let me say that we’re forging into territory that isn’t a strong suit of Christian denominations. Churches tend to be very family-oriented, as we all know. And up until the last, oh, say, 40 years, that has worked pretty well. Between 1900 and 1970, the average age of a woman at her first marriage was somewhere around 20 or 21 years old. We were getting married early and probably starting families early, too. The church was, and is, well adapted to that traditional structure.
In 2003, according to the Census Bureau, that median marriage age had jumped to 25.3 years old. We’re also delaying having children, and many of us aren’t getting married or having children at all for various reasons. Even for couples who are married, who do have children, family priorities mean something very different. Moms are working outside the home and can’t devote hours to volunteer work at the church. Dads understand that they also have a responsibility for childcare and home life—they can’t and often don’t want to abandon the wife and kids for a six hour session meeting or a week of travel to Louisville.
The women’s groups or campus ministries that may have nurtured you in college understood the new realities well, and are probably on the cutting edge of catering to the shift. But this is a wake-up call, for those of you living in that happy bubble—congregations aren’t necessarily like that. It will probably be a lot harder “out there” to find a place where you feel safe, where you feel comfortable, that really responds to your needs.
So how do you find that, outside of time-consuming and discouraging “church shopping?” If you need help, NNPCW is here to provide it! If you’re moving to a new city and looking for the buzz on churches, drop me an e-mail. I may know of some active alumnae in the area whom you can be in touch with, regardless of your denomination, or through our connections in other offices may be able to find out more about churches or Presbyterian Women’s groups in a city and make suggestions.
You may already know this, too, from college, but it bears revisiting—when you’re looking at faith communities, be realistic—not every church will have everything you’re looking for. Otherwise, it would be a carbon copy of your old church! Instead, evaluate the traits you value from your current faith community, and then prioritize them. Then look for communities that share similar values and who have ministries that you might like to get involved with. For instance, if your passion lies in anti-poverty initiatives, look for churches where members share that passion. Then you can either plug into what they are already doing, or you can start something up. If you love mission, look for a church that has a mission outreach in the community or regularly sends work groups to other places. If the worship puts you to sleep, though, that might be a sign…. You need to be in a place that challenges you to think, too.
And for those of you who can’t find that, perhaps you could start your own thing. Find friends seeking spiritual community, and start a group. Meet in a coffeeshop or church basement once a week, talk it up to your friends, advertise on Craig’s List or in the alternative weekly for new people. Create an atmosphere of laid-back hospitality by offering donuts or cookies. Use elements of formal worship, interspersed with pieces that address the group’s spiritual needs. Start with some sort of sacred space, and then see where it goes from there.
Don’t forget staying involved on the national level, too. There are loads of church committees, all looking for new members. Two committees in the Presbyterian Church (USA) you can apply to join are the Advocacy Committee for Women’s Concerns, which lifts up the voices of women to the church’s decision-making bodies, and the Advocacy Committee for Racial Ethnic Concerns, which focuses on people of color. You’ll get an in-depth knowledge of current church policy, and an opportunity to advocate directly to church leadership on behalf of the marginalized.
Again, don’t be afraid to utilize our office as a resource. If you have a particular passion, from reproductive issues to mission and evangelism, we can help you find the faith group that addresses it and get you involved. In fact, I like to think that this is something of a specialty of ours!
This may have provoked more questions than answers. But one thing to keep in mind—you’ll only be as successful finding faith community as you want to be. If you have a commitment to spiritual growth, know that we are also committed to helping you find spaces where that can happen. That support doesn’t end with your college experience.
“Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many.” --1 Corinthians 12:14
Kelsey
posted by Noelle at 10:52 AM
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Wednesday, May 03, 2006
Deep-Fried Snickers on a Stick!!
As you walk down the street in Louisville, you can see banners up on the streetlights that say something like, “Louisville—A Healthy Community,” in some sort of mayor’s initiative to make us all lead healthy lifestyles. Well, let me tell you right now that the organizers of said campaign must have an especially virulent hatred of everyone’s favorite Kentucky Derby Festival feeding ground, the so-called “Chow Wagon.”
Yes, that’s right, for those of you who thought Louisville was only about Derby Day and 60 tons of fireworks, the Chow Wagon is something of a Festival institution. This is the one time of year where all the professional minions of Louisville’s office buildings can come down to the park and feed their faces in the largest cesspool of greasy, fatty, fried foods that Kentucky has ever seen.
Today, some of my colleagues and I ventured out of the shell-shocked ruins of PresbyLand (see Monday’s post), into the bright sunlight of Riverfront Park to explore Louisville’s own Vanity Fair, the Chow Wagon.
Let me say, first of all, that the Chow Wagon epitomizes the rampant rip-off that is fair food. To even gain entrance to the area, one must purchase a little plastic “Pegasus Pin” for $3. “Don’t be so cheap, Kelsey! It’s only $3!” you say. But once you get in, you go on to pay outrageous prices for tiny portions of bad-for-you items—an average corn dog costs $4, with a drink priced about the same.
And yet we still flock to this circus, mainly for two reasons. One, I must confess that the food served is something of a freak show for a Pacific Northwesterner like me. I had never seen turkey legs on a stick before I came to Kentucky! The propensity to deep-fry everything is also foreign in my home of granola-loving latte sippers—one booth alone offered deep fried bologna, veggies, pickles, corn dogs, green tomatoes, twinkies, and Oreos. Basically, you name it, they can deep fry it down at the Chow Wagon.
The other reason I enjoy the Chow Wagon—in our health-crazed, carb-cutting, fat-slicing society, how often do we have the opportunity to eat foods that we know are terrible for us with impunity? Now, perhaps I should have stayed away from such temptations two and a half weeks before I have to fit into a small wedding dress. But gosh darn-it, I can’t express the thrill of joy I felt today as I bit into that creamy, deep-fried Snickers bar on a stick after lunch. I walked away from the Chow Wagon, my shirt covered in powdered sugar and my lips smeared in melted chocolate and caramel, and felt a surge of empowerment (or maybe that was just a jolt of pure sugar rushing to my brain).
So what if it was something like 10,000 calories? Who cares that PresbyLand is falling down around our ears? What about the 150 wedding programs I have to print out this weekend, the Hungarian wedding poem I have to paraphrase from translation, the dress I have to fit into? All the pressures and cares of this world faded away as I savored the nectar of that deep fried candy bar as it rolled around on my tongue.
Please do not take this as a suggestion that you should give up your whole-wheat pasta and salad for a daily dose of fried bologna and turkey legs on a stick. But sometimes we’re called to live into the moment and savor its glimpses of joy. Indeed, part of life is learning when to let go of our self-imposed restrictions and the guilt that accompanies them. We are a people of grace, after all, called to show even ourselves the grace that God has abundantly demonstrated to us and the world.
And sometimes, whether in the stress of finals, job deadlines, or wedding floral arrangement hell, it’s okay to cut yourself some slack. Remember, friends, Jesus WANTS you to eat that deep fried candy bar.
“This is what I have seen to be good: it is fitting to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of the life God gives us; for this is our lot.” --Ecclesiastes 5:18
Kelsey
Yes, that’s right, for those of you who thought Louisville was only about Derby Day and 60 tons of fireworks, the Chow Wagon is something of a Festival institution. This is the one time of year where all the professional minions of Louisville’s office buildings can come down to the park and feed their faces in the largest cesspool of greasy, fatty, fried foods that Kentucky has ever seen.
Today, some of my colleagues and I ventured out of the shell-shocked ruins of PresbyLand (see Monday’s post), into the bright sunlight of Riverfront Park to explore Louisville’s own Vanity Fair, the Chow Wagon.
Let me say, first of all, that the Chow Wagon epitomizes the rampant rip-off that is fair food. To even gain entrance to the area, one must purchase a little plastic “Pegasus Pin” for $3. “Don’t be so cheap, Kelsey! It’s only $3!” you say. But once you get in, you go on to pay outrageous prices for tiny portions of bad-for-you items—an average corn dog costs $4, with a drink priced about the same.
And yet we still flock to this circus, mainly for two reasons. One, I must confess that the food served is something of a freak show for a Pacific Northwesterner like me. I had never seen turkey legs on a stick before I came to Kentucky! The propensity to deep-fry everything is also foreign in my home of granola-loving latte sippers—one booth alone offered deep fried bologna, veggies, pickles, corn dogs, green tomatoes, twinkies, and Oreos. Basically, you name it, they can deep fry it down at the Chow Wagon.
The other reason I enjoy the Chow Wagon—in our health-crazed, carb-cutting, fat-slicing society, how often do we have the opportunity to eat foods that we know are terrible for us with impunity? Now, perhaps I should have stayed away from such temptations two and a half weeks before I have to fit into a small wedding dress. But gosh darn-it, I can’t express the thrill of joy I felt today as I bit into that creamy, deep-fried Snickers bar on a stick after lunch. I walked away from the Chow Wagon, my shirt covered in powdered sugar and my lips smeared in melted chocolate and caramel, and felt a surge of empowerment (or maybe that was just a jolt of pure sugar rushing to my brain).
So what if it was something like 10,000 calories? Who cares that PresbyLand is falling down around our ears? What about the 150 wedding programs I have to print out this weekend, the Hungarian wedding poem I have to paraphrase from translation, the dress I have to fit into? All the pressures and cares of this world faded away as I savored the nectar of that deep fried candy bar as it rolled around on my tongue.
Please do not take this as a suggestion that you should give up your whole-wheat pasta and salad for a daily dose of fried bologna and turkey legs on a stick. But sometimes we’re called to live into the moment and savor its glimpses of joy. Indeed, part of life is learning when to let go of our self-imposed restrictions and the guilt that accompanies them. We are a people of grace, after all, called to show even ourselves the grace that God has abundantly demonstrated to us and the world.
And sometimes, whether in the stress of finals, job deadlines, or wedding floral arrangement hell, it’s okay to cut yourself some slack. Remember, friends, Jesus WANTS you to eat that deep fried candy bar.
“This is what I have seen to be good: it is fitting to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of the life God gives us; for this is our lot.” --Ecclesiastes 5:18
Kelsey
posted by Noelle at 4:15 PM
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Monday, May 01, 2006
The Angel Has Passed
And here we are, on the other side.
Yes, the reduction in force has happened, and now we see behind the curtain. On paper, 75 staff positions were eliminated today. Perhaps the most prominent were the drastic cuts in several of the denomination’s top leadership positions, signaling a restructuring that will get rid of the divisions that now classify our work on the organizational chart. The other area hit hard was the Worldwide Ministries Division, who has to cut 55 overseas mission personnel and much of the staff here in Louisville that supported them.
In terms of young adult ministries, we did lose the person in Congregational Ministries Division that works with young adult ministries. We also lost the longtime staff person for one of the offices that originally gave birth to NNPCW back in 1993, the Office of Social Justice and Corporate Witness. There are others, too.
The good news for us is that Women’s Ministries, after losing ten staff positions in 2004, managed to hold on to all eight of us this time around, including the staff for NNPCW and REYWT. Collegiate Ministries, another program near and dear to many of you, is also still here.
But you can read all that from the Presbyterian News Service. What they won’t tell you, though, is what it is like to be here today.
Mary Elva was close on my heels this morning when I got in to my office at 8 am. I said to her, in a somewhat weak voice, “So, you’ve got the letters already?” But she met me with a smile. “It’s good news,” she said.
She quickly let me in on the news that all of our little brood would be around for a while longer. For me, I was grateful that this wouldn’t be a repeat of 2004, when Gusti and I sat in my cube and watched Robin, NNPCW’s administrative assistant, pass by us on her way to be told she had lost her job.
The rest of the morning was comprised primarily of venturing out to discover who was gone and who was still here. I actually left that part to the interns, who had closer connections to other parts of the building. It was through the Women’s Advocacy intern that I first heard about how hard-hit Worldwide Ministries was, as well as the loss of the Young Adult Ministries office. We then pooled our information in a 9:15 am staff meeting, when we heard that partners like Racial Ethnic Ministries, Collegiate, and the National Volunteers Office would be okay on the whole. Some, however, had lost specific people within their crew.
The day has been kind of bizarre—running into people and greeting them not with, “How are you?” but “Are you okay?” in allusion to their job status. For the people who say yes, there is a shared expression of relief, that timid smile of a fellow survivor.
And for the others?? Talking to a “Riffed” person is kind of like greeting the family at a funeral, except that you’re talking to the corpse instead of the relatives. You’re not quite sure what to say to them, so you fill the awkward silence with sympathetic looks and heartfelt hugs. Like many people, I don’t know the best words of comfort for people dealing with loss. It makes me glad I work in a building full of ministers who took classes in pastoral care.
I ate lunch today on the mezzanine that overlooks the back entrance to the Center. I saw a woman down there, Worldwide Ministries employee, someone who I took some management training classes with last fall and who goes to my church now—she couldn’t have been here more than a year. And she was using carts to haul her stuff out in boxes.
Some of the people I’ve talked to today ask how morale is around here. We are hanging in there, and definitely feeling the prayers of our sisters and brothers in the larger church. But even as we know we’re entering into a new way of doing ministry, a new role for the national church, we can’t help but grieve for the old way. It is the church we love and the church we’ve served. And we still don’t know what phoenix will rise from its ashes.
“A voice was heard in Ramah,
wailing and loud lamentation,
Rachel weeping for her children;
she refused to be consoled,
because they are no more.”
--Matthew 2:18
Kelsey
Yes, the reduction in force has happened, and now we see behind the curtain. On paper, 75 staff positions were eliminated today. Perhaps the most prominent were the drastic cuts in several of the denomination’s top leadership positions, signaling a restructuring that will get rid of the divisions that now classify our work on the organizational chart. The other area hit hard was the Worldwide Ministries Division, who has to cut 55 overseas mission personnel and much of the staff here in Louisville that supported them.
In terms of young adult ministries, we did lose the person in Congregational Ministries Division that works with young adult ministries. We also lost the longtime staff person for one of the offices that originally gave birth to NNPCW back in 1993, the Office of Social Justice and Corporate Witness. There are others, too.
The good news for us is that Women’s Ministries, after losing ten staff positions in 2004, managed to hold on to all eight of us this time around, including the staff for NNPCW and REYWT. Collegiate Ministries, another program near and dear to many of you, is also still here.
But you can read all that from the Presbyterian News Service. What they won’t tell you, though, is what it is like to be here today.
Mary Elva was close on my heels this morning when I got in to my office at 8 am. I said to her, in a somewhat weak voice, “So, you’ve got the letters already?” But she met me with a smile. “It’s good news,” she said.
She quickly let me in on the news that all of our little brood would be around for a while longer. For me, I was grateful that this wouldn’t be a repeat of 2004, when Gusti and I sat in my cube and watched Robin, NNPCW’s administrative assistant, pass by us on her way to be told she had lost her job.
The rest of the morning was comprised primarily of venturing out to discover who was gone and who was still here. I actually left that part to the interns, who had closer connections to other parts of the building. It was through the Women’s Advocacy intern that I first heard about how hard-hit Worldwide Ministries was, as well as the loss of the Young Adult Ministries office. We then pooled our information in a 9:15 am staff meeting, when we heard that partners like Racial Ethnic Ministries, Collegiate, and the National Volunteers Office would be okay on the whole. Some, however, had lost specific people within their crew.
The day has been kind of bizarre—running into people and greeting them not with, “How are you?” but “Are you okay?” in allusion to their job status. For the people who say yes, there is a shared expression of relief, that timid smile of a fellow survivor.
And for the others?? Talking to a “Riffed” person is kind of like greeting the family at a funeral, except that you’re talking to the corpse instead of the relatives. You’re not quite sure what to say to them, so you fill the awkward silence with sympathetic looks and heartfelt hugs. Like many people, I don’t know the best words of comfort for people dealing with loss. It makes me glad I work in a building full of ministers who took classes in pastoral care.
I ate lunch today on the mezzanine that overlooks the back entrance to the Center. I saw a woman down there, Worldwide Ministries employee, someone who I took some management training classes with last fall and who goes to my church now—she couldn’t have been here more than a year. And she was using carts to haul her stuff out in boxes.
Some of the people I’ve talked to today ask how morale is around here. We are hanging in there, and definitely feeling the prayers of our sisters and brothers in the larger church. But even as we know we’re entering into a new way of doing ministry, a new role for the national church, we can’t help but grieve for the old way. It is the church we love and the church we’ve served. And we still don’t know what phoenix will rise from its ashes.
“A voice was heard in Ramah,
wailing and loud lamentation,
Rachel weeping for her children;
she refused to be consoled,
because they are no more.”
--Matthew 2:18
Kelsey
posted by Noelle at 4:55 PM
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| 0 comments
NNPCW
Welcome to Network Notes, the blog of the National Network of Presbyterian College Women (NNPCW).
NNPCW, a ministry of the Presbyterian Church (USA), is a group of young women connected by their belief in God, seeking to understand what it means to claim a Christian faith that empowers women.
About Me
- Name: Noelle
- Location: Louisville, Kentucky, United States
Hi! I'm the staff person for the National Network of Presbyterian College Women. I manage NNPCW's blog, but I am not the only person who posts to this blog. Each week a member of NNPCW's Coordinating Committee shares her thoughts with you through the blog, and every so often I chime in, too. Please join the conversation by leaving a comment. Welcome!
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