The alchemy of the newsroom

It is the evening before the final day of the Uniting General Council in Grand Rapids and I am in a reflective mood. How has it happened that the team of communicators with whom I have worked over the past 12 days is the best ever? They have produced top quality work in print, photos, video and on the web. They have written humorous pieces, insightful analysis and brisk news stories - in four languages. They have followed the bouncing ball as the schedule was reorganized. They have worked long hours. They have worked with software with which they are unfamiliar. And yet, there has been no tension, no major problem.

How does this happen? I designed a team and chose the best people I know. I prepared careful job descriptions. I did both individual and team briefings. The technical facilities at Calvin College were superb, the technical staff was topnotch. But this could all be said of other events. Yet never have I worked with such a team. What is the alchemy that creates such a team? I don't know. But may that same genie visit other ecumenical events. It is a blessing.

Kristine Greenaway

Women's ordination and an inclusive or exclusive communion

As I write this the Council is making its way through policy reference reports, having finally finished with section reports. The debate is fairly lively - or should that more honestly be that alot of people are talking - and we've just come through quite a complex backwards and forwards about women's ordination and subsequently about peace and reconciliation.

Should the ordination of women be a condition for membership in the communion? How should WCRC working towards women's ordination be phrased? How do member churches who do not ordain women receive such injunctions, recommendations or ideas?

Robina Winbush from the Presbyterian Church USA agreed to removing the word condition but pointed to the WCRC being a communion and no longer simply an alliance. "A communion with full table and altar fellowship" is what the constitution says, Winbush then asked, so does that full communion only apply to men who are ordained? While agreeing to tone down the injunction she also asked for recognition of the pain this caused to women who are ordained was needed.
Describing herself as a feminist, Cheryl Meban, from the Presbyterian Church of Ireland - a Church which she described as continuing to have some problems with women's ordination - made a plea for not having exclusive wording on this issue. "I plea not to exclude those with whom we disagree but to remain in communion, communion is a slow process, we need to include."

It's an interesting dynamic in unity when those who are excluded plead for the inclusion of those who potentially exclude them.

Vimeo of Richard Twiss

Richard Twiss from Uniting General Council WCRC on Vimeo.

Edwin de Jong has been doing a brilliant job making videos for the UGC you can find more of them here. I particularly like the many hallelujahs one

It was just a tweet ... but it made me think

So far I've written over 600 tweets for this Uniting General Council but one from near the beginning still sticks with me - I don't know how to search the tweets so I can't actually find the tweet itself any longer - but it went something like this:
"Zimbabwe: theology faculty meeting 15 minutes spent on theology; the rest of the time is spent on survival issues."

Then I heard later in the week about a student from Zimbabwe whose visa to the USA was refused for the Global Institute of theology, supposedly because he didn't have enough money in his bank account.

I realised how privileged I am. It is so easy as an (albeit humble) church bureaucrat to get blasé about international meetings, to not always realize what a fabulous and unique opportunity each one of them represents, to get worn out by work, to sometimes even get cynical. Then typing 140 keystrokes for a twitter update brings me back down to earth with a bump and that bumpy feeling has remained much of the week as we look in the plenary hall at the "remember the 73" poster at the front.

Earlier in the week I put on my personal blog a sentence from John O'Donohue
"The duty of privilege is absolute intregity"

I know that I bear the duty of privilege yet I am very aware that I am a long way away from that absolute integrity ...
All that remains is to pray and ask for God's grace, it's not the answer to everything but it might be the beginning.

A New president for a new Christian World Communion

Rev Dr Jerry Pillay is the general secretary of the Uniting Presbyterian Church of South Africa has been elected the first president of the World Communion of Reformed Churches. Pillay's election came as a late birthday present, he'd celebrated his 45th birthday the previous day.
"I have at heart all of the churches even if I have a perspective from global South ... I shall be a president of the full communion."

We wish him and the newly elected WCRC executive committee good luck with the work that lies ahead of them

So should we be moving to South Africa?

Wesley Granberg Michaelson has just stood up at the end of the finance report (in a very bright fishing shirt!) and made a strong plea for the new executive committee to consider properly moving the new WCRC to the Global South. The previous executive committee had looked at three options in Accra, Johannesburg and Hong Kong.
Geneva is extremely expensive and one of the four most expensive places in the world for those visiting from abroad.
Michaelson listed the price of some of his expenses on a recent trip to Geneva. He pointed to considering a move being a question of stewardship, of justice and of solidarity as the centre of global Christianity has moved to the South. He expressed the hope that the WCRC would be the first of the church organisaitons to take the bold decision to move to the South. "If South Africa can host the World Cup it can also host the offices of the newly formed of WCRC" he added "We cannot continue in a place this expensive".

He also expressed the hope that as part of the process for searching for a new general secretary from 2014 this be undertaken in conjunction with a decision about moving the headquarters. The previous executive committeee had not made a decision on this because of the transitional nature of this time following the Uniting General Council and because of the high costs involved in relocating in the first instance.

Sounds like the new WCRC executive is going to have some interesting decisions on its agenda.

the invisble work of the interpreters gets a great photo

Here's another really great photo from Erick Coll. These are my interpreter colleagues up in the top gallery of the main plenary. Great photo of really hardworking professional folk. Meanwhile check out the rest of Erick's work for the Council over on Flickr.

A local view on being host and guest - by Mark Hofman

During the opening worship service of the Reformed Youth Forum, delegates and stewards alike were asked to bring forward a “gift.” These gifts were not material possessions or even specific talents or strengths – these gifts were written on small pieces of paper and hung on nails protruding from a cloth-wound cross.

In this act of both self-submission and celebration we demonstrated one of the central themes of this Uniting General Council: it’s not all about what you bring, but who you are. As a local steward, I have been happy to represent my college and seminary, my denomination and country in this gathering of Christians from around the world. I have delighted in conversations with Lithuanians, Indonesians and Cubans. I have been asked questions like, “where is your favorite restaurant” as well as, “How can you live in a country without national healthcare?” Each time I answer questions like these, my prayer has been to not only offer my gifts of hospitality and stewardship but that I also speak with the same voice of unity and peace that we are all here to celebrate.

The challenge of unity in diversity is that no matter where you go or who you are there will always be some reminder of the brokenness of our world, our cultures and our gifts. There is no ideal form of government, no perfect politics of peace, no place that one can say is equal to the Kingdom of God on earth. As a local, I have tried to be honest about this broken reality while also celebrating the unique gifts I have to offer. It has been a blessing for me to serve and I have been blessed by those who in turn have served me in their gracious acceptance of who I am.

At the closing worship service of the Youth Forum, Rev. Neal Presa from Middlesex, NJ shared with us a lesson about unity involving the Greek language. Well, I have my own to share: xenos is the Greek word commonly translated as “stranger” or “visitor.” Most often we encounter its meaning in idioms involving fear and strife or xenophobia. However, its original meaning was ambiguous. It was used to both describe the visitor or stranger as well as the host. There was already in early Greek culture the recognition that to be a good host is to know the stranger, and to be a guest is to “host” those who show you hospitality. I can say that as a steward for the 2010 gathering of the WCRC, I have truly understood what it means to be a xenos.

Mark Hofman from Grand Rapids has been a steward in the Press Room

WCRC Blog in French

The French delegates to the WCRC are busy posting away on their own blog:


http://communionmondialedeglisesreformees.blogspot.com/

No skateboards, Calvin!

Seen at the World Communion of Reformed Churches:

Richard Twiss

Richard Twiss' Address to the Uniting Council was both impassioned and of great theological depth. He spoke very personally - I was particularly moved to hear about how he lost his own language, how his own parents chose to make their children speak English so that they would not be forcibly removed as the teaching of English was often given as the reason to remove Native American children from their parents and school them elsewhere. Twiss's name in his own language is Taoyate Obnajin which means "He Stands with His People".
Twiss is passionate about Jesus Christ, about a real indigenous Christian theology and about challenging churches and society to take the issues of justice and reconciliation seriously.
You can find a version of his presentation online here, an article here and more about his book, One Church Many Tribes here.

Hands up for the MDGs!

There are some really lovely postacards with this great image on them in the exhibition area. they come from the Christian Reformed Church's Millenium Development Goals campaign.

I think the image works really well, with different parts of the world on each hand and the idea that the goals are achievable if we all put our hands to the plough. Each hand has 5 fingers - there are five years left to achieve the MDG's - Are you going to put your hand up?
Find out more here.

A few initial photos and impressions from the Pow Wow

So here are some initial mobile phone photos from the great Pow Wow that is still going on next to the River at the Mound in downtown Grand Rapids. the weather is utterly glorious and one of the very moving aspects is how so many people have brought their own drums and worn their best dress for the Pow Wow dance. The atmosphere is relaxed and authentic, what the French would call "une ambiance bon enfant". A wonderful experience, there are fabulous stalls selling Native American crafts and food and it's really just great. an inspired day, particualry following a blessing to start the Pow Wow from Richard Twiss who had given us such a brilliant and challenging presentation in the morning. A day of contextual experiential theology.

Tweet it from Grand Rapids!

As we got off the buses bringing delegates to the Grand Rapids Pow Wow I saw this and this made me smile. Hope you folk are following us over on our Twitter feed
http://twitter.com/reformedcomunio maybe I'll even use the Grand Rapids tag for now we're using the #WCRC tag. Do keep up with your tweets folk. Especially if you don't need an internent connection I'm not able to tweet form the great Pow Wow because I don't have a US mobile. Sorry that should be cell phone.

Indigenous and Native American perspectives ...

One of the real privileges about attending this meeting is the strong involvement of indigenous, native American and first nations peoples in the meeting. There was an extraordinary moment at the beginning of the Council when official gifts were exchanged at a wonderful drumming and welcoming ceremony.

The gift offered to the local representatives of the Native American indigenousous peoples by the newly formed World Communion of Reformed Churches was a US military sword that had been made into a ploughshare.
A peace medal from a time of treaties between colonisers and indigenous in the 19th century was offered to the presidents of the WCRC by the NAtive American leaders. Symbol of the hope for peace but of many broken promises between "anglos" and indigenous over the centuries. A sign of hope for better and tranformed relationsh in the future.

At the press briefing in preparation for the Pow Wow - which will take place later today - we heard how deeply moving this exhange had been for one Native American woman - to receive a US sword turned into a ploughshare - "In my culture anglos are referred to as people of the sword" so a sword transformed into a ploughshare has enormous meaning. You can read more from the press briefing here.

As I write this Richard Twiss is speaking to the plenary, an extraordinary address which I cannot fully capture here. He is challenging "the theology of the cowboys", reaffirming the need for an indigenous theology and making a very strong plea for the need to look at issues of land, justice, reconciliation and much, much more besides. He brought a strong challenge and a deep commitment to Jesus Christ to his address to the Council meeting.

He's now ending his address by singing and drumming, and praying for the guidance of the Holy Spirit in ever deeper discernment.
A version of Richard Twiss' address can be found here.

Noisy tornado of the spirit in the middle of the night

It's been quite a night, not much sleep - the nominations committee were certainly not expecting to get an early night as they tried to work their way through the different regional gender and youth balances in the first round of proposals for nominations to the WCRC executive commity.

However the rest of us not on drafting committees or up doing late-night translating were expecting to have a good sleep before Tuesday's Pow Wow. We were wrong.

A loud piercing noise woke participants at about 1.30 am on the night of the summer solstice. Did the alarm mean there was a fire? Had someone's cell phone gone into overdrive? Was this some student high jinks maybe? One thing was for sure the alarm was unavoidable and completely deafening. Across the campus of Calvin College participants pulled on clothes as security staff knocked on doors and roused people:"It's a tornado warning, please go down to the basement." Fair to say that none of us had been expecting that.

Participants gathered downstairs in the corridors, the atmosphere was good humoured, people sat on the concrete floors. "There was nothing about tornadoes in the constitution" remarked one delegate, "here let me check" and she reached into her work bag to bring out all her conference papers! People sat patiently on the floors and hoped the wait would not be too long, some sang songs learnt. We laughed and joked about what each of us had chosen to take downstairs. Several tweeted their experience - some couldn't get out of Johnny's cafe because of the warning.

Fortunately the all clear came quite quickly and folk returned to their rooms hoping to sleep. Rain, thunder and lightning continued through the night. The next morning one or two delegates could be found who had managed to sleep through all that and the alarm as well. They had missed out on our overnight community building exercise. True Unity of the Spirit in the bonds of Peace!

By water and the word

Monday morning at the WCRC Uniting Council began with Bible Study at 8.00 - though late comers to the breakfast bar got a little frustrated at the long queue at 7.45 "wer zu spät kommt dem bestrafft das Leben" or in this case latecomers won't get their ham and eggs!

Bible study was followed by worship focusing on a renewal of baptismal vows with a gurgling well and jars set up in Calvin's lovely round college chapel. The Spring of living water of living water was the theme. the picture shows Rev. Olav Fykse Tveit, WCC general secretary preaching a short sermon during the service.
Here are some of the tweets of his sermon:

Sisters and brothers in Christ the promises of God's grace are signed and sealed in our baptism In baptism God promises by grace alone
We sing Come thou fount of every blessing and learn American sign language for "Take oh take me as I am". Baptism is always the action of God by water and the word, by water and the spirit
We need the common baptismal confession to God. We need to confess the same faith.
We need not only the waters of baptism to wash away our sins we need it to nurture life .

Worship for a new communion

Sunday was a day rich in worship both on the Calvin college campus and in the morning at local churches across the Grand Rapids area. I ended the first service I attended at Central Reformed Church in Grand Rapids eating utterly delicious strawberry shortcake as we international ecumenical visitors drank coffee and shared in fellowship with people from the local congregation. Later we ate lunch downstairs in the fellowship hall and entertained our hosts with songs from around the world, our ad hoc choir was pretty good, well we had fun anyway.

Later in the day back in the plenary hall on Calvin campus we gathered for the WCRC celebratory worship and it was wonderful. Children from across the world were involved in the liturgy, asking questions about the newly formed World Communion and about elements of the liturgy and faith. It worked well. The music was wonderful, we had a glorious enactment of 1 Kings 19, the great prayer of thanksgiving before communion came in English and Spanish, there was shared leadership of women and men in the service, and communion of over 3000 people took place without any sense of rush or problem. Somehow it managed to be elegant, formal and informal ...
And Rev. Yvonne Delk preached a great sermon on "What are we doing here?" towards the end she said "I am here to commit my life to the unity of the Spirit in the bonds of peace so that lives can be changed, biblical visions can come into view, the lame can walk, the captives can be released, and the acceptable year of the lord can be proclaimed! ... so the question still remains What are you doing here?"
It seems as if there were lots of people watching the live videostream and you can also find lots of really great video clips from our fabulous film maker Edwin de Jong here. I particularly like the suitcases and the many halleluyas.
Late in the day rather fewer folk gathered in the very beautiful college campus chapel for music, quiet, candles and prayers at the end of the day. A day that had really seen the new World Communion begin in worship, praise and prayer.

Jane Stranz

Harmony and base tones to explain unity

Sabine Dressler-Kromminga began her keynote address to the WCRC Council by getting the organist to play a series of three notes to try to get people to have a deeper understanding of unity, uniqueness and diversity. The three notes built upon one another, the first deeper note being the unity tone the others gradually adding both depth and light to the expression of unity.
Given the strong place of music at this Council meeting using a musical idea to begin her reflections was quite inspired. The other idea she brought into reflections on unity that really intrigued me was "justicia connectiva" - connecting justice and how this can help us develop our idea of unity in diversity.
You can read more about the keynote addresses here.
We hope gradually to be able to put all of the speeches online for you to be able to read in various langauges. A great thing about the keynote session is that two addresses were given in English, one in Spanish and one in German. A sign of the unity in diversity that was the theme.

Jane Stranz

Bits and pieces

Those of us who are here know exactly what these three folk are watching and no it isn't the procedings from the plenary hall but a certain side event called the World Cup which is on at the same time as our Uniting General Council.
The other great resource can be see in the background and it's a climbing wall. Perhaps it's the wall of unity for all of us to try to get up? Earlier in the week younger folk were testing their strength and agility on it, it looks like good fun if you've got a head for heights and better muscle tone than me!