We are hosting an Open House on Saturday, March 31, 2012 at 9:00 a.m. for prospective students interested in the Masters of Arts in Social Justice and Community Development and other graduate programs in the Institute of Pastoral Studies at Loyola University.

This Open House will offer you an opportunity to experience the Loyola IPS community through a snapshot of programs and the chance to understand who we are.  Meet current students and alumni, full-time faculty and staff and other prospective students interested in transforming their communities.  Breakfast will be provided.

To register click on the link to the Loyola website.

If you have further questions regarding the program, feel free to contact Toylee Green-Harris at toylee@scupe.com or 312-726-1200 ext. 230

Christians in Nigeria are facing severe violence. SCUPE alum and former member of Ellis Avenue Church, Dr. Obed Dashan is in the front-lines of that struggle. The former principal of Gindiri School of Theology in Plateau State, Nigeria, he and his wife Phena did their M.Div.s at the Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, Indiana and their doctoral studies at the Chicago Theological Seminary. They profess a deep Mennonite conviction and seek to live everyday as peacemakers which is a very difficult task in the context of Northern Nigeria. I wrote about them in a previous post.

Obed’s letter of January 22^nd is descriptive of a peacemaker’s deep struggle:

 At 3:00 a.m. this morning, I was woken up by a call from one of our church members. Apart from the Kano bombings, Boko Haram invaded part of Bauchi and Tafawa Balewa towns of Bauchi State, just a little northeast of us. They approached the towns from 5 different locations. Eight of our members were killed. The 9th one died while being rushed to the hospital. Most of this morning, between 3 am and 5 am were spent on the phone trying to find help. I had to call the military commandant through his superior officer whom I know personally. They organised and went and by 5:00 a.m. they had calmed down the situation. The people mobilised themselves and pursued the attackers. One of those caught is a Nigerian Policeman from far away Yobe, the headquarters of BH. If the people did not rise to their defense the Christians would have been wiped out.

I am rethinking Church history. I wonder why the Churches that were once strong got wiped out. Whatever theology one holds now survival is the best thing to do. Pastoral leadership at this time is very hard and taxing. As I said in previous communications, we now know that the Northern Muslims are using BH to fight for them. Pray that the sponsors of these attacks be exposed and brought to book by the law. Now we sleep with one eye closed and the other opened. Lord, have mercy!!

What do you do when your neighbour turns mad and started to kill all your children? What would Jesus do? How do you love a person who never grew up with any love and the good Christian for him is the dead one?

Christians and Muslims in Nigeria have lived in peace for centuries. However, in the past decades Northern Nigeria has succumbed to Christian-Muslim violence that has erupted from time to time. Incited and carried out by Christians as well as Muslims, thousands have died as a result. Obed and Phena Dashan have been in the fore-front of peacemaking efforts in Northern Nigeria. Their stories have been harrowing.

An important documentary entitled the “Imam and the Pastor” released in 2008 describes peacekeeping efforts by Imam Ashafa and Pastor Wuye, joint founders and directors of the Inter-Faith Mediation Centre in Kaduna. While the documentary describes a particular initiative, it is descriptive of the kind of work that Obed and Phena and their colleagues have been engaged in.

Christians in Northern Nigeria are taking the brunt of the present brutality that is largely done by the terrorist group Boko Haram (which means “western education is sacrilege” in the Hausa language). The killings have escalated in recent months, particularly since Christmas 2011, and security forces have clearly failed to protect lives, forcing hundreds to flee. Many Christian organizations in the west are quick to jump to the conclusion that this is Muslim violence against Christians. However, a deeper analysis shows a more complex picture.

The complexity of the situation described in Obed Dashan’s letter has prompted some Christian leaders to call for self-defense within the limits of the law. However, both Christian and Muslim leaders have been united in condemning the violence. They are also clear that it is in lifting a united Muslim-Christian voice that the situation can be calmed. Today, February, 12, 2012, for example, the Right Rev. Josiah Idowu-Fearon, Anglican Bishop of the Province of Kaduna in Northern Nigeria, where most of this violence is located, and member of the WCC’s Churches’ Commission on International Affairs, wrote the following:

• No peace in Nigeria until Christians and Muslims accept that they worship the same one God
• No acceptance of the same one God without understanding and respect for the different approaches to the one God
• No understanding and respect, without some knowledge of each other’s faith tradition..

The group’s ideology is summed up by author Salisu Suleiman in his article of January 3, 2012, Boko Haram: Three Phases of Terror

[T]he amount of money an emir expends on a single trip to Europe for medical check-up would build a clinic big enough to serve a community of 5000 people; the amount of foreign exchange a top civil servant pays yearly to educate a single child abroad would build a primary school capable of providing basic education to hundreds of pupils; the amount of money a politician spends to sponsor his wives and children’s trips to Saudi Arabia for lesser pilgrimage, to Dubai for shopping and Europe for holidays annually is enough to establish community banks and provide access to capital for thousands of small businesses or fund poverty alleviation projects in several communities.

What do the emir, top civil servant and politician have in common? They are all western-educated, blinded by a culture of corruption and nurtured on the plundered public resources. So to the ordinary citizen whose pregnant wife dies in labour for lack of basic healthcare; whose child cannot get basic literacy and numeracy skills due to the collapse of education and whose entire life is a painful journey through biting poverty and hopelessness, if western education produces a system as insensitive, an elite as heartless and a society as unjust, then that form of enlightenment (boko) should be anathema (haram). This is the figurative definition of Boko Haram.

While Boko Haram started because many young people, unable to live with the growing level of poverty and social injustice, as its activities and targets have shown, it is no longer just an indigenous group fighting against corruption in the government, heavy-handedness of security forces and economic disparities between the Muslim north and Christian south. It appears to have linkages with global jihadist networks.

According to Salisu Suleiman, there are three phases of development:

Initially, the group was guided by their peculiar interpretation of an ideology. The second phase came when they decided to carry out revenge attacks on perceived enemies – mostly policemen and the ‘Bokoed’ elite. And because government failed to act responsively, they quickly moved to the third phase which is marked by indiscriminate killing and bombing. This phase is not about protecting an ideology or even in retribution for perceived injustices. They now kill simply because they can. And no one is safe – Muslim or Christian, northerner or southerner: Nigeria is under siege.

The group has targeted Christians and churches and also a U.N. building and police stations. It organized a massive prison-break to free its members in 2010. It calls for cleansing of Christians from the north and creation of an Islamic state in the region with criminal Sharia courts.

The targeting of Christians certainly seems like they are making a case for the separation of the north. It can be seen as an attempt to incite the Christian community to retaliate, so that it will turn into a sectarian clash. It seems Boko Haram wants Christians in the south to attack minority Muslims, which could then lead to local Muslims in the north attacking Christians. As of now, it is just Boko Haram terrorists who are killing Christians with little or no support from local Muslims.

On January 26, 2012, the Methodist Archbishop Michael Kehinde Stephen of Ibadan, Nigeria appealed to Christian and Muslim leaders worldwide to act together in the face of extremist violence that threatens to divide Nigerians along religious lines.

“In Nigeria, leaders of the Muslim and Christian communities have come together to condemn violence,” the archbishop noted in an interview. “Since 1999 the Nigerian Inter-religious Council (NIREC) has worked to calm the passions arising from a series of attacks and retaliations manifested in murders and the burning of churches and mosques.” In recent weeks, Islamic leaders have joined Christians in condemning renewed violence fomented by Boko Haram, a Nigerian group that demands the imposition of Sharia law and the eradication of western influence in the nation. The current wave of terror was started by church bombings at Christmas. Stephen asserted, “We want to see Nigeria remain as one, but today there is apprehension and anxiety among people who fear that calls for geographical division may intensify.” The north of Nigeria is populated predominantly by followers of Islam, while southern Nigeria is largely Christian.

The General Secretary of World Council of Churches’ Rev. Dr. Olav Fyske-Tveit called on President Goodluck Jonathan to support Christian Muslim joint efforts for peace. Similarly, the World Evangelical Alliance’s Religious Liberty Commission (moderated by Godfrey Yogarajah) said the following in its statement issued on February 8, 2012.

Nigeria’s Christian leaders and Christian community have shown great strength although they are going through immense suffering. They must not be ignored by the international community, especially the Christians, as they continue to comfort the families of the victims and encourage them not to resort to any sort of violence. The calls for self-defense must include encouragement to remain peaceful.

President Jonathan and local governments should be compelled, and helped, to provide security to all churches and Christian leaders in the states where Boko Haram is active. However, the political leadership must not see Boko Haram’s terror as a security issue alone. The government must also address political and economic grievances of northerners by gestures that are sincere and measurable.

Islamic Condemnations of Boko Haram:

Nigerian and international Muslims have condemned and disowned Boko Haram

Nigeria Muslims Pray to Uproot Boko Haram

Muslims Disown Boko Haram

Islamic Society of North America: ISNA Condemns Attacks in Nigeria

I have learned four lessons from this:

1. Courageous Leadership

At the Hull House’s opening, the Chicago Tribune in its September 18, 1889 issue wrote:

Over the next two decades, as Hull House received worldwide attention for its mix of cultural and educational programs and social-reform efforts, they were also accused of radical leanings for having fought for landmark child-labor and factory laws.

Jane Addams was an ardent feminist. In those days before women’s suffrage she believed that women should make their voices heard in legislation and therefore should have the right to vote, but more comprehensively, she thought that women should generate aspirations and search out opportunities to realize them.

She was also a peacemaker. In 1907 she published Newer Ideals of Peace and spoke nationally and internationally at every opportunity she got against America’s entry into the First World War. For this she was attacked in the press and expelled from the Daughters of the American Revolution. In January, 1915, she became the chairperson of the Women’s Peace Party, an American organization, and four months later the presidency of the International Congress of Women convened at The Hague. When this congress later founded the organization called the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, Jane Addams served as president until 1929, as presiding officer of its six international conferences in those years, and as honorary president for the remainder of her life. She also served as an assistant to President Herbert Hoover in providing relief supplies of food to the women and children of the enemy nations, the story of which she told in her book Peace and Bread in Time of War (1922). The first woman to receive a Nobel Peace Prize in 1931, Jane Addams died four years later.

Jane Addams and Ellen Gates did not set out to be radicals, but to offer a service to their community. But when advocacy was required, they were not afraid to be activists for justice. Obviously they were very clear about their guiding values and courageously engaged the world.

2. A Diversified Donor-Base

The Hull House, like other community-based human service organizations founded a century ago, received most of its funding from a core of donors dedicated to its mission. The Boards of Directors of these organizations thought government funding undesirable because of the many restrictions that came with the money.

Suzanne Strassberger writes in JUF News:

The Hull House too made use of this opportunity, moving the agency towards government funding. Through the 1990s funding from all sources had increased from $9 million to $40 million. Although there was an attempt to bring in more private funding to the organization when Clarence Wood became the CEO in 2000, it was not successful. In recent years about 85% of Hull House’s revenue was from government sources.

“Did government funding become a risky venture?” asks Strassberger. The problem is that during the past ten years the State of Illinois cut funding to human services by $4.4 billion at the very time requests for help were going up. With the State’s pattern of delaying payments, now taking six months or longer to pay bills, institutions like Hull House have to extend their lines of credit.

Because of the $40 million they received Hull House was able to serve 60,000 persons. So, was it better to have done that for a period of time, than have stayed with the $9 million a year they had in 1990?

An article in Philanthropy (February 2, 2012) entitled “Some Fear Hull House Closure Is an Omen for Struggling Charities,” quotes Mr. Terry Mazany, CEO of Chicago Community Trust as saying that organizations with revenue between $10-50 million are likely to face an especially hard time coping with the economic downturn. Groups larger than that can more easily spread the costs associated with closing some programs, he says, and they can attract very good, creative managers. Smaller charities simply have less flexibility.

In addition, the Chicago Tribune (January 21, 2012) in an article entitled “Reliance on shrinking government funds doomed Hull House” reports that Hull House drew down its reserve funds and lowered its total assets several years in a row. Last year, they worked to ease restrictions on what it could spend parts of its endowment on, part of a last-ditch effort to meet its obligations. Clearly, without a solid plan to strengthen its financial base, this is a very risky venture.

In this economy, it will not work for a non-profit organization to have a large portion of its revenue coming from one source. A reasonable distribution of sources of funding, I believe, is critically necessary to navigate the uncertain economic times.

3. Getting People to Care: Telling a powerful story

This week there has been a great deal of hand-wringing in the Chicago community about this disastrous event. Why didn’t Hull House’s financial crisis receive greater publicity, some ask. Why didn’t more private donors step up to the plate, others ask.

Tom Tresser writing in a January, 25^th Huffington Post column entitled “What Is Jane Addams’ Heritage Worth to Chicago?” asks if Chicago cares:

So, the question arises, does Chicago really care, or were they given the opportunity to care?

The Chicago Tribune points out that it tried more fundraising.  Yet, it quotes Margaret Berglind, president of the Child Care Association of Illinois, “it’s difficult to raise private money to donate to government work.” The article goes on to point out that Jane Addams herself complained in her autobiography about the same lack of government funding for the city’s problems complaining at the same time about the difficulties of relying on “private beneficence.” Her success in opening the purses of the wealthy had as much to do with Addams’ own passion as it did with the plight of the poor. It was the personal stories she was able to tell,” said Lisa Yun Lee, director of the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum.

Telling a powerful story is critical to fund-raising.

4. Building Power vs. Building Influence

Jane Addams was an incredibly powerful woman. She was a politically savvy, down-in-the-wards street fighter, who wasn’t so gentle when it came to public corruption. Somewhere along the way the Hull House stopped being a powerhouse and became an influence peddler.

Each year, it provided foster care, domestic violence counseling and prevention services, child development programs, and job training to about 60,000 children, families and community groups. That’s an impressive number. Among that number would be people who have incredible stories about how their lives turned around because of what Hull House was able to do for them. As long as social service organizations think of “serving people” with whatever support they are able to give them, these organizations will forever be working to raise funds to support their work. They will hire development directors with influence in state government, as Hull House did in hiring Gordon Johnson, former head of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services in 1990 to get government money to run the programs.

Social service organizations must work to go out of business — not in the way Hull House did — but by working towards a time when the needs they are addressing will no longer be there. This is counter-intuitive to most social service organizations which have a powerful interest in self-preservation.

The only way to make sure that the need is eliminated is to create a powerful people movement that will work to eliminate the injustices that create the conditions that require the services Hull House provides. This creates the opportunity for the people it serves to “own” the organization. An organization owned by over 60,000 people (built over many years) will go out of business only when it has accomplished its mission, and not because it has lost its funding.

Building power through community organizing is also iconic to Chicago. This is a critical way to keep organizations rooted in communities, viable and strong.

         

       To its core competencies developed over its 35 year history — urban contextual theological education and culturally rooted (specifically African-American and Latino/a) theological education — SCUPE will add Interfaith Relations and Dialogue. SCUPE’s work in this area will be spearheaded by its president, Rev. Dr. Shanta Premawardhana, whose expertise in this area includes his service directing the interreligious dialogue programs at the National and the World Council of Churches.

The SCUPE Board of Directors meeting on February 2, 2012, accepted the new Business Plan developed following extensive conversations between staff, board and other stakeholders of SCUPE during 2011.

The Business Plan identifies several new Initiatives:

• Expand into additional geographic markets. This initiative will begin in Minneapolis/St. Paul in Sept. 2012 and will be hosted by Luther Seminary. Following that, it will be possible to take it to the cities of other seminaries as well.
• Online Learning. Luther Seminary has also offered SCUPE the opportunity use their technology platform to launch our own online courses.
• Partnerships with global institutions. In addition to the partnership SCUPE now has with the Swiss Reformed Churches, it will seek to expand into the rest of Europe and to the global south.

In addition, the plan identifies strategies for strengthening all its existing programs and giving a strong boost to offering consulting services and training events to seminaries, denominations, churches, community organizations and the business community.

Click here for SCUPE Business Plan

Conversation with Bishop Christopher Epting (Episcopal Church)

On Saturday, January 21st, I spoke at the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity event organized by the Focolare community in Chicago. The Focolare movement which began as a lay Catholic intentional community has spread throughout the world celebrated 50 years in the United States last year. I have been close to the Focolare community in Hyde Park during my years of pastoring Ellis Avenue Church, a relationship that became stronger while at the WCC, because of their work on ecumenism and interreligious dialogue.

Interestingly, the prayers for Christian unity took place at a synagogue — KAM Isaiah Israel Congregation, one of the oldest synagogues in Chicago. Among its attendees were Bishop Demetrios of Mokissos (Greek Orthodox Church), Bishop Christopher Epting (Episcopal Church) and Brother Jeffrey Gros (Catholic Theological Union) one of the foremost scholars in the Faith and Order movement.

In my presentation, I touched on some key issues of rethinking ecumenism for the 21st century: the question of wider ecumenism, how ecumenism should be engaged in the world, and key characteristics of Christian unity– humility, self-critical reflection and the spirituality of love. I  illustrated all these points with reference to the Focolare community and its spirituality.

Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2.

INMIGRACIÓN: Una Perspectiva Teológica y Legal

This page in English

Por:
Lcda. María Strohmeier
Rev. Luis Quiñones

El tema de Inmigración ha tomado un lugar clave y central en la jornada de la Iglesia Latina en Los Estados Unidos. La amenaza de deportaciones, separación de familias y cambios en la leyes retan a la Iglesia Latina en su desempeño ministerial. Este taller abarca el tópico de inmigración desde dos perspectivas: El aspecto legal y el aspecto teológico. Los participantes disfrutaran de un diálogo destacando las últimas leyes existentes que afectan a nuestros pueblos Latinos. Se discutirán agendas y opciones disponibles a líderes que están trabajando con esta población.

La segunda parte tomará en cuenta el reto teológico existente en nuestras congregaciones latinas. Esto  Incluirá  una jornada  consistiendo de  figuras  y momentos históricos rasgados en la experiencia bíblica. Se abre la brecha entre esta jornada bíblica y nuestra experiencia como Iglesia Latina

Este taller se llevará a cabo:

Sábado, 3 de marzo del 2012
9:00 a.m.—2:00 p.m.

Iglesia de Dios Pentecostal – Aposento Alto
1357 N. California Ave
Chicago, IL 60622

Para más información y confirmar su asistencia al evento:
Llamar a la oficina ALTE al (773) 252-3929 o por correo electrónico al iris@scupe.com

Donación:  $10.00
Compartiremos almuerzo
Favor de confirmar su asistencia.

Esta pagina en español

Presenters:
Lcda. María Strohmeier
Rev. Luis Quiñones

What does it mean that people are deemed “illegal” simply by their location?

What are the existing laws and the present challenges regarding immigration, citizenship, and deportation?

How does seeing the Bible through the lens of immigration interact with Abram and Sarai’s journey to the promised land, the Exodus from Egypt, or the holy family fleeing to Egypt from Nazareth and the blood thirsty Herod?

What would it look like to create a world of justice and equality where we could truly, in the words of the great slogan, “build bridges, not walls”?

Set aside some time on March 3rd, 2012 to wrestle with these and other important questions at an incredible workshop entitled Immigration: Theological Perspective and Legal Issues.

On Saturday morning the workshop will be led by an attorney, Lcda. María Strohmeier, who will walk participants through the ins and outs of the current laws.  This overview will touch upon legal issues such as deportation, separation from familes, visas, citizenship, and what is permissible under the law at it currently stands.

In the afternoon then, we will be joined by Rev. Luis Quiñones who will lead us through an theological exploration of immigration issues.  Our conversation is sure to cover much terrain including:

- What does the Bible say about immigration?

- What does ministry to immigrants look like?

- What are the available avenues for supporting the rights and lives of immigrants that go beyond merely joining in a march once a year?

The workshop is sponsored by SCUPE’s Advanced Latino/a Theological Education program and will be presented in bilingual fashion.

Saturday, March 3, 2012
9am-2pm

Upper Room Pentecostal Church of God
1357 N. California Ave
Chicago, IL 60622.

For more information and to confirm your participation in this workshop*, please contact the ATLE office:

Phone: 773-252-3929
Email: iris@scupe.com

*ALTE is asking for a $10 donation to help defray the costs of the workshop.

“If we don’t address the religious justifications for occupation and violence, and help change that narrative, it is hard to imagine that any political settlement will be possible, and even if it happens that it will hold,” I said in a speech to a group of about 100 German pastors and church leaders in Rothenburg, Germany on January 7, 2012. The gathering was a Continuing Education conference of those who had participated in a year of study at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem as a part of the “Studium in Israel” program of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD).

The topic for the key note address, “God of Israel” in Ecumenical Contexts arose out of my work while at the World Council of Churches in bringing together Christian theologians from the western tradition of Jewish Christian dialogue together with Middle Eastern (including Palestinian) theologians as well as from Asia, African and Latin America. In that tradition, the event included Prof. Nicolas Abou-Mrad from Belamand University in Lebanon and Rev. Ashraff Tannous, former associate pastor of the Redeemer Lutheran Church in Jerusalem and a resident of Ramallah in the West Bank.

The medieval city of Rothenburg (which still has its ancient city wall in tact) is evidence of the long history of Christian anti-Judaism that occurred in Germany. A walk through the ancient Jewish quarter provides ample evidence of how Jews were persecuted through the centuries and not just at the time of the holocaust. It was clear that Jewish communities lived in great fear and anxiety about when the next pogrom would arise.

The German churches, very conscious of their role in this terrible history have led the ecumenical world in Jewish-Christian relations. They have been closely followed by other churches in Europe and North America. This conference marks a shift in seeking to engage other ecumenical voices in the theological debate.

The presentation looks at the question from the perspective of contextual theology, critiques the some of the positions that the German churches have taken, and locates the conversation in the context of the struggles of Israelis and Palestinians for justice and peace. It examines the question of God of Israel from the perspective of Asian, Orthodox and US American perspectives.

Read the text here.

Coming up in February, CCDA and several notable faith-based organizers will be convening a two-day training workshop based around the concept of Faith-Rooted Organizing.  The concept is defined as organizing that is shaped and guided in every way by our faith traditions and that enables people of faith to contribute our unique gifts and resources to the broader movement for justice.

Mary Nelson, one of the conveners, highlighted the unique opportunity this training represents:

“We’ve got some subsidies that allow us to keep the costs really low ($35) for this remarkable two day training, and the costs include two lunches and snacks.  It is a really great opportunity for the faith community to get the tools, to connect with each other for the way in which we can bring the gifts of our faith to the justice issues we need to be working on.”

Consider coming yourself and/or encouraging students, lay leaders, pastors and even teams from churches to participate.

Register for the event here: www.ccda.org/gather/event/15

Download and share the flyer here.

The latest issue of the World Council of Churches’ journal on interreligious dialogue and cooperation Current Dialogue was issued last week. In this issue are the papers presented by Christian theologians who are also scholars of Buddhism. I organized this conference on Christian self understanding in the context of Buddhism in Sri Lanka in December 2009.

Among the presentations were eminent scholars such as Fr. Aloysius Pieris, SJ (Tulana Research Center, Sri Lanka) Prof. Perry Schmidt-Leukel (University of Munster, Germany) Prof. Elizabeth Harris (Liverpool Hope University, UK), Prof. Christine Lienemann-Perrin (University of Bern, Switzerland), Dr. Ruwan Palapathwela (Anglican Communion), Prof. Rose Drew (University of Glasgow, UK) and  Prof. David Eckel (Boston University). The consultation featured several Sri Lankan theologians as well as a Sri Lankan Buddhist monk.

The findings of this consultation will become resource for a broader document on Christian self-understanding in the context of many religions, which will be produced in preparation for the WCC General Assembly in Busan, South Korea in 2013.

Click here to download and read the journal. SCUPE will publish similar resources on this website with a view to building a resource library on issues interfaith dialogue, which is a new competency that it seeks to develop. The comments and responses you make to the articles are welcome. As appropriate, they will be forwarded to WCC for consideration on the on-going work of Christian self-understanding in the context of many religions.