Test question

10/7

Welcome Evgeny

Today is a very special day in the life of Beverley Church. For the first time in many years, they are welcoming a new member. Evgeny came first as a handyman but was attracted to the fellowship and has decided to become a member. And this is an occasion for celebration!

But first, my reflection for the day....

It's good to be back, and as always, there's a lot going on. Today is Worldwide Communion Sunday which means when we break bread together later today that we will doing so at the same time with brothers and sisters all around the globe. That's a powerful thought...to be part of a worldwide family of followers of Christ with a loaf that symbolizes one true loaf and  a cup that is our common shared cup. 

We also have another holiday weekend. Columbus Day Weekend to be exact. We've travelled a long way from when I was a kid and we were taught in school" in fourteen hundred and ninety two Columbus sailed the ocean blue....":
* He never actually set foot on this continent.
* Turns out he was not a very nice guy, to say the least
* This was not in fact India and the people who lived here were not Indians but they've been stuck with that ever since 
* Though this week I saw the "Israel Unite in Christ" people out on Lexington and 116th and following up on one of their fliers discovered that on subsequent voyages that  Columbus actually did think  he had discovered the "12 lost tribes of Israel"

Israel Unite in Christ

* And Columbus' discovery would eventually lead to a genocide of native peoples in this hemisphere..
* Last year when I was in Argentina, there was an alternative celebration held in a recently discovered historic black neighborhood featuring indigenous people and their music and dance 

Anti-Columbus Day celebration, Parana, Argentina

Not "discovered"

* But in Central America when I was there, the day was celebrated as "el encuentro...el dia de la raza.." The vast majority of Central American peasants are mestizo...mixed native and European a direct result of Columbus' visit...
SO it is complicated.....and Italians are none too happy about all of this..

And we've lived though a very rough and divisive week...like which week isn't?  Where it seems like the Republicans wanted Kavanagh approved just out of spite and we wind up with a President mocking a woman who had been abused. A shameful action in what has been a shameless administration. It is depressing....

So what's happening with Jesus this week? Looks like he's being examined by hostile conservatives determined to make him look bad. With test questions...

Starting with a question about divorce. And his answer is hard....
 "Because of your hardness of heart he wrote this commandment for you. 6But from the beginning of creation, 'God made them male and female.' 7'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, 8and the two shall become one flesh.' So they are no longer two, but one flesh. 9Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate."

It is for this reason the Catholic church has never allowed divorce. And for most of our history our own Presbyterian church wouldn't accept a divorced pastor. Nor our country a divorced President. It was really seen as wrong...But what was Jesus really saying? If you look closely, the way the divorce has worked was that a man could get a certificate of divorce for his wife. She would have no recourse or defense. A man...and not a woman. And if a woman wanted out and the man disagreed, he could hold her in bondage forever. 

And in Jesus' society, divorced women were the most vulnerable, as vulnerable as widows.  Jesus' hard line here is not standing up for an institution, marriage, it's standing up for vulnerable women.  You don't have to ask where he would be. He'd be side by side with Christine Blasey Ford...and every woman who's ever been abused. That's what this verse means and what Jesus means.

Therefore it makes perfect sense that the next topic to come up for Jesus in this passage is children..because his disciples are discouraging their presence. In his society, children were only slightly less vulnerable than women. But beyond their vulnerability, there's something else about them....the way they receive the kingdom...and when I try to understand this, I think of my grandson, y'all know what I'm talking about....the way he looks at the world....that sense of awe and wonder like a very special gift is   being opened just for him.  That's how Jesus wants us to receive the kingdom...not like a careful rule book, not as a disciplinary measure...but as a truly awesome beautiful reality. 

How do you think Jesus feels bout this? Last week the NewYork Times reported:
In shelters from Kansas to New York, hundreds of migrant children have been roused in the middle of the night in recent weeks and loaded onto buses with backpacks and snacks for a cross-country journey to their new home: a barren tent city on a sprawling patch of desert in West Texas.

Until now, most undocumented children being held by federal immigration authorities had been housed in private foster homes or shelters, sleeping two or three to a room. They received formal schooling and regular visits with legal representatives assigned to their immigration cases.

Friends ...this is our country...this is our government...Jesus is in those tents with those children....

Take a look at the Jesus we meet today under hostile questions meant to test him. He takes us away from debates about  doctrine or rules to compassion for the vulnerable...and if he is with them, he is surely here with us...

Let us allow him to show us where and how we need to be. And live in the confidence that  he will be with us as we respond...

Following the sermon, we officially welcome Evgeny as a member of the church.  It turns out that even though he had grown up in the Soviet Union, his grandmother had secretly had him baptized. We go through the reaffirmation of baptism liturgy and welcome him as a member, including the laying on of hands. Following communion, Evgeny goes downstairs to finish preparations for the celebratory feast he has prepared. And for a final benediction, I she these words from Lutheran Pastor Anna Blaedel:

blessed are you who are raging. 
blessed are you who are mourning. 
blessed are you who feel numb. 
blessed are you who feel sick. and tired. and sick and tired.
blessed are you who refuse to turn away.
blessed are you who need to turn away. 
blessed are you who keep breathing deep. 
blessed are you who are tending to your own needs. blessed are you who are tending to the needs of another.
blessed are you who have been calling. 
blessed are you who have been organizing.
blessed are you who have been testifying. 
blessed are you who have been hearing. 
blessed are you who have been resisting.
blessed are you who feel broken open beyond repair. blessed are you who are raw beyond words.
blessed are you who are working hotlines and crisis care centers and bearing witness to the forces of violence and trauma unleashed and unloosed. 
blessed are you who are marching. 
blessed are you who are weeping.
blessed are you who preach and know that divinity resides in despised, abused, violated flesh. 
blessed are you who know deep in your bones that you are good. and beautiful. and beloved. and sacred. and worthy. and believed. and held. and capable of healing.
beyond your wildest imagination. 
blessed are you who remind others they are good. and beautiful. and beloved. and sacred. and worthy. and believed. and held. and capable of healing beyond their wildest imagination.
blessed are we when we dare to dream of a world without sexual violence, without white supremacy, without misogyny, without police brutality, without anti-trans and anti-queer violence.
blessed are we when we stay tender. 
blessed are we when we stay fierce. 
blessed are we when we dare to imagine repair, and transformation. 
blessed are we when we labor together to make it so.

Then we go downstairs to celebrate with a classic Russian feast including just a touch of коньяк. It has been a very beautiful day.

Celebrating

Welcome Evgeny

2Some Pharisees came, and to test him they asked, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?" 3He answered them, "What did Moses command you?" 4They said, "Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her." 5But Jesus said to them, "Because of your hardness of heart he wrote this commandment for you. 6But from the beginning of creation, 'God made them male and female.' 7'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, 8and the two shall become one flesh.' So they are no longer two, but one flesh. 9Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate."

10Then in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. 11He said to them, "Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; 12and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery."

13People were bringing little children to him in order that he might touch them; and the disciples spoke sternly to them. 14But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, "Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. 15Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it." 16And he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them.

Urban Church in the Global City: A visit with the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo

10/5

Marching with the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo

On a sunny afternoon we go to march and visit  with the Mothers of the Plaza Mayo. We gather in the Plaza, with  the Casa Rosa (Pink House) or presidential Palace at one end, now with more security fence between the palace and  the people.

La Casa Rosa

At first I am surprised to.learn that 40 years later, the Mothers are still marching.

Flags and signs are being passed out.

Flags for the march

I go over to the Mothers’ tent and am initially taken aback by the level of commercialism. The vast array of books, of course. But also t-shirts, scarves, hats. Officially licensed mates. And even a madres cook book. I think of institutionalization. And the need for funds, etc.

The march begins with appropriate chants.

The march begins ("The power of finance is terrrorism")

But when the speeches begin, there’s a distinct partisan tone. I see another march begin. And then I learn, as is so often the case, the mothers have had a split over political/ideological perspectives. 

The two groups, the Mothers Association and the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo- Founding Line broke over the leadership of Hebe de Bonafini. The Founding Line faction prides itself on its horizontal leadership. They see the other group as to top down and having become basically an political arm of Cristina Kirchner and her brand of Peronism, somewhere between Eva Peron and Hillary Clinton with all that implies. The Founding Line are pledged to non-partisanship. They will not align wth any party or leader and will hold all equally accountable until the military files are opened and the truth revealed.

We go to the offices of the Founding Line to meet wth a long time stalwart founder Nora Morales de Cortinas.

Nora

She has been marching since 1977 when her person disappeared. The others courageously came to the Plaza wearing white scarves embroidered with the names of disappeared ones. Those scarves became the visible symbol of their movement.

white scarf monument

Some 30-40000 were disappeared or killed.

With Nora in front of the wall of the disappeared ones

Only 3-400 were released. Mass graves continue to be discovered. Some 500 children were born to detainees and given to military families without children, like something our of Handmaid’s Tale. (Maragret Atwood once said, “Nothing I wrote never happened."). The return of democracy has reunited some children to the families. But one can only imagine the psychic and spritiual pain such a reunion would cause.

And the military still won’t open its files. As an American from North America, it is painful to learn that the perpetrators of the “dirty war”  were trained by the (US)  School of the  Americas in Georgia. 

The significance  of the disappearance of Santiago Maldonado

Donde están Santiago Maldonado?

becomes more important  because it can be seen as the begging of a return to a time o disappearances and terror.  A case from four years ago has not been forgotten.

Th Roman Catholic hierarchy urges the Mothers to forgive and move on, but the mothers know from the experience of people in  places like South Africa, where there has been no truth there can be no reconciliation  and there can be no true peace.. It continues as an open wound.

There is little love lost for the institutional Catholic Church which was perceived to have looked the other way  out of fear for its own survival. Which includes our current Pope. “ A good man, but…”Nora says, lifting up her hands to finish her sentence.

Nora

(The only non-Argentine—and one of two clergy— chosen for the Commission to investigate the disappearances  (Conadep) was courageous witness for human rights  Rabbi Marshall Meyer.) 

Nora wondered what the Gendarme really felt

At the end of the  day, there are “founders” in both groups. And despite the differences, all have lost children. 

Every Thursday afternoon at 3 PM, the march continues. 

                                ****

Also on the edge of the Plaza we find an encampment of Malvinas War veterans. They want equal recognition for those who served in the homeland. They even have a story of a British helicopter attack that touched the main land.  

Malvinas Veterans

On the plaza the unhealed wounds of Argentina’s  past decades continue. As does anxiety of an uncertain future under Macri. 

This is part of the context within which ministry is done. The Waldensians are there with solidarity. 

Urban Church, Global City: Migration and Refugees

10/5

Meeting with CAREF

You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.

Leviticus 19:34, quoted by CAREF

When reflecting on the role of the urban church in the global city, it’s important that the church understand the impact of the trends and themes that are shaping the cities we live in. One of the most important of three themes is the presence and reality of migrants and refugees in our midst. We are living in a time when the largest number of people in history are in the process of moving from one  country to another. Its an important part of our work to learn about the current unique dynamics of this reality in Argentina.

To be a migrant is to seek a better life

In the Flores neighborhood of Buenos Aires are the offices of the Comision Argentina para los Refugiados y Migrantes (CAREF).Four churches came together to found CAREF: Iglesia Evangeica del Rio de la Plata (Lutheran/Evangelical), Iglesia Methodist Argentina (Methodist), Evangelical Discipulos de Cristo (Disciples of Christ) and Iglesia Valdense del Rio de la Plata (Wadensians).

CAREF was founded in 1973, as a non-profit civil association whose main objective, in addition to providing direct services and advocacy, is to promote the rights of refugees, migrants and asylum seekers through the construction of social policies and practices that consolidate their integration in conditions of justice and equity.

Its founding was in response to a flood of refugees from Chile resulting from the takeover by the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile. Migration in Argentina (and South America as a whole) has differed from the situation in Europe in that most refugees and migrants have been internal South Americans shifting and changing as various political waves have washed over countries. For example, the junta years in Argentina, the long running Columbian civil war,

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and now the rapidly deteriorating social situation in Venezuela.

Migration and Rights poster

CAREF has also been involved in the global crisis. Last June, CAREF, related to the  the commemoration of the International Refugee Day, issued a document in which it reviewed the history of the problem, launched a strong criticism of Europe and the United States, for being responsible for the crises that generate poverty and expulsion and referred to the role of Argentina and the region, as well as some guidelines on state action against the problem. 

Through a document signed by its General Coordinator Gabriela Liguori, CAREF strongly criticized states that do not take refugees seriously: "Europe receives thousands of refugees and expels them. It establishes agreements of international cooperation with countries of its periphery so that they contain the refugees there. A new genocide takes place, and Europe is not immune ... they insist on separating the economic migrant from the refugee as if fleeing from hunger was not also fleeing from death, as if being a migrant deprived you of the status of a person with rights.

 CAREF also pointed out that it is the European countries themselves, together with the United States, that generate the crises that end up driving people out of their places of origin. However, it is then they who demand the countries, to receive the victims: "it seems that there is no interest in addressing fundamental issues such as peace and the fair distribution of wealth at the global level, but to see how to slow down the impact of their somewhat uncomfortable manifestations of pain in the countries of Europe, "they said. In this they echo the sentiments of a sign I saw last April in Hamburg:  “If you don’t like refugees, stop creating them!”

Hamburg banner

Argentina recently committed accepting to 3000 Syrian refugees for humanitarian purposes. CAREF is clear, however, that simply accepting them is not enough. They note that it is essential that there be a clear local integration policy that guarantees the exercise of the rights of this population: access to language training, clear procedures for the revalidation of qualifications, training for work, decent and permanent housing, inclusion of labor, the exercise of their religion and manifestation of their culture, access to education at all levels and health from an intercultural perspective, favoring ties with the rest of Argentine society.

CAREF reports that Argentina currently has a population of refugees and petitioners, of approximately 5000 people. "Among them are Colombians, Syrians, Ghanaians, Ukrainians, Haitians, Ivorians, Nigerians and Peruvians." As hard as CAREF works to assist refugees in gaining legal status, there s great frustration with both the bureaucratic red tape and lack of budgeted funds for the serious essential work of integration. 

 In our conversation with CAREF, we learned about the abuse of migrants in sweat shops (so too in the United States) and that most agricutural work in Argentina is done by Bolivians. Sex trafficking and narco politics also affect the movement of people.(CAREF has allied itself with those fighting against domestic violence and femicide.) CAREF has also recently produced a major report on the phenomenon of migration to Argentina of people from the Dominican Republic in this century. Especially disturbing is disproportionate presence in the sex industry.

CAREF is a real example of the ecumenical work that La Iglesia Valdense has committed to, both in responding to direct human needs and engaging on the all important policy work needed to support just migration.  The Flores Valdense church meets at CAREF and both staff and lay members participate as volunteers in a special relationship. In the future, it is clear that one important area of work for local congregations will be in the integration process for migrants. And again, the Bible is clear:
You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.


                                                        ****

For a broadly informative …and profoundly moving… overview of the reality of migrants and refugees around the globe, see AI Wei-Wei’s “Human Flow”

https://www.facebook.com/HumanFlowMovie/

Urban Church, Global City: Buenos Aires Day One

10/1

Pastor Alvaro Michelin Salomon and Pastor Brashear

My old friend Dennis has come to meet me as I arrive in Buenos Aires. Thanks to landing at municipal airport, we've got just enough time to catch the end of the worship service at the Iglesia Evangelical Reformada de Buenos Aires, or IERBA. (Almost an ironic acronym.) 

La Iglesia IERBA

The soft natural light brings a feeling of comfort and warmth as the sun streams in though a wall with a very subtle cross.

Inside the sanctuary

There is a simplicity here I will come to know as typical Waldensian, reminiscent of the United Presbyterian Church of my childhood.  A simple pump organ supplies music to the hymns, and the pastor, dressed in a simple suit, has a tone that  matches that of the sanctuary.

It's an older crowd, except for Alfredo, who I remember from his visit  to New York, come over from the Flores community this morning. During prayer time, there is much concern expressed about the violent interventions by police in the Catalan independence vote. There are friends  and family ties to Cataluna and the news is disturbing. People are wondering  about that afternoon's Barcelona football game. We will later learn that after much controversy, the game was played behind closed doors in an empty stadium.

After sharing Eucharist, we gather around a table for the breaking of bread and conversation.

after worship conversation

It's very important to the community to share its three roots: not only Italian Waldensian  but reformed traditions from Switzerland and France,as well. Like bringing together Lutheran and historic reformed churches.

They share with their American counterparts the concerns of dwindling and aging congregations and fewer resources to sustain pastors....and buildings.  The challenge of part time pastorates. How and where new members might come from. Deep, deep pride in those roots....but the future?

Dennis and I will have a few hours to rest before taking the overnight bus to Bahia Blanca. We watch the other Catalan team, Espanyol, play the powerful Real Madrid. The Espanyol captain's arm band is the Catalan flag, a quiet statement of resistance.