Remembering George Todd: RIP

1/15

George Todd  died this week after having served over six decades in urban ministry. During  those years he was involved one way or another with nearly every ground breaking development in urban ministry, literally around the world. His eclectic ministry began in the cutting edge East Harlem Protestant  Parish,  a decade in Taiwan, heading Urban Industrial  Mission for the United Presbyterian Church, global urban ministry for the Word Council of Churches, funding social change for the Wiebold Foundation in Chicago and finally serving as Executive Presbyter for New York City Presbytery. In each position he would make a lasting contribution.

George always saw his role as a facilitator of ministry with no desire to be in the spotlight. He believed that if God is in the world, it is the  Christian's obligation to go find God know what God is doing there. And that if God wants something to be done in the world, the probability is that it is already being done. And he saw his calling to identify and support those people who are engaged in creative and effective forms of church mission  throughout  the world.

For those  who did not have the opportunity to know George personally, we have his recent memoir Exposure and Risk: the Great Coming Church. A Half Century of Urban Ministry, (with Trey Hammond.) The book follows through the various stops on George's journey.

The East Harlem Protestant Parish was a vitaL model of shared ministry that remains relevant today in a time of diminished  presence of the old mainline churches. Those who made a commitment to this ministry took on four "disciplines": Religious (shared prayer, worship and study,) Economic (shared resources), Political (engagement in social action)and vocational (finding and staying with one's calling). One key principal...especially relevant today...was studied avoidance of church owned buildings ...and the institutionalization of congregations that inevitably requires. Tension over that issue would eventually  contribute  to his leaving the EHPP. That debate continues to be a major issue within urban ministry to this day.

With the Presbyterian Church, George would create a cadre of urban ministers. And help create new policy for the denomination's  General Assembly. He would reach out for ecumenical partnership and provide training. And his true passion was supporting his friend Sol Alinsky and Church  Based Community  Organizing  through the Joint Strategy and Action Committee.

In Taiwan, George would train a generation of leaders who would advance  the struggle for democracy there. With the WCCC, he would help Kim Dae Jung of South Korea into and during his  exile as Kim wrote what would become the constitution  of a newly democratic South  Korea.. He connected with Minjung(people's) theology in Korea and Dalit (untouchables) theology in  India (Jesus was a dalit..) and worked with the churches from throughout the socialist bloc of nations as they would come to East Germany to meet.


He would finish his ministry  in the most diverse Presbytery in the country, one which had no one group is in the majority and a long history  of institutional racism.

The book is written in George's own unassuming voice. One in which he can casually speak of having had Reinhold Niebuhr
perform his marriage. He describes  his influences of Albert Scweitzer  and his mystical reverencefor all things to Sol Alinsy and his  community organizing. From Barth's sense of the transcendent power of God throughout  the earth to Gollwitzer's use of Marxist tools for social analysis and work for societal change. 

He had a deep love of music and put together collections of "urban" hymns. He was close to Al Carmines and his creative Christian cabaret performances  in the Village and his friendship with Taize's Jacques Berthier led to the much beloved refrain,Jesus remember me when you come onto you kingdom."

Jointly with his wife Kathy, he won the Presbyterian Health, Education and Welfare  Association's John Park Lee Award for a lifetime of  commitment to the struggle for a more just society as a person of faith. He saw a great coming church, one less institutional, one more grass roots, flexible and engaged in the struggle for justice. 

Mainly he stood  beside us. Cared for us. Helped us to keep going. Much of what is good, creative and effective in the urban church today George Todd was involved with bringing to life.   I will miss him.

What is your calling? by Philip Newell: a review

2/14

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The memorial service for my friend Philip Newell was now a few  weeks ago. I am thankful that he left for us his memoir, What is your calling? (https://www.amazon.com/What-Your-Calling-Philip-Newell/dp/1504371259). His own unique voice is very present in the pages of this book and it sounds very much like an extended conversation with him. What comes through very clearly is his intelligence, his faith, and his ability to communicate clearly with anyone.   

For Philip, the question What is your calling? is not just a spiritual question but one with primary existential moral content. In his world view, informed by his love  of Plato and Calvinist reformed theology, all of creation is interrelated and we as human beings have a shared  responsibility for the  overall health of creation. And because we are part of that whole, our own self interest is best served by working for the best for all. For Philip, "True spirituality and religious commitment are about adherence to a transcendent order of things, an order that manifests itself through our own transformation into an increasingly loving person who then supports the well-being, growth, and transformation of others."

The book takes us through the various parts of Philip's life beginning with his childhood and his endearing fascination with turtles. We learn of the impact of his Biblical scholar father on his life as  well as the effect of his father's own spiritual journey. His post World War II service in Japan as well his education at Harvard as well as his student friendship with Martin Luther King, Jr. had their own impact.

More than anything, it was his encounter with  George McLeod and  his time at the Scottish community of Iona that shaped his view of Christian life, beginning with the importance of one on one relationships the power of mutually accountable community and and an absolute commitment to social and economic justice. One can clearly see the connections between the Iona experience and Philip's later advocacy for Alinsky stye community organizing as the best means for social transformation.

Although his years in West Virginia with his closest school friends were rewarding it was in urban ministry, in Washington, DC that he truly discovered his calling. His forging ecumenical and interfaith relationships and the importance of weekly meetings with his colleagues are helpful models for us. 

It is also valuable to read inside stories of both the logistical and strategic planning for Civil Rights Movement actions from Selma to the March on Washington to see what is involved in actually creating change. It is often forgotten for example, that the March on Washington was primarily a Labor Movement action in its inception. Most of the marchers  were from the UAW which also footed most of the bill.The Civil Rights Movement was never separable from the call for economic justice and fair labor practices as in Dr. King's support for the sanitation workers in Memphis and the move towards a Poor Peoples Campaign.

From Washington, Philip worked creatively at the national level the Presbyterian Church forging alliances with working people and community organizers. The efforts to create a worker owned and managed steel mill in Youngstown in the face of industrial collapse was but one example. 

Philip shares  with us both the sorrows and joys of his personal life as well, from the tragic death of his oldest son Philip to his ultimate marriage to Madelyne Tramm. In describing his personal faith, Philip argues (as has Marilynne Robinson) that Calvin and the reformers were the first humanists. He challenges those of that tradition today to seek to reclaim its original  passion to reshape the social order so that human beings could  live as God intended. 

Philip's short but incisive book is a clarion call to faithful witness by faith communities:
"Religious institutions of all kinds, but certainly those for which the Hebrew and Christian scriptures provide inspiration and direction, have a particular vocation: to address the needs of the poor, the outcast, and all disadvantaged people, not only for their sakes, but also for the preservation and welfare of the common life of all humanity, even to the uttermost parts of the earth. And in a world where people increasingly see themselves as spiritual, though without affiliation with a particular denomination, it can only serve each of us individually to think of our own lives in terms of ministry."

For those of us who struggle with these issues, with our own call, this book is not only inspirational but instructive.