OPW at GA

The Office of Public Witness at the 221st General Assembly

OPW Staff and Summer Fellows in the GA Exhibit Hall

The staff members of the Office of Public Witness were busy at the General Assembly (GA), which took place June 14-21, 2014, in Detroit, MI. While Director for Public Witness J. Herbert Nelson and Representatives Catherine Gordon and Leslie Woods attended the GA as resource people for various committees (5 committees amongst us), our Summer Fellows served the Assembly as Student Assistants. Three of them were assigned as committee assistants, so if you visited or served on the committees on Middle East, Marriage, or Mission Coordination, you probably met them! And our recent seminary intern, Sabrina Slater, represented Princeton Seminary as a Theological Student Advisory Delegate.

It was a busy week for us. Even as we supported the commissioners, advisory delegates and corresponding members with our prayers and expertise, J. Herbert Nelson also made five speaking appearances. We had a great time connecting with old allies and new partners for justice all over the place – from the Exhibit Hall to the committee room to the Plenary floor. Here are just a few highlights:

GA Plenary

The Rev. J. Herbert Nelson addressed the General Assembly during the Friday afternoon plenary. In his address, he reminded us of the long Presbyterian tradition of engaging in public life, from John Calvin’s advocacy with the leaders of 16^th century Geneva, to John Witherspoon who signed the Declaration of Independence, to Stated Clerk Eugene Carson Blake who marched with the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King. He quoted current Stated Clerk Gradye Parsons who wrote in 2009 “So, on one hand, it would appear that those of the Reformed tradition have been defenders of the role of government, and on the other hand, disturbers of governments.” Rev. Nelson remarked, “this paradoxical call places us in a significant position to love our nation while possess a willingness to make it better.” Nelson concluded his remarks to the GA by saying, “We cannot remain silent in these troubling times. The world needs the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to stand up and be the Church. Join me in making a difference in this sin sick world. We can do it together.  Thank you and God Bless!”

New Education Initiative

J. Herbert Nelson and Frank Dimmock

Compassion, Peace and Justice Ministry, together with World Mission, announced a new “Educate a Child, Change the World” initiative that seeks to provide quality education to one million children worldwide by the year 2020. This joint partnership was approved the General Assembly and launched at a lunch event where Frank Dimmock, World Mission’s catalyst for poverty issues, and J. Herbert Nelson, each discussed the critical issues of education as a tool to create equality. Education transforms lives,” Dimmock said, “empowering girls and women particularly … for leadership … for economic opportunity … for better health.” The children who be reached by the education initiative “are children of God and our children,” Dimmock continued, “providing them a quality education is not just the right thing to do, it’s the smart thing to do.” Both speakers emphasized the fundamental truth that “every child can learn.”

CPJ Meal and the Reverend William Barber

The Reverend Dr. William Barber

At the Thursday evening meal, Compassion, Peace and Justice Ministry welcomed the Reverend William Barber, President of the North Carolina NAACP and leader of the growing Moral Monday movement. Barber, whose presence is powerful and inspiring, challenged us to take the on the special interests that use private money to create public power. He said, “Never before have we seen so much money spent to oppose equality.” He went on to profoundly disturb us with the observation that “we live in an age when corporations are treated like people and people are treated like things.” Barber challenged the church, at large: “if we claim to believe in the triune God, then we have to oppose the triune evils of racism, classism, and militarism… how can we oppose Rome when we have become Rome?” We left the evening feeling energized, but convinced of just how much work there is still to do in the cause of God’s justice in our public places. “Never forget,” Barber said, “when you pray ‘God bless America,’ that God is not the property of just one nation.”

Gratitude for the General Assembly

The Office of Public Witness gives thanks for the work of the General Assembly, for the commitment of the Commissioners and Advisory Delegates who did the hard work of discerning the will of the Spirit, and for all the OGA event planners, student assistants, volunteers, and COLA folks without whom the Assembly would not have been possible. As the voice of Presbyterian public policy, tasked with representing the social witness policy of Presbyterian General Assemblies, the Office of Public Witness pays close attention to the GA. We have come home with a lot of new work to do! Join us in the struggle for compassion, peace, and justice in our public lives.

PNS - Bastions of Hope

From the Presbyterian News Service –

Bastions of hope

J. Herbert Nelson praises North Carolina’s ‘Moral Mondays’ protest movement

MAY 19, 2014

GRAHAM, N.C.

Left to right: the Rev. Paul Ridolfi, the Rev.
 J. Herbert Nelson, the Rev. Frank Dew,
Barbara Clawson. —Emily Odom, photo credit

Returning to Salem Presbytery, the home of his first call, the Rev. J. Herbert Nelson had a message for the state of North Carolina.

Preaching on Romans 12:1-5, on the call to live out a transformative life, Nelson commended the people of North Carolina for presenting themselves as a “living sacrifice” through the ongoing witness of Moral Mondays, a protest movement organized last year by the North Carolina NAACP to fight against cuts to social programs, education reforms and changes to voting laws in the state.     

“We are challenged today to be called one nation under God with freedom and justice for all,” said Nelson, addressing the ever-widening gap between rich and poor. “If we are going to overturn the tables in the temple in this present day, all 50 states have to begin to do what was started here in North Carolina. You are the bellwether for the South, you are the bastion of hope.”

Nelson, director of the PC(USA)’s Office of Public Witness in Washington, D.C., was speaking at the 102^nd stated meeting of Salem Presbytery on May 17.

“Our struggle today is against [corporate] structures and powers because our values are so aligned to them,” said Nelson. “And yet the very calling of faith is a calling out of that relationship into a new one with Jesus Christ…that is counter-cultural to the dynamic of the world. Therefore in order to be transformers of the church, we have to be transformers of our own lives as people in the church.”

Nelson lifted up the Romans text as a charge to the church to exercise its “appropriate priestly service,” specifically advocacy on behalf of the nation’s struggling and declining middle class.

“We’ve got to put on our walking shoes today,” he said. “I’ve got to have shoes, you’ve got to have shoes, all of God’s children got to have shoes. We’ve got to call for a new ethical and moral movement that protects the rights of people, not the rights of corporate stockholders.”

Nelson called upon the church to take action. “The challenge of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) today is to stand up…until the kingdom of God is built up.”

Following the morning session, the Peace and Justice Task Force of Salem Presbytery hosted Nelson at a lunch, which was also attended by the Rev. Rosemary C. Mitchell, mission engagement advisor for the Presbyterian Mission Agency. Mitchell’s role is to link individuals, congregations, and mid councils with the work of two mission agency ministries, the Office of Public Witness and the Presbyterian Ministry at the United Nations. She also seeks to build financial support for these ministries, which have been identified as priorities for the mission agency.

“Both of these advocacy ministries, which have been active since the 1940s, are integral to being Presbyterian in our Reformed tradition,” Mitchell said. “Although Presbyterians have been deeply involved in advocacy for generations, a whole new generation is just now discovering this work.”

Nelson’s visit to Salem Presbytery began on the evening of May 16 with a screening of the documentary film, “Inequality for All,” hosted by the Rev. Frank Dew at the New Creation Community Presbyterian Church in Greensboro. Following the movie—which presents commentary by former Secretary of Labor, Robert Reich, on the growing abyss between the haves and have-nots in American society—Nelson offered a biblical and theological reflection connecting the film’s observations to the work of the Office of Public Witness. He concluded his visit on Sunday, May 18, by preaching two services at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Greensboro.

The Rev. Emily Enders Odom is communications associate in the Office of Communication of the Presbyterian Mission Agency and a frequent contributor to Presbyterian News Service.

North Carolina Moral March Brings Hope

North Carolina Moral March Brings Hope

A Justice Movement is Growing in the United States

Rev. Jimmie R. Hawkins (L) Reverend Joe Harvard (R)

Presbyterian pastors, lay people, and theologians were numbered among the estimated 30,000 to 80,000 persons who marched to the State Capitol in Raleigh, North Carolina on Saturday, February 8th. The march was organized to call for well-funded public education, anti-poverty policies, affordable health care for all that includes the state expansion of Medicaid, an end to disparities in the criminal justice system on the basis of class and race, the expansion of voting rights, and equality for all persons under the law.

March on the State House

The protest is connected to the Moral Monday protests that began with an initial pray-in in the state Capitol last year. Several members of the clergy were arrested, citing their opposition to the actions of the newly elected members of the North Carolina state legislature who voted to cut teacher pay and sharply changed the course of politics in the state. The NC Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), led by a Reverend Dr. William Barber, led the organizing for protest at the State House and the annual HK on J March (Historic Thousands on Jones Street), known widely this year as the Moral March on Raleigh. 

A call for national justice leaders and others to join the March was issued nationwide.  The Rev. J. Herbert Nelson, PC(USA) Director for Public Witness, joined the marchers after conversations with Barber and local Presbyterian participants.  Nelson had also visited a Moral Monday march held in Asheville, North Carolina in July, 2013. Of his participation in the march, he said,

Rev. Merili Douglas with J. Herbert Nelson

“It is important that Presbyterians who are engaged in justice advocacy feel supported in their efforts to witness on behalf of the poor. Our bible reminds us that we who know Jesus Christ have a responsibility to embrace those whose lives are most impacted by unjust policies and immoral laws. It is important that the Office of Public Witness be in solidarity in local communities where our Pastors, lay people and others are calling for moral and ethical treatment of suffering people."