When Brenda asked me to write a brief article about
the lessons I’ve learned during my 13 years of
working at the Council, I thought it would be an easy
task. After all, there are so many lessons, how hard
could it be to summarize a few? Really, really, really
hard!
So many mismatched things came to mind that I got
up from my computer, sat on the sofa, closed my
eyes and meditated for 15 or 20 minutes. I kept
coming back to that word ‘lessons.’ I’ve learned
many lessons; my time here has been an amazing, all-
encompassing education! Reading, writing
and ‘rithmetic barely scratch the surface. Here was
my curriculum:
Science: I explored the stewardship of God’s
creation, climate change, fuel efficiency, sustainable
agriculture, AIDS, turkey farms, hog processing
plants, takings legislation and farmers markets.
Math and Economics: Never my strong suit
in college, I began to understand the importance and
relevance of numbers to ‘real life’ in discussing jubilee
debt reduction, education equity funding, predatory
lending practices, lottery and video poker, heirs’
property, raising the cigarette tax to fund Medicaid
and ways to eliminate hunger.
English: Understanding and interpreting the
Council’s ministries required me to develop skills in
writing, researching, drafting policy statements,
creating newsletters and public speaking.
History and Current Events: I learned so
much about South Carolina and about South
Carolinians while working on issues including the
confederate battle flag, immigration, death penalty,
church burnings, working for peace in a time of war,
creating unity task forces, preventing child abuse,
restorative justice, church/state relationships,
religious freedom, Christian Unity, public education
and preparing for natural and human-caused
disasters.
Music/Art Appreciation: The spectrum of our
Christian family as well as our fellow Jews, Hindus,
Muslims, Baha’is, Unitarian Universalists, Buddhists
and Sikhs gave me the opportunity to worship in
wonderful, beautiful places with wonderful, beautiful
people. What joy and blessing.
Foreign Language: I’ll never forget my first
two weeks learning the new vocabulary: judicatory,
ecumenism, social justice. Not to mention learning
that the South Carolina Conference of the United
Methodist Church is led by a bishop and broken into
districts; whereas the South Carolina District of the
Wesleyan Church is led by a president and broken
into conferences. You get the idea.
Social Studies: Okay, I know that
usually ‘social studies’ translates to ‘civics,’ but I
want to tell you that my social studies were
occasioned by working with volunteers, board
members, media, congregations, hecklers and
detractors, bishops, ministers and lay people,
historians, farmers, professors, beauticians, senators,
computer specialists, public relations people, artists,
governors, musicians, caterers, activists, and all the
other people who in some way relate to, love and
support SC Christian Action Council.
Physical Education: Marching. We’ve done a
fair amount of that in the past 13 years. Plus, you
think hauling around and setting up those displays is
easy? See also: variety of worship experiences (you
know who you are).
Other skills: I honed other skills along the
way, too, including debating, typing, photography,
coffee-making, envelope stuffing and sometimes
Xeroxing (those machines never liked me).
And then there are the experiences that defy
categorization and yet are seminal to who I became
because of my association with this amazing
organization: from receiving a call from a woman
wanting to know what the Council was going to do
about the outrage that Riverbanks Zoo had a female
Santa, to being threatened and cursed for our work
to move the confederate battle flag off the State
House dome, to accepting leadership positions in our
national professional organization, to my greatest
professional compliment—being told that once when I
walked into a room full of African-Americans someone
asked her friend, ‘who is that?’ and the response
was, ‘oh, don’t worry, that’s just Julia.’
Finally, let me conclude with a paragraph I wrote in
the cover letter of my application for this new
position at Friends General Conference.
“I have learned the lessons of working together
toward a common vision: working with volunteers and
committees; stressing the importance of
communication and relationships at every level of the
organization; seeking cohesion and creative tension
among staff and volunteers; maintaining momentum;
knowing one’s own strengths and weaknesses; and,
evaluating and changing course as needed. It has
been my pleasure to work with organizations whose
missions are grounded in faith; and, I have witnessed
the necessity of nurturing a collective centeredness
and of trusting God’s promptings.”
What a blessing it has been to live, work, laugh and
worship with you these thirteen years. With St. Paul
I say, ‘I thank God in all my remembrance of you.”
Julia Sibley-Jones, Associate Director
