From the President
If you look back over your years on this earth you cannot help but come to the same conclusion a recent pollster did: Change is the most enduring value. The old Greek, Heraclitus, probably said it best: "You cannot step in the same river twice." Not only has the river flowed on, you have, too.
Listen to what the pollster writes:
". . . values are on a zig zag, wavering course in America. The characteristic shows up in rapid changes in people's assessment of some aspects of life.
Religion was found on the upswing - considered 'very important' by 69% of adults, up 10 percentage points from a year before. Regard for money as 'very important' also rose 10 points to 40 percent.
People's values change with alarming rapidity these days. Americans are in a period of emotional flux. They are seeking just the right balance of right ideas, experiences, values and goods to arrive at a pleasing harmony of their internal and external realities.
Sixty-five percent of adults believe 'the world is out of control these days.'"
I surmise the same would be true for our brethren to the north in Canada. We are the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in the United States and Canada, are we not? All of us have experienced a sense of rootlessness between as well as within generations. If we have lived in an Age of Information, an age that has inundated us with information of all types, for the last 30 or so years, we are living into an Age of Intelligence. The gathering of information is not as important as what we do with the information we have. How do we interpret it? How do we separate the garbage from the pearls? How do we fashion a better life for all the world's people?
One thing is crystal clear to me: we cannot cope with these momentous changes without forging relationships and collaborative partnerships, not just in word but action. A former church member, Gloria Goble, told a mid-week Bible Study group about a guest that came to her parents farm in Kansas and told her father what a wonderful farm God had provided him. A statement to which her father quickly replied: "You should have seen this place when God farmed it alone."
The point is that we cannot deal with such rapid change alone. We need one another. This is why ecumenical and interfaith involvement is in our Disciples DNA. People from difference religions, ethnicities, races, and languages can learn to bond together for purposes greater than any one individual or group alone.
George Eliot interprets the words of Stradivarius, maker of violins. Here is what Eliot writes:
"When master holds
'Twix chin and hand a violin of mine,
He will be glad that Stradivari lived,
Made violins and made them of the best.
. . . for while God gives them skill,
I give them instruments to play upon,
God choosing me to help Him . . .
If my hand slacked
I should rob God - Since He is fullest good -
Leaving a blank instead of violins . . .
He could not make Antonio Stradivari's violins
without Antonio."
It takes each of us working together, Stradivarius and God, to accomplish those things that will breathe new life into this generation and those that follow. Congregations, fellowship groups, ecumenical and interfaith partners - carry your banners high. Remain open and diverse. Cherish your diversity. Leap over walls that seem too high to scale. Hold one another's hands in partnership with the One who holds you in divine hands. And do not wait for great strength before setting out on your way, for immobility will weaken you further. Do not wait to see clearly before starting. Walk toward the light. Do it now.
Together-ly yours,
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