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| | Alazar Coetzee at Oak Hill Park on Sunday, June 21. As his community of faith, how do we nurture Alazar "by words and deed, with love and prayer," as was promised the day he was baptized, as a person of color in Wooster, Ohio? |
"So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!"
These words of the apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 5:17 are so easily only understood in the context of personal salvation, but seldom in that of personal and political transformation [1]. As progressive Christians we believe that it is the journey of transformation, personal and political, that cultivates us so we become passionate about the things that Jesus was passionate about, and in the process our perspective changes as we start to view the world through the eyes of the poor, the disenfranchised, and the marginalized.
As we, predominantly caucasian Christians living with white privilege, reflect on the tragic shooting at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, Charleston, South Carolina the Gospel calls us to do so with the perspective of our our African-American brothers and sisters, or in the words of David D. Ireland [2] to do so with compassion. He wrote:
"This word - compassion - is medicinal to even the pain caused by social trauma. Compassion means to suffer together with.
Regardless of the murderer's mental state , which remains to be discovered, nine black people were killed while tending to the welfare of their souls. Roof's alleged statement that he was there "to shoot black people" must awaken vocal statements of compassion by people of other races, especially whites, since Dylann is white.
If compassion is only heard from the voices of black leaders and social activists, anger from within the black community will reach a piercing cry. Thankfully this has not been the case. The white community has been quite vocal with its compassion.
As this action becomes more widespread we will see a reduction in hate crimes. We've learned that silent compassion from the white, Asian, and Latino communities only perpetuates the anger and feelings of injustice among African Americans. Shouts of compassion from all sides must be heard amidst the cry for justice if healing is to occur.
The redemptive power of public compassion is what caused Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to say, 'In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends.'" [3]
It is with compassion that I would like you to read the following article entitled WAYNE COMMUNITY REACTS TO CHURCH SHOOTING by Bobby Warren in the Daily Record of June 19:
WOOSTER -- The president of the local NAACP chapter doesn't know what the black community can do to curb violence against African-Americans; the white community and people in power will need to do something.
Juanita Greene, president of the Wooster/Orrville NAACP, shared those comments in response to a 21-year-old white man who fatally shot nine people in a historic black church Wednesday in Charleston, S.C. Dylann Storm Roof, 21, was arrested Thursday in connection with the homicides.
"These situations are happening more and more frequently, and I don't have an answer," Greene said. "I don't know where this hatred comes from."
While Greene is unsure from where this hatred comes, she believes it is taught. Each year during the Martin Luther King Jr. essay contest, she reads essays from elementary-, middle- and high-school students. Year after year, she can see a progression. When the students are in elementary school, their essays are full of hope. By the time they get to middle school, she can start to see a difference in tone. Come high school, the essays reflect a more negative view.
"Children are children," Greene said. "They don't see color; they see another person. They see the same eyes and hands. Hatred is taught at home."
"I don't know what possessed him to do something like that," said the Rev. Rufus Thompson, a Wooster resident who ministers at First Baptist Church in Wadsworth. "I don't know how long it was working on him or how long he thought about it."
"We live in turbulent times, and this is just the beginning," said Wayne County Jail Chaplain Lee Anderson.
He had only seen a headline about the event early Thursday as he headed to the jail to minister to the inmates. He intended to "drink it in" when he got home.
The Associated Press reported Roof spent an hour in a prayer meeting before shooting them.
"They were in church, in church, and if you can't feel safe in church, where can you feel safe," Greene asked.
If Roof is guilty, then he should get the full extent of the law, Thompson said. "He committed a heinous crime. ... That's a hate crime."
South Carolina flies a Confederate flag at a monument remembering those from the state who died during the Civil War. It had flown at the statehouse until 2000, when it was relocated to the monument on the grounds of the Capitol.
With the Confederate flag still flying, it sends a message black lives don't matter, Greene said. She is hopeful a prosecutor from the U.S. Department of Justice will oversee the case.
Thompson wants to make sure if Roof did it, then he will not get a light sentence. "When that happens, it will escalate.
"Instead of going forward, we seem to be going backward. There should be more peace."
If people protest, then Thompson hopes they protest peacefully. "'Vengeance is mine,' says the Lord. He will bring about his justice in due time, but we have to do what we can do now."
Anderson, who has ministered to murderers in the jail over the years, said given the chance to talk to Roof, he would "cast the demons out of him." Then, he would teach and preach Jesus, not "isms."
"Every case is different," Anderson said. "I try to get them to see Jesus. I am in the business of redeeming souls."
"As a black person, it hurts my heart," Greene said. "I hope my Caucasian brothers and sisters will rally up and do something. ... I don't know what the black community can do. We need the white community, those in power to do what they can do." (Reporter Bobby Warren can be reached at bwarren@the-daily-record.com. He is @BobbyWarrenTDR on Twitter.)
When read with the eyes of compassion, I am struck by the reality that reporter Bobby Warren only asked three African American people from our community to respond and then titled the article "Wayne Community Reacts to Church Shooting". With this action the Daily Record made the massacre by a white supremacist an African American problem. No, ... the Wooster/Orrville NAACP president Juanita Green is correct by saying that it is a white problem.
"As a black person, it hurts my heart," Greene said. "I hope my Caucasian brothers and sisters will rally up and do something. ... I don't know what the black community can do. We need the white community, those in power to do what they can do."
As a community of faith that claims to be "Intentionally Inclusive" how do we respond to the challenge before us with public compassion, taking on the challenge of the local NAACP president to "rally up and do something"?
This coming Sunday one of our members is making a public statement of her grief as Vivian Holliday is providing the flowers and the refreshments this Sunday. Vivian wrote the following for the bulletin:
"Vivian Holliday, a native of South Carolina and a citizen of Wooster, Ohio, offers the flowers and the hospitality table at Westminster Presbyterian Church on June 28, 2015 in living honor and loving memory of THE NINE fellow citizens of Charleston, S.C. who lost their lives at the hand of one to whom they had welcomed into their Bible Study on June 17, 2015 at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church."
It is interesting to me that Vivian wants to show her compassion through hospitality, as it was through the practice of radical hospitality, by welcoming a white person into the midst of a historic black church, that nine people were killed.
Join us this Sunday as we continue the conversation with the theme, "Rest, Renewal and Imagination"!
Blessings,
Dries
PS: Remember that the Weekly News will be taking a break for the month of July and that the next issue will be on August 7, 2015.
[2] David D. Ireland is the senior pastor of Christ Church, a multisite church in northern New Jersey with a membership of approximately 8,000. He is a diversity consultant to the NBA and author of some 20 books including "The Weapon of Prayer."
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| | In December 2014 Westminster helped a single mother and her son transform a trailer into a home in the Larwill Trailer Park. |
 I also invite you to read, from the perspective of compassion, the following letter published in the Daily Record on June 20, 2015, written by a resident of the Larwill Trailer Park. With this crisis before us as a community we are once again confronted as followers of Jesus of Nazareth as to how we show public compassion. LETTER: LARWILL RESIDENTS TRYING TO FIND HOUSING, BUT IT'S HARD
"There're a lot of people wanting the people of Wooster Trailer Park out.
All of us have been looking for places. It's so hard. You look in the paper and hardly see any place for rent. I've called all the real estates in the book and no luck. We all are trying. Places are so expensive. Most are low income or on disability.
We have people who want to help us pay our deposit and rent. And, we are thankful, but when the following month comes, how are we gonna work that out? We will have rent and utilities and water-garbage. Some have car payments and insurance to get back and forth to work. Cable would be a luxury most of us don't have.
There're people who don't have a way to the stores unless they walk. We are close to pharmacies. There are people worried about moving and won't be able to get to these places.
But we are trying. A lot of us would love to move. To have a nice home. To be happy, warm, comfortable. Most times we never know if we were coming or going anyway. There was always talk about closing the place. Watch out for your other trailer parks. You might be next.
Do you know what it's like to maybe be homeless, especially with children? Let me tell you, it's a scary feeling when you feel it's gonna happen. There are about 50 families in this park.
The mayor turned us down when we were gonna try to pay the water bill. Maybe we should pack up and move in with the mayor. Or maybe we should move in the water company's building. Maybe we should move in with others pushing us out. Maybe we should move in the courthouse. I'm telling you, there's nowhere to go. We paid the Lawrences. They took our money, and we are being punished. We were given little time to find a place and move. Two months and nowhere to go.
People come from other countries and get the royal treatment. We are Americans and we get the shaft.
The people doing this to us ... you help find us another home. You look in the paper, call the real estates. You see how hard this is. We are trying, but of course that doesn't even matter.
God bless America."
Connie Mears
Wooster
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Construction To Start on the ADA Bathroom
It is with excitement that the installation of an the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliant bathroom in the back kitchen area of Mackey Hall will hopefully take place July 9 through August 14, 2015. In May, Session accepted the quote from Simonson Construction Services, Inc. in Ashland, Ohio in the amount of $27,120 for the installation of the bathroom. We will continue to keep you updated as things progress. If you have comments or questions please contact Caryl Slater, representing the Building Committee.
Thank You
A big thank you to all who made a wonderful worship experience at Oak Hill Park possible this past Sunday, June 21. Church Office Closed In observance of the Independence Day holiday, the church office will be closed on Friday, July 3rd. If you need pastoral assistance, please do not hesitate to contact Pastor Dries on his cell phone.
No Weekly News in July
There will be no Weekly News in July as we are taking a break for the summer. Our first August Weekly News will go out Friday, August 7.
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Interfaith Prayer Vigil for Palestinian Rights
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 The Rev. Kevan Franklin from Trinity United Church of Christ here in Wooster, Ohio has invited us to the following event:
Sunday, June 28 Cleveland Convention Center 300 Lakeside Ave. 11:15 AM - 3:00 PM
The United Church of Christ (UCC) Palestine-�-Israel Network(PIN) proposed a resolution calling for the UCC to divest from three American companies that profit from the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories. This will be debated and voted on at the UCC General Synod at the Cleveland Convention Center June 26-�30. This interfaith prayer vigil is to encourage passage of the resolution in support of the human rights of the Palestinian people. The spirit of the event is to be peaceful and respectfully spiritual. We are honored to have Palestinian, Jewish, and Muslim participants. We will have an opening and closing prayer time led by clergy of different faiths, including Reverend Mitri Raheb from Bethlehem, Palestine, followed by silent prayers. For more information or to participate during all or part of the vigil, contact: Jennifer Blakeney at bmlspirit@@yahoo.com or Pam Beck at discoverqz@sbcglobal.net Sponsored by UCC-�-PIN and the Middle East Peace Partnership of Ohio which includes the Interfaith Council for Peace in the Middle East; Cleveland Peace Action, Middle East Peace Committee; and Interfaith Peace Builders, Ohio.
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Church World Service School Kits
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For 16 years, Westminster has collected school supplies to send to Church World Service. School kits are then shipped both nationally and internationally to disaster areas. It's truly amazing that Ohio collects one-third of all kits made for Church World Service!
To meet our goal of 100 school kits, we need the following:
339 new number 2 pencils with erasers
297 70-page notebooks
98 blunt scissors
86 30 cm (12 inch) rulers
74 large erasers
58 hand-held pencil sharpeners
77 boxes of 24-count crayons
Back to school sales usually start after July 4 and prices are very reasonable. If you want to donate funds to have someone else purchase kit components, we'll gladly shop for you. Watch the bulletin board in back of the sanctuary for weekly sale flyers with the best prices.
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People to People Donations
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What's for lunch?
This month Westminster is collecting tuna fish, mayonnaise, peanut butter, and jelly for the People to People box in the Narthex.
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| | "Fish and Loaf" by Hazel Shreve |
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Use a ceramic or reusable mug for your coffee. Americans use more than 14 billion paper cups every year, enough to circle the world 55 times. Paper coffee cups are usually coated, which doesn't let them break down in the landfill. Styrofoam will stay on the planet for nine generations, enough time for your great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandkids to be born.
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What's happening at Westminster this week?
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For the latest and most up-to-date information visit Westminster's calendar here. |
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