Episcopal Urban Caucus celebrates 30th anniversary in Chicago
Episcopal News Service. March 4, 2010 [030410-02]
Pat McCaughan
The Episcopal Urban Caucus celebrated its 30th anniversary during a Feb. 24-27 annual assembly in Chicago, focusing on heightening awareness about gun violence solutions and reform.
Nell Braxton Gibson, national coordinator for EUC, said about 100 people from across the country attended the assembly, titled "Anti-Violence: Keeping Our Kids Alive."
"The host committee selects the theme; Chicago has had a lot of child murders," Gibson said during a recent telephone interview from her New York City office.
Bishop Jeffrey Lee of the Diocese of Chicago, in a Feb. 25 letter to diocesan clergy and congregations, cited the grim statistics that "36 Chicago public school students [were] killed in the 2008-2009 school year." He called upon church leaders to help raise awareness about gun violence prevention and to work for passage of meaningful gun policy reform.
Violence prevention: 'It takes a village'
Bishop Suffragan John Rabb of the Diocese of Maryland and EUC board president said he was particularly impressed with a visit to a local ministry, SOS Children's Village, an alternative to traditional foster care modeled after the concept "that it takes a village to raise a child."
"It literally is SOS, the distress call. They are talking about stabilizing family life in urban America. The question is, what do we do to really enhance everything from foster care to parenting skills to providing a nurturing home atmosphere for children?"
Rabb said he was among a group of seven from the Maryland diocese, "who came away energized from the conference but also wondering, 'okay, how can we make these things happen in our own diocese?"
"One of the things I'm mindful of is how much our churches -- and I mean the people as well as the facilities -- do in the way of mentoring. What can we do, in the way of providing structured opportunities for education, for fellowship, for service? We now know the power of afterschool programs. One thing we need to do is continue to strengthen the role of the church as a place where children and youth can be appropriately and lovingly nurtured in a Christian environment."
SOS Children's Villages establishes clusters of individual homes that share recreational facilities and administrative offices, creating a community. Collectively, foster parents, staff, and surrounding community children help to provide a stable and loving environment.
The Chicago village is one of three in the United States. Established in 1949 in response to the needs of children orphaned and abandoned after World War II, SOS Children's Villages is active in 132 countries, according to the organization's website.
Other offerings included a workshop and film, both titled, "Silent Screams," led by the Illinois Council Against Gun Violence. Workshops also included "BAM -- Be a Man," a program for youth guidance, and CeaseFire Chicago, which featured four youthful ex-offenders "who call themselves Credible Messengers and they carry the message of anti-gun violence or violence prevention into the community," Gibson said.
Additional workshops focused on humane and ethical immigration reform, economic justice, and care of creation, she said.
Recalling 30 years of saints
Diane Pollard, a founding member of EUC, said the grassroots volunteer group's 30-year journey has ultimately "made our church stronger." EUC's focus on urban concerns "has allowed us to identify, nurture and focus on issues that have later become priorities of the church," she said.
Pollard, a past president and vice president of the organization who is currently treasurer, said the workshops were helpful in understanding "the pressures that affect our children, gun violence and ways in which communities are working to prevent it as well as the efforts made to support our young men who are faced with the temptations of gangs every day."
Rabb agreed. "The church is called to make a difference. We do that by having a real vision for what God wants for God's people in the city. I don't necessarily mean big metropolitan areas. I'm talking about the fact that smaller cities have many of the same challenges as larger ones. In Maryland, the town of Cumberland has 35,000 people but the same challenges as Baltimore."
The assembly paid tribute to its roots during a Feb. 25 "Remembrance of Saints of the EUC" Eucharist at St. James Cathedral in Chicago and also at a Feb. 26 banquet which recalled the history of the caucus.
The EUC dates to the late 1970s when members of the Church and City Conference called for establishment of urban training centers, a program of regional conferences and rebuilding an active urban-oriented network.
Through the efforts of the Rev. Franklin Turner, a former national officer for black ministries, in 1976, Bishop Paul Moore of New York and Bishop John Walker of Washington, D.C., convened a meeting of "urban bishops" at the Minneapolis General Convention.
By the spring of 1978, the Urban Bishops Coalition identified basic issues such as energy, inflation, ecology, jobs, housing, education and income security. Also identified was a need for a national organization to strengthen the role of the local urban parish.
EUC's organizing assembly was held Feb. 13-19, 1980 in Indianapolis. Its charge for bishops, clergy and laity was to express the church's concern for the plight of the cities and their residents, as well as for "vitalization of Episcopal churches in the cities, through involvement, reflection, advocacy and action on issues of justice, equality and peace in our cities, nation and the world."
At its 2010 meeting, the EUC board elected members during a business session and approved a series of resolutions: affirming General Convention 2009's support for passage of the Equal Rights Amendment; allocating funding for travel expenses for youth and young adult board members; and affirming the mission, growth and development of the Episcopal Service Corps and its constituent member programs.
Resolution 2010-2 noted the "importance of providing young adults an opportunity to deepen their faith through the engagement of critical social justice issues, periods of reflection and service," according to Gibson.
The Episcopal Service Corps is a federation of young adult service programs across the United States. Typically, young adults aged 18-30 volunteer for yearlong internships during which they work in economically disadvantaged areas while living in simple, sustainable community with other interns. The year offers an opportunity to help others while discerning vocation and developing leadership skills, Gibson said. Currently, there are about a dozen ESC member agencies throughout the nation.
A fourth resolution, 2010-4, called for the reinstatement of nine employees of Paris Maintenance, a company whose contract at the Episcopal Church Center in New York was terminated Dec. 30, 2009. The company employed workers who were affiliated with Service Employees International Union 32BJ. A new contract was awarded to the non-union Benjamin Enterprises.
Gibson said a letter outlining details of the resolution was delivered to both Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and to President of the House of Deputies Bonnie Anderson.
At the time of the contract renewal, Linda Watts, chief operating officer of the Episcopal Church, issued a statement saying: "Budget constraints have prompted the Episcopal Church to review all contracts and to implement cost-cutting measures where possible."
Watt told the church's Executive Council (http://generalconvention.org/ec) Feb. 19 during its meeting in Omaha, Nebraska, that her office "re-competed" the church center's contract for cleaning services after the 2010-2012 budget was cut "very severely in that area." She said bids, including one from Paris Maintenance, had been requested from both union and non-union companies and all were considered when the decision was made.
Rabb said that leadership of the caucus has evolved from urban bishops to rest with the laity. "We're excited that the last several years, EUC has been present and supportive of dioceses and cities as they are about transformative ministries."
The caucus meets next year in the continuing Diocese of Pittsburgh.