International Peace and Justice Issues High on Jubilee List at General Convention
Episcopal News Service. May 25, 2000 [2000-099]
Genie Carr
(ENS) Jubilee, the ancient call to care for the poor, hungry, the oppressed and all those in need, is the theme of the convention -- and the morning of July 6 has been set aside to explore the theme.
Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold has chosen three Scripture passages for his reflection: Leviticus 25:8-12, which directs Israel "to hallow the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants"; Psalm 147:1-7, which says, "How good it is to sing praises to our God [who] heals the brokenhearted, and binds up their wounds"; and Luke 4:16-30 where Jesus reads from Isaiah: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon men, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."
Beginning with a liturgy of the word, the convention will break into conversations around tables, then gather again for the Eucharist. The Schola Cantorum from the Diocese of East Carolina will provide special music for the Jubilee Eucharist and Meditation.
"This morning is essentially an opportunity for the convention to set itself free from the usual pattern of business," said Rosemari Sullivan. She described it as a "mini retreat," a time of prayer, reflection and quiet conversation.
Drawing on the Jubilee themes of forgiveness and reconciliation, on the first evening convention participants will divide into five conversation groups:
The end-of-life task force has planned a conversation on "God, Death and Decisions Near the End of Life," featuring Dame Cicely Saunders of England, founder of the Hospice Movement. Panelists will include Cynthia Cohen of the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University, Bruce Jennings of the Hastings Center in New York, David Smith of the Poynter Institute for the Study of Ethics and American Institutions in Indiana, and Prof. Timothy Sedgwick of Virginia Theological Seminary.
A conversation moderated by the Rev. Titus Presler of Boston on "Mission in a Hurting World" will feature Bishop Leo Frade of Honduras, Prof. Kwok Pui-lan of Episcopal Divinity School in Massachusetts, the Rev. Marc Nikkel, missionary in the Sudan, Edwina Thomas of Virginia who is national director-USA of Sharing of Ministries Abroad, and Bishop Henry Orombi of Uganda.
A conversation on racism will be led by the Rev. Sheryl Kujawa of Episcopal Divinity School in Massachusetts and the Rev. Ed Rodman, canon missioner of the Diocese of Massachusetts. It was added to the schedule in the wake of the controversy with the Adam's Mark chain of hotels and allegations of a pattern of racial discrimination. The Executive Council decided not to use the Denver hotel as convention headquarters. (The hotel has since agreed to a settlement.)
A conversation on the church's role in confronting violence, moderated by the Hon. Byron Rushing, a state legislator in Massachusetts. Among participants: Owanah Anderson, former director of Native American Ministries, discussing racial and ethnic violence; Tessie Adams of Massachusetts on spousal abuse and stalking; Joseph King from Chicago, who will share a personal story on violence against youth in urban society; and a participant not yet announced who will discuss violence against gays and lesbians.
A conversation is also being planned by the church's Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music, moderated by the Rev. Bruce Jenneker of Boston, who chairs the commission, on the themes of Story, Song and Sacrament.
In addition, a Jubilee booklet will be given to everyone at the convention. The Rev. Lisa Hamilton of Connecticut, who is compiling the booklet, said that it will "give people an idea of how people and places are acting out Jubilee." It will contain ideas from more than a dozen parishes, as well as articles and book resources.
A number of resolutions draw on the powerful vision of how God's people should relate to each other and all creation.
The Episcopal Church has taken its Jubilee mandate from the 1997 General Convention very seriously, establishing programs that move the church towards that biblical vision. Resolutions at the 73rd General Convention in Denver are designed to further the spirit and action of Jubilee.
The Standing Commission on Anglican and International Peace with Justice Concerns, which was created in 1997, is bringing a number of matters to Denver, including resolutions calling for debt relief for poor nations and warning about the potential dangers of globalization on the economies of those nations.
International debt relief, an effort of many people and organizations -- conspicuously those working with the Jubilee 2000 movement -- has already made significant progress. "The Convention is a policy-making body, and the policy is there. We're neck-deep in implementing the policy" that the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion have established, said Thomas Hart, director of the Episcopal Church's Office of Government Relations, in Washington, D.C.
"There is some feeling that we pass these things every three years and they sit on the shelf," Hart said. The issue of international debt relief may be a startling exception. It has gathered no dust. Congress has agreed that the U.S. ought to accept debt relief, thereby encouraging other creditor nations to follow suit. Hart said, "Exactly zero debt relief has happened," but movement is surging "to get the final check" written.
Some would say that everyone, including poor nations, should pay off debts. The church's reply, according to Hart, is that, after some countries spend 30 percent to 40 percent of their gross national product on debt service, they have little left for education, economic development, improving the infrastructure or health care. In the spirit of Jubilee, in the words of the world's Anglican bishops meeting at Lambeth in 1998, "If my bowl is full and yours is empty, I must share what I have."
Resolution A001 on Diocesan International Education, Advocacy, and Development Programs lays the issue at the feet of the local church when it urges that "all dioceses accept the challenge affirmed in the 1998 Lambeth Resolution I.1.15(k) 'to fund international development programs, recognized by Provinces [Anglican], at a level of at least 0.7% of annual total diocesan income.' "
Hart said that the debt of poor nations is most often the result of "a combination of bad lending and bad borrowing by leaders." And sometimes even our attempts to help relieve the debt can have the opposite effect. Resolution A002 on Ethical Guidelines for International Economic Development calls for recognizing that danger. Among other things, it emphasizes "People-centered development. If development assistance is offered, the beneficiaries set priorities and conditions. Maximum use is made of local resources. Applied technologies are appropriate for the setting."
Madeleine Trichel, the executive director of the Interfaith Center for Peace in Columbus, Ohio, chairs the Standing Commission on Anglican and International Peace and Justice Concerns. She said that the commission was "very concerned with globalization. We thought the resolution might be the one that has the most long-standing impact, in the way the church relates to the other parts of the Anglican Communion."
She warned that sometimes "we have done things out of the goodness of our hearts that haven't worked out for the people we're trying to help." She noted that the bishop of Haiti has used the example of tons of rice sent to Haiti by the United States. The rice did relieve hunger -- but it also caused local rice prices to plummet, destroying the region's small rice farms. "We want to work in partnership," Trichel said, "instead of, for example, sending medical equipment that nobody knows how to use."
Trichel said that Episcopal Peace and Justice Network will be making available its report on globalization, which focuses on the maquiladoras, or assembly plants, in Mexico and Central America.
Other resolutions will deal with stability in South Africa. While making great strides toward the Jubilee ideal of freedom, it still carries a heavy burden -- the effects of apartheid. Experts from archbishops to economists argue that the country needs international help to rebuild, maybe even something similar to the Marshall Plan that rebuilt Europe in the wake of World War II or the New Deal that helped lift America out of the Great Depression.
Trichel said that it is too easy for nations to "focus on the crisis itself, especially with military aid or economic aid. It seemed to the standing commission that there ought to be guidelines and attention to what happens afterward." Western countries had an impact on the continuation of apartheid and on its demise, she said, so now we ought to ask, "What's the next step? What's the responsible way to help people continue to rebuild their lives?" She said that is the wider context of the resolutions.
One resolution (A003) "urges the government of the United States to increase aid and private investment in South Africa specifically targeted to improve the education system and other programs to lift the poor out of their poverty." Another (A005) calls on the U.S. government "to apologize to the people of South Africa for our long complicity in supporting the apartheid government and our long delay in instituting economic sanctions to support the democratic movement."
The Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief will celebrate its 60th anniversary of providing emergency relief and development with an evening of entertainment at the General Convention on July 10 featuring the classical vocal ensemble Chanticleer, singer Judy Collins and musicians from the Aspen Music Festival and Opera Theatre. The presiding bishop will make introductory remarks and his wife Phoebe will be the keynote speaker at a special luncheon on July 7.
Since its founding in 1940 the fund has distributed over $100 million, touching the lives of people in more than 100 countries on six continents.
- The United States "to prohibit the export of handguns" (A006);
- Creation of a "strong Episcopal Youth Corps (to) bring much skill to places most in need throughout the Anglican Communion" (A007);
- Establishment of "safe spaces" in the U.S. and other parts of the Anglican Communion, "for lesbians and gays to tell their stories and be heard with love and care" (A009); and
- Efforts by the U.S. government "to work with other governments to find ways both to make affordable drugs available and to provide for continued research and development of AIDS-related medicines" (A008).