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The Rev. Mary Blessing and the Rev. Randal B. Gardner, interim dean of chapel
“This training will help me guide my congregation into ways of bridgebuilding which will help us know how we can be truly welcoming to the stranger.” — The Rev. Mary Blessing
“The course is helpful to students in a number of ways, and some of them are not immediately obvious,” Meyers said. “They learn tools and techniques for having conversations that allow other people to speak about their needs. That’s a key step in organizing, but it’s also an essential skill for any pastor. So it provides our students with a means of getting to know the communities in which they serve. But what I think surprises people is how the same tools that can be used to organize a community for a specific purpose can also be used to help a congregation focus its attention and energy on aspects of its life that need to change.” “I found the course very stimulating and helpful,” said John Reardon of the Diocese of Rhode Island, who is pursuing a Certificate of Anglican Studies in the low-residence program. “It integrated insights from political science, economics, psychology, philosophy and theology in a manner that provides very practical insights for helping communities to come together to seek justice and proper treatment.” In the middle of the week, participants
C R O S S I N G S Spring 2017 • Church Divinity School of the Pacific
The Rev. Rafael Pereira
ventured out for an evening field trip to to observe an organizing event in support of immigrants facing housing needs in San Rafael. On the night of the event it was raining so heavily that the streets were flooded and driving conditions hazardous. When CDSP participants arrived to observe the meeting, however, 350 people were in attendance, well over original expectations. The meeting had been called by the Marin Organizing Committee, part of the Bay Area Industrial Areas Foundation of which CDSP is a member. A meeting of this kind is referred to in IAF argot as an “action.” It is the culmination of a campaign that begins with one-on-one conversations throughout a community to bring to the surface issues that have the poten tial to stir the community to action. These one-on-ones are followed by house meetings in which people tell one another their stories that focus on the theme that has arisen with most frequency and energy in the one-on-one conversations. The community then makes a request to public officials, phrasing it in a way that requires either a yes or a no.
In this instance, the community wanted San Rafael Police Chief Diana Bishop to commit herself and her officers to a series of conversations with the local immigrant community about the seemingly pointless traffic stops in the community. The community also wanted assurances from Bishop that the police would not work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to deport undocumented immigrants. Dennis Rodoni, a Marin County Supervisor, also attended the action. The community asked him to research its complaints regarding the lack of affordable housing and the behavior of landlords who, especially since the presidential election, have been threatening to turn tenants who seek repairs over to ICE. Both officials agreed to the community’s requests. “I have felt so much anger, disgust, fear and distrust due to the recent elections and political rhetoric,” said Christina Boehm Carlson, a low-residence MDiv student from Minnesota. “This course made me realize that there are many people constructively channeling those emotions to address issues in the local community. … Building community while working towards issues of justice seems so important right now to counteract fear, which is being used as a political tool to divide our nation.” Others students were struck by the immediate take-home value of the course. “As my congregation works right now to build relationships of trust with our local Latino community, which is quite segregated in our town, this training will help me guide my congregation into ways of bridge-building which will help us know how we can be truly welcoming to the stranger,” said the Rev. Mary Blessing ’92, of St. Philip’s Episcopal Church in the Diocese of El Camino Real, who is now pursuing a Certificate of Theological Studies in Congregational Development. “The skills can be used anywhere and can be modified for use for one’s personal style,” said Alison Lee, a low-residence MDiv student from the Diocese of Arizona who has previously used the techniques at her home parish of St. Philip’s in the Hills, Tucson. “The current endeavor is working on ‘bridging the divide’ between the two political sides within our congregation. First, we connect, we listen, we learn, we come together, then, an action. And the first section takes a long time.”
IAF training also helps students examine their own style of leadership. “Much of my leadership has been including others in my bright ideas,” Lyons said. “Though not oppressive (I hope), I did not do enough to get out of the way and allow bottom-up ideas and energy in group situations.” Richardson says courses like the community organizing class are essential to prepare students for the challenges of ministry. “In addition to an education in the classical theological disciplines, our aim is to assist in the development of emotional and spiritual depth for leadership, and in the capacity to lead communities into a greater consciousness and practice of mission in local public life,” he said. “IAF recognizes that our culture needs to rebuild strength and health in small- to mid-sized o rganizations in our communities—churches, synagogues, mosques, labor unions, PTAs, voluntary civic organizations, neighborhood associations. These are the carriers of value, the backbone of local healthy civic communities. Many of our churches need to rediscover this aspect of themselves and the potential of alliances with others toward common aims.”
“The Gospel was never meant to be a private affair of the heart alone, so learning the skills … is in keeping with the mission impulse found in CDSP’s curriculum.” — The Very Rev. Mark Richardson
The Rev. Rafael Pereira, a transitional deacon from the Diocese of Nevada, writing from Las Vegas after the course had concluded, summed up his experiences this way: “Now that I am back home, the purpose is to continue serving, organizing people through one-on-one meetings, in every moment of our lives, ministering all the time: at work, at the supermarket, at church, hospitals, in the streets, everywhere. Organizing people and organizing money will lead you to take care of the world’s needs, to change the world, for a better world of justice and love.”
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