Recent Events

Veterans of the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement: March 2007

(Ed Whitfield stands with Kyle and Nicole in front of Medgar Evers’ home. He was assassinated by a Klan member in the driveway of this residence on June 12th 1963 for his courageous efforts in the Civil Rights Movement. )

“…One hundred and sixty two times.”  Bobby Talbert says nonchalantly.  “You went to jail one hundred and sixty two times?”  I returned in amazement.  “Well, those are the times that are recorded. I remember there were even more.”

Bobby Talbert, one of the original Freedom Riders, was just one of the living Veterans Word and World interns were able to meet this last weekend at the Veterans of the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement Conference in Jackson, Mississippi.  This gathering, only the second of its kind, paid homage to Sister Victoria Gray Adams and other Mississippians who gave their lives to the Civil Rights movement in Mississippi.  Mrs. Gray Adams, along with Fannie Lou Hamer and Annie Devine, were the first women in history to be seated as guests on the floor the U.S. House of Representatives as they challenged the prevailing Jim Crow laws. They were also the first women in history to run for the Congress from Mississippi. 

Because many of the stories from the Freedom Movement are often collapsed into the memory of Dr. King, Ella Baker, or Fannie Lou Hamer, many of the Veterans at the conference have committed themselves to collecting and archiving less prominent stories, as well as, advocating for memory and equality in public education.  The conference last weekend is just one of the ways Veterans continue to empower future generations to stand up for justice, whatever the cost.

Another highlight of the trip was the Mississippi Civil Rights Tour. Conference participants were able to get out of the bus at the house of the former NAACP secretary, Medgar Evers (see above).  His life and contribution to the freedom of Mississippians remains a source of both inspiration and conviction.  Author Maryanne Vollers wrote: "People who lived through those days will tell you that something shifted in their hearts after Medgar Evers died, something that put them beyond fear.... At that point a new motto was born: After Medgar, no more fear."

The three-day gathering concluded just as it had started. The sounds of singing songs filled the conference room.  Freedom songs.  Songs so powerful they seemed able to sing people out of fear and into a movement during the sixties.  Songs so powerful they still free the 66 year-old body of Freedom singer Hollis Watkins and other Veterans into dance.  “Of course, we were still afraid,” the Veterans admitted.  They didn’t however, and still don’t, seem to let the fear conquer their movement.

Principalities and Powers SCUPE Course: February 2007

In his 1963 address to the first National Conference on Religion and Race William Stringfellow remarked: “From the point of view of either biblical religion [Christianity or Judaism], the monstrous American heresy is in thinking that the whole drama of history takes place between God and humanity. But the truth, biblically and theologically and empirically, is quite otherwise: the drama of this history takes place amongst God and humanity and the principalities and powers, the great institutions and ideologies active in the world.”

In an effort to give serious consideration to Stringfellow’s controversial claim, interns Nicole and Kyle Lambelet participated in Bill Wylie-Kellermann’s course “Principalities and Powers” held at the Seminary Consortium for Urban Pastoral Education (SCUPE) in Chicago. Using Walter Wink’s Engaging the Powers and a compilation of William Stringfellow’s writings Keeper of the Word as primary texts, the class developed a theology of powers through Bible study, conversation, singing, and film. Over the course of the two day class, the ecumenical group of seminarians addressed the institutional and spiritual character of the church as well as ideologies such as racism. (Above: Bill Wylie-Kellerman teaches on Martin Luther King's "Breaking the Silence")

Sabbath Economics: October 2006

Following the Word and World Board Retreat in Louisburg, North Carolina staff-interns Nicole and Kyle Lambelet joined board member Ched Myers as Ched led a seminar entitled "Faith and Money". Organized in conjunction with Duke University Chapel in Durham, North Carolina, the seminar focused on the alternative economics of the Christian scriptures in contrast to the mainstream economics of consumer capitalism. Ched's presentation was followed by break-out groups on socially responsible investing, spiritual activism surrounding issues of Sabbath Economics, and Christian ways of consumption--and non-consumption.
(Above: Kyle joined Ched on the banjo with a rousing rendition of the Ghanaian folk song, We Have Another World In View.)

Bonhoeffer Retreat: June 2006

Who am I?

The question is both title and refrain to a poem Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote from his prison cell in 1944.  With these words he explores the tension between others’ perceptions of him—as calm, smiling, and proud—and the private reality of fear, confinement, and suffering.  The question echoes through Bonhoeffer’s life and writings: it is found in both The Cost of Discipleship and Life Together, as again and again he asks, “Who am I?”  “Who does God call me to be?”  “What is the cost of such a calling?” 

At Word and World’s June 4-6, 2006 Bonhoeffer retreat, this hard refrain of discipleship structured our conversations.  Board members Bill Wylie-Kellermann and Joyce Hollyday; interns Christina Repoley, Zac Moon, and Laura Crim; and members of several local congregations gathered June 4-6 near Port Sanilac, Michigan.  Bonhoeffer’s writings informed conversations about Christology, non-violent resistance, and alternative educational communities—both in the context of 1930s Germany and the global war on terror. 

Bonhoeffer’s witness to the vital role of alternative education has informed and inspired Word and World.  In the mid-1930s Bonhoeffer and colleagues founded Finkenwald Seminary as a community in which to train pastors of the Confessing Church in Germany.  Here they found rare intellectual and spiritual freedom—freedom in which to affirm that the leader to which Christians owe loyalty is not Hitler, but Jesus Christ; freedom to condemn the conflagration of church and state. 

In an era of national security, torture, and a war on terror, the 2006 Word and World retreat itself offered such freedom.  Bonhoeffer’s hard refrain of discipleship led us to ask, “Who am I?”  “Who does God call me to be?”  “What is the cost of such a calling?” 

--Laura Crim

Hebrew Bible Study with Norman Gottwald: January 2006

From January 9-12, 2006 Word and World interns had the unique opportunity to be welcomed into the home of Hebrew Bible Scholar Norman Gottwald in Berkeley, CA, to share several days of study and reflection with Norman and with scholar Laurel Dykstra. Both Norman and Laurel are Word and World supporters, serving on the Mentoring Committee of the Internship Program, and as faculty and resource people at Word and World Schools.

Our time was rich.  We focused primarily on the role of the prophet in Israelite society, making important links and comparisons to our present social and political context. The prophets we looked at closely were Hosea and Micah. Some of the themes we looked at included:

• the social and political context of each of these prophets
• the use of metaphor, as in God as judge, adulterous wife as foreign alliances, prophet as the watchman of Israel
• the concept of sin, particularly the tension between personal and social sin
•  the system of extraction—economic exploitation and greed
• themes of the land
• themes of exile
• the differences between tribal and monarchical societies and the role of God in each

We asked ourselves questions such as:

• As people with one foot in empire, what are appropriate theologies for us?
• What are the theologies that make us more comfortable, without writing off vast traditions?
• What do we take from the prophets of the Hebrew Bible that can help us now?
• What are the social and political conditions that allow prophets, exclude prophets, or are good or bad contexts for prophets to arise

We discussed the traits of a prophet and tested those traits with various Biblical prophets. Those traits include:

• Advises king and/or people at large
• Condemns king and/or people at large
• Appears in a company of prophets
• Condemns social and ritual sins
• Receives private revelations
• Performs symbolic acts
• Sees visions
• Wears distinctive clothing

We then did an exercise that Norman calls “The Prophet Box” where each of us put in the names of people that we consider to be contemporary prophets and we went through the names are shared about why we felt that way. We also had the opportunity to hear Norman’s own life story and to  explore in a more personal way his spiritual and intellectual journey.

We felt blessed by the opportunity to spend this rich and inspiring time with two such committed and exciting scholars.

Forgiveness and Reconciliation: November, 2005

Mentors and Word and World Board members Elaine Enns and Joyce Hollyday came to Greensboro in November for the events commemorating the 26th anniversary of the November 3, 1979 massacre, and for a talk by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who was in town to mark the occasion. Joyce and Elaine led Zac, Christina, Kate, and Steve in Bible study and reflection on restorative justice and on the possibilities and limitations of the South African and Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Processes in dealing with social conflict. Preparatory reading included Tutu’s No Future Without Forgiveness and Rupert Ross’s Returning to the Teachings: the Search for Aboriginal Justice. Elaine, provides mediation and consultation services to individuals, churches, schools and businesses and Joyce has studied and written about the Truth and Reconciliation processes in South Africa and Greensboro.