I don’t know if you have had the opportunity to watch any of the impeachment trial, but I have noticed that the sessions begin the same way:  an unnamed chaplain prays on behalf of the senators and their proceedings, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.  It is the same chaplain, and his prayers follow a similar pattern, and almost every time he ends with “In your ______ name, Amen.”  Each day he comes up with a new adjective:  strong, majestic, amazing, etc.

I have prayed along with this man, but never took time to find out his name or more about his background or ministry, except for the purposes of this column.  He is Barry C. Black, the first African-American and first Seventh-Day Adventist chaplain of the Senate.  Presbyterian trivia:  the last three Senate chaplains before Rev. Black were Presbyterians, most recently, of course, Lloyd Ogilvie, who was pastor of First Presbyterian in Hollywood before going to Washington.

But I digress.  Again, if not for the sake of this column, I probably would not have found out this chaplain’s name or anything about him, yet the repetition of his prayers made his voice, and his presence, somewhat familiar to me.  In the words of psychologist Stanley Milgram, he has become a “familiar stranger.”

Dr. Milgram is better known for his research on obedience (a chilling insight into the human idolatry of authority), but he also did some research on urban anonymity.  Specifically, he tested how well morning commuters come to recognize fellow commuters, even while never speaking with them.  He also found that people might even wonder about the other commuters, but they do not interact with them (except when their routine is broken, as with a medical emergency).

I have been proud of the cultural diversity of our presbytery, but as I speak with different churches and even presbytery leaders, I have come to believe that we do not benefit from our diversity as much as we could.  In some ways, we are familiar strangers—we might see each other at Presbytery meetings and nod and even shake hands or hug during the passing of the peace.  But what do we know about each other?  How well has our wisdom grown by sharing our different stories of faith, experiences of God’s will, or views on our shared neighborhood?  And do we wonder about each other’s churches, sometimes even coming to certain conclusions based on stereotypes or uninterpreted glimpses into another’s behavior?

One of the greatest blessings of my role with the presbytery has been the opportunity to visit our churches, and meet with the church leaders.  I have heard stories and wisdom borne of experiences that I have never had, and they inspire and challenge me, and expand my appreciation of our awesome God.  Just this past weekend, I had a conversation with Dr. Jenny Pak, the wife of Rev. Dr. David Pak, pastor of New Hope Church in Pasadena.  Now many assume that Koreans are not supportive of women in leadership, yet David has not only spoken out consistently in support of women’s ordination, I learned from Jenny of the ways he has taken pains to support her career.  And she is an amazingly gifted person who is doing ground-breaking work in her own field, to the glory of God and the service of all of us.  Now I have met Jenny before, but I had not until this weekend had the opportunity to sit down and learn about her own perspectives and transformative ministry.

I wish we all could learn more from and about each other, and we have received consistent feedback that we want to build relationships within our presbytery.  We have tried to support this through presbytery work days, mission projects, youth ministry, leadership opportunities, and presbytery meals.  But while people want to have better relationships, we don’t seem to have the time it takes to just sit and “talk story,” as they say in Hawai‘i.  I think there are other barriers, including language and awkwardness in making connections with people “who once were far off.”  But we are called to become one in Christ’s church, rooted in our shared love and gratitude for Christ’s life-giving grace.

This Saturday is Winterfest, our annual training day.  The focus for the day is learning to connect better with each other, and cultivate community that is richer than the collection of our individual backgrounds.  I hope to see you there, as I have immense respect for our plenary speaker, Dr. Charlene Jin Lee.  When she and I worked at San Francisco Theological Seminary, people of all races would tell me how she changed their lives.  I pray that her short time with us will bring us more insight and glimpses into God’s kin-dom as well.

You can still register for Winterfest at HERE.

Christ is our peace.  May we share that peace with each other and our world.

Blessings,
Wendy

I was sitting in a church meeting where the congregation was beginning a discernment process before searching for a pastor.  The man sitting next to me picked up his phone because it beeped; his eyes went wide with shock and he whispered to me “Kobe Bryant was killed in a helicopter crash.”

In ways that surprise newcomers to Los Angeles, LA can act like a small town, and our folks have reacted to this news similarly to any other small town mourning the tragic death of their hometown hero—though rather than gathering at the town church or town hall, folks were gathering outside the plaza of Staples Center, intermingling with celebrities coming to attend the Grammys.

Tributes poured in, lionizing this still-young man not only for his supreme skills on the basketball court but also for his business savvy, intelligence, character, and family life.  Every once in a while people would admit that he wasn’t a perfect man, that he had made mistakes.

As it happens, my friend Bertrand, who is still detained at Adelanto, called yesterday.  He said that the detainees were shocked by Kobe’s death.  They had just seen the tribute LeBron James gave the night before (an amazing coincidence, that Kobe’s last known tweet was congratulating LeBron for passing him as the third-highest scorer in NBA history).  I joked with Bertrand that he is truly becoming an American, as most of us are bound together by news sent to us by television and social media.  I asked him if he had known about Kobe in Cameroon.  He said absolutely, and that he was revered for someone who had so much success, and without scandal.

I told Bertrand that Kobe was not without scandal.  Back in 2003, when he was 25, Kobe was accused of rape.  The trial was ended as he issued a thoughtful apology and he and the woman made a private civil settlement.

Of course I do not know the details of the situation, but in this time of “no apologies” his statement seemed to demonstrate an understanding of the pain the woman experienced, and his reputation and marriage survived.

Kobe and his wife had four daughters, and by all accounts he was devoted to them.  Sadly, one of the daughters died in the same crash.  Much has been said of his connection with Gianna because of her interest in basketball, but he didn’t push that; his oldest daughter plays volleyball.  In his interviews, what is clear is that Kobe has evolved from the young man abusing a woman at a hotel to become a proud father of four young women, and a strong advocate for women in sports.  In a social setting that does not lend itself to advocacy for young girls, Kobe reminds me of Jairus, another leader in a male-dominated circle who yet demonstrated profound love for his daughter—and for that I am glad that Kobe’s legacy is in these young daughters he loved and respected, not for his worst bad act.

I do not tell this story because I’m such a huge Kobe Bryant fan (though he was impressive in his multilingual abilities and his eloquent manner, and hey, I have loved basketball—one of the more memorable communions I’ve experienced was when I was served communion by Marques Johnson).  I share this because I have been thinking lately about God’s call to repentance, and the freedom that comes with repentance, and—most importantly—whether we as “good church folk” forgive as God forgives.  Do we in fact allow people to repent and move forward as Jesus calls us to do, or do we continue to see people through the filter of their worst bad act?

We all fall short of the glory of God.  Some of us make spectacularly bad acts; some of us just live in the lukewarm integrity of risk aversion.  We are all offered forgiveness for our sins of commission—or omission—but are called to forgive others as we have been forgiven.  

Thank God for second, and third, and many more chances to live, and forgive, and be forgiven.  Thank God for fathers who come to care for, learn from, and advocate for their daughters.  May all of us learn from the circumstances of our lives, and share our wisdom with others.

In Christ,

Wendy

It has been a very full week in the life of Christ’s church.  Last Tuesday we gathered for the first Presbytery meeting of the year.  It was a very full meeting, with good participation, many decisions, and lots of prayer.  We officially welcomed Rev. Ally Lee as Administrative Presbyter and Associate Stated Clerk, and approved or renewed several pastoral calls.  We installed Karen Sapio and Deborah Owens as Presbytery Moderator and Vice Moderator, and thanked Becca Bateman and Roberto Ramirez as outgoing and incoming moderators for the Presbytery Executive Commission.  And we gave grants to Community Presbyterian Church in El Monte for their food pantry ministry, and to Puente de Esperanza in La Puente for their CaliCenter community center for families.

But last Tuesday’s Presbytery meeting will be most remembered for three major actions:

1. We examined and approved for ordination Peter Hawisher-Faul, who is being called as co-pastor with wife Rev. Kelsey Hawisher-Faul to Radford Presbyterian Church, Virginia.  Last night, Peter was ordained at Pomona Presbyterian Church, and we celebrate and bless him and Kelsey as they begin their ministry together.
2. The Presbytery’s policy on minimum compensation for pastors was consolidated, updated, and expanded to include different forms of paid leave such as Sabbatical, Personal Time Off (which incorporates sick leave, personal leave, jury duty, etc., in one leave of 12 days per year, as long as three days are always available for sick leave), and Family Leave (providing for 8 weeks for critical life events such as the birth or adoption of a child, or caring for a parent with critical medical needs).  It also brings together several policies that have been approved over the years, and reaffirms that all pastors are compensated equivalently.
3. The Presbytery voted to dismiss Alhambra True Light Presbyterian Church, responding to several years of discernment on the part of the church, and over two years of work between teams appointed by presbytery and church to pursue reconciliation and, having determined that reconciliation was not possible, negotiate terms of dismissal.  Those terms can be summarized as $1.5 million ($500,000 upon dismissal, then $100,000/year for 10 years), and a 10-year reversionary period (ATLPC must continue doing ministry in the Reformed tradition in their location for 10 years before the Presbytery releases any claim on the property).

This last weekend were the memorial services for Tom Duggan and Jake Kim, attended by Presbytery members at both.  Tom had passed away back in October, and the service was a time of shared love and thanksgiving for the many decades of ministry and family unity that marked Tom’s life.  I was at Jake’s service, at Church of the Valley in Apple Valley, where Jake had just been installed as pastor in October.  Church of the Valley had been dismissed by Riverside Presbytery to ECO, so we had just released Jake to ECO last September. 

Jake died suddenly from an aortic aneurysm three days before Christmas.  He was 48, and leaves his wife Yuni and two young sons, Ari and Avi.  If you would like to share your condolences, you can send cards to Yuni and contribute to Ari and Avi’s college fund by sending checks made out to Church of the Valley, 20700 Standing Rock Ave, Apple Valley, CA 92307.

The suddenness of Jake’s death, right after starting this most promising ministry and after this move to a new community for his young family, has shocked all of us, and a couple of the memorial speakers shared their anger over this tragic death.  As hard as it was to say good-bye, the congregation asserted our faith in God by singing “How Great Thou Art” at the end of the service.  The hymn was sung with all the power, all the anger, all the faith that was held in the hearts of the people, as if we were giving it all to God—or trying to convince ourselves that God understands and has a purpose, even though we cannot understand any of it.

The last time I felt the power of a congregation singing their emotions and their faith was at the beginning of the meeting with the congregation of Alhambra True Light Presbyterian Church, when they confirmed their support for the terms of dismissal.  Tears were shed during the singing of both these hymns, as we considered the depths of the bonds that were being broken.

But for myself, they demonstrated how unified we still are, even in the face of death and division, because we know that mortal death does not separate us, and denominational differences do not permanently divide the one church of Jesus Christ.  We continue to share memories and learnings, hymns and prayers, traditions and worship, personal relationships, and the possibility for ways to still be Christ for each other and the world.  When we sing these old hymns with the force of memory of so many lives joined in Christ, we are all still one.

In life and death, our temporary divisions fall away.  I noticed that during Jake’s service, the PC(USA) was mentioned several times, though ECO was never named.  The reception was like a family reunion; Don Maddox was there, as he had served as an interim for Church of the Valley years ago.  A woman serving at the reception told me that she knew we were praying for them because Bill Hansen (their former pastor who lives at Monte Vista Grove) told her so.  I told her that we named Jake during our Presbytery communion, remembering that at Christ’s table we are joined with saints across time and space—and she wept.

Thank God for the Lord’s Table, for beloved hymns, for the Lord’s Prayer, for all the ways that we can gather even in the face of death and division, and with one voice, one faith, one plea for peace, we can witness to our one Lord, who is above all and through all and in all.

In Christ,

Wendy