Women of the ELCA

It’s been nearly two weeks since a 5-year-old Jhessye Shockley vanished from her neighbor. Her family is convinced that national media attention would elevate the search. Her grandmother, Shirley Johnson, and aunt were finally on CNN where she was questioned about Jhessye’s mother (who was released from prison last year). Defending her daughter, Mrs. Johnson asked many questions of her own about how and who gets media attention.

Now, Mrs. Johnson has national media attention but, the story is not about five-year-old Jhessye. It’s about  the media defending its right to focus on which missing kid they want. You see, the stories that are the most bizarre and sensational are reported. “That’s what people are interested in.”

Have we really become a society that thinks of missing children as just another news story that gives us goose bumps?

I went to the U.S. Department of Justice – Office of Justice Programs website where I read:

The AMBER Alert™ Program is a voluntary partnership between law-enforcement agencies, broadcasters, transportation agencies, and the wireless industry, to activate an urgent bulletin in the most serious child-abduction cases. The goal of an AMBER Alert is to instantly galvanize the entire community to assist in the search for and the safe recovery of the child.

Alerts are not automatic. The criteria is complicated— Law Enforcement must confirm there is an abduction. The plans require a child be at risk for serious bodily harm or death before an alert can be issued. There must be enough information to believe that an immediate broadcast to the public will enhance the efforts of law enforcement to locate the child and apprehend the suspect. The age of the child is not consistent from state to state; some plans specify 10, some 12, some 14, 15, and 16.

None of this feels like safety for children that are missing. How do we fix this?

Valora K Starr is director for discipleship.

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I was recently inspired to consider this topic by a Facebook post of one of my friends who suggested that just because she was considering the selections for her Tour de France fantasy team, that she might just be a bit more nerdy than most.  That got me to consider what in the world happened to the concept of the “nerd” from when I was in high school to where I find myself today?

When I was a teenager (and yes, this was over 25 years ago… ancient history to some of you), it was not really considered “cool” to be one of those people who stayed after school for drama and choir practice… or to spend hours practicing with the Math Club for the upcoming Quiz Bowl.  And yet today, there are an overwhelming number of people who are actually proud of their “nerdy” pursuits.  Look at the popularity of the show “Glee” for instance.  And who wouldn’t be impressed with the likes of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates as icons of the real “Revenge of the Nerds”.

We sawmovies like Napoleon Dynamite or loved characters like Steve Urkel whose quirky-ness and snarky charm have made being a “geek” mainstream cool.  Even on the latest comedy “New Girl” on FOX, Zooey Deschanel shows the public that we can love a nerd la femme just as much.  The Information Age revolution has changed more than just how we communicate in cyberspace.  It has turned that familiar high school social dynamic on its ear.  Nope, the jocks aren’t the ones getting the chicks in the movies these days… and no one is trying to steal these guys’ lunch money anymore.  Try to slight one of these modern nerds and you might find your social networking site hacked and your Twitter-feed twisted.

For myself, I’m thrilled with the cosmic shift since I have long been a “trekkie” and a technology devotee.  When I took the nerd test, I scored somewhere in the 80% range. (I’m not certain if that is because I could point out Johannes Kepler in a line-up or if it was the Klingon-English translation I offered.)  But one way or another, I can finally proclaim proudly that I am a nerd without the negative stereotype it once held.  So who else is with me?  Have you been hiding your pocket-protector since 8^th grade?  Are you ready to wear your Lt. Sulu costume to church?  It’s time for us to own our eccentricities… it’s hip to be geek!

Jenny Michael is president of Women of the ELCA.

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I am not an activist. I don’t march. I don’t make impassioned speeches in front of sign-carrying crowds. Marching and speech making are not among my gifts.

I do contribute money to causes I believe in: cancer research, public radio and television, animal rescue, religious institutions, other non–profit organizations.

Last night as I was watching the first episode of the five-part PBS series, “Women, War & Peace,” I found myself gasping with horror at violence committed against Bosnian women.

I was no spring chicken when that civil war was going on in Bosnia. I should have been horrified when it was happening, not a decade later when I watched it on a PBS special. And I expect as I watch the next four episodes, I’m going to wonder what rock I’ve lived under all these years.

Sometimes, when I think of World War II and what happened to European Jews, I conjure myself as a magnificent human being: one who would have stood up for my fellow man and woman; one who would have fought against those atrocities. I picture myself as one who would have hidden a Jewish family in my attic.

Though I was but a kid in the 60s when the Civil Rights movement was at its peak, I don’t remember it making a huge impact on my life. Did I stand up for a fellow black student who was being ill-treated? I don’t recall that ever happening, but I hope my sense of justice would have kicked in. Even then, I must have sheltered myself from the evil going on around me.

Though I sometimes think ill thoughts about my government, this PBS series is showing me that I am indeed lucky to live in America. But I don’t want to ignore what’s going on in the world around me. If I was a Christian in Bosnia, would I have rescued my neighbor who was a Muslim?

I do care very much about fair treatment of human beings. But as a person with no strong activist genes, I wonder what a non-marching, non-speech-making person can do to make the world a more peaceful and just place.

Terri Lackey is managing editor of Gather.

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When I was old enough to cook, one of my favorite things to make was Fresh Toast. My mom let me use a “Fire King” glass bowl that had a metallic gold edge for mixing the eggs, milk and salt. One day my mom told me a story about that bowl that made it very special to me.

I was born in early December in northern Minnesota. My parents planned to have me baptized over the New Year’s weekend, a time when my aunt and uncle would be visiting. It turned out they had to start their drive home before the Sunday service, so my mom asked the pastor if I could be baptized on Saturday instead. He reluctantly agreed, as long as it was at the church.

Well, that morning it was 20 below zero! My mom wasn’t going to take a newborn out in that cold weather, so the baptism was moved to our home. Mom went to the cupboard and produced a “Fire King” glass bowl that had a metallic gold edge. The bowl was filled with water and placed on the top of the closed hi-fi in the living room, and my parents and my aunt and uncle stood around that bowl and witnessed by baptism. I have that bowl now, and I still use it.

Kris Brugamyer is currently serving her second term on the churchwide executive board of Women of the ELCA.

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Like many of you, I’ve been reading about the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protests that have now spread into cities across the country. I felt a little hazy about what exactly the protesters want to see happen, but I can relate to their frustration and anger toward the financial sector, especially Wall Street.

Joan Walsh on Salon.com wrote yesterday that the movement is “waking many Americans to the unrivaled control Wall Street exerts over American politics and the economy. It’s also shining a spotlight on the crushing amount of debt carried by Americans today – debt that’s at the core of our lingering economic troubles, which many experts believe can never realistically be repaid.”

One of the ideas emerging from Occupy Wall Street movement is that it’s time for another Jubilee—this time, for individual debt. If you remember Jubilee 2000, you’ll know it was a campaign to place pressure on creditors to cancel the debts of poor nations that were enslaved by their crushing debt to foreign governments.

The idea of Jubilee is based on a biblical principle in Leviticus 25: every 50 years, the debts of the people would be annulled and those who had sold themselves into slavery would be released. As I understand it, what some of the OWS protesters are suggesting is a Debt Jubilee–that our government require certain creditors to cancel the debts of individuals, especially students and new graduates. The average students leaves college with $24,000 in loans, and given our current job market, they can’t find realistic employment to make payments on those loans.

The way some OWS protesters see it, the government bailed out the banks, but the banks have not offered the same help to individual citizens. Some writers (and even some economists) think that writing off consumer debt would be a way to restart the economy and create jobs. In a special report by the Reuters News Agency, Jennifer Ablan wrote: ”Tens of millions of citizens remain burdened with mortgages they can no longer afford, in addition to soaring credit card bills and sky high student loans. Trillions of dollars in outstanding consumer debt is stifling demand for goods and services and that’s one reason economists say cash-rich U.S. companies are reluctant to hire and unemployment remains stubbornly high.”

I think the idea of Debt Jubilee has merit—when folks are struggling to keep their home and young people have crushing debt and minimum-wage jobs, they can’t buy goods or save for retirement.

What do you think? Is it time for a Debt Jubilee? Do you struggle with making your mortgage and paying off credit cards or student loans? What would your life be like if you didn’t have that debt?

Kate Sprutta Elliott is editor of Gather.

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It’s hard to leave one job that you have loved and say goodbye to the people you have worked with that you truly enjoyed.  Accepting a new opportunity is both exciting and nerve-wracking at the same time, isn’t it?  And how do you know the decision you’ve made will be the right one?  And how do you know it’s the right time?

Well, there’s never a perfect decision or a perfect time but I think there are seasons of change and as we move into the season of fall and the leaves are changing and the air is cooling, this can be a time to move into another season of a career.  We can’t stay in one place forever.  I hope to bring something new to where I am headed. And likewise, someone new is going to come to Women of the ELCA bringing her own unique experiences and ideas to a job that is, I believe challenging, rewarding, supportive and yes, hope-filled.

Transitions can provoke anxiety but they can also provide new perspectives and new energy.   How do you feel about transitions?

Emily Hansen is, until October 12, the director for stewardship and development with Women of the ELCA.

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Liberian peace activist Leymah Gbowee was one of three women to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize this morning. According to the Nobel committee, Leymah was honored for mobilizing women “across ethnic and religious dividing lines to bring an end to the long war in Liberia, and to ensure women’s participation in elections.” Leymah is a founding member of the Women in Peacebuilding Program/West African Network for Peacebuilding (WIPNET/WANEP). The other Peace Prize recipients were Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and democracy activist Tawakkul Karman of Yemen.

Women of the ELCA has a long relationship with Leymah: She was a keynote speaker at the Triennial Gathering in Spokane,Wash., in July. She recently visited the churchwide office of Women of the ELCA in Chicago while on tour promoting her new book, Mighty Be Our Powers: How Sisterhood, Prayer, and Sex Changed a Nation at War. We hosted her for a presentation at the Lutheran Center on September 19.

Lutheran women first learned of the Liberian women’s peace efforts in the January/February 2004 issue of Lutheran Woman Today (now Gather) magazine in an article “Lutheran Liberian Women Unify for Peace,” written Eva Jensen, former ELCA global mission personnel. Eva wrote,

“Leymah Gbowee, president of the women’s organization at St.  Peter’s Lutheran Church in the capital city of Monrovia, and Comfort Freeman, president of the National Lutheran Church Women in Liberia, began organizing WIPNET Liberia in June 2002. In their daily life and work, Gbowee and Freeman recognize the reality that Liberia’s people — individually and collectively — have been traumatized by war.

‘By virtue of where we sit, the people of Liberia have hope,’ said Gbowee, referring to the women who began their daily sit-in for peace in mid-April on the Monrovia Airfield next to the main road leading into the city. Under the hot sun and in pouring rain, the women of Liberia gathered to convey their commitment to peace. They gathered to protest the actions of all who perpetuate Liberia’s violent civil war. ‘Some say we are an embarrassment to the government,’ Gbowee continued, ‘but sun and rain are better than the bullets of war. Our vision is for the unity of families and the elimination of hunger and disease. We believe God’s hands are under us in this effort now. God has turned ears toward us.’”

One year later, in the January/February 2005 issue of the magazine, Leymah told her own story in an article, “Persistence and Peace.” In it she wrote,

“We had been pushed as women to our physical, psychological, and spiritual limits. We had been pushed to the wall, and we had two options. We could either fight back, or we could give up. For us, giving up was not an option. We would fight back.

“Christian and Muslim women from all walks of life in Liberia decided ‘enough is enough.’  We would take the destiny of this tiny nation into our own hands by embarking on a journey called peace activism. We had no knowledge of how long it would take or the financial implications, but we were determined to make things right.”

Leymah goes on to tell how her faith informed their work for peace:

“If I were to say that this has been done on our own, I would be lying. I feel that God has ordained our work. We’ve done, and we continue to do, what God has called us to do forLiberia. When my kids tell me, ‘Mama, when we really needed you, we stayed in Ghana and you stayed in Liberia.” I can proudly knock my chest and say, ‘I did a work for peace, a peace that has a home today.’….

“I believe very strongly that when God created women, God put something in us that was exhibiting itself within that parable of the widow and the unjust judge — persistence. Perhaps in the parable Jesus was saying, ‘Go deeper within yourself. God has given you a double portion of determination, a double portion of resilience, a double portion of perseverance. You can do anything that you put your heart to do.’”

Leymah’s story inspires us as women of faith to have the courage to work for peace and justice wherever we are—we can make a difference, just as our Lutheran sister has in her country. We congratulation her and celebrate her recognition!

To read more about Leymah and see a video of her at the Triennial Gathering, click on this link to Women of the ELCA’s home page.

Kate Sprutta Elliott is editor of Gather, the magazine of Women of the ELCA.

(Learn more about Gbowee’s peace-building work in a five-part PBS television series, Women, War & Peace, Oct. 11-Nov. 8. Also, view the movie, Pray the Devil Back to Hell, to see how the peace effort began.)

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A couple of weeks ago I had the good fortune to share time with the women of the Montana Synodical Women’s Organization as they hosted their biennial convention. As with any convention, I met many amazing women and shared times of laughter and fellowship that are the hallmarks of a Women of the ELCA gathering. But one woman named Pauline provided me with a special message that I will not easily forget.

She took some time with me on Saturday evening to share some of her life’s experiences. It was a familiar story of loss, sacrifice and regret. And yet, she said there was a moment when her life turned around… it was when she stopped focusing on what she didn’t have and began to concentrate her gratitude on one simple concept. She called it “the joy of accomplishment.” To her it meant that she needed to stop worrying over whether she had the perfect career or a “complete” life, but instead to focus on the satisfaction of having a regular paycheck or the comfort of sleeping in a warm bed. Up until that point she had been consumed with her own “state of lack” in her life that she was unable to see the abundance she already possessed.

This message, so simple and elegant, might also be translated into our own lives. How many of us are consumed with the pursuit of perfection? We are not satisfied unless our achievements match what the secular world deems success. We are focused on what we lack… on how we don’t measure up to a societal standard instead of being grateful for the abundance that God has already provided for us.

One of the verses from our Triennial Gathering was from Philippians 4:8.

Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

Just like what Pauline shared with me, this passage tells us that God does not ask us to be perfect. God is simply asking us to fulfill the promise of our authentic selves… to tap into that place God creates for us that shows gratitude for the simple abundance that God provides for us… to be satisfied and content with the blessings God has already given to us.

Pauline made me think about what might be weighing me down with unnecessary worry. She reminded me that sometimes it is enough just to be contributing and thriving. And she inspired me to consider what negative thoughts might be holding me back from just simply being grateful… “the joy of accomplishment”, she said… but I think it is more like being attentive and thankful for God’s abundant grace.

Jenny Michael was elected president of Women of the ELCA at the Eighth Triennial Convention this past July and will serve for the 2011-2014 triennium.

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When this time of year rolls around, the children are back in school, the weather is beginning to get cold and the holiday season is right around the corner.

As I think about all the seasonal activities that are going on, I am also reminded of the all the holiday meals.

Thanksgiving, Christmas and finally New Year’s Day are big family holidays. I begin to get excited when I think of all the good eating coming my way: turkey, dressing, sweet potato pies and cakes. Yum!

After that comes the frustration of knowing I will probably over indulge.

It never fails: thoughts of my weight weigh me down. Every year, I struggle with this same issue. And I always think that I should have done something about my weight earlier in the year. But I didn’t.

Eating shouldn’t be my focal point, getting healthy should my priority and a way of life. I do realize that it is up to me to stay focused and do what I need to do for my health and the important people in my life that I want to be around for.

What helps keep you on track during the holidays or any day?

Vanessa Davis is the administrative assistant on the churchwide staff of Women of the ELCA.

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