{"id":10505,"date":"2015-07-06T13:05:30","date_gmt":"2015-07-06T20:05:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/?p=10505"},"modified":"2015-07-06T13:06:57","modified_gmt":"2015-07-06T20:06:57","slug":"lay-leader-address-joan-holms-pnwac15","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/lay-leader-address-joan-holms-pnwac15\/","title":{"rendered":"Lay Leader Address – Joan Holms – #PNWAC15"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\u201cInjustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.\u201d –\u00a0Martin Luther King Jr.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I am very grateful for the opportunity to speak with you each year as a representative of the laity of the Pacific Northwest Conference.\u00a0 It is a great honor and privilege, as well as a great responsibility as I strive to bring you words that will be meaningful, or uplifting, or thought provoking…\u00a0 and I don\u2019t take that responsibility lightly.<\/p>\n

Originally, I had planned to share with you stories from around our conference, highlighting just a handful among the many places in which laity are not only engaged in ministry but actually leading their congregation in mission or outreach in the community. \u00a0 With help from our District Lay Leaders and other members of the Board of Laity I have collected numerous stories to share with you today.\u00a0 That was my original plan.<\/p>\n

But something changed. \u00a0 I awakened last Thursday morning to the news.\u00a0 You know the news I mean.\u00a0 The evening before, Emmanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church of Charleston, South Carolina welcomed a young man into their midst who, after spending an hour in bible study seated alongside members of the church, removed a gun from his belt and began shooting.\u00a0 When it was all over, 10 church members were wounded, 9 of them would succumb to their injuries.\u00a0 In light of this news I found myself unable to go on with \u201cbusiness as usual\u201d, I recognized that I needed to change the focus of this address.<\/p>\n

This was one of those events that stopped everyone in their tracks.\u00a0 It was almost as if the entire country entered into a period of shock and mourning.\u00a0 Some called for more guns, saying that the death toll would have been smaller if some of those \u201cgood people of the church\u201d had been carrying firearms.<\/p>\n

But then, the most remarkable thing happened.\u00a0 Family members of those who had died offered forgiveness to the one who had shattered their world.\u00a0 They offered the gift of grace to Dylann Roof.\u00a0 That same grace that we all understand as a gift from Creator.<\/p>\n

Perhaps I\u2019m not alone when I wonder if I would offer that same response had I been walking in their shoes.\u00a0 I would like to be able to say \u201cyes, of course I would\u201d but I don\u2019t truly think I can know this until I find myself confronted with a challenge of this magnitude.\u00a0 I pray I never do.\u00a0 Grief can bring out the best in us, as the people of Charleston demonstrated.\u00a0 But it can also bring out the worst in us.<\/p>\n

This event, this shooting brought to mind, once again, so many other stories we have all been following. \u00a0 Stories like that of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Antonio Zambrano-Montes, so many stories… So many of our communities of color experience injustice at the hands of police officers and now, suddenly, the world is watching.\u00a0 Yet still, it goes on.<\/p>\n

Many people have been called to action as a result of these events.\u00a0 Many of you marched yesterday in response to the killing of Zambrano-Montes.\u00a0 But so often, in situations where we feel powerless to repair a situation, we find ourselves simply waiting it out until whatever is fueling the passion runs out and then we continue on, essentially leaving it all behind us.\u00a0 Until the next news story emerges.<\/p>\n

Each time I hear stories about someone who is threatened, injured or killed because of their African ancestry, I think \u201cthis could be my brother, my nephew, my sister\u201d.\u00a0 And that stirs my emotions.<\/p>\n

We are not so different, you and I even if the color of our skin is.\u00a0 When we look into the face of one who is the victim of an injustice and we see our own image reflected back, or when we recognize in them a sister, brother or friend, we can\u2019t help but feel compassion and in us stirs a need to find a way to effect change.<\/p>\n

On Thursday morning, in this place, we were all offered the grace that the people of Emmanuel AME Church offered to Dylann Roof.\u00a0 Our American Indian sisters and brothers reached out to us in a gesture of grace.\u00a0 We, as a country, and as a church, have really messed up.\u00a0 Time and again we have made promises, and time and\u00a0 again we have broken those promises.\u00a0 Yet they were here to reach out, once again, to help us understand where we have been and then invite us into relationship.\u00a0 What a gift!<\/p>\n

On Wednesday evening the Laity Session focused on the United Methodist Social Principles.\u00a0 Rev. Neal Christie, from the General Board of Church and Society helped us see how the social principles are not just something we say we believe, they are meant to inform the ways in which we behave as United Methodists.<\/p>\n

In so many ways we have not lived out those United Methodist beliefs.\u00a0 Sometimes I believe it\u2019s because we don\u2019t know how to live into them in a particular situation, so we do nothing.\u00a0 Sometimes stories like those in the news, like those we heard here on Thursday are so overwhelming to us that we become paralyzed.\u00a0 But sometimes, we simply don\u2019t want to take the time, or make the effort. The good news is that I heard many people in this room committing to doing things differently from here forward.\u00a0 Please hang onto that passion when you leave this place.<\/p>\n

It would be really easy for me to think that my energy needs to go into dealing with race relations as they pertain to African American communities in this country.\u00a0 After all, that\u2019s what affects me most personally, right?\u00a0 But that not really true and it doesn\u2019t go far enough.\u00a0 In his letter written in the aftermath of the Charleston shooting, Bishop L. Jonathan Holston of the South Carolina Conference wrote:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cwhenever one of us suffers, we all suffer and so without justice for all, there is no justice at all.\u201d \u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Any instance of injustice affects me personally.<\/p>\n

It is not enough for me to simply seek justice for those who look like me. \u00a0 I am called, we are called, to seek justice for all of our sisters and brothers.\u00a0 And I\u2019m more likely to do this if I know my sisters and brothers, if I have heard their stories.\u00a0 I must accept the truth of their pain even though it may not be my pain, even if I cannot\u00a0 understand the pain of which they speak.<\/p>\n

If my sister tells me she is hurting, then I must do whatever I can to alleviate her suffering – as a child of God, I can do no less.\u00a0 If my brother tells me that he has been wounded, I must do whatever I can to heal that wound.\u00a0 And if I cannot see that wound then I need to listen to the story of his woundedness and know that the wound I cannot see is no less real.\u00a0 As a child of God, I can do no less.<\/p>\n

Bill Mefford, of the General Board of Church and Society posted online on Tuesday, giving an update on a phone call held Monday regarding the Charleston shooting.\u00a0 The dialogue was a good one and identified to 2 initial responses to help move us closer to a solution on racism. \u00a0 Two things that we can all do now.<\/b><\/p>\n

In case you didn\u2019t see his post I want to share just the first of these 2 responses.<\/p>\n

In his words: \u201cif you are in a predominantly Anglo church, walk across the street or drive across town and sit down with leaders of a church that is predominantly made up of people of color. \u00a0 Start building crucial relationships.\u00a0 Listen to what they say and learn from them.\u00a0 We are all part of the body of Christ.\u00a0 When one of us hurts, we all hurt.\u00a0 So let\u2019s actually BE the Body of Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n

Does this sound familiar?\u00a0 I believe on Thursday we were challenged by our Bishop to begin building relationships with our American Indian sisters and brothers.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s all about relationships.\u00a0 Not a single conversation.\u00a0 Not a session during which we ask questions and record the answers.\u00a0 Worship together, share a meal, talk about your hopes, dreams and aspirations and listen to someone else\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Relationships take time and often we want a quick easy fix.\u00a0 But it takes as long as it takes.\u00a0 The joy truly\u00a0 is in the journey.\u00a0 I hope you will do this soon, before the memory of the powerful message we received here fades, before the shock and grief over Charleston wears off and we return to \u201cbusiness as usual\u201d.<\/p>\n

And, finally, I hope the lay members present this week will take this as their call to action.\u00a0 My hope is that we, the laity, will take this message back to our local faith communities and not just wait for our clergy partners to do it.\u00a0 I am challenging myself, one who worships in a predominantly Euro American congregation, to start building relationships with those in ethnic churches and with my American Indian neighbors.\u00a0 I pray you will too.\u00a0 \u00a0 AMEN<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cInjustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.\u201d –\u00a0Martin Luther King Jr. I am very grateful for the opportunity to speak with you each year as a representative of the laity of the Pacific Northwest Conference.\u00a0 It is a great honor and privilege, as well as a great responsibility as I strive to bring you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":10510,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[245,37],"tags":[463,465],"class_list":{"0":"post-10505","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-video","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-annual-conference","8":"category-laity","9":"tag-pnwac15","10":"tag-laity","11":"post_format-post-format-video"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/hqdefault2.jpg?fit=480%2C360&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2l75j-2Jr","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10505"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10505\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10514,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10505\/revisions\/10514"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}