Baptisms are for Everyone

One of the really good ideas to come my way in the last few years is for the pastor to carry a newly baptized baby around to "introduce" him to others in the congregation. Here is a very cute little member who was baptized this last Sunday at the Church of Peace "meeting" one of the older members of the congregation.

Baptism includes covenants that have many partners. Parents affirm their faith and promise to raise a child to be a Godly person. God gives acceptance to God's family. The congregation promises their love, support and care. The child's extended family gather around the parents and baby to show their support and love.

As young parents Nancy and I were immensely proud of our baby girls and wanted everyone to share our joy. And I thought about baptism as being about acceptance into the community of faith for the baby and the family. Many members of our extended family shared in the event as well.

And over the years I have come to realize what a moment of encouragement it is for a congregation to see new little ones being baptized. Last Sunday was also our June Congregational Meeting, and I think we entered that meeting with our spirits lifted and confident that God was not done with us yet.

Thanks be to God.

Summer Work Camps 2009

On my way into the church parking lot this morning at about 8:30 am I saw the work camp group from Holy Trinity Lutheran Church (ELCA) of Ankeny, Iowa, loading their coolers into their vans for a day of Work Camp. At my request they stopped and let me take their photo.

This group arrived on Wednesday and will stay through Sunday, and they are our first work camp of the season. They are off today to work with our partner, Project NOW (www.projectnow.org) on an apartment complex in Viola, Illinois. This is the first of five church groups who will assist Project NOW in keeping low cost rental units maintained for the residents. By working with us and the work camp groups Project NOW is able to leverage their efforts to keep their property in good shape, and thus aid residents.

The camp groups stay in the old parsonage here at the Church of Peace. Their needs are met by the work of our Summer Work Camps Director. Megan Elliott, a church member who will be a senior at Elmhurst College in Elmhurst, Illinois, in the fall is the host this year.

Not only do work groups such as the one from Holy Trinity get a lot of good work done, but their presence and enthusiasm is a positive witness to Christ and the church.

California Nevada Conference

Here is the view from my seat at the California Nevada Conference of the United Methodist Church which I attended last week; June 17-20. My assigned seat was in section Q10, and the rows went all the way back to 'W.' The Bishop, Warner Brown, is seated up on the dais, and there are two large projection screens on either side to help those in the convention center follow what is going on. I think the thing that struck me most this time was how big and corporate this conference is, especially compared with my UCC conference in Illinois.

One night the body was voting on the constitutional amendments for the national church. Since there was a paper ballot that had to be recorded I got a good idea of how many participants we had. There were about 620 persons casting ballots. And this was at 10:30 pm when some had just run out of energy and gone back to their hotel to sleep for the night.

It was good to see old friends. I was appointed to the Church of Peace UCC for the 19th year by Bishop Brown.

Summer Club

About five years ago the Church of Peace began serving lunch to children in our neighborhood who are eighteen years of age and younger. We were asked to do so when our local elementary school was closed for the summer for reorganization. After that first year we have tried to provide some enrichment program for children as well. It seemed a little thin to bring kids in, feed them a meal, and then shoo them on their way.

Well, today we began our Summer Club for 2009. We serve these children breakfast and lunch, and provide enrichment activities for the children during the morning. The Club meets from 9 am. to 12:30 pm. The Club is jointly sponsored by the Church of Peace and the Community Caring Conference of Rock Island. We have some 50 children signed up, and about 35 showed up on this first day. This is not too bad, and we made phone calls to the homes of the kids who were not here. The club is divided into three groups.

They are the Lions, the Tigers and the Bears. O my.

The youngest group is the Lions. These children are 6 & 7 years of age and the focus of the group is on reading. These children were identified to us by our local elementary school, the Primary Academy, as kids who would benefit from an intensive reading program. Our instructor is Sylvia Elliott, a reading specialist with the Rock Island Schools and a member of the church. She is assisted by three college students who are working with us for the summer. Of course it will not be all reading, there is music and art, and field trips scheduled as well. Here they are on their first day.

The oldest group, youngsters 12 - 14 years of age, are the Bears.

Here are the Bears working with Katie Casey and Mary Kae Waytenick on music in the sanctuary. It is hard to tell from the photo but these youth are clapping, snapping and slapping out a very complex rhythm. The academic focus of the Bears and the Tigers is on social relationships in community. Mary Kae is a retired music educator from the Rockridge District, and Katie teaches in the Sherrard School District.

The last photo is of the Tigers, the middle group, age 8 - 11 years, with their art teacher, Hillary Plog, in the Fellowship Hall of the church. I think I must have been making my rounds with the camera just as they were beginning their time together. Hillary is explaining to them what it is like to be in a wheelchair, as she is. It seems a double privilege to receive quality art instruction
and to learn about how people are able in different ways. Hillary teaches with Katie in Sherrard.

Our Outreach Director, Angela Richardson, is coordinating the program, and there are teachers from RICCA as well, including Deacon Al Edgeworth, from the Truth Temple Church, across the street.

And this is just the first day. More to follow later.

This program is supported with special gifts from the Doris and Victor Day Foundation of Rock Island, the Junior Board of Rock Island, and a generous donation from a couple who helps support educational efforts for youth in our area. The food program is funded by the US Department of Agriculture.

Illinois Maya Ministry Luncheon

At the Illinois Conference Meeting at Springfield, Illinois, Gloria Vicente was the speaker at the Illinois Maya Ministries luncheon that took place on Saturday, June 6, in the Convention Center. Gloria, along with her husband, Santos, and their baby, Nicolas, were present with about twenty conference members, and we all had lunch together.

Gloria, as the speaker, shared some of her own journey with us. There is something remarkably engaging when persons give witness to their own experience. There is power when we construct the narrative of our life. Gloria began by talking about the experience of her family.

The village where she lived was totally destroyed by the military. It was quite near the village of the Nobel Prize winner Rigoberta Menchu, and Gloria’s father knew Vicente Menchu, Rigoberta’s father. Gloria’s father met with Vicente Menchu the night before he was killed in the 1980 burning of the Spanish Embassy in Guatemala City. The Campasino Unity Group had entered the Spanish Embassy and the Guatemalan police burned down the building on January 31, 1980, killing 36 persons. This was a defining event in the Guatemalan Civil War, and in Gloria’s life.

Gloria’s family fled to Mexico, and later to Texas. In Texas they were sheltered by a Presbyterian Church, and later they came to Chicago and were offered sanctuary by the University Church in Hyde Park. This was all part of the Sanctuary movement, and she came to Chicago in 1985, when she was ten years old.

Gloria remembers interpreting into English for her father as he spoke to groups in the Chicago Metropolitan Sanctuary Alliance and in the Chicago Religious Leadership Network.

Later, accompanied by a delegation of Disciples and members of the United Church of Christ, she travelled with her father and saw for the first time the village of Sac Ja in Guatemala. She saw the place where he grandparents were killed. She saw their names listed among those killed on the pillars in front of the National Cathedral in Guatemala City. She walked the land that they had worked as campasino farmers. This was a profound experience for Gloria, having grown up in the United States. This required quite a lot of emotional processing.

“As I learned to process the pain it made me want to go (back to the homeland of my ancestors) and serve as a missionary,” says Gloria. “I feel called to serve and to be a bridge builder.” Gloria is aware that on the one hand she has a lot in common with the people in Guatemala, and on the other hand her differences are significant as well – growing up in Chicago. “I want to return and accompany others as we were accompanied in our time of need.”

Gloria is now assigned by Global Ministries – a joint ministry of the United Church of Christ and the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), http://www.globalministries.org/, and she is working in Santa Cruz, in the highlands of Guatemala with ACG – Guatemalan Cultural Action. This is in the K’iche’ region and Gloria is impressed with her co-workers.

Gloria has been living and learning in Guatemala. She was married to Santos Par, whom she met in Guatemala. Her husband is K’iche’, and she has been learning the language. Her husband is from Totonicapan. Among her responsibilities with ACG is to receive international delegations. She said she hoped to see some of us who were at the luncheon in Guatemala!

She and Santos are in the United States right now. Her son, Nicolas was born in the US. He will soon have a surgery and then they will be able to return to Guatemala.

In the last few years Gloria has become ever more aware that her life has purpose. The very unusual experiences she has had, being born of Mayan people in Guatemala, travelling through Mexico to arrive in Chicago. Having been sheltered by the church and given sanctuary, then to return as a missionary and bridge-builder to Guatemala – give her an ability understand and to act in this moment.

Gloria’s talk was an inspiration to us all.

Catch them doing the right thing

One of the most profound ideas in my college experience was from an early childhood education class. The teacher suggested trying to catch children doing the right thing and then compliment them on it. Not only is this a great idea for kids, but it works profoundly well for adults. We all like to hear a "thank you" for doing something good.


Our member of congress here in the 1st Congressional District in Iowa is Bruce Braley, and he is fairly new at it. Wonderfully enough, Bruce has signed on as a co-sponsor on H R 2567, which is a bill to close the School of the Americas. The title is "The Latin America Military Training Review Act" and if you want lots of information on it go to www.washingtonwatch.com/bills/show/111_HR_2567.html


The point is, from the perspective of Latin America activists, Braley is doing the right thing. Please call his office and tell them "Thank you." The phone number for his Davenport office is (563) 323-5988. His DC office is (202) 225-2911. It will be a painless and well spent 30 seconds. It will be doing the right thing.

Carole Hoke Ordination

On Sunday, May 31st, Nancy and I drove to Fondulac Congregational United Church of Christ in Peoria, Illinois, for the ordination of Carole Hoke. That is Carole on the right, with the red jacket, I am in the middle and Rev. Lauren Padgett is on the left.

It was a wonderful and carefully thought out service, with a lot of hymns. There must have been 25 clergy in the little church! Carole received a great deal of support and I was glad to be there to lay my hands on her along with the others. A beautiful day.

Bessie Schweiss

One of our church members, Bessie Schweiss passed away last week and the services were at the church. Her obituary may be found at http://www.wheelanpressly.com/obituaries/

Here are my remarks at the service, as some have asked for them:

Bessie Schweiss
July 10, 1909 – May 23, 2009

On Tuesday, May 19 I had lunch with Bessie at Friendship Manor, in the dining hall. At this time we have a number of church members who are residents there, so our Parish Nurse, Mary Oelschlaeger, organizes lunches every couple of months so that we can visit our members, and help them stay in touch with each other. So Bessie and I, along with the church secretary sat together at table. Bessie was very much herself. We talked a little about the building that is falling down in Morrison, that was on the news. I had learned not to ask Bessie how old she was, but rather to ask “What year were you born in?” She replied, “1909.” So you are going to be a hundred this summer. “Just a day, like any other,” she replied. That was Bessie, crusty but warm. But she was pretty much herself, and on top of things. I was surprised when I got a call that next Saturday saying that Bessie had passed away.

Bessie Devenney was born in Prophetstown. She said that her dad was an auctioneer, known as the man with the leather lungs. Mr. Lamphere, her first husband was a barber, and together they lived in Morrison, Sheffield and Prophetstown, as well as in California during the second world war – where he was a Navy barber. They had two sons.

Bessie moved to Rock Island in 1967 and married Francis Schweiss, who was a member of the Church of Peace. She joined the church at that time, but had always been a Methodist. This gave Bessie and I something in common.

Bessie enjoyed her family. “She beat us at Yatze,” recalled one family member. “She read us books,” said another. She and her younger brother drove to Pennsylvania for a family reunion when Bessie was 89 and he was about 87. She liked to travel, and she liked family reunions, so they went.

Bessie kept track of people – especially her large family. One grandson talked about how it was fun to go with Bessie about the first of the month to a card store where she could get cards to mark the birthdays and other family events. She would look through cards to find just the right one for each person. Sometimes she would buy some 20 cards. “She was fun to watch,” he recalled.

At her 90th birthday her family coordinated a “card party” where they alerted others and asked them to send Bessie a card. She received some 125 cards!

Bessie was social. She bowled till she was well into her eighties. She loved life. She liked to be around people. Well, most people. We asked her once when she was living at the tower why she did not go downstairs and have a meal with the others. She said she did not like being around all those “old people.” That was sometimes her criticism of Friendship Manor, “too many old people,” though it was actually pretty good for her. She liked to swap jokes with people. “How many people are buried in the cemetery?” was one of hers. “All of them,” is the reply.

Bessie was a Chicago Cubs fan, and hoped to live long enough to see them win the World Series.

Bessie drove with a family member in her car to the driver’s license station to get her license renewed when she was 96 years old. The car died in the parking lot, and Bessie took that as a sign she should not get another license. They rode back to town in the tow truck.

When Bessie first moved into Friendship Manor our Parish Nurse asked her if there was anything that she wanted, that she could bring her. “A beer and a book.” Mary brought her both. A couple of her Tri Mu Circle friends brought Bessie a beer as well.

Bessie was funny and she was fun. She could surprise you with what she would say, but she was enjoyable to be with. She was one of those people who could give you a handle to get to know her – bring her a pig for her collection, bring her a book or a beer and she would be pleased. Bessie would tell you what she thought if you would ask her.

She will be missed. We thank God for Bessie and her good long life, her large and loyal family, and we thank God that Bessie was able to be herself and enjoy her good long life right to the end.

Amen and amen.