social justice – Page 6 – Princeton UMC Blog

June 2, 2020October 6, 2020

GNJ-CAPITAL: Silence is NOT an Option – Prayer Vigil INVITATION! June 7, 2020, 4:00 PM

Dear Clergy and Congregational Leaders of the Capital District,

This week, we have another destructive virus that has painfully reminded us that, for way too many years, it had inflicted undue pain and death on our Black siblings and other siblings of color. Racism requires our attention! Our hearts are breaking for the growing number of Black men and women killed by police, most recently, George Floyd, and, for the inequities against people of color that plague our nation.

As Christ’s followers, and United Methodists, we believe that racism is a distorted value system that assumes that one race is innately superior to the others that translates into wrong mindsets, behaviors, policies, and systems.

SILENCE IS NOT AN OPTION; IT’S TIME FOR ACTION

I invite all Capital clergy and laity to join our resident Bishop, Rev. Dr. John Schol, and I, this coming Sunday, June 7, 2020, at 4:00 PM for a special peaceful public witness of our faith and prayer vigil in solidarity with the African American community and other people of color. This public witness will be a statement of presence, prayer, and reflection in the community. We will practice responsible physical distancing measures and will model the highest standards of Christian love.

Our special guest and speaker will be Rev. Gil Caldwell, a United Methodist, and renowned Civil Rights Activist. Other guest speakers include Bishop John R. Schol, Willingboro Mayor Hon. Tiffany Worthy, Charlene Walker from Faith in NJ, Rev. Geralda Aldajuste, Rev. Vanessa Wilson, Rev. Rupert Hall & Rev. Laura Steele.

JOIN US.

If you feel comfortable, bring a poster that expresses the Christian values of Peace with Justice, and invite a friend. We welcome children and youth. The new generations need more than ever, positive spaces to express their hopes and aspiration for a better society and world.

In consideration for others – we request that all persons participating from United Methodist congregations wear a face mask.

We’re together on the journey.

Paz, Héctor

Rev. Héctor A. Burgos | Capital District Superintendent

O: 732.359.1085 | C: 609.661.1768 | E: hburgos@gnjumc.org

May 23, 2020October 6, 2020

Relationships and Faith Series Tackles Complex Issues

Relationships and Faith groups are reading this book by Trevor Hudson

On August 12, 2017, Charlottesville Virginia was rocked by the violence that erupted at the Unite-the-Right rally. The hatred on display that day shocked the country and prompted questions about who we are as a nation. At Princeton United Methodist Church, the tragedy gave rise to a discussion of the question, “What do we do as a
church and as Christians in the wake of such racism?” To answer that question, church clergy designed the Relationships and Faith initiative. Now in its third year, the program has tackled several complex societal issues such as racism, human sexuality, poverty and women’s rights in a variety of ways.

In building the curriculum for that first year, “our steering committee, which is made up primarily of lay leaders, worked off of three central questions: “What are the barriers that separate us?; What does it mean to be the other?; How can we as Christians be inclusive?” explained Discipleship Pastor Skitch Matson. The first year of Relationships and Faith organized around small-group study of the Bible. Intergenerational in composition, the groups shared perspectives and asked questions on how life experiences shaped and changed perspectives. More than 100 people participated that first year. “The response to the initial roll out fueled our commitment to continue,” explained Skitch.

In developing the curriculum for year two, the committee focused on how societal aspects, specifically racism and human sexuality, often separate us from one another. The first two months concentrated on human sexuality, timely as it ”coincided with the Annual Methodist Conference which was grappling with this very issue,” pointed
out Pastor Skitch. For an in-depth look into how misconceptions about sexuality can be divisive, the church team assembled a panel composed of a Princeton Seminary professor, a heterosexual Puerto Rican man for the Latin-X perspective, and the Associate Dean of Princeton Chapel who openly identifies as queer.

In the final two months of the program, the focus moved to racism and the vehicle was, again, a panel discussion. Among the participants was a church member currently studying journalism at Northwestern, and a member of Not In Our Town Princeton,
a multi-racial, multi-faith group of individuals who stand together for racial justice and inclusive communities.

This year, Relationships and Faith is focusing on poverty (March and April) and on women’s rights (May and June). As a springboard for discussing poverty, those participating are reading Trevor Hudson’s A Mile in My Shoes. More than sixty participants meet regularly in small groups at various locations, with each group having
two book leaders who cultivate discussion. Michael Cabus, one of the leaders, values Hudson’s book, not only for its emphasis on reflection but also because it “is more about cultivating a personhood that is able to make compassion actionable, then it is about how to offer compassion to others. To grow as a Christian, your faith must
challenge you to be uncomfortable,” added Cabus. Hopefully, at the end of this year’s program, the participants will engage in an experiential trip, possibly an outing that puts the participants in another’s shoes and prompts the question: “How would our lives change if this was our daily routine?”

While coronavirus has made it hard for book groups to meet in person and for leaders to plan out the second half of the program, the need to, as Hudson
says, cultivate compassion is a certainty in these uncertain times.

May 17, 2020October 6, 2020

Maintaining Hope Through Adversity: Ashleigh Donaldson and Deena Prakash

Throughout the country, signs on lawns, banners on buildings, clanging pots and pans, and soaring voices celebrate America’s health care workers’ tireless efforts against the coronavirus. Within the Princeton UMC family worship several healthcare professionals and their families. In the first of an occasional series, Ashleigh Donaldson and Deena Prakash answer questions about their experiences working during COVID-19.

Since August 2018, physical therapist Ashleigh Donaldson has worked at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx. Currently, she is working in the ICU. For 20 years, Deena Parkesh has worked as a nurse at Capital Health in Trenton. Deena works in hemodialysis, a specialty that uses a machine to remove waste and water from the blood.

Ashleigh, can you describe your day? As a PT in the ICU my job consists mostly of evaluating the functional level (for discharge planning) of patients and, when appropriate, starting to mobilize them. With COVID patients, we are seeing their oxygen levels drop significantly with functional mobility, so sometimes even sitting them up for a couple of minutes in the ICU is difficult.

What is your biggest challenge? Firstly, as I am sure everyone has heard, we originally did not have enough equipment to safely see patients. This meant we were either not wearing appropriate equipment, or, we weren’t seeing patients as often as we should because we were trying to conserve gowns/masks etc. Another challenge has been that patients are not allowed to see family members,and watching them deal with everything on their own has been hard. Personally, my biggest challenge has been not seeing my family. I know I am exposed every day so I absolutely cannot see them under any circumstances, and I am not sure when it will be safe to see them.”

Deena:“It is very challenging to work since 99% of our patients go on dialysis three times a week for the rest of their lives. Their only choice of treatment is a kidney transplant. Through this long term care, the patients become like family members to the nurses.. A few of my newly infected patients have died due to loss of kidney function. It is very hard for both patients and the staff. Fear and apprehension are very common.”

Where do you find strength? Joy? How do you maintain hope? Ashleigh: ” The hospital has received many food donations and a lot of positive messages of support. Patients give me strength; they are fighting so hard and it helps us to fight hard too. Quiet times of prayer help to bring me to a place that is calm. I have also received so many supportive messages from friends, family, and of course this church. I would like to say now that I am so grateful for the prayers, cards, and calls to my mom. I find joy in seeing the patients improve. When a patient is discharged, a song plays in the hospital; when a patient finally sits up, medical staff cheer outside their room. People are all pulling together which gives me faith that humanity, kindness, and the human spirit will prevail.”

Deena: “We are together at His Mercy during this pandemic.I pray to God every day for strength and courage, and for my patients’ recovery. I have never before seen nursing care like this before. It is frightening. To do our jobs, we need a lot of physical strength and mental stamina. Indeed, I appreciate our church family for thinking of me, and thank them for all of their prayers.”

Ashleigh (we think she’s on the right ’cause she’s tall!) with a co-worker

October 14, 2019October 6, 2020

Art Against Racism: Opening Our Doors

Rev, Ginny Cetuk, left, with Caroline Clarke, who delivered Not in Our Town Princeton’s lecture on “The Case for Reparations,” and Robt Seda-Schreiber of the Bayard Rustin Center of Social Justice

Art Agaist Racism - "Girl in Prayer" by Rhinold Ponder — “Girl in Prayer” by Rhinold Ponder

Princeton UMC gave strong support to the first Art Against Racism project, founded by Rhinold Ponder and aided by the Bayard Rustin Center for Social Justice and Not in Our Town Princeton. Princeton UMC members hosted the intercongregational breakfast on Sunday, staged the reparations talk by Not in Our Town Princeton’s spokesperson Caroline Clarke, and opened the doors to the exhibit for 11 days. A member of PUMC bought one of the paintings, “Girl in Prayer,” and donated it to the church.

The exhibit attracted nearly 300 visitors. “We are extremely grateful,” says Rhinold, “that the PUMC family embraced the project with open arms and hard work to make it a very successful event. So much positive energy and relationship building came out of PUMC’s participation.” Other works were shown at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Princeton and the Princeton YWCA.

Rev. Ginny Cetuk worked with Rhinold to bring these events to our church. “Thank you, Pastor Ginny, for bringing this wonderful opportunity to show PUMC”s commitment to work against racism and for justice and love for all people,” says Pat Ostberg, who took charge of scheduling exhibit volunteers.

Princeton UMC joined members of First Baptist church and Mt. Pisgah AME church at a breakfast cooked by Ian Macdonald.

Special thanks go to Chef Ian Macdonald and the hosts for thebreakfast, to Abu Ibrahim and Iona Harding who helped stage the lecture and reception, and to the 22 volunteers who worked to keep the show open for 10 ½ days. They include Judy Algor, Chris Cox, Dana Dreibelbis, Anne Fikaris, Barbara Fox, Iona Harding, Karen Hoagland, Mikaela Langdon, Karen Longo-Baldwin, Jeff & Vivian Sayre, Marv Ostberg, Pat Ostberg, Lori Pantaleo, Joe & Sunny Paun, Beth Perrine, Charles Phillips, Katheryn Ranta. Hyelim Yoon, Temi Tayo, and Michele Tuck-Ponder.

“I was touched by the artists’ statements through their art, the people who came through our doors to view the exhibit, and the volunteer’s willingness to devote some of their time to the issue of racism,” says Pat. “Thanks to Debbie Blok for the many behind the scene things she did and to Susan Lidstone for the eye-catching, outdoor signs. Many of our visitors were just walking by, saw the signs and dropped in.”

“I was so proud of our church for “opening” our doors to this very important community outreach,” says Katheryn Ranta. “I was especially touched by meeting and talking with our visitors:

The young man with autism whose painting of hands forming a heart over the rainbow was on display. His proud parents and grandparents were with him.
A young Asian woman with her white husband talked about how the painting of an interracial couple touched on the problems she faces.
Three college age students spent a long time discussing some of the paintings and then took Skitch’s Testing Your Spirituality and talked with Iona and me about it.”

Pat’s favorite story: “When Marv and I were there one evening, a couple came in. After looking at the paintings and poetry, the wife told me she had always wanted to see the inside of our church, and then said, ‘You can tell there is a lot of love here.’ I agreed with her.”

November 25, 2018October 6, 2020

Continuing Conversation on Race: December 3

NIOT Princeton welcomes anyone who is committed to working towards building genuinely inclusive communities and working for racial justice. For more information, or to ask about volunteering, go to NIOTPrinceton.org or see Barbara Fox.

The next Continuing Conversation on Race and White Privilege will be Monday, December 3, at 7 p.m., and Rev. Dr. Charles Frederick Boyer will speak on “Liberating Public Policy Theologically.”

What is liberation theology, and how does it connect with racial justice?
How can legislation and public policy be examined through a prophetic racial justice lens?
What role should liberation theology play in birthing faith-rooted advocacy and activism?

Rev. Boyer has said, “As an African-American minister of the gospel, I am compelled to fight and encourage the struggle for freedom and justice. Mass incarceration, private prisons, and prison industrial complex slave labor which is legalized in our constitution, must be challenged at every level.”

NOT IN OUR TOWN PRINCETON is a multi-racial, multi-faith group of individuals who stand together for racial justice and inclusive communities. Our focus is to promote the equitable treatment of all, and to uncover and confront white supremacy — a system which manipulates and pits all races and ethnicities against each other.

Our goal is to identify and expose the political, economic, and cultural systems which have enabled white supremacy to flourish, and to create new structures and policies which will ensure equity and inclusion for all. In our commitment to uncovering the blight of white supremacy on our humanity, we take responsibility to address it and eliminate it in all its forms through intentional action, starting with ourselves and our communities.

August 18, 2017October 6, 2020

From Bishop Schol: What is Normal?

A message from Bishop John Schol

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I write to you with a heavy heart because I know good people of faith will hear different pieces of news coming out of Charlottesville and come to different conclusions. I believe that conversation is important and hope that we will continue to gain clarity and understanding about these issues.

While in Germany for a Council of Bishop’s meeting several years ago, I toured a concentration camp. Martin Niemöller, clergyperson and Christian theologian, had been imprisoned there for being outspoken about Nazi atrocities against the Jews. The cell where he was in solitary confinement was preserved. Throughout the concentration camp, there were pictures of guards. There were quotes from guards. As I toured the concentration camp, I recognized that artifacts and history were preserved to communicate that while at the time, the behavior of the Nazis seemed the right thing to do, it was not normal. It was not moral. It was not how God intended for us to treat one another.

Today, we are facing one of the greatest challenges for our soul and the soul of our Nation. We are facing the normalization of hatred and the continued normalization of racism. You do not find today in Germany statues of Nazis on horseback or proudly marching. I commend the people of Germany who have preserved the horrors of the Holocaust, not idols that look patriotic or victorious.

What we choose to honor normalizes behavior. What we choose to portray as heroic signifies the behaviors our society normalizes. The argument that statues of heroic confederate soldiers are a part of our history is like saying statues of heroic Nazis are a part of history. It does not tell the story that at its heart, the Civil War was based largely on individual rights to preserve an economic system based on enslaving people. When unjust systems and the people who seek to preserve those systems are honored, it signals that injustices and oppression have a place, not only in our history but our present and future.

To say the Nazis, the KKK and other hate groups and the people who stand up against them are similar only emboldens hate groups. The Nazis of Germany and the dissidents who fought against them are not the same. The Nazis of today’s hate groups are not the same as those who resist and protest hate groups. To compare as similar people who seek to preserve oppressive systems and injustices with those who seek to oppose them is a comparison that leads to further harm. One group of people went to Charlottesville with guns, chanting racial hatred against Jews and people of color to promote racism. The other group responded to oppose them and stand up for injustice. To call them the same is not normal. There is no moral equivalency between the groups.

What we witnessed in Charlottesville was not people seeking to preserve history, but people who seek to maintain a culture and system of racism and prejudice clashing with those trying to stop racism and prejudice.

What occurred is something that happens to a lesser degree in communities, churches, businesses, schools, organizations, and families all across our nation every day. It is a battle for what is right, what is of God and what kind of people we want to be. Racism in all forms, individual and systematic, is wrong. We can learn from the German people that we should never glorify a hate-filled and oppressive past, but we should help people see its horror, pain and evil so we can all work to prevent it from occurring again. Here in the United States, in our churches, communities and organizations, we should not glorify those who perpetrated or fought to preserve slavery, segregation and racism, but help the entire world see how wrong it was, is, and continues to be. When we don’t act, we allow other voices to normalize hate speech and divisiveness, and the injustice continues.

I also believe we cannot minimize behavior that is wrong by saying, “Oh, that is just the way he talks,” or, “That is just what she does.” Or, “That is just the way they are.” If we allow this, we normalize behavior that reinforces racism.

In Martin Niemöller’s cell there is a quote that says:

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

Let’s all work together to resist injustice, to preserve what is right and to stand up to injustice and oppression in the name of Christ.Greater New Jersey is a diverse church and we have made important progress. Let’s keep going. I invite each of you to have conversations during the next several weeks in your homes, Bible studies, small groups and worship and ask, “What can our family/congregation and individual disciples do to increase understanding about racism? What are the stories Jesus told about how to treat people? How will we listen to and honor the stories of those affected by racism? What will we do to work toward ending racism?”

Keep the faith!

John

John Schol, Bishop
The United Methodist Church
of Greater New Jersey