wfn.org | Self-Development of People Program Marks 30th Birthday

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Note #5886 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

5-May-2000
00183

	Self-Development of People Program Marks 30th Birthday

	Detterick announces approval of 5 new field staff positions

	by Jerry L. Van Marter

ST. LOUIS -- More than 30 years. More than 5,000 grants. More than $60
million.

	The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Self-Development of People (SDOP) program
-- borne of the social upheavals of the '60s and their demands for racial
and economic justice -- celebrated its 30th anniversary here April 28-30,
drawing a crowd of more than 250 passionate advocates for the denomination's
self-help development program.

	The Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, the General Assembly stated clerk, greeted
the opening-banquet crowd with words that resonated throughout the spirited
weekend:

	"I'm proud to be with people with such a passion for justice. Your ministry
is at the heart of the New Testament -- to empower people to be all that God
intends them to be."

	The crowd was further elated by an announcement from General Assembly
Council Executive Director John Detterick that five additional SDOP staff
positions have been approved.  As a result, for the first time SDOP will
have field staff in four regions of the United States working with governing
bodies and communities of need to develop project proposals for SDOP
funding. The fifth position will be in Louisville coordinating the regional
field work.

	SDOP, funded primarily by the One Great Hour of Sharing offering, seeks to
"partner with poor, oppressed and disadvantaged" communities by providing
small grants to groups of people who have assessed their own needs and
responded by creating development projects that they control.

	That approach to mission and investment makes the self-development program
unique, said the Rev. Curtis Kearns, a former chair of the National SDOP
committee who now is director of the PC(USA)'s National Ministries Division.
"This is a unique mission because it offers true partnership," he said,
"ceding control to those who are disenfranchised, those who refuse to be
marginalized."

	Sally-Ann Roberts, a television newscaster in New Orleans and daughter of
longtime SDOP activist Lucimarian Roberts, told the gathering that SDOP
exemplifies the kind of ministry that "turns around the cycle of
hopelessness," and praised it for focusing on long-term sustainable
development of communities. "When we reach out in this way," she said, "we
reach out not just to individuals, but to future generations."

	Beth Patton, a former Presbyterian Volunteer in Mission who is now with the
Washington Area Women's Foundation, which funds organizations that serve
at-risk women and girls in the nation's capital, said "standing with, not
for" poor, oppressed and disadvantaged people is one key element of SDOP's
30 years of success. "Only the ones in pain know when the pain has been
relieved," she said, "and the key element for us is this partnership where
we work, learn and grow together."

	The confidence SDOP has gained through the years must be tempered with
humility, Kearns cautioned: "Our confidence in our achievements can create a
tendency toward arrogance, an arrogance that fosters and tolerates
injustice, where we become contemptuous of others and where victims are
punished."

	The challenge, he said, "is the challenge that has sustained SDOP for 30
years -- to acknowledge our submission to something greater than ourselves
-- to God."

	Another challenge -- to reach further into racial-ethnic communities -- was
raised by Elona Street-Stewart, an SDOP activist on the staff of the Synod
of Lakes and Prairies. "We must recognize that our church does not have a
strong presence in minority communities," she said.  "We must load up on
shared vision by building stronger relationships with minority communities
and by strengthening the circle of our ecumenical and cross-cultural
relationships."

	The Rev. Bert Tom of Foster City, Calif., one of the founders of SDOP, said
of the anniversary: "Being 30 could be good news or bad news. The good news
could be that we're mature and established. The bad news could be that we're
stagnant, complacent and set in our ways." Tom decried what he described as
"a huge disconnect between congregations and their communities,' that has
resulted in fewer SDOP grant proposals in recent years.

	When an SDOP-funded project succeeds, the results can be spectacular.
Nately Ronsheim of the Harrison Hills Cottage Industries project in Cadiz,
Ohio, told how a 1988 SDOP grant revitalized her impoverished rural
community. Twelve years later, more than 60 artisans are earning a
livelihood, and the community organization that has grown up around the
project just received its first federal anti-poverty grant, which will
enhance the community's self-sustainability.

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