wfn.org | Three women honored as examples of ‘Jubilee justice'

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Note #5973 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

25-June-2000
GA00028

	Three women honored as examples of ‘Jubilee justice'

	by Nancy D. Borst

LONG BEACH, June 25 -- In Leviticus 25, God instructs Moses "to cause the
trumpet of the Jubilee to sound" (v. 9a) and to "consecrate the 50th year,
and proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all its inhabitants. It
shall be a Jubilee for you ... " (v.10a, New King James version).

	In that spirit, a capacity audience gathered early Sunday morning to honor
three special women of faith and hear how, "On Behalf of Women," they are
"Living Jubilee Justice."

	This year's Women of Faith Award recipients are Beverly Armstrong, Richmond
Heights, Mo.; Jerri Rodewald, Corona del Mar, Calif. and Artheillia
Thompson, Detroit, Mich.

	Each was chosen for her efforts to battle injustice and oppression --
economically, environmentally and globally. Armstrong and Thompson are
hunger action enablers in their presbyteries, and Rodewald works with a
program for prostitutes in her area of southern California.

	Armstrong, who is blind, said she had memorized her speech but also brought
a copy along just in case. In her 11 years as a Hunger Action Enabler in the
Presbytery of Giddings-Lovejoy, Armstrong told the audience she had become
committed to following the guidelines set for the program by the General
Assembly. She realized one of those -- influencing public policy -- tends to
make church folks "very nervous as they understand it to be a conflict with
the separation of church and state belief."

	But, she noted, how can the church stand by while injustices such as
deprivation of health care, education and food go on? Instead, she called
the church to consider the Leviticus passage defining the 50th year jubilee
in part as a time of canceling debt.

	Armstrong said, "Just as God led the prophets to speak about justice, I
believe we, too, have that same responsibility, even though we are of a
different time and place."

	Artheillia Thompson is Hunger Action Coordinator for the Presbytery of
Detroit. She juggles that with involvement in at least four other
hunger-related programs and work as a Detroit Police reserve officer. Her
busy life is in answer to a call from God, she said, and the heritage given
her by her parents, who repeatedly told her to be proud of who she is.

	Thompson's 20-year ministry has been one of giving a hand up when needed. 

	"That is what God has blessed me with, the abilities to walk among the less
fortunate and help guide them to self-sufficiency," she said. "I firmly
believe that hands-on ministry is the way of the church of the future.

	"God wants us to teach by doing. I am divorced, have been hungry and worked
three jobs at a time just to keep a roof over our heads and food on the
table. I have been mugged and robbed, but I have been able to overcome the
anger and hostility because I leaned on God."

	Jerri Rodewald, described as a person who remembers everyone she meets,
took her energy and funneled it into the Mary Magdalene Project, which she
has served for 20 years. She thanked Presbyterian Women, whose Thank
Offering provided $30,000 in initial funding to the project.

	She then hailed the prostitutes in the project as its real heroes.

	"Our 20 years' experience has taught us that there is no three-month
miracle cure, but that given time and love, almost always for the first time
in their lives, these women can and do change. They are tenacious.

	Rodewald's dream is an inclusive, diverse and just church, called to serve
"with a bias toward the marginalized, be they the transforming prostitutes
at the Mary Magdalene Project or our sisters and brothers within the church
denied their dignity and full inclusion."

	This year's breakfast was a blending of sound, language, song and litany,
including the single-toned call of  the Jewish Shofar, played by Ken
Zommick, Shofar choir director of Temple Israel, Long Beach. The event was
directed by the Rev. Judith Wrought, Women of Faith Awards Selection
Committee and Associate, Women's Ministries National Staff in the Synods,
Synod of Southern California and Hawaii.

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