wfn.org | Lutherans Celebrate God Gathering The World's 'Fragments'

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ELCA NEWS SERVICE

September 7, 2005

Lutherans Celebrate God Gathering The World's 'Fragments'
05-169-FI

     BALTIMORE (ELCA) -- Almost 1,100 Lutherans gathered Aug. 25-
28 at the Baltimore Convention Center for a Global Mission Event
(GME) of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).  The
theme "Gathered by God's grace for the sake of the world"
inspired plenary sessions, "Global University" sessions, worship,
prayer, song, art activities and fellowship.
     The ELCA has about 300 missionaries in more than 50
countries.  During summer months many of those missionaries
return to the United States to visit family and take continuing
education classes.  The ELCA uses this opportunity to invite its
4.9 million members to meet current and retired missionaries and
to learn how Lutherans are involved in the world.
     The ELCA Division for Global Mission worked with local
volunteers to host two GMEs.  The first was July 14-17 in Fargo,
N.D.  Support for the events also came from other ELCA churchwide
units and Thrivent Financial for Lutherans, a nonprofit financial
services organization based in Minneapolis.

'Fragment' Stories from Around the World
     The opening celebration mixed global Christian music with
"fragment" stories from around the world.  Reading from the
Gospel of St. Matthew, participants heard that, after feeding
five thousand people, Jesus said, "Gather up the fragments left
over, so that nothing may be lost."
     The event's general facilitators, Mary Cain, Ellicott City,
Md., and JMe Lowden, Pasadena, Md., introduced Joselito "Joseph"
Carlos, a seafarer from the Phillipines.  He introduced three
other young men who were in port on the (cargo vessel) C.V.
Adventure.
     Joseph spoke of the stresses of life on the open sea.  "The
only thing that keeps us strong is our faith in God," he said.
He thanked participants for supporting the Seafarer center, which
helps him deal with the stress by providing communication with
his family back home.
     The Rev. John Rutsindintwarane, general secretary, Lutheran
Church of Rwanda, spoke of the 1994 genocide in his African
country and his role in resettling displaced Rwandans in
Tanzania.  He said he saw Jesus' miracle duplicated when Lutheran
World Relief and Lutheran World Federation trucks arrived with
food.
     A teacher described the joy she experienced in her school in
Cuddalore, India.  In a video presentation she said that joy was
replaced by fear and confusion after the Dec. 26 tsunami in the
Indian Ocean.  Death and displacement cut the number of her
students in half, and she spent more of her time counseling and
working to restore the local fishing business than teaching.
     Ray Ranker, a student at the University of Maryland, talked
about his time with the ELCA Young Adults in Global Mission
program in Argentina.  "They felt like leftovers," he said, with
no way of breaking a cycle of poverty.	While it was a difficult
decision to leave home for service in a place where he didn't
even speak the language, he said it was more difficult to leave
Argentina and return home.
     Malik fled his West African home in Guinea under the threat
of death when he was 12 years old.  Three years later he arrived
in United States and was immediately put in prison as an
unaccompanied minor.  Local Lutherans moved him out of detention
and into the International Friendship House while his case is
being reviewed.
     The 20-year-old Malik said, "I feel like I am not a strong
man, because I rely on so many people."  In Guinea his family was
in a position to help others, he said.	"I have lost the ability
to help," he said, but he has found another family that helps
others.
     The Rev. Manuel Caceres, Peace Lutheran Church, Glen Burnie,
Md., spoke through a translator of his work with Latino
ministries (Iglesia Paz) and his background in El Salvador.
Discrimination and injustice leave people feeling like crumbs, he
said.  The church gathers the crumbs together to make the bread
of life, he said.  "We are the crumbs made to bring sustenance to
others."

Keynote Presentation
     The Rev. Elieshi Mungure, a pastor of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in Tanzania studying at Luther Seminary, St.
Paul, Minn., and the Rev. Mark Alan Powell, professor of New
Testament, Trinity Lutheran Seminary, Columbus, Ohio, spoke Aug.
26, building on the Gospel story of Jesus feeding five thousand
people.
     Powell led participants in "an experiment in empathy,"
asking them to pretend they were various characters in the story
-- someone who was fed, a disciple, the boy with the basket and a
loaf of bread.	The bread is at risk of being consumed, but the
miracle is that it grows, he said.  "We are God's bread.  We are
the body of Christ.  We are gathered by God's grace and offered
to the world," Powell said.
     Mungure described the problems of Africa, such as
malnutrition and AIDS, which seem as overwhelming as the task
Jesus gave his disciples to feed five thousand people.
"Sometimes we look at our resources and not beyond," she said,
seeing how little we have instead of how to use what is
available.  "Sometimes we are standing on the solution, but we
are still looking around," Mungure said.  "Bring a little boy
with a basket of lunch, and the Lord will do a miracle."

Middle East and Christian Zionism
     When participants showed up for an evening session Aug. 26,
some were turned away by young people wearing black "Security"
shirts.  Entry was based on the colors of one's participant
identification.  Finally, as the program began, the doors were
open to all participants.
     "You experienced what Palestinians experience each day when
they try to go to church, go to work, go to school, go to
hospital," the Rev. Said Ailabouni, director for Europe and the
Middle East, ELCA Division for Global Mission, told the
gathering.  The humiliation of checkpoints is compounded by house
demolitions and a security barrier, he said, making it easier for
Palestinians to emigrate from their land than to stay.
     People in the Middle East feel like they are living in a
prison, Ailabouni continued.  "You feel safe within your prison,
but you are not free to go in or out," he said.
     Lutherans in the Holy Land work with Muslims, Jews and other
Christians toward peaceful coexistence, Ailabouni said.  "One
stumbling block is theology," he said, referring to Christian
Zionism.
     The Rev. Barbara R. Rossing, professor of New Testament,
Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, said Christian Zionism is
not the traditional Zionism that formed the State of Israel.
Christian Zionism is a belief that Christ's second coming depends
on the rebuilding of Jerusalem's temple and must follow years of
death and destruction.
     Christian Zionism is anti-Jewish and anti-Palestinian,
Rossing said.  Some Christian fundamentalists support Israel's
dominance in the Middle East, but they also believe all Jews must
convert to Christianity or die, she said.  Most evangelical
Christians don't support Christian Zionism, she said.
     Rossing is the author of "The Rapture Exposed."  She told
the gathering that the last book in the Christian Bible,
Revelation, was long ignored by scholars because of its complex
metaphors and imagery.
     The concept of a rapture was "a flim-flam" pieced together
in the 19th century by interpreting various Bible passages,
especially in Revelation, as predicting a time when all believers
in Christ will be lifted from the Earth to heaven before Christ's
second coming, Rossing said.  Rapture theology "poses a heretical
challenge" for Christians, she said.
     The book of Revelation has been "hijacked" to finance a
lucrative "Left Behind" industry, Rossing said.  She said she
wanted to reclaim Revelation and demonstrate that it is more a
message of hope and peace than death and destruction.  She called
the book "God's vision of a holy city in which we all live
together in peace."
     A single image of Jesus with a sword is outnumbered by
images of Jesus as a nonviolent lamb in Revelation, Rossing said.
     "Apocalypse" means "unveiling," she said.	Revelation
unveiled the injustices of the Roman Empire in the first century,
a time when the emperor claimed to be a god, Rossing said.  The
book contrasted those injustices with God's justice -- a land of
peace with open gates and big enough for everyone, she said.  A
river of life flows through the land and a healing tree stands at
its center, Rossing said.
     "This is God's vision for the Middle East -- a healing tree
of life.  The new Jerusalem of Revelation is a life-giving
vision," Rossing said.	"The whole Bible is full of the amazing
stories of healing for the world.  This is God's vision in
Revelation for the Middle East," she said.  "It's a vision for
wherever you live."
     Andy Willis shared several stories of his experiences as an
ELCA missionary and assistant to the director of schools for the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land.  "The
very fabric of life has been pulled from under the feet of
Palestinian Christians," he said.
     Nine young Palestinian men formed "the Jerusalem bachelors
club," Willis said.  After seven years only one of the men
remained in Jerusalem, he said, the rest had emigrated to various
parts of the world.
     Willis called the Holy Land "home for people of three
faiths."

Tribute to 'Baltimore Partners'
     Belletech Deressa, director for international development
and disaster response, ELCA Division for Global Mission, hosted a
tribute to the "Baltimore Partners," Lutheran organizations based
in the area, providing human services around the world.  The
Baltimore partners are: Lutheran Association for Maritime
Ministry (LAMM), Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS),
Lutheran Services in America (LSA) and Lutheran World Relief
(LWR).
     Before introducing representatives for each organization,
Deressa described the work they do to address "silent
emergencies" -- those not in the news.	Silent emergencies kill
more people every five days than the Indian Ocean tsunami in
December, she said.
     LWR President Kathryn Wolford said the overseas relief and
development work of U.S. Lutherans is providing Niger with food
and seeds.  While restoring self-reliance in Nicaragua after
Hurricane Mitch, LWR supports goals of peace with justice in
Colombia, she said.  ELCA congregations purchasing fairly traded
coffee is "a life-line for farmers" around the world, she said.
     LSA President Jill Schumann said social ministry
organizations are compiling information about low-income housing
across the United States to "ramp up production of affordable
housing in this country."  LSA is also gearing up for "Trading
Graces," an online auction Feb. 26-March 8, 2006, to support
social services in local communities.
     LIRS President Ralston H. Deffenbaugh Jr. said U.S. Lutheran
churches have worked with refugees, immigrants, asylum seekers
and unaccompanied refugee children since World War II.
"Welcoming the stranger" has become more difficult since the
Sept. 11 terrorist attack in 2001, he said.  "The balance between
freedom and security has shifted."  Deffenbaugh said almost
everyone would agree that the U.S. immigration system is broken,
but there is little agreement about how to fix it.
     LAMM board member Steven Laine, Boca Raton, Fla., said
Lutheran volunteers serve "crew members of ships that come into
our harbors," who may be away from home for a year at a time.
Some crew members cannot get security clearance to get off their
ships, he said, so chaplains and other volunteers board the ships
to conduct informal worship and to provide cell phones so
seafarers can communicate with their families.	Laine said crew
members have a lot of time on their hands between ports, so LAMM
hands out "Water Words," a book of Bible materials relating to
seafarers.

Sunday School Classes
     GME participants chose to attend one of three concurrent
sessions Aug. 28: "Peace and Justice in Africa," "Interfaith
Dialogue" and "Travel Faithfully."
     Moses Gobah of the Lutheran Church in Liberia (LCL)
described how decades of civil war and violence severely damaged
the infrastructure of his West African nation.	"Thank God for
the international community and the United Nations," he said.
"The war is over.  There is no more fighting in the country, but
there are many problems that the war left behind."
     Gobah said tribal and religious tensions remain; they foster
human rights abuses and chronic injustice.  The LCL and the
Lutheran World Federation (LWF) have sponsored a peace and
justice program in Liberia since 1991, he said.  The program
trains pastors in peacemaking and advances community-based
programs promoting peaceful coexistence.  He said the program
often works with former security personnel who want to return to
communities they may have terrorized years earlier.
     The LWF is a global communion of Christian churches in the
Lutheran tradition.  Founded in 1947 in Lund, Sweden, the LWF
currently has 140 member churches in 78 countries worldwide, with
a membership of nearly 66 million.  The ELCA is a member of LWF;
ELCA Presiding Bishop Mark S. Hanson is president of LWF.
     Syafa'atun al-Mirzanah of Indonesia is a member of the LWF
Christian-Muslim Study Program on Conflict and Peace.  She and
the Rev. Michael T. Shelley, visiting professor of world
religions, Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, discussed
interfaith dialogue between Muslims and Christians.
     Learning more about other religions helped her better
understand her own religion, Islam, al-Mirzanah said.  "Dialogue
transforms my experience," she said.
     Sometimes dialogue among people of the same faith can be
difficult, but it is important for interfaith relations," al-
Mirzanah said.	"There will be more conflict in the future if you
teach children God loves your religion more than others," she
said.
     "Dialogue is a forum for mutual witness," Shelley said.
"Each party has something to say," he said.  A key principle for
interfaith dialogue is to "deal with one another respectfully and
listen to one another," he said.
     The Rev. Kim D. Erno, director, ELCA Lutheran Center in
Mexico City, and Robert Sitze, director for hunger education,
ELCA Division for Church in Society, led a Bible study as part of
the Travel Faithfully session.
     International travel experiences are stored in the brain's
long-term memory, Sitze said.  He encouraged travelers to share
their experiences with those back home by contemplating what God
is doing around the world.  Travelers change and are changed, he
said.
     Erno called travel a circle of experiences -- take in
reality while traveling, evaluate the experience, use what was
learned in relationships back home, and advocate for the people
met while traveling.  "We return home not the same people," he
said.  "What small steps of solidarity can be expressed?"

Gathering for Closing Worship
     "I stand before you as a witness" to the gospel brought by
missionaries to India, Moses Penumaka said in his sermon during
the GME's closing worship.  He is a doctoral candidate at the
Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, Calif., from Rajahmundry in
the state of Anadhra Pradesh in South India.
     Penumaka shared some of his experiences of "a gathering God
. a God who gathers untouchables like me."
     "I am a fourth generation Indian Dalit Lutheran," he said.
In India, caste is the factor that excludes and marginalizes one-
fifth of the total population by virtue of their work and
descent.  Dalits or "untouchables" are at the bottom of the
social hierarchy, excluded by the 'non-Dalits' in social and
economic life.
      "There is a caste system in every country," Penumaka said.
"We treat many people as Dalits," he said.  "God gathers
untouchables."
     As a symbol of the damage the Dec. 26 tsunami caused to
lives and livelihoods and of the hope provided through Lutheran
relief efforts, GME participants received tattered pieces of
fishing nets that were gathered along the beaches of the Indian
Ocean.

Global University, GlobalFest and Generations
     Participants had six opportunities to select from 88
workshops and seminars known as "Global University Sessions."
Workshops were organized under ten general categories: Global
Mission, Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, Middle East,
Globalization, Peace, Public, and Congregational Witness and
Outreach.  Topics included: "Fair Trade Coffee: From Crop to
Cup," "HIV/AIDS in Senegal: True Success Story?" "ELCA's
Responses to the Southeast Asia Tsunami," "Cuba and the United
States," "Plight of Christians in Jerusalem," "Protecting Refugee
and Immigrant Children," "Principles of Christian Peacemaking,"
"Violent Video Games" and "Shopping with a Conscience."
     A tribute to the mission personnel of the ELCA was a
highlight of the GME's GlobalFest, which featured interactive
exhibits, special presentations, music, dance and dress from
countries around the world.  Food and the arts provided the means
for Lutheran missionaries from around the world to exhibit their
experiences.
     The GME included programming for people of all ages.  Child
care was provided for children through age two.  A children's
program offered a creative mix of learning experiences for
children ages 3 to 10.	Special programs for junior high and
senior high school youth were conducted.
- - -
     Information about ELCA Global Mission Events is available at
http://www.ELCA.org/gme on the Web.

EDITORS: "JMe Lowden" is spelled correctly.

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or news@elca.org
http://www.elca.org/news