You are currently subscribed to the PCUSANEWS
email list of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
========================================
This story may be seen here: http://www.pcusa.org/pcnews/2007/07701.htm
07701 October 30, 2007
Tearing down the wall
Cold War's end helps missionary deepen connection between PC(USA) and churches in former communist states
by Evan Silverstein Presbyterian News Service
LOUISVILLE - For Gary Payton life as a Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) mission co-worker means applying what he once learned for the purposes of war to efforts of peace and reconciliation.
And that's just fine with the 57-year-old Missouri native, who prior to working for the PC(USA) served 24 years as an officer in the United States Air Force during the height of the Cold War. His work at the time mostly focused on the Soviet Union, the nuclear-armed superpower foe of the U.S.
The Cold War entered the history books with a dramatic political upheaval in Eastern Europe in 1989 and the collapse of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in 1991.
Now, 18 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Payton serves as the PC(USA)'s Regional Liaison for Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, and Poland. Freely working to build relationships with partner churches in the four countries that had once been ruled with an iron fist, isolated from the West and persecuted for their faith.
"I am responding to a call, a call to use the talents that have been developed over a lifetime to now use those skills in service to the church in order to find ways to connect people that once viewed each other as the enemy," Payton told the Presbyterian News Service recently.
Payton is one of about 48 Presbyterian missionaries participating in Mission Challenge '07, a month-long initiative intended to reconnect PC(USA) missionaries with congregations and presbyteries for spiritual, communication and financial support.
Appointed as a PC(USA) mission co-worker in January 2000 after previously serving as director of the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program, Payton works closely with the Russian Orthodox Church, the Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists of the Russian Federation, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Russia and Other States, the Reformed Church in Carpath-Ukraine, and the Evangelical Reformed Church in Poland.
In addition to serving as a bridge between partner churches and other mission co-workers in the four countries, he works closely with other parts of the PC(USA) engaged in mission in the region, such as congregations, presbyteries, synods, General Assembly Council staff, and mission support groups.
"It's much more satisfying to be about working with brothers and sisters in Christ in the Russian Federation then it is to be worrying about the strength of the former Soviet military," Payton said.
Payton's responsibilities focus on enhancing the four pillars of PC(USA) engagement in the region: (1) congregational partnerships or "twinning" between Presbyterian and Russian, or Belarusian congregations; (2) support to theological and Christian education; (3) support to churches seeking to spread the gospel to the unchurched; and (4) diaconal projects such as support to children and orphanages, HIV/AIDS education and prevention, and disaster response.
"The programs are moving in the direction that our partner churches want them to go," Payton said. "We have a deep and abiding relationship, particularly around congregational twinning with individual churches of the Baptist Union in the Russia Federation. We have a small but growing number of twinning relationships with Russian Orthodox churches and we mutually benefit from those twinning relationships."
Payton is based at his home in Sandpoint, ID, located 60 miles south of the Canadian border and 80 miles northeast of Spokane, WA. He regularly travels to Russia, Belarus, Poland, the Ukraine and across the U.S.
"It's a question of meeting with our church partners, reviewing projects that we have underway cooperatively, meeting with PC(USA) mission folks, and seeing how they're doing in their mission life," Payton said. "It's always an opportunity for brainstorming, listening to the voice of God and being led into new possibilities for the future."
As the people in the four countries he serves struggle to overcome a legacy of communism, the rebirth of the church brings hope to millions of people, Payton said.
However, he cautioned obstacles still remain for churches on both sides in working together following the depths of the Cold War.
"Our coming along side these churches has been a journey of building trust," Payton said. "We once viewed each other as the enemy politically. It takes time to build trust and understanding as brothers and sisters in Christ that we represent different parts of the body of Christ in the world."
He said relations between the PC(USA) and its partner churches in Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, and Poland range from "warm and embracing" to "we continue to build trust together."
But any differences become much less significant when "we recognize the things we have in common as Christians," said Payton, a Presbyterian elder who graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, CO, with a double major in international affairs and Soviet area studies.
As head of the peacemaking program from 1996-1999, Payton participated in the working group that produced the "Resolution on Just Peacemaking," which was adopted by the PC(USA)'s General Assembly in 1998 and the subsequent Ecumenical Consultation on Just Peacemaking adopted by the Assembly the following year.
Most recently, he served on the working group that produced the "Resolution on Violence, Religion, and Terrorism," which was adopted by the PC(USA)'s General Assembly in 2004.
Payton also spent three weeks in Mississippi in September 2005 representing Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA) in helping with disaster relief in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
Payton is married to the Rev. Nancy Copeland-Payton, pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Sandpoint, where he serves on session as mission chair. The couple has three sons, Ian, 26, Adam, 23, and Graham, 18.
"I believe that God has had a hand in shaping me at each of the steps in my life," Payton said. "The opportunities and training and experiences in the first half of life are clearly focused on the ministry and the call that I have today in working with church partners in these former communist states."
During Mission Challenge '07, Payton visited the presbyteries of Inland Northwest and Glacier.
========================================
You are currently subscribed to the PCUSANEWS
email list of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
To unsubscribe, send a blank message to
mailto:PCUSANEWS-unsubscribe-request@halak.pcusa.org.
To update your email address, send your old email address and your new one to mailto:PCUSANEWS-request@halak.pcusa.org.
For questions or comments, send an email to mailto:PCUSANEWS-request@halak.pcusa.org.
To learn more, visit http://www.pcusa.org/pcnews/
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) 100 Witherspoon Street Louisville, KY 40202 (888) 728-7228