wfn.org | UGC 2010 Women's Pre-Council: Taking the Jesus bus to poverty

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

> Uniting General Council 2010

> News Release

> 17 June 2010

Women's Pre-Council: Taking the Jesus bus to poverty

By Esther R. Suter, correspondent for Uniting General Council

Under the motto, â??Come with Jesus into the streets,â?? delegates to the Womenâ??s 
Pre-Council were invited to get to know  Grand Rapids, Michigan from the â??other side.â??

Beyond the boundaries of the beautifully landscaped Calvin College campus and 
the large upper-class homes of East Grand Rapids, they listened to and 
experienced people who are challenged to cope day-to-day.  In so-called
â??Jesus buses,â?? they were driven Tuesday to a struggling section of the city 
called
â??Heartside,â?? and confronted with the economic problems of a deteriorating 
auto industry and its impact on the population.

Meeting at Westminster Presbyterian Church, the women learned about local 
problems and a Christian agency that long has worked to alleviate them.

Heartside Ministry began more than 25 years ago as a place of hope for people 
who lived at the margins of society. They include mentally ill people who were 
released from institutions under a change in health policy and left largely on 
their own; women victimized by domestic and sexual violence; and the unemployed 
and homeless casualties of economic decline and shuttered industries.

Rev. Charlotte Ellison, pastor of Heartside Ministry, said she fears that in 
the future the widespread transition from industrial production to service jobs 
such as the food and health industries will create more social problems.

Her ministry is not restricted to its daily offerings to those in need, but also has 
developed housing programmes.  The ministryâ??s impressive work, in partnership 
with the YWCA and the Salvation Army, evoked questions from women who compared local 
conditions with their own situations in the global South.

The strongly charitable thrust of the ministry, for example, might create 
dependency rather than guiding people towards independence, a Rwandan woman 
said. A woman from Nigeria commented that giving alone might be one-sided if 
the receiver did not give back a contribution out of his or her own gifts. 
Several said the question of injustice was not being raised.

A core concern emerged from small-group discussions: How is it possible to 
respond to the question of justice without giving up charitable involvement in 
the process?

The women weighed such questions, held Bible study and sang songs of praise 
before returning to Calvin College, where they continued their Pre-Council that 
winds up Thursday.

The Uniting General Council 2010 in Grand Rapids, United States (June 18-28) 
marks the merger of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches and the Reformed 
Ecumenical Council to form the World Communion of Reformed  Churches.

> Contact: Kristine Greenaway
> Executive Secretary, Communications
> World Communion of Reformed Churches

UGC News Room ? Calvin College - Hoogenboom Center Room HC 204 (Arial 10)

> Cell phone: 1-616-826-5540 or 1-616-826-8636
> email: kgr@warc.ch

> web: www.reformedchurches.org