wfn.org | Voices of Sophia told to be doers of justice

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Note #6034 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

GA00086
June 27, 2000

Voices of Sophia told to be doers of justice

by Sue Boardman

LONG BEACH, June 27 – The friends of Sophia gathered, to rousing tones of
flute and piano, for the fifth annual breakfast of the Voices of Sophia.
Much singing and hand-clapping and hugging accompanied the festive meal
attended by a wide variety of commissioners, observers and guests, including
former Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) General Assembly moderators Isabel
Rogers, Ben Weir, and Herbert Valentine.

	Delores S. Williams, Paul Tillich Professor of Theology and Culture at
Union Theological Seminary in New York City, gave the keynote address.
Commending the membership, Williams claimed that the Voices of Sophia had
been instrumental in establishing a context for women’s voices in
action…enlivening the work of women and men and the church at large.

	Williams, a Louisville native, said her own mother had taught her daughters
that they couldn’t sit down and wait for God’s light, but had to be doers,
instead, as they worked to, “Cast up the highway, roll down the stones, and
set up a standard for the people.”

	This motto with its allusions to the prophet Isaiah, claimed Williams, is a
forceful, spiritual, inner-directed and God-supported thrust onto the public
plane of justice work, “a tenacious and fearless struggle to the places
where decisions will be made about who will do the deciding.”

	Another of the doers of justice, Mary Jane Patterson, was named this year’s
recipient of the Voices of Sophia tribute to a foremother and woman of
wisdom. A member of the Sargent Memorial Presbyterian Church in Washington,
D. C., Patterson is the former director of the
PC (USA)’s Washington Office.

	 “There is,” she said, “no false dichotomy between social action and
evangelism. Action comes from deep devotion. If you have heard the word of
God, action comes.”

	In accepting the tribute, Patterson quoted a prayer by Ernest Campbell
which asks God to, “Renew the strength of those who work long and sleep
little day after day, prodding this nation to become to all its citizens
what it has been to some.”

	Syngman Rhee, moderator of the Assembly offered closing remarks, claiming
that “We must have both the justice of God and the peace of God. It takes
time,” he cautioned listeners, “to restore justice. This is the right time
to do this. The blossom of the flower does not come immediately, but comes
from the roots when God’s time comes.”

	His final admonition, met with applause and singing, was, “Be active in
waiting.”
	

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