Telling My Story for Me, Sharing My Story for Us

Gerlene Gordy, or GJ, is a member of the Navajoland Area Mission.

Ya'at'eeh! My name is Gerlene Gordy also known as GJ. I am Native American, an enrolled member of the Navajo Tribe, currently residing in Window Rock, Arizona. My clans are One Who Walks Around born into the Salt Clan. My maternal grandparent’s clan is Edge Water, and my paternal grandparent’s clan is the Mud People.

I was given the chance to take part in Why Serve, and as I come out of it, I believe it has not only provided me with more knowledge, but it has also given me a stronger faith community. I gained the support I needed outside Navajo Land and in doing so; I also gained the resources to accomplish all that I want to accomplish. What I learned at Why Serve is that the opportunities are endless.

During and after the conference, I met and talked to people my age. We talked about the struggles we each face, including: lack of respect, lack of church education, and lack of opportunities for young adults. Collectively we made a great diverse group, not everyone suffered the same problems, but we all had something to offer one another and we all have something to offer the church. I learned that just by being there, sharing our stories and sharing our culture, we were all doing God’s work. "God’s work done in God’s time".

As young adults we have so much to offer the wider church, especially as we move forward in time and technology. In some ways young adults serve as a major hub for communication. Aside from our knowledge of advancing technology, we are also growing up in a fast-paced multitasking world, which is molding us into open minded, enthusiastic dreamers. I dream of working with all my friends in the future, I dream of everyone being connected like a web, helping, sharing, and supporting one another as we walk with and carry out God’s will.

During Why Serve, I took part in workshops on Seeking Healthy Mentoring Relationships, Intergenerational Tension, and Discernment through Story Telling. These topics stood out for me because of real life personal experiences. Working with youth is a passion that I hope to live out. I have experience working with at risk children in a highly populated city, and various non-profit organizations. Because of my life experiences, I hope to work with children and alleviate their physical and emotional distress. Based on previous positive conversations with people who had been in a church youth group, I believe creating one would really be a great building block to introduce youth to church. By providing opportunities for youth to be heard and educating them about the church, we can all learn, and by teaching about respect we can all feel whole.

My walk with Navajo Land Area Mission has been one full of great happiness, and my experience at Why Serve has changed me for the better. I went in with the thought of telling the story of my church, and I walked out with renewed thinking. I need to tell my story, to help everyone understand me, and help all in return, including myself; to help grow people with stories, help myself grow by telling my story.

A Place From Which to Serve

Ernesto Pasalo, or JaR, is a student in the Diocese of Hawaii.

“But now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all nations might believe and obey him” Romans 16:26

As we sat in the van on the way to our conference for “people of color” I noticed our group was culturally diverse. Native Hawaiian, Native American, Cuban, Mexican, African American, and Filipino were represented in the van. Though we were all different we were all there for the same reason. We were there to discern God’s call in our lives.

Having gone to the previous Does It Fit? conference I felt secure with where I was heading with my discernment. I attended Why Serve to better acquaint myself with the seminary and my peers. I was not ready for what God had in store for me. God got me questioning, who am I? How do I identify myself? What culture do I identify myself with? These questions were difficult but were necessary as I started to discern.

I know that I am Filipino and I was born and raised in Hawaii. That is where it gets tricky. Being raised in Hawaii, you are always around different cultures. When sugar became a huge commodity for Hawaii in the mid 1800’s, plantations needed more laborers to assist the Hawaiians and Caucasians already working in the cane fields. Chinese, Japanese, Filipinos, and Europeans where hired to work in the fields. They all had to learn to work together, communicate with each other despite the language barrier, and be able to live alongside each other. This is where Hawaii’s “local” culture started.

The local culture is a blend of all of the cultures that the plantations brought in. The local culture also adapted its own language, Pdgin, incorporating the native languages of plantation laborers.

So how do I identify myself and my culture? How does knowing my identity help with my understanding of God’s Call and my ministry? Am I culturally Filipino or a Hawaii Local? Which culture is more beneficial for me to serve? These questions cannot be simply answered. I am glad that Why Serve gave me the opportunity to seek the answers to these questions. One thing I will take away from the conference is the importance of culture when doing ministry, whether it be the culture from your native land or the culture you've come to relate yourself with.

Episcopal Polity 101

Brian Romero is a student in the Diocese of Long Island.

Why Serve? Or how to serve? These were the questions young adults were asking themselves as they traveled to Sewanee, Tennessee. They continued to ask them throughout the course of the Why Serve Conference hosted by the University of the South. During the four day stay they talked, contemplated their discernment and wondered which ministry would best suit their interests and experiences. Some are future ordained clergy, some are soon to be theologians and some will be missionaries across the globe. One amazing thing that these youth all have in common? Representing Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders, African Americans, Native American/Indigenous people, and Latino/Hispanic backgrounds, these Episcopalians were of color, vibrant in pride and potential.

I thoroughly enjoyed the conversations with the Ethnic Ministries Officers and my friends from different states and our sharing of callings and ministries. However something that did become apparent during our time together was that these young adults (like many in our church) need Episcopal education. By that I mean that in order for us to have as much influence as possible we need to be educated about our governance and structure on all levels. Without this fundamental knowledge we continue to face the impediments many people of color face in the church due to a lack of understanding regarding how things occur on the church-wide level.

During the conference Keane Akao provided an intro discussion on this particular missing piece. Many, if not all of the participants knew very little about our church's structure, and not including this part of Christian education at these church wide events takes away a vital tool for the progress of our future leaders. One mistake of our past is that we continue to lead and are under the misconception that the young will simply "learn as they go."

At the last General Convention, Resolution D094 was passed in both the House of Bishops and the House of Deputies, making it an Act of Convention. Its title, “Young Adult Representation on Legislative Committees” encourages the President of the House of Deputies to make an effort to appoint deputies under the age of 30 to legislative committees and CCABs (Committees, Commissions, Agencies and Boards). With the proper education provided to these young people they will be able to follow more ambitious and richer ministries in the wider church. Diocesan Conventions should include workshops and lectures on the Episcopal Church’s governance and structure. Young adults need to be told about the opportunities of the many ministries in our Lord’s name and the many bodies that they can run for if they feel called to do so. Educating young people must become a priority for those who have indeed realized our church's critical situation. Now more than ever we must make sure that our future leaders are equipped with the information to lead, but that duty lies within all of us, to do as God instructed and spread the good word.

Called into Holy Conflict

Jabriel Ballentine is a member of the Diocese of the Virgin Islands, residing in Washington, D.C..

 

In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.  One God.  Amen.

 

Recently about fifty of us youth gathered in Sewanee, TN to explore our call to serve.  It was an invaluable experience that, I believe, will greatly benefit the Church.  Having the opportunity to meet and exchange with others grappling with God’s call on their life is a blessing of immense proportions.  Truly, iron sharpens iron (Prov. 27:17).

Now, Sewanee was seemingly an obscure place to call together youth of color.  The very name speaks volumes of its past: The University of the South.  Say “the South” to Black people over 50 and the term conjures images of dehumanizing oppression, social degradation and terror.  

There was something miraculous about confronting the injustices of the disinherited and oppressed in an environment that celebrates the “Confederate Giants” who established the institution.  Indeed, we saw the Confederate Flag memorialized in stained glass and drawings of Frederick Douglass that reminded us of the common sentiment in the South that Black people were monkeys.

Nevertheless, we engaged the experience.  Without cell phone service, we were forced to come out of our virtual lives and engage each other.  An amazing crop of fruit was harvested.

What is the message gleaned for young adults of color, discerning their call to service at an Institution steeped in Confederate tradition?  A university founded by Episcopal Bishop Leonidas Polk for secessionist purposes to be the “national university” of the Confederacy, the very residence hall where we were housed, is a memorial in “honor” of the “Chaplain of the Confederacy,” Episcopal Bishop and “Re-Founder” of the University of the South, the Rt. Rev. Charles Todd Quintard.

Really, “why serve?”  Why serve an institution (the Church) that has been complicit in dehumanizing and marginalizing us?  That must be a constant reflection.  It was the reflection I faced as I asked in a session on clarifying our questions: “How far can I push the Church to grapple with oppressive theologies before I’m excommunicated?”  How far can we, people of color, push within the Church before we are pushed aside, marginalized, and silenced?  I fear the Church might expect us to cut off our cultural identities, heritage and legacy for a superficial “unity” that yields only the appearance of cohesion while the sores still fester deep within the body?  Or worse, will the Church hope for a crop of young leaders who subscribe to a feigned post-racial, post-cultural kuumbya ideology?  I fear that if we, the Church, ignore these questions and the actions from which these question of necessity arise, we will tread a slippery slope that hampers the efficacy of the Gospel, especially as it pertains to those who stand with their backs against the wall (Thurman, Howard. Jesus and the Disinherited). 

As I reflect on the conference, it was very fitting to host it at the University of the South.  If we are to truly distinguish (or, discern) our call to ministry in this Church, we must be true to the voice of our ancestors and our posterity.  Our legacy, our culture, our heritage must be brought into holy conflict with the ideologies (and theologies), which led to the founding of a “University of the South.”  

Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ said: “Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword” (Matt. 10:34).  If we are to see the beloved community and reveal a Jesus that is efficacious to the disinherited, we are compelled to agitate and cause discomfort so as to till the soil for a bountiful harvest.

This, then, is “why serve.”  We serve that we might be the answer to our Lord’s prayer: that we might be one, as He and His Father are One (John 17:21).  We serve that our voices might not be silenced and that our ancestors might not be forgotten.  We serve that injustices might not be romanticized and justice oversimplified.  We serve that the Body of Christ might be defended, attended and mended.  

May God be glorified by our service!  Amen. 

What's color got to do with it?

Jason Sierra is based in the Seattle Office of the Episcopal Church Center.

With Pentecost behind us and moving into the endless green of Ordinary Time, the summer programming season begins. I kicked it off with Why Serve, a vocational discernment conference for young adults of color at the University of the South in Sewanee, TN. Forty-two young adults from across the Episcopal Church gathered atop the mountain for four days of self-examination, fellowship, and a whole lot of forward-moving spiritual mojo. What better time to gather than close on the heels of Pentecost?

I struggle with the idea of segregated events, whether on account of race or culture, gender or age. The body segmented is always incomplete. I felt that pain most acutely a few weeks before the conference as I called to inform an excited young man that he, a self described "caucasian" male, was not the target audience for the event. He was more than gracious about it, even as I clumsily asked him whether he identified as a person of color and explained to him the nature of the event, a collaborative venture between the four ethnic ministry desks of the Episcopal Church: Black Ministries, Asian Ministries, Native/Indigenous Ministries and Hispanic/Latino Ministries. He hung up a little disappointed-sounding and, rightfully, a little put out about the confusion. Where is the vocational discernment conference for him? For all young adults?

The answer, in the end, is two fold. First, our hope is that dioceses might like what it is we have done with this event and replicate it in a local context for all young adults. Some already are doing similar things. I think specifically of Vocare in dioceses like the Central Gulf Coast or pilot discernment programs in places like Atlanta and Upper South Carolina. Our hope is that with the hire of the new officer for Young Adult Discernment and Vocation (a joint position between our office and the Office of Transition Ministry) these efforts will be brought to a higher profile and linked more concretely with one another to hold discernment up as a priority in our work with young adults.

The second part of the answer to why JUST young adults of color has to do with a history that has continually redefined its understanding of the inclusive love of God in ever more far-reaching and yet ever-incomplete circles of the "sacred." We have unwittingly in our past (and even at present) erased entire populations through our short-sightedness, and there is healing of the body to be done. The segregated event is not the end-goal, but we believe the rupture must be examined from all angles if it is to be healed. We belong to a historically white church and the work of full inclusion, the work of raising up all members of the body, will not happen overnight. Events like this are necessary stepping stones as we move toward a healed body, spaces where the specific concerns of smaller groups within the body can be heard and addressed.

I believe very strongly in the work of the Ethnic Ministry desks, because I believe that, like ministry with young adults, they insist that the gospel, and even the gospel as interpreted by the history of the Episcopal Church is not so culturally bound as we assume, that God can do bigger things with it than just passing it down to our own cultural heirs.

I left this event with a lot of hope and a lot of uncertainty. I found myself strengthened and challenged, having found in it even a small bit of greater clarity around where our office is being called by the Spirit and by young adults themselves. I walked away with some new partners in that work. As a half-Latino, half white young man, raised in a black neighborhood in a Mexican town, my cultural placement is as specific and as narrow as anyone else's, but over this weekend, I believe we glimpsed, together, what the spirit is doing anew in the many diverse corners of the church, and what our visions together mean for the church as a whole and the Spirit's work in the world.