Skip to main content

Occupy Advent in Solidarity with the 99%

Jubilee Angel
Advent is a good time to Occupy.

I have been following, participating, and blogging about the OccupyWall Street movement for several weeks now, and I am ready to recommend some specific solidarity actions during this Advent season.

I'm calling on Ministers of Shalom, designated Shalom Zones, Communities of Shalom, Belivers Without Borders, and other faith-based groups and people of good will, to find creative ways to "seek shalom in the community where you have been sent" (Jeremiah 29:7).   I'm asking you to consider one or more of the following prophetic acts of kindness, hospitality, justice and advocacy in behalf of the so-called "99 %" during Advent--in the spirit of God's Shalom:

1. Open the doors of your church, community center, or home to some Occupiers for a warm meal, hot shower, or even for an overnight rest.  Several shalom zones and prophetic churches already have done this, including Church of the Village and Judson Memorial Church in Lower Manhattan, and Arch Street UMC in downtown Philedelphia.  Jim Wallis of Sojourners also has called for Christians to offer sancturary, hospitality and refuge to the young Occupiers: Sojo Net church-sanctuary-occupy-movement  If you decide to do this, here is some practical advise from one of the pastors of Judson Church:  Do's and Don't of Opening Sacred Space

2. Participate in an interfaith prayer service at an Occupy camp near you. OccupyFaithNYC sponsors a weekly multifaith service as Zuccotti Park (now called by its original name of Liberty Square).  Yesterday there was a special ceremony at Judson Church and march to Occupy Wall Street for 20th century civil rights leaders (Rev. Phil Lawson among them) to "pass on the torch" to the younger 21th century civil rights leaders (Rev. Eric Jackson from Drew Theological School among them). Passing the Torch at Liberty Square  See also  Council of Elders    http://judson.org/occupywallst

On Sunday, December 4,  Communities of Shalom will be hosting and leading an Occupy Advent prayer service at Zuccotti Park (Liberty Square) near Wall Street.  United Methodist Bishop Alfred Johnson, Drew University Chaplain Dr. Tanya Bennett, and several others will speak and pray.   Join us after church at 3:30pm if you can.

3.  Join a protest march near you.  On Saturday night my wife and I joined a group of Religion Professors at the American Academy of Religion meeting in San Francisco. Together we marched in the rain from Union Square to the Hyatt Hotel (presenting red roses to service workers denied a living wage), passed the Federal Building on Market Street where many occupiers were camped, and on to Hermann Plaza where the main camp was established.  Last Thursday, on the second month anniversary of the movement, I joined other religious leaders march from Zuccotti Park (where the occupiers were evicted two days before) up to Union Square NY, and back down to Palmer Square City Hall for a rally and then across the Brooklyn Bridge en mass.  Most cities have Occupy Marches.  Join one.
Here's a few good links: 


4. Read the Bible:  During this Advent season of waiting and willingness to be used by God, go back and re-read the old prophets of justice and Jesus's teaching about "blessed are the poor"in light of the growing popular frustration and opposition to the economic disparity, political corruption, systemic dysfunction, and culture of greed in our time.   Here's a really good analysis of the role and function of movements like Occupy from Brookings:  Brookings article  If you find the spirit of this movement compelling, consider ways to identify and minister with the so-called "99%"
Here's short, faithful, biblical call to Christian solidarity with Occupy Vancouver from a young evangelical graduate student at Regent University in Vancouver:  Jubilee Economics

5. Prayerfully discern what time it is for you, for America and for our world.  When kairos (God's time, appointed time) has finally come, then we may perceive the "new thing" God is doing in the world to 'raise up the lowly and feed the hungry with good things'.   If you perceive it, then, then 'seize the time'.  "Who knows whether you have been chosen for such a time as this?"

There are many more ways to proclaim the gospel to the poor, speak truth to power, support Occupy or engage in prophetic ministry in your time and place.   What is important is to act prayerfully and courageously, in the spirit of God's Shalom, and with the biblical understanding that the Lord requires us to "remember the poor" and "not neglect the needy" (Psalm 44:1); and to 'do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with our God" (Micah 6:8).

Occupy Advent!  Occupy Shalom.


Dr. Michael J. Christensen, Ph.D.
International Director, Communities of Shalom
Drew University
Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

Mother Shalom

South Central, Los Angeles, was the neighborhood in the city where Communities of Shalom began in 1992. I met Marx Gutierrez from El Salvador who was there attending High School at the time. He remembers what happened at the corner of Florence and Normandy Streets in South Central, LA, when Reginald Denny was pulled out of his truck and beaten while the crowd looked on and the police did nothing; and how the Rodney King beating resulted in a not-guilty verdict for the police and resulted in a major, 3-day uprising in the neighborhood, until the National Guard came in and finally imposed law and order. He can still remember the fires, the bright orange night sky, the mass looting, 45 unsolved killings, the social chaos...And how the United Methodist Churches responded by creating a zone of shalom in 7 neighborhoods of Los Angeles. Today, Marx is a community organizer, and married to Jennifer Gutierrez, Conference Shalom Coordinator in the Calif-Pacific Annual Conference, and Rev. Vilma
Read more

First Generation Lambs Club Reunion

Fifteen of us gathered Saturday night at the Lambs Club for a 35 th year reunion of those who helped start the Lamb’s Church in Times Square in the mid to late 1970’s, including: Rev. Paul S. Moore , Founder of the Lamb’s Church of the Nazarene, and his wife, Tamara Dr. Michael J. Christensen , charter member and former associate pastor, and his wife Dr. Rebecca Laird Fr. William (BJ) Webe r, former Associate Pastor and Director of the Lamb’s Residency, and his wife Sheila who lived at the Lamb’s Jim and Dustee Hullinger, who were on staff together and made the Lamb’s their home for over 25 years Effie Canepa , who was the church pianist under 3 pastors, and her husband Peter Shirley Close, who attended the Lamb’s in the late 1970’s while studying, performing  and teaching music and voice Carl "Chappy" Valente , former associate pastor Rev. Bob DiQuatto , lead singer of the Church’s “Manhattan Project” and staff member of the Lamb’s, and his son Jason Rev. Gabriel
Read more

Liberation Spirituality: Henri Nouwen and Gustavo Gutierrez in Dialogue

Liberation Spirituality: Henri Nouwen and Gustavo Gutierrez in Dialogue Lecture Notes: Presented by Michael J. Christensen, Ph.D.,  Associate Professor in the Practice of Spirituality and Ministry,  Drew University;  and  International Director, Communities of Shalom, The United Methodist Church Introduction “There is a little man in Peru, a man without any power, who lives in a barrio with poor people and who wrote a book.   In this book he simply reclaimed the basic Christian truth that God became human to bring good news to the poor, new light to the blind, and liberty to the captives.   Then years later this book and movement it started is considered a danger by [the USA, or Rome], the greatest power on earth.   When I look at this little man, Gustavo, and think about [the President of the US, or the Pope], I see David standing before Goliath, again with no more weapon than a little stone, a stone called A Theology of Liberation (Henri Nouwen
Read more