“The People have spoken”

My eyes welled up last night and this morning as the national milestone of putting an African American family in a White House built by slave labor. Anyone with a social justice bone in their body, whether they voted for Senator McCain or not, must be over-whelmed with a deeper joy today in seeing the flood of images of jubilation from around the world.

"The people have spoken!" said Senator John McCain. “All Americans can be proud of the history that was made yesterday.” said President George W. Bush. Now the real work begins of systemic change in “remaking the Nation, block by block, brick by brick, calloused hand by calloused hand, said President-elect Barak Obama. And I would add, “zone by zone of shalom.”

As the images of joy and celebration continue to stream in from around the world, and tears fall down our cheeks, let us also remember how fearful at least 25% of those who voted for McCain feel about an Obama presidency, according to the polls. Many are convinced that the country has taken an apocalyptic turn, that the America they know and love is gone. It is a time for understanding and commpassion, healing and reconciliation, re-building trust, taking the risk of collaboration, coming together in the spirit of hope , and finding common ground. Time to develop a global perspective as a citizen of the world. Time to trust the God of all the nations, while we seek the shalom of our country with liberty, justice and prosperity for all.

“Some trust in horses, some in chariots, but our hope is in the Lord our God.” Psalm 20:27

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

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

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

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