Shalom Zone on Wall Street?

Friends of Shalom,

As National Director, following the lead of my Dean at Drew, I have identified myself and Communities of Shalom with www.OccupyFaithNYC.com --a multifaith coalition of religious leaders and faith-based organizations in metro New York in direct solidarity with and support of the Occupy Wall Street Movement.

Personally, I have visited Occupy camps in three cities and participated in three multifaith services at Zuccotti Park, and joined a dozen clergy and religious leaders who led the Occupy March across the Brooklyn Bridge on November 17--the second month anniversary of the movement.

On Sunday, December 4, Communities of Shalom will host and lead the weekly multifaith service at Zuccotti Park. Our theme is Occupy Advent and we have tremendous support from Drew University and United Methodist leaders in New York, including Bishop Jeremiah Park of the York Annual Conference who will make a statement of support.

I write you today to invite you to attend the prayer service if your are nearby and able, and to pray for us if you are not available--that our prophetic witness will be clear and in the spirit of Shalom.

For background on the Shalom Zone on Wall Street, read the string of blog posts on Shalom and OccupyFaith and spread the word during Advent.

Michael J. Christensen, Ph.D.

National Director, Communities of Shalom

Drew University

Madison, NJ 07940

www.communitiesofshalom.org

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

WorldHope Corps

Search This Blog