Occupy Shalom during Advent

Dr. Michael J. Christensen and Bishop Alfred Johnson

Here's a copy of my Occupy Advent Prayer and Statement of Support for Occupy Wall Street, delivered as a Call and Response at Zuccotti Park on December 4, 2011 for the Second Sunday in Advent:

Communities of Shalom

is a network of community development sites—

known as Shalom Zones—scattered across the country.

We are here today to Occupy with Faith

in direct solidarity with OWS

because we share your frustration with the System--

the possessed structures of oppression and domination
that Bible calls “Principalities and Powers...”

at work for ill in the world...

We are here today because we agree with you who are occupiers:

that our democracy has been coopted and corrupted,

that the few are enriched at the expense of the many,

that greed is wrong, and selfishness is sin.

We are here today—occupiers and allies—together proclaiming

that a new world is possible, a new world is coming, a new world of God's Shalom!

Occupy Advent

is about being willing and waiting,

waiting and working,

watching and praying,

for the coming Change,

the pending Shift,

the sure Turning,

and long-Dawning

of the Age of the Spirit!

Advent is a time of new Beginnings.

We're hoping and praying

working and waiting

for the Change that must come,

so that the scripture might be fulfilled:

“those that gathered much did not gather too much,

and those who gathered little did not gather too little,

so all may have what they need.” (Exo 16:18)

“How long, O Lord, how long?" I hear the Psalmist David say.

How long must we wait for the the world to Turn?

For the Shift to take hold and the Wrong made right?

How long, O Lord, how long?

For the valleys to be exalted and the mountains brought low?

How long, O Lord, how long?

Will the wicked prosper and the poor live in despair?

“How long?--Not long!” I hear the prophet Martin say:

because “the arc of the moral universe is long,

but it bends toward justice."

For thus it is written, and thus is shall be:

On the mountain of greed

ON THE MOUNTAIN OF GREED

From the ashes of despair

FROM THE ASHES OF DESPAIR

In the chaos of these times

IN THE CHAOS OF THESE TIMES

Will arise

WILL ARISE

New communities of hope and faith

NEW COMMUNITIES OF HOPE AND FAITH

New communities of love and daring

NEW COMMUNITIES OF LOVE AND DARING

New communities of God’s Shalom

NEW COMMUNITIES OF GOD’S SHALOM

AMEN. (adapted from original Shalom Litany of first Shalom Team in Los Angeles, 1992)

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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