Warriors of the Dream

Yesterday I went to be part of a project called ‘Warriors of the Dream’ at St Phillips Church East Harlem. The group had been so called after the words of Ozzie Davis, friend of Martin Luther King Jr, to a group that had achieved their goals despite everything the world had thrown in their path, saying: 'You are my warriors of the dream.' The warriors are those people who, in the power of peace and justice, build, create and lead. The group explores their own history: Martin Luther King’s own dream, the dreams of their elders and the dreams of their future. Influenced by movements such as #blacklivesmattter it has been set up in recognition of the difficult challenges that face many of the young people living in Harlem, and in recognition of all the potential that they have to change their futures.

The group gathers like church to share time, food and fellowship. This time has a purpose of hearing God: for the group this is pursuing transformation of themselves and their neighborhood. The worship and liturgy takes place in the form of a drumming circle. The practice of drumming connects the group with their own roots and deep history, but also with a power that goes beyond words. It is a place for contemplation, but also for an acknowledgement of the power that the group has as a force for positive transformation. Scripture and spoken word is also incorporated into this practice, as is reflection, dialogue and listening across the group. 

So often dreams for hope and peace are characterized by passivity and quiet in our churches – the latter is no bad thing in itself. Yet when these young people that same day have woken up to more news that more riots are breaking out in Baltimore after black men have been killed unlawfully by white police, quiet just doesn’t cut it as an response. There is a place and need for anger, for feelings of betrayal, abandonment and grief to be shouted out in a way that is also a call for change, for truth and for transformation.

As I sat in the circle I watched more and more people join us from the local area and pick up a drum. As David the drumming leader said, you don't need to be an expert to play the drum, you just need to touch it to make a noise. For me this is also a metaphor for any way in which we can stand up for truth and justice - we don't need to be an expert on the law, we just need to say the truth our loud, to be counted, we just need to hit the drum. 

Usually traffic horns and sirens dominate the soundscape of Harlem, but this Sunday afternoon djembe drums could be herd several blocks away from where we were, and a few people stopped by to join in and share. One hearer said it was as if his soul was sleeping, he told us 'the drums called it into action'. This was a liturgy that was accessible, but also real, that captured the feeling and emotion of a community, but also proclaimed the presence of God in a place of conflict and destruction; the presence and power of hope in the midst of despair.

Syracuse – New York State - Part 2

Syracuse is in New York State, and can feel like the forgotten town for some of the young people there. Guns and drugs get passed on from New York City and young people, ending up in a city where they feel there is nothing to do but aspire to a copycat NYC gang culture, often get involved in criminal activity. This might be to make a name for themselves, or simply to give them something to do. It is the trend in Syracuse for young people to walk around with large medallion style picture of person they ‘know’ (however well) that has been killed in some sort of violence, usually gang related street violence.

The death of friend is tragic for these young people. Young people have to find space to reflect, grieve and process. As part of this, young people wear this memorial around their neck. Yet in Nate’s experience this unusual act is also more than this, it is a badge of honour, a way of aligning themselves with a particular group or gang culture. The other side of this is that these young people are getting stuck in the present moment, stuck in bitterness and despondency to the world they experience which is one of death and desolation. Unable to lift their eyes beyond it, their anger and frustration often explodes in revenge attacks and the sad spiral continues.

Reflecting on this with Nate Peña the director of Pass Da Rock and in his role at his church as a Missional Director , it seems that one of the biggest issues he finds is that young people lack aspiration and hope; they struggle to see beyond the immediate. For those of you working with young people for any length of time in the UK and indeed in many of the world's cities, I’m sure you too can relate to this – often we come across young people who do not appear to aspire to anything, not college, work or even family life.

It seems pretty sad and somewhat ironic that there are so many young people with so little aspiration in state that has plastered on every car registration plate ‘Empire State’… In our cities we can claim huge big picture aspirations but how far do these actually filter down to people's daily lives? These young people certainly don't seem to live as citizens of an 'Empire State'.

Syracuse – New York State - Part 1

This week I (James), met the ‘sock man’ of Syracuse. I named him that - this is not a self-proclaimed name from a very humble man – in fact he gave me a pair (pictured left).

Nate Peña is the director of Pass Da Rock and this is what his website says about it:

'Pass ‘Da R.O.C.K. is a local non-profit organization whose vision is to model the love of Christ within the context of a positive and non-threatening environment. We strive to make a difference in the lives of under-resourced youth by providing an alternative to the streets and creating an environment where the participants can be blessed just for being themselves. This is accomplished by providing safe sporting activities. These events encourage our participants to be physically active while demonstrating good sportsmanship with their peers. These events also allow our adults leaders the opportunity to build strong relationships with the youth and be a positive influence in their lives. The main activity of the group, since starting in Syracuse in 2001, is an organized monthly event centered on open basketball competition for middle school and high school aged youth. This event also includes free food, drinks, and prizes for the participants. In addition to the monthly event, Pass ‘Da R.O.C.K. also organizes basketball tournaments, leagues, and group outings.'

There is so much that Nate and his team do, but for me it was summed up in the socks. Each week the team have a prize table that young people can choose something from – it is filled with things that the young people might need - and it’s always the socks that go first. The philosophy behind the socks is that they are considered a luxury fashion item – particularly the ones that Nate gives away. These cost around $20 and the young people would not be able to afford them, so Nate gives them away. In doing so he doesn’t just give away socks, he gives them status in a world where what you wear not only matters – but for some of these young people its all they have. I was inspired by the lavish nature of this act, it’s a token of generous love. Of course some of the congregation of his church ask Nate why they need to buy $20 socks when Walmart sells 5 for $5. But this act of giving away $20 socks values the young people, it shows them love. It reminded me of the woman that washes Jesus’ feet with the expensive oil (Mark 14: 1-10). This women does not use oil because Jesus’ feet need a clean – water would have done the job! The oil was used as a lavish act that blessed Jesus and proclaimed love and Jesus’ worthiness. Nate is blessing the young people because they are worthy to be blessed; they have the same value as him and as his own children, and his example is to treat them in that way.

Name-Calling

In the creation story there is a pattern in which God names things. In doing so God draws them into being. In Genesis 1 God names the light ‘Day’, and the darkness ‘Night’, God names the dome over the earth ‘Sky’, the dry land ‘Earth’ and the waters ‘Seas’ and so on. God names each of these things with individual names, and then he names them again – he calls them ‘Good’.

After creating Adam, God invites Adam to follow this pattern. In Genesis 2: 19-20 God brings to Adam the animals ‘to see what he would name them’ and then ‘whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name.’ Whatever Adam named things, that was its name. Bad luck for the hippopotamus.

Names are incredibly important to us, new parents spend ages thinking of what they can name their child, believing that in some way, this name will influence their future and their very being. We name and re-name things all the time, its helps us to understand who and what we are - and our cities are not immune to this.

Flint, the city in Michigan where we have been spending time this week is often given names. I mentioned that it is known to some as the most violent or most dangerous city in America (actually since February this name is now passed to Oakland in California… lucky for them). Other names given to Flint have included the most Illiterate City, or the city with the highest levels of arson. Detroit where we have spent the last couple of days has also earned these titles, and a few others; in 2013 it was named the most miserable city in America.

These names stay with us, and as we are called, so we become. For this reason it is so important for the Church to name hope in our cities. One of the episcopal churches we visited in one of Detroit’s poorest neighbourhoods is called ‘Spirit of Hope’. From this church and its with a small but growing congregation, an urban garden is tendered. From here the church with only a handful of volunteers and much less cash manages to give away six tons of food and 20,000 meals every year. In the spirit of the Heidelberg project members of the church are decorating old church pews and hymn boards with messages of hope for their community, placing them in public places. As part of this they are praying for their community and telling them about resurrection for all – naming hope for the here-and-now. This kind of hope whispers resurrection, whispers that a city is not dead in a tomb, Christ is risen for the all of us, and all of us are a part of sharing a hope filled resurrection life. Resurrection isn’t just for the shining cities and booming financial districts and fashion capitals, resurrection is for the derelict, the forgotten, the places that have been named the bad names.

One of my friends, Andrew, is working on a performance project with the Flint Youth Theatre. Its called “Flint, the most _________ city in America”, part of the project is allowing the community to fill in the blanks, to make their own name for themselves, based on the positive that they bring and not simply acknowledging the negative that they are labeled with. We need to stop 'name-calling' in the negative and start 'name-calling' our cities in the positive, we need to be honest about our problems but we also need to speak that truth in love and in the light of resurrection hope. So we are named so we create who and what we are.

Paint Our Town Blue

Joining Andrew Morton this week at his playwriting course at the University of Michigan, I was able to sit in on a play they were writing collaboratively on the issue of child abuse. The group had had professionals come in from the local children’s home and had thought and reflected on the issue of child abuse in the state of Michigan. In the USA like in the UK, when budgets are cut, mental health support is often one of the first things to go, and this brings knock-on effects for everyone. Poverty too brings stress and anger for many, some turn to drug use – of course abuse can happen anywhere - but all these things can contribute to increased instances of abuse. In the state of Michigan, child abuse has been called a public health epidemic. Genesee County had nearly 2,000 child abuse victims in 2013. Of those victims, 1,050 were under the age of 5. Of those, 35 were reported as severely beaten. 63 children died last year in Michigan from abuse, 18 of these in Flint’s county of Genesse – all of these were under 2 and died of abuse and/or neglect.

April is Child Abuse Awareness Month and blue pinwheels can be seen in public areas to raise awareness and money for those working with victims and in methods of prevention. The campaign is called Paint Our Town Blue. The playwriting course has its own pinwheel garden outside the university. Such acts often feel very small, but they are a step towards raising awareness of these issues. The hope is that through this, work can continue in prevention of abuse by tackling some of the other issues the local area faces, as well as supporting the victims.

Garden of love

Spending time with Bobbie at Hope4Flint reminded me of the practical nature of Jesus call to respond to the needs of the poor. Jesus' command to his disciples 'they don't need to go away, you give them something to eat' (Matt 14:16) stands out on the board outside the Mission, and is so poignant. So many people have left the city of Flint already. Onlookers might think the answer is for others to just leave too. But Jesus commands us to respond, even in what looks like a hopeless situation. A crowd of 5,000 with 5 loaves and 2 fish seems to be a similar situation to a city of Flint with a population of 80,000 and the last supermarket in the city about to close. Without a car, without money, where will anyone find food to eat? For Hope4Flint and many other non-profit and church organisations, the answer that they have found is not to send the people away, but to feed people with what there is. The one thing that Flint does have is land. Groups like Edible Flint assist those who want to grow their own food in the city. They will come and check the soil of a garden for its suitability and then help advise on the fruit and vegetables that can be grown and harvested throughout the year.  This is not a quick or easy strategy, it takes time and hard work, but it is working to help feed many people who literally don't know where their next meal is coming from. Hope4Flint has its own "Garden of Love" that it runs with those who regularly drop into the centre, growing everything from strawberries to sweet potatoes and works with others to help them become self sustainable through growing their own food where they can.

Water and the City of God

The Psalmist writes, 'There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells' (Ps 46:4), Revelation 22:1 too describes to us the river of life which flows through the city of God. What can it mean then to be in a city which, has a river running through it, but one which is dirty and which cannot give its residents water that they can drink? I realise that I take what comes out of my tap for granted, for Flint’s residents, as for millions of people across the world, they can’t take it for granted at all.

Today we visited a project called Mission of Hope, Flint. The mission aims to provide warmth (a day shelter in a place which is often serval degrees below freezing), wellness (a high proportion of Flint’s population suffer from mental health issues) and of course, water. It aims to meet the needs of the residents who live here. Bobbie, the project’s leader and pastor, hands out water everyday to those who need it. He has been able to get some free donations from a local Coca-Cola plant in order to have emergency bottled water rations provided.

I’ve been part of soup kitchens and food banks handing out food, I don’t think I’ve ever been somewhere that needs to hand out emergency water. There is something deeply shocking and immediate about this need.

The Psalmist’s words meant something extraordinary to the early hearers, as I think they might do so also for some of the people of Flint. For example, the people of the Old Testament did not take water for granted as much as some of the people of the New Testament. Whereas the New Testament writers had cultures of seafaring Greeks and Romans who travelled the Mediterranean, the ancient Hebrews traversed a desert, staying only where they could find water to survive.

There is a desperation and fear that comes when water is not easy to find, it is part of our survival instinct, it is part of what it means to be human. When we pray for God’s kingdom on earth, we pray for a place where everyone has water in their cities – and across the land. Working for the kingdom is working to make this happen, and that’s exactly what Mission of Hope are doing in real and practical ways.

Illiteracy

The car manufacturer GM was born in Flint and employed 80000 people who moved to the town with their families and invested millions of dollars in buildings, shops and museums, many of which now lie abandoned. GM employs 7500 today. Such massive decline has lead to more than simply widespread unemployment. Those that could moved out of the city in the 70s, 80s and 90s, a movement often called the 'white flight'. The population has gone from 300,000 to under 100,000 today. Yet this move was less about race and more about education and opportunity. Those that could get a job elsewhere did, those that couldn't stayed behind.

Today we visited a project called Christ Enrichment Centre which is part of St Paul's Episcopal Church Flint (the church we attended yesterday). The centre was once an Episcopal church but as folks moved out congregants dwindled and this church was closed. Today it supports those people who have been left behind because they can't get a job elsewhere. For many of these people, they, like a third of the city's adults, are illiterate.

Part of the reason for this widespread illiteracy is that factory jobs that existed previously did not demand many of the workers to read and write. These people - black and white - cannot now work anywhere else.

Christ Enrichment Centre focuses on literacy amongst families and training people learn how to read and write. They are supported by St Paul's and other local churches, by the Episcopal church centrally and they also receive some government funding. They also have an onsite foodbank, work to support young mothers and run a summer camp for children. Today we met a 73 year old gentleman in the centre learning to write for the first time.