Friday 5th July I can’t believe it, there was rain on the way into the convention this morning!! It was most welcome and has perhaps reduced the temperature just a little – but not much. Our morning commute into the convention was not wonderfully better than yesterday – a real scramble to get to the ‘Pink Menno’ action on time. We did, just! I donned my pink T-shirt, took my place in the queue where someone was leaving every 30 seconds to a minute to enter the main hall and stand by a delegate table in silence, waiting to see what the reaction from the room and especially the executive will be – we really do not know. I walked into the huge auditorium, filled with large round tables at which sat about 10-people per table, and there appeared to be dozens of tables filling the hall, with the executive group on the stage and the speaker’s face projected on two huge video screens either side of the center – a very powerful presence. There was already a sea of pink shirts across the room, I saw a space that was a little thin in terms of pink and walked over to it, and stood looking to the person at the center, as we had been asked to do, in complete silence. For a while business in the main meeting continued as usual as though we were not there. Would we be there for hours? What would happen? It was a beautifully bizarre time as the delegates pretended to proceed as though nothing was unusual, while all the time we very much were there, and they certainly knew it! Suddenly, the chairperson acknowledged our presence and the fact that we felt we had not been heard and so they were willing to hear a statement being read on behalf of us all. The words of the statement (which I had heard last night, but with no idea if it would be allowed to be heard in the meeting itself) rang out clearly over the PA system – beautiful words, gracious, truthful, yet strongly insistent about how the injustice of the exclusion of those who are queer is incompatible with the gospel of Jesus and a community that prides itself in its work for and acceptance of those who are excluded. It was a special moment. There was applause from many in the hall as it concluded, and we were invited to spend several minutes in silent reflection on what had been said, which again was powerful. So far what had happened in the meeting had exceeded our best hopes. Following this the majority of ‘Pink Menno’ walked to the back of the hall where there were raised seats and sat through what remained of the session in silent observation. For me, there was gratitude that the witness had seemed to go so well, but also the concern that it might have been no more than a patronizing pat on the head by the executive. The next thing to happen would be the most important. Would there be a seat at the table to talk about real change? A small but disturbing point for me was that the chair could not bring himself to say the word, ‘gay’, or ‘lesbian’ or ‘queer’ directly, but rather resorted to embarrassing euphemisms. Do the executive really understand the seriousness of the issues? Do they actually wish to engage with them? Soon after the ‘Pink Menno’ action, Ched Myers, his wife Elaine Emms, Tim, Charletta and I discussed the possibility of Ched and I doing a webinar for the UK and Europe in the autumn, seeing if there would be interest among the wider Workshop constituency. I think it could be really exciting. I have suggested that the subject of ‘immigration’ from a biblical and current social perspective could be of interest. It is a big issue in the USA as it is in the UK. Ched’s most recent book is , ‘Our God is Undocumented: Biblical Faith and Immigrant Justice’ (see: amazon.co.uk/Our-God-Is-Undocumented-Immigrant/dp/1570759561/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1373558514&sr=8-1&keywords=Our+God+is+Undocumented). For lunch at 12 noon, I met up with my friend Connie Bradbury-Caiceros, who I met in Elkhart and who is the Executive Director at the center for Community Justice in the city. It is a remarkable place (as I mentioned in an earlier blog), among other things the first to run the VORP programme in the USA. Also with us was Connie’s friend Jackie Wells, who I have begun to know through our joint involvement in ‘Pink Menno’. Charletta caught up with us a little later. It was just a good inspiring conversation. I had to be careful of the time, as I had been contacted by my friend Hyun Hur who said he wanted to meet me at 1.30 pm outside the Exhibition hall. As you know I have spent quite a bit of time with Hyun, his wife Sue, and other Korean pastors since I arrived at the conference. I was uncertain of the purpose of the meeting, but was eager to meet up. I arrived and Hyun led me to banqueting suite (I had had lunch and so was wondering if I would be needing to eat even more food!). As it happened, it was a quiet space after lunch and their big tables could seat a group of ten people – which is exactly what Hyun had in mind. Over in the central area of the hall was a table with 10 Korean pastors and leaders sitting around it, with whom I then spent most of the next 3-hours talking about Workshop and related topics. I do love their company so much; their love, enthusiasm and searching questions are a delight to engage with. It has been such an honour and a privilege to have made this link with them – it feels so good (see: reconciliasian). I do hope that some on-going relationship will come from our time together, but they have such big challenging issues to grapple with regarding the future of the Anabaptist church in Korea and elsewhere. I will just have to see what they feel is right and appropriate for them (for more see: en.kac.or.kr/about-kac/anabaptism_story). The day, and of course the whole convention, ended rather quietly with me sitting in a corner trying to finish my blog. Finally, Tim kindly drove me back to where we were staying as I was exhausted and I had a really busy – once in a life-time – day tomorrow.
Posted on: Thu, 11 Jul 2013 17:09:26 +0000
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