Episcopal Press and News
Jackson Challenge Anchors Urban Study
Episcopal News Service. October 16, 1980 [80354]
CHATTANOOGA -- A challenge by the Rev. Jesse Jackson that the churches must restore people's hope was the centerpiece of urban issues that occupied much of the interim meeting of the Episcopal Church House of Bishops at the Read House here.
Two panels on urban theologies and needs flanked Jackson's Oct. 7 remarks in which he pleaded with the churches to help people "develop inner strength so that when storms rage, our people won't use pill power and cop out. "
Citing a growth in inter-racial violence and the implacability of racist attitudes, Jackson told the Bishops: "We can't afford race games. We don't have the luxury to indulge in skin worship anymore." The veteran civil rights activist challenged Christian churches to lead to "radical redistribution of national priorities: A radical shift from arms to being the least; a radical shift from being superior over to equal with or even dependent upon. "
"We need the world and the world needs us, " Jackson continued, "but the world must change and the Church must lead us to the new world. "
Pointing to special interest politics using fundamentalist Christian forums, Jackson said the problem was not the "moral majority but an immoral majority that has been too silent for too long and the rocks have begun to cry out. "
Jackson's plea for restoration of hope was echoed in the situations encountered by bishops grappling with despair and apathy brought on by foundering industry and highly controversial defense proposals.
At a press briefing panel organized by Bishop Robert DeWitt of the Church & Society network, Bishop John Burt told how the Diocese of Ohio and other Church groups have "run head on into the principalities and powers" in their efforts to buy industry-closed steel mills and run them as community-owned projects. Burt cited policies of steel firms run from New Orleans that have left people of the Mahonning Valley feeling helpless. He said that 18,000 have lost steel jobs and the city of Youngstown has had to lay off half its municipal employees.
Bishop Otis Charles of Utah said people in his diocese were becoming apathetic as their efforts to halt placement of the MX missile system in the high desert were worn down by what he saw as government intransigence and "the puzzling silence of the people most endangered by this proposal -- the Mormons."
Other bishops conceded the apathy and despair and sought to lay out ways in which the Church could meet that and retain its unique mission.
Bishop John S. Spong of Newark agreed that cities are inhabited largely by victims of policies made elsewhere and said his diocese had decided to concentrate on seemingly small steps to allow people to see victories and know some change can be made. He cited victories in halting a housing abandonment in Jersey City and shutting a Paterson motel as such symbols that help counter the frustrations of city dwellers. Newark, he said, would concentrate on programs of family life, education and local congregation support "even if these seem like band-aid approaches, because sometimes all you can offer a hurting person is a band-aid."
New York's Bishop Paul Moore echoed the need for congregational support and said his commitment was to keep small, marginal parishes open as "sturdy little places in a fragile world." He said such places could become rallying points if they were able to offer an active, culturally reflective liturgical life and bring community residents into positions of leadership and management. He spoke of allowing failure "if, in failing, they get a glimpse of the cross" and of harnessing anger into redemptive power "so that failure does not defeat but lends glory."
Moore took up his plea for the support of inner-city congregations in another panel later in the week in which urban bishops presented various program models to a plenary session of the House.
That panel, chaired by Bishop James Montgomery of Chicago, also included Bishop Calvin O. Schofield of Southeast Florida and Robert B. Appleyard of Pittsburgh.
Moore said that such small churches tend to be seen as anchors in a changing community and need to be supported by the diocese serving as chief missionary unit. He said that the church needed to use its access to power structures to develop funding and spiritual support for new inner-city churches and said that New York had begun a policy of shifting from program support to clergy support to help provide that focus.
In speaking of the Church's role in Miami, Schofield said there were three causes of the Spring riots, all of which pointed to particular roles for the Church. He said that, first, the white community was blaming the massive Hispanic refugee influx for the shaky state of the schools, health delivery systems and the city economic structure. Secondly, the police murder trial acquittals, which were the actual touch point, emphasized an existing legal double standard and that, most importantly, the city and social elements of the city had "offered no open word or sign of support to the black community in 12 years. "
He said that the Church's first role in meeting these causes had to be to develop open communications among races and the various geographic portions of the region, to improve understanding and to work to defuse tensions that have caused a 70 percent increase in the city homicide rate recently.
Asserting that "industry has a great moral obligation to create jobs and be an instrument of social change, " Appleyard spoke of some of the pitfalls in trying to work out that position.
"Industry needs to be told that with certainty and without apologies, " he said, "but there is no more demonic temptation than to yield to the 'stay-out-of-it' attitude that exists. " Deeply involved in the crisis over mill closures and subsequent job loss, Appleyard told the bishops that it was possible for the Church to be seen as a friend and "a champion for God's justice."
He urged the bishops, when they become involved in these community issues, to do so with strong lay support, with wide episcopal support and ecumenically if possible, and noted that such broadly-based efforts had led a labor leader in his area to declare that the churches were the only trustworthy aspect of the controversy.
Presiding Bishop John M. Allin wrapped up the urban discussion with a plea for the bishops to support and implement actively those portions of the Venture in Mission program that address urban needs and especially asked that the $1 million Astor gift to New York and Long Island be brought to bear on the problems that had been raised.