Episcopal Press and News
APSO Bishops Issue Pastoral
Episcopal News Service. May 14, 1987 [87110]
CORAOPOLIS, Pa. (DPS, May 14) -- The May Board of Govenor's meeting of the Appalachian People's Service Organization (APSO) saw the the issuing of a pastoral letter by attending bishops, admission of the coalition's 15th member and the election of the group's first woman president -- who also happens to be the first layperson to hold that office.
The focus of the meeting was on how the Episcopal Church, through APSO, can best meet the challenge to the churches outlined in "Economic Transformation: The Appalachian Challenge," the report of the Working Group on the Appalachian Economic Crisis to the Commission on Religion in Appalachia (CORA). (Copies of the report are available for t5.00 from APSO, P.O. Box 1007, Blacksburg, VA 24060.)
One strategy developed in response to the report is the Appalachian Pastoral issued by bishops who attended the meeting. The Pastoral uses the example of a town called Stony Bottom to outline economic conditions in the region. Noting that "There are presently more Appalachians poorer and living in poverty than when the War on Poverty was declared twenty-three years ago," the bishops add, "Into this region God has called the Episcopal Church. By mutual consent and common cause, The Appalachian People's Service Organization has become a significant presence for The Episcopal Church." They list signs of hope in the region and call upon the Church for response through dialogue, struggle for change and commitment "to a unity of action that transcends the boundaries of our various parochial loyalties." The Pastoral will be circulated throughout the Church for awareness and response.
The newest APSO member is the Diocese of Upper South Carolina, joining the Dioceses of Atlanta, Bethlehem, Central Pennsylvania, East Tennessee, Lexington, Maryland, North Carolina, Ohio, Pittsburgh, Southern Ohio, Southwestern Virginia, Tennessee, West Virginia and Western North Carolina in that coalition.
The Board's new president is Patricia Selwood of Norton, Ohio. The Rt. Rev. Robert P. Atkinson, Bishop of West Virginia, was chosen vice-president. Re-elected were the Rev. Stephen Alexander, Newport, Ky.; secretary, and Lawrence Renfroe of Roanoke, Va., treasurer.
There is a little town in the heart of Appalachia called Stony Bottom. With the passing of the logging bonanza of the early part of this century, the town changed its name several times. Originally known as "Seldom Seen" it quickly reflected the temporary boom of people, stores, and lumberjacks complete with sawmills. When prosperity was over and the forests stripped of their rich timber, the town soon changed its name to Driftwood. For years the town barely survived, and finally decided to rest its labors upon forgotten hopes and dreams and determined it really was nothing more than a stony bottom; hence, its name today. The transition from Seldom Seen to Driftwood to Stony Bottom is a parable of Appalachia -- a region seldom seen by absentee corporations or by the federal government. A seldom seen economy that is fragile and recession-prone, Appalachia is a place where people have serious questions about economic development. Like pieces of driftwood, the people of the land have been victims of the changing waves and winds of corporate policy, the silencing of thousands of coal mines and factories, so that many towns and villages have deteriorated to stony bottoms. There are presently more Appalachians poorer and living in poverty than when the War on Poverty was declared twenty-three years ago. When corporate industry abandons the work force of a community there follows a loss of service, an eroding tax base, and declining investment. The thousands of "Stony Bottoms", largely rural, without jobs, carry social costs of more unemployment benefits to pay, increase of welfare rolls, loss of taxes, and a diminishing of human dignity. And on it goes like a Litany of Woe -- Seldom Seens, Driftwoods, and Stony Bottoms.
Into this region God has called the Episcopal Church. By mutual consent and common cause, the Appalachian People's Service Organization has become a significant presence for The Episcopal Church. As your APSO bishops, we write as pastors, not public officials. We speak as moral teachers, not economic technicians. We seek not to make some ideological or political point, but to lift up the human and ethical dimensions of the economic and spiritual life we live in the region, aspects too often neglected in public discussion. We ask for no additional money in this Pastoral for the support of APSO, and we do not solicit letters or telegrams to our state and federal legislators. We simply want you to reflect with us and invite you to seek ways to re spond to the havens of hope that emerging through the coalition of APSO. Listen to what we are hearing and seeing in the region:
- We have heard it said in the midst of a strike with miners barricaded behind sandbags on one side of the road and the company guards behind a high fence on the other, a miner picks up a guitar to pluck out a new song of strength and hope.
- We have heard it said that Appalachia is a place that has been labelled "hard to organize"; and yet, over and over again, the people are coming together to fight for clean water, land reclamation, better schools, more jobs, just wages, and better working conditions.
- We have heard it said that a textile worker shortens her hours so a co-worker can work longer to feed her family. Those who have Jobs feed those who do not. Farmers join together to stop foreclosure of a neighbor. Steelworkers save the homes of their unemployed co-workers. Local citizens band together to save their environments from further destruction by toxic wastes.
- We have heard it said that Appalachians don't care about education; yet literacy clinics and programs are about to be established by APSO, and parents are banding together to work for better schools for their children.
- We have heard it said that Appalachians have a strong bond with the land. This is an ancient bond first formed by the Cherokee and other native Americans. It is now echoed in the lives of many who call Appalachia home.
All of these havens of hope are signs and sights that the times are changing. The Episcopal Church can respond. We call upon our people to do so by entering the market place and the political arena to participate in the struggle for systemic change and the transformation of our social, economic, political system from one of indifference and exploitation to one which is more just and caring. As Episcopalians, we can foster dialogue across the social community in order to build new solidarity with those whose rights are under attack.
We know there is no cheap grace and hence no cheap discipleship. As Episcopalians, we need increasingly to find ways of putting our spiritual and material resources at the service of the poor and the oppressed and the unemployed. 'lost of all, we call upon all Episcopalians to commit ourselves a new to a unity of action that transcends the boundaries of our various parochial loyalties. For, as we all serve in regions that daily reflect the wounds of Christ's body, our conviction is that injustice, oppression, and death should not have the last word for Appalachia, but rather the last word is found in the ministry of another healer of long ago.
"Bring good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to the captives and to the blind, new sight; to set the downtrodden free." (Luke 4:18-19)
As bishops serving in the region of Appalachia and bound together in the Appalachian People's Service Organization, we take time to ponder the marvelous mercy of God's power in this region. We are conscious of the incredible task of leadership incumbent upon us at this moment of economic depression, rising unemployment, plant closings, absentee ownership of the land, education uncertainties, and natural disasters.
Justice for all, like peace, is certainly possible hut it demands a change in attitude of both mind and heart. For Justice to prevail there can be no exploitation of the poor, no hunger, no discrimination. For justice to exist, not only is a change in attitude demanded, hut solutions to the problems must be found and implemented. We have no other moral choice. We recognize that persons of good will may differ on ways of realizing a just economy. But we strongly affirm that economic decisions that affect people are a moral concern.
God is honored when we create justice on earth for all people in whom rod has placed favor. God is honored when the hungry are fed and when the poor and oppressed may taste the sweet fruit of justice. God is honored when the exiles may return in safety. God is honored when sinners repent and find forgiveness, when the broken-hearted are healed and become whole again, when the lonely and dejected and rejected discover their humanity through servanthood in the body of Christ, the Church.
If a vigil of hope is to be kept alive in these times, then we are going to need each other as never before. We will have to find the courage and the vulnerability to confess our hunger for a sustaining and supporting community. A solitary vigil of undaunted hope may be possible for the heroic and the saintly, but it doesn't last long for the rest of us. Who among us is exempt from periodic exhaustion, the onslaught of despair, or the temptation to retreat into distractions?
Hope is not a private virtue. It is a gift of the Spirit to the gathered faithful, the heart of what it means to be gathered as the Body of Christ. Hope, like laughter, can be contagious if we devote ourselves to nurturing it. Devotion, forbearance, and hard work will be required as we seek to find the words and sing the songs that will bring spiritual renewal and social justice in Appalachia. Our Presiding Bishop is teaching us to sing this song about social injustice. With hope as our compass we will not lose the trail of ministry that renews and transforms all Stony Bottoms, Driftwoods, and Seldom Seens in the region of Appalachia. Let us go forth into the world, rejoicing in the power of the Spirit. Thanks be to God!