Global Ministries Missionary Loren McGrail is coming to SoCal!

Loren will be in southern California April 8th through 19th. She will be presenting at the following churches on the following dates:

April 9: Irvine UCC, Sunday worship

April 13: Church of the Foothills, evening service

April 15: Southern California Nevada Pacific Islander Asian American Ministries UCC at 10:00 am

April 18: First Christian Church of Fullerton, 6:30 pm - 7:30 pm

If you are interested in scheduling a presentation with Loren, please contact Nancy Fowler at fowlernancy@aol.com. 

Loren McGrail was appointed jointly by the Common Global Ministries Board of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and the United Church of Christ to serve a four-year term with the YWCA of Palestine.  Loren is serving under the supervision of the National General Secretary of the YWCA of Palestine. Some of her duties include identifying international partners, trust funds, and other relevant sources of funding and support, expanding church relations, especially with churches in the U.S., and with the young people in the church, helping with the preparation of a multi-year fundraising strategy, as well as annual fundraising plan.  She is also serving as an ecumenical partner with St. Andrews Scottish Church in Jerusalem, assisting with worship leading and other pastoral duties.  These are just a few of her duties.

Loren attended Boston Theological Institute (BTI), 1972-76, Certificate in International Mission and Ecumenism, University of Oregon, 1976, with a B.A. in English Lit.; Certificate for Secondary Language Arts, 1976.  She earned the Master of Divinity degree from Andover Newton Theological School (ANTS), 2005.  She completed her Clinical Pastoral Education Resident at Hartford Hospital, 2006.

Her work experience includes:

1980 – 82        Barcelona, Spain, English as a Foreign Language teacher

1982 – 84        Paris, France, English as a Foreign Language teacher

1984 – 89        Boston, MA, Language and Literacy Consultant

1989 – 90        Boston, MA, Adult Literacy Resource Center, ESOL Literacy Specialist

1990 – 94        World Education, Literacy Specialist

1994 – 96        Health Education and Adult Literacy Project

1996 – 00        Durham, NC, Literacy South, Executive Director

2000 – 03        Language and Literacy Consultant

2006 – 10        Hartford Hospital, Hartford, CT, Abbott Northwestern, Minneapolis, MN, Multi-faith Chaplain

2010                First Congregational Church of Grand Marais MN, filled in during pastor's sabbatical

2011                Global Missions, short-term volunteer served with the World Council of Churches
                        Ecumenical Accompaniment Program in Palestine and Israel

2011 – 12        Planned Parenthood, Parent Outreach Specialist on a teen pregnancy and prevention grant

2013 – 16        YWCA of Palestine, under the supervision of the National General Secretary.

Loren may be reached at lorenmcgrail@gmail.com and facebook by the same name where she puts up posts about Israel and Palestine.  She also continues to blog her sermons and theological writings at: http://agarmentofdestiny.blogspot.com/.

Loren was born July 14, 1953, in Bronxville, New York. 

Loren is a member of Wellington Ave UCC, Chicago, IL.  She was ordained by the Hampshire Association of Massachusetts in 2007.  She has standing with the Minnesota Conference.

She represented Wellington Ave United Church of Christ on the Chicago Presbytery Middle East Task Force and the Chicago Faith Coalition on Middle East Policy. She is the founder and leader of Protest Chaplains of Chicago, a multi-faith group that offers area peace and justice groups a critical and protective presence.  As part of this work, she also coordinates the Awake to Drones writing group. 

Mile Marker #87: A Time of Testing

By Don and Susan Dewey, Co-Regional Ministers

“Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.” James 1:2-3

I’ve been trying to decide what to write for this month’s Mile Marker, especially given all the turmoil going on in our country and around the world. I don’t want this to be a political commentary, though contrary to popular belief much of the Gospel message is both spiritual and political in nature.

I’ve been struggling to respond to both concerns coming from the White House’s recent actions and offer encouragement for those who supported the millions who took to the streets for women’s rights. Now with Executive orders that affect immigrants and threaten our Muslim brothers and sisters it is even more challenging to discern a response in light of the teachings of Jesus and the whole of scripture.

The message found in both Matthew’s Gospel (5:43-48) and Luke’s (6:27-36) keep coming to me as possible ways to respond as a follower of Jesus. There have been lots of calls to “action” and “resistance” and “speaking out” and “standing with” as important responses to the direction of our current President’s decisions. Yet Jesus’ words come ringing back to me: “But I tell you: love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you…”

As a person of privilege, this may be easier to do then for those who are feeling the full weight of these new Executive orders. I am not a person of color, nor an immigrant, nor of Muslim faith, nor a person of the LGBTQ community and yet I understand, as much as I can, the uncertainty and fear those in these communities must be feeling. How do I understand this teaching of Jesus in their context?

The Bible also has a lot to say about immigrants and immigration.  In fact, the Hebrew word ger, the closest word to our concept of an immigrant, appears 92 times in the Old Testament alone. It’s important to be reminded that "Welcoming the stranger" is not an obscure message in the Bible; it's a core value. Just a quick review of some of our Judeo/Christian teachings will confirm this for us:

Deuteronomy 10:19 -- You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.

Leviticus 19:34 -- The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am your God.

Hebrews 13:1 -- Let mutual love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.

Colossians 3:11 -- In that renewal there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all.

Matthew 25:35 -- I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me.

I believe our response, whatever it is, needs to be done with truth, grace and love. We are called to speak for the voiceless, and stand with the most vulnerable as our call to just action. We are called to speak truth to power whenever that power dehumanizes or denies the rights of any of God’s people.

James says: “Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.” James 1:2-3

This passage from the book of James reminds me that it is when our faith is tested in difficult and hard times that we are given the opportunity to become the people God intended us to be. So let us show our true colors by putting our faith to work for God’s justice and goodness for all.

Together on the journey,

Don and Susan

Co-Regional Ministers, PSWR

Mile Marker #86: Change for the New Year

By Don and Susan Dewey, Co-Regional Ministers

“Do not cling to events of the past

    or dwell on what happened long ago.

 Watch for the new thing I am going to do.

    It is happening already—you can see it now!” Isaiah 43:18-19

I love Christmas, the traditions and Christmas lights and food and decorations. And I love lots of Christmas packages, even if there isn’t anything in them but a little love. 

But 2016 was different. All the traditions had to change. We are in a new house and my daughter Leah, my traditionalist, was in Thailand for the holidays and wasn’t around to say, “Mom, it’s time to….” what ever she remembered we should do. For Christmas morning, Leah was gone and my son now has a family of his own so he was in his own home. All very different. But different can invite us to look at traditions and practices with new eyes. 

One of our PSWR congregations is getting ready to remodel their sanctuary and since they have a baptistery that was added in after the building was built, it is movable or removable. This congregation has had all of their baptisms of the last few years in the ocean or a pool, so they are wondering why they should keep the baptistery in the sanctuary. 

Change gives us the opportunity to look anew at our traditions and practices and remember why we do what we do and remember the meaning. Change gives us the opportunity to renew our commitments and enliven our faith and our faith practices. 

As we enter into a New Year (WOW! 2017) we have an opportunity to look anew at our faith life, and what we will re-commit to God. We can look anew at our congregations, and renew our commitments to our fellow parishioners and our actions as a congregation. This is not just a time for New Years resolutions, but also a time for personal renewal in our faith life.  

What would happen if we begin to ask these kinds of questions for the New Year….

Why do we have a baptistery in our sanctuary?

Why do we practice a believers baptize by immersion?

Why do we share in communion every week?  

Why do we use Hawaiian bread, or a loaf, or wafers?

Why do we serve hot meals to the neighbors?

Why do we give our funds to charities? 

Why do we meet on Sunday morning?

Why do we give to Disciple Mission Fund?

Why do we build houses in Tijuana?

Why do we meet in this building?

There are lots of questions we can ask to help us remember who we are before God and what God is calling us, as faithful followers, to do and as a faithful congregation to do.

And friends, we need to change with prayerful intention so we can be the witness for Jesus in today’s world. 

We know that many of our congregations are aging and many are closing and sometimes it has been because there was no change, no renewal for the past to 25 - 35 years! 

There is a reason there are numerous translations of the Bible, we Christian people speak hundreds of languages. There is a reason we have whole hymnals full of songs for our faith, and whole radio stations and CD stores full of Christian artists, because we have so many different ways to hear God and praise God. 

So as we move into this New Year, how shall we ask the questions about our traditions and what they mean before God that will let us be renewed for another year of faithful ministry and a renewed walk with God?   

We pray that in this New Year you will find something to change in your faith, not mindlessly, but faithfully as you look at the meaning of what you do and how you act. Blessings for a fruitful and faithful New Year!

Together on the journey,

Don and Susan

Co-Regional Ministers, PSWR

Mile Marker #85: A Deeper Hope

By Don and Susan Dewey, Co-Regional Ministers

The Invitation at Christmas is to Believe Again. God’s word invites us to believe in a Deeper Hope that moves beyond the “wrappings” of Christmas around us. We proclaim a Hope that brings Good News, Joy and Compassion for all of God’s people. This Deeper Hope is made real in all of our Regions as we:

•  Assist congregations and leaders in claiming their unique mission and ministry, and provide resources and support.

•  Call, commission and ordain new pastors, and support and equip all pastors for their ministries.

•  Revitalize existing congregations and plan for new congregations.

•  Connect Regional Disciples to give witness to ministries of justice, hope and compassion.

•  Provide camps, conferences and retreats where children and youth find hope and Christ’s love and a community of faith that embraces “everyone.”

•  Make visible the care for all of God’s family through ministries of reconciliation and anti-racism.

•  Call and equip passionate leaders for today’s church.

•  Provide pastoral care for clergy and congregations.

So how are these being lived out here in the PSWR? Every year there are at least 8 -10 congregations engaged in the Search and Call process for selecting a new called pastor. Your gifts support your Regional staff to walk with these congregations through this important process, providing resources, guidance and information as decisions are made for future ministry.

The Regions Committee on Ministry works with over 50 potential candidates seeking ordination or commissioning to serve our Disciple congregations. This work includes providing resources guiding them through completion of 16 areas of ministry competency, Boundary Training, Anti-Racism training, Psychological Assessment and Disciple History and Polity. Your gifts support the ongoing development of pastors for congregations and a growing ministry.

In the past 10 years, the PSWR has been one of the leading Regions for new church growth. Currently the Regions New Church Development Committee works with over 25 congregations in the Under Care process. These are congregations that are either a new start or one that is seeking affiliation with us as Disciples. The NCD guides and directs these congregations as they grow to become Full Standing Disciple congregations.

The New Church Development Committee has a proposal to plant at least 4 new congregations by the year 2020 in keeping with our General Churches vision for starting 1000 new churches by that year. This means supporting a new church planter, providing resources for program and a place to meet. In addition, through our Regions Hatchery ministry, we are training and developing new leaders for innovative ministries to reach the next generation. Your gifts make possible the future of the church.

The PSWR’s youth ministry is on the rise! This past summer we had over 250 young people attending camps at Loch Leven. In addition we have added two new camps, one called Wee Camp for pre-school – kindergarten and a youth leadership camp for our growing Hispanic ministries.

This past summer our youth traveled to Puerto Rico and Mexico for mission and multi-cultural experiences. We also hosted a dozen youth from South Korea who were a part of a cultural exchange with our Region. Plans are underway for a group of our youth to travel to South Korea next summer, as well as other youth attending our General Assembly in July 2017 and providing leadership for VBS programs in two of our Hawaii congregations.

We now have a full time Associate Regional Minister for Youth and Young Adult Ministry whose leadership continues to grow and expand these important ministries. In addition to summer camps we also provide winter camps for both our Jr. High and Sr. High youth and a Spring retreat for our Young Adults. These ministries to our young people would not be possible without your prayers and support.

Your Region provides ongoing Anti-Racism training, supports the Green Chalice movement, provides resources for re-entry programs of persons released from incarceration, supports ministries that offer emergency shelter for the homeless, ministries that provide tutoring and other programs for at-risk youth, hot-meal ministries, and much, much more! All these are possible through your generosity of gifts in support of your Region’s ministry.

Your gifts also support opportunities for leadership training and continuing education events for both lay and clergy to strengthen our ministries. In partnership with our Units, who provide vital ministry on our behalf, your support helps these ministries thrive.

In this Region we look, in these days of Advent, to God’s people who believe and hope that through the Holy Spirit we too can see Salvation and become a light of hope to all people. As members of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), we can believe again that God is actively promising us a deeper hope for our congregations and region working together to be in covenant with each other.

We celebrate our many churches and diverse communities, all in one region believing again; hoping again together that the God who ushered in a Savior as a baby in a complex world can once again save God’s people.

Therefore, as the PSWR, let us covenant together, as a region to work together to be the kind of change that needs to happen for Jesus to again become known as the Savior of the world through the works and ministries of our Regional Church.

The Christmas Special Day Offering supports all of these and many other ministries of our Region. Your generous gifts make the difference in our covenantal, shared ministries in the Region. 100% of your gifts return to the PSWR. Received in most congregations on December 11 and 18.

Together on the journey,

Don and Susan
Co-Regional Ministers, PSWR

Week of Compassion Delegation to China 2016

by Susan Gonzales Dewey, Co-Regional Minister

As many of you may know, I am a member of the Week of Compassion Committee and this year’s fall meeting was held in China (due to a gift from an anonymous donor this trip cost the Week of Compassion no more than a regular fall meeting). I am thankful to the Executive Director of Week of Compassion Rev. Vy Nguyen and our Global Ministries Area Executive for East Asia Rev. Xiaoling Zhu for arranging this pilgrimage and opening our eyes to the wonder of China and the Christian movement in this part of the world. 

We went to meet with our partners and to see first hand what is happening with Week of Compassion’s Sustainability Grants given in the recent years. It is very difficult to give you a full flavor of two weeks, 6 cities and 39 meals, planes, trains subways and busses, and more partners than I can count, but I want to share some of this trip with you in print, and would love to come and share more in person if you would like to invite Don or me to visit your congregation or group.  

Week of Compassion was started in 1939 as a movement to bring relief to China after the 1939 Earthquake and the 1941 Famine. Over the last several years the Week of Compassion fund, through its Sustainability Grant program, has supported in China a well for an orphanage, programs for children with disabilities, goats for families with Aids, and tree farms to raise funds for poor villages heavily impacted by aids. (These villagers were encouraged to sell their blood and were infected through unclean needles). 

While we were there, we met with the National China Council of Churches and Provincial Councils of Churches, seminaries and social service programs sponsored by the congregations in China. 

On Sunday morning in China, we headed to worship along with 40 million other Chinese Christians. When I first heard that 2-4% of the population of China were Christians I didn’t realize that it would translate to 40 million people.

In the United States, we sometimes hear that the church is dying, because many older Anglo congregations are declining but the church universal is growing and growing rapidly. And that is especially true in China.

We worshiped with the seminarians in the School in Shaangxi Province. Of the 25 seminaries in China, this is the poorest seminary as it serves the 10, mostly rural provinces of the north. There are 140 students and 12 professors at this seminary and there is a waiting list for the people who qualify and want to come to seminary. However, the seminary does not have enough room for all the people who want to attend and the churches that need trained leaders.

This seminary needs more classroom space, more library space and books, more professors and a larger chapel to meet the needs of the growing churches in the surrounding provinces. (This was the story we heard from all of the Seminary leaders we met with, the need for more space, more books, more teachers, and more scholarships)

At the Shaangxi Province Seminary they have a dream for a new seminary to serve 350 students and to house a new congregation on the campus. They hope to raise 90 million Yuen from local people, the government and partners overseas. That translates to roughly 13 million dollars. It is a Spirit filled dream.

The Shaangxi seminary (like all seminaries) is owned by the Provincial Council of churches.  China is living in a post denominational world and all Protestant congregations are united in the Council.

There is a long history of Christian presence in the Province but the China Christian Council in Shaanxi Province dates back to 1887 when the Protestant missionaries came to the Province. Yes there is a lot of difficult history for Christians in China but after the "Open Up" policy the church has grown rapidly.  In the last 30 years the northwest provinces have grown to 560 congregations and 1300 meeting points (unregistered house churches with no building). There are 500,000 Christians, 89 ordained pastors, 107 associate pastors, 278 church workers who are preaching, and 3000 volunteers who are preaching every Sunday as well. (Again these are the kinds of ratios we heard about all through our visit)

“To love our neighbors” is the slogan of the Shaangxi Provincial Christian Council and they have Ministries that provide volunteer training 3-4 times a year for local pastors in communications, finance and social services training (what we might call outreach Ministries) and they have websites and publish a quarterly magazine.  

The China Christian Council works with Amity Foundation to fund much of the work. This is an organization that can receive funds for good works from outside of the country, and it supports a printing business that can produce up to 14 million Bibles per year. They help the churches to rebuild schools and help poor families as well as provide training to churches on how to operate social service projects. 

The Disciples of Christ have a long history in China as well, and in particular in the province of Nanjing. My friend Mark Briley wrote of our visit there:

"When we visited Nanjing it was a good weather day in Nanjing. It rained all day. It was a disappointment of the weather at first. After all, it had rained our entire visit in Nanjing thus far. After visiting The Nanjing Massacre Museum, however, the rain somehow seemed appropriate. In late 1937, the Japanese forces moved in on the capital city of Nanjing after toppling Shanghai earlier that year. Air raids began raining bombs on the city; "Disaster falling from the sky" read the headlines. A rainy day, however, was a respite from the terror as planes were grounded; a good weather day. The men, women, and children of Nanjing, however, could not have imagined the utter devastation that would soon befall their community.

The next six weeks would dehumanize a people in unfathomable ways. Murder for sport was the game - young, old, military, civilian, man, woman, child - no one was free of the atrocities of the Japanese invasion. The Rape of Nanjing included such massive devastation that part of the massacre was loosely termed “occasional" to describe the more informal slaying of the innocents against the more formal killings deemed "intentional." Some 300,000 Chinese people were removed from existence in forty-two days. Rape. Intimidation. Rape. Mockery. Rape. Mutilation. Rape. War is a brutal machine that increases brutality and strangles humanity. Step by step through the museum, name after name, victim upon victim, image upon image - humanity raining disaster on the innocent without second thought.

In such unspeakable times, we heed the words of Mr. Rogers who said, "Look for the helpers." And they were there; people of all races and creeds stepping alongside the citizens of Nanjing; some of them our own. Minnie Vautrin, the "Goddess of Mercy," chief among them. For twenty-eight years, she served as a Disciples of Christ missionary to the community of Nanjing. When many evacuated as the invasion was imminent, she stayed, a constant advocate, willing her own very being in front of thousands of women and children whose fate were in grave jeopardy.

Just moments before visiting the Museum, we paid homage to Minnie's efforts at Ginling College, where she served as Dean and acting President during the Massacre. There, our trip leader, Rev. Dr. Xiaoling Zhu, laid flowers at the feet of a statue of Minnie who smiled even as the rain poured down over her bronzed image. Without any certainty that we would have had the courage to stand with the people of Nanjing as she did, we stood next to her graven image, humbled by her spiritual capacity to care and emboldened with the Disciples of Christ heritage she left for us to carry on ourselves. There were other missionaries, surgeons, leaders who served courageously during the massacre, but Minnie, somehow, made it personal to the extent that I felt like I could call her Minnie.

Seeing these atrocities up close; unearthed layers of remains of fellow human beings and knowing such is still happening in the world, we were left to ponder the question: What is ours to do? Our response must have something to do with compassion. After all, the launch of the very entity that brought us to China is rooted in the compassionate response of Disciples to the people of Nanjing. The work of Week of Compassion is the presence of many who care; longing for the peaceable Realm of God to be known on earth as it is in heaven.

Toward the end of our journey in the museum, there was a powerful display entitled simply, "12 seconds." The sound of a drop of water resonates through the space every twelve seconds. If counted by the time, every twelve seconds for six weeks, a brother or sister of Nanjing was slaughtered. Drip. Drip. Drip. Life is simply that fragile. There is constant work for us to do and compassion for us to bestow. Today was a reminder that we stand on the shoulders of our own, like Minnie, to do the compassionate work Christ calls us to do in our day; in our time. Our committee is resolved, like never before, to ensure good weather days for all of humanity - where compassion rains over the pains of this earth and where God’s love reigns supreme.” Thank you Mark! 

Since our Visas said we were in China as “tourists” we did get to visit the Terra Cotta Soldiers. It was amazing to see this collections of artistry built for one mans burial and afterlife. So many people were tasked to create the Terra Cotta soldiers and horses and then paint them and place them in the underground tomb. The extent of the ruins is amazing, and so is the tourist crowd to see this bit of history. We saw the Forbidden City; it is the largest of the ancient buildings. It was the political center of the empire for the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). I loved the main hall names, the Hall of Supreme Harmony, the Hall of Complete Harmony and the Hall of Preserving Harmony were the spaces for the Emperor to conduct the business of the Empire. The Summer Palace was a place for the Emperors family to relax and spend time around the lake. It is amazing that in the very busy and crowded city of Beijing this extensive property is kept as a museum to the past. I think in the United States, it would have been turned into a resort. 

But of all the tourist sights we visited the Great Wall was my favorite. We only walked a very small portion of this 21,196 km (31,170 miles) wall (the more popular Ming Dynasty section is about 5500 miles) This is a wall that was once built to keep foreigners out is now a place where people from all corners of the world gather, we heard Russians and Ethiopians and South Americans and Germans and French walk the wall with us. 

From the Soaring Cities of Shanghai and Beijing to the small rural villages outside of Zhoukou City we met with Christian partners, Pastors, Volunteer Church workers, seminary students, seminary Presidents, Christian Council Leaders and even the Government leader of the State Administration for Religious Affairs and heard about the work of the Christian community that is working along side the government, and the other religious communities to make a difference in their world, to bring hope to the poor, to the lonely and abandoned, and to make the Good News of Jesus real for the 1.3 billion people in China.