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Social Concerns Committee Book Discussion
Annual Rummage Sale & Barbecue
Dear Friends,
Our Holy Week services were very meaningful and Easter was glorious.
The wonderful music, full church and smiling faces remind us that
Christ is indeed risen from the dead and is alive in our midst. We
now are challenged to live that risen life in our lives in the world.
That is easy to say, but harder to do. One way to respond to this
challenge is to meet in community and share our faith stories. I
invite you to do just that on Sunday mornings at the Adult Forum
that is held between the 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. services.
Our little group has grown from a few to over eighteen on a “good
Sunday.” I attribute the growth to an honest sharing of faith
and the excellence of the books we have used to begin our discussions.
Over the past year or so, we have read The
Courage To Teach and Let
Your Life Speak by Parker Palmer. We have read, marked, learned and
inwardly digested, Reading the Bible Again for
the First Time and The
Heart Of Christianity by Marcus Borg.
For some in the group, these books have been a real stretch of faith.
Sometimes it seemed the stretch was almost to much for some people
to bear, but they stuck with the group and trusted that the Holy Spirit
would do the corrective work that needed to be done through us and
for us. It is my sense that we have all become more passionate believers
and are more centered in our faith because of the work we have done
with these books and our sharing. We are now beginning a new book,
one that is extremely controversial and difficult—John Spong’s,
A New Christianity for a New World. In this book Bishop Spong has chosen
to fight for the reconciliation of the mind and heart of the church
in our contemporary world.
I am sure this book will be read with both pain and pleasure. Come
and join us for a faithful discussion of how to be a faithful Christian
in our world.
Peace,
David +
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Social
Concerns Committee Book Discussion
A group of fifteen Christ Church parishioners met in March for a spirited
discussion of Barbara Ehrenreich’s book, Nickel and Dimed—On
(Not) Getting By in America. The author took jobs as a waitress, a
food service aide in a nursing home, as a house-cleaner with a cleaning
service, and as a “sales associate” with Walmart, sometimes
working two jobs to try to get by. It was her experience that she and
her co-workers worked long hard hours day after day at physically demanding
jobs and could not “get by.” She found the housing options
for the low-wage earner especially challenging.
Some of the eye-opening facts she presents:
- The official poverty rate is calculated by taking the bare-bones cost of food for a family and multiplying by three. This is no longer meaningful as food costs have dropped to less than 16% of the family budget while housing costs have moved close to 40%.
- The housing market has failed to distribute housing to those who need it, and we have cowardly allowed our government not to respond.
- In the year 2000, the poorest 10% of workers made only 91% in real dollars compared to what they made thirty years ago. As you get into the upper deciles of the wage scale, the increases are well over 100%.
- A livable wage that includes health insurance, transportation costs, telephone and child care but no frills for a family of one adult and two children, is $30,000 a year or $14 an hour. About 60% of the American workforce earns less than this.
She concludes: “When someone works for less pay than she can live on—when, for example, she goes hungry so you can eat more cheaply and conveniently—then she has made a great sacrifice for you, she has made you a gift of some part of her abilities, her health, her life. “The ‘working poor’ … are in fact the major philanthropists of our society.”
People in the discussion group felt that we can make a difference, that a few people gathered together can build to change systems that are not working for all. The response can be on several levels.
- Direct support, such as the Discretionary Fund and the Full Ladle Soup Kitchen, offers immediate though transitory solutions.
- Large-scale direct support through community organizations such as the Vermont Community Loan Fund, Vermont Housing Awareness Campaign, Vermont Low Income Advocacy Council. Absent are venues to address transportation and child care needs.
- Systemic change through involvement with political campaigns, lobbying groups (e.g. the Episcopal Policy Network), and at the very least, communicating our views to our elected representatives.
We are more likely to respond if we have a personal connection to the hard realities. If there are any people who would be willing to share their experience in these issues with the congregation, please contact Beth Ann Maier or David Hall.
The next Social Concerns discussion will take place in late May in response to the commitment
to Dismantling Racism in the Diocese of Vermont. We will read the Report
on Racism in Vermont Schools, which includes many stories of real experiences
in our schools, and a powerful book called Witness by Karen Hesse, about
the Ku Klux Klan in a small Vermont town in 1924.
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Youth
Religious Education
We will be having a youth group meeting on the evening of May 1, 7-9
p.m. at the church, upstairs in the Taplin Hall. Come and have fun.
We will also planning for Recognition Sunday with Rev. David Hall.
Recognition Sunday is May 16. Be there!
Calling all the youth of Christ Church. Come and participate in leading
the congregation (along with Rev. David Hall) at the 10 a.m. Sunday
service, May 16. We need help in all areas of service, such as ushers,
readers, singers, lay Eucharistic ministers and even a person interested
in giving the sermon! We will be having an informational meeting with
Rev. Hall at our youth group get together on May 1.
If you have any questions, please feel free to call Elizabeth Wilcox
at 223-4766.
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Put this
on your June calendar !
The Annual Christ Church Rummage Sale, Silent Auction & Barbeque
is scheduled for Saturday, June 12. Check the announcements in the Sunday
bulletins, or the Home Page of this site for further information as
it becomes available.
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Social Concerns and Local Services
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