"God is calling us to something larger than we thought"

by Dan Coppock Like every day this week, Friday opened with a themed worship. This time it was going from Raising Voices to Taking Action. Rt. Rev. Gayle Elizabeth Harris spoke of her time in the Episcopal church as someone who embraced conflict. She reflected on her early associations with the scripture from Romans of loving enemies and by kindness heaping coals on their heads. She shared an African folk tale demonstrating that what affects one has the potential to affect all. She also said that justice is not our definition of fairness and judgment, but rather the cornerstone to God’s peace in which we are captured. We can’t be dazzled by our own brilliance, and there is no issue that we cannot minister to, she concluded. The morning discussion was new in that it replaced the panel format of previous days but it also asked the congregation, a new congregation called “Heeding God’s Call”, to make decisions regarding an epistle to be issued to the world from the Gathering. The congregation was also asked to think and speak from the Gathering instead of the component churches. There was time for people from faiths other than the Historic Peace Churches, who had been observers of the Gathering, to speak of their experience and to contribute. Rabbi Arthur Waskow talked about his playing hooky from the conference to go demonstrate in Washington, D.C. He also reflected on the false dichotomy of ‘are you with us or against us,’ noting that in the original, the angel says ‘NO’. He spoke of all of the brothers in Genesis estranging themselves for decades before reconciliation and gave a Talmudic interpretation of Jesus and Caesar’s coins - everyone bearing God’s image was unique whereas the coins bearing Caesar’s were identical. Lee Phillips, a Muslim, weighed in on her experience of welcome and of peculiarity of singing for quite a bit of the service. She spoke of the need for trialogs and of consciousness of words and language. A Buddhist Jew gave insights from her ‘beginner mind’ in appreciation of the conference. Among these were that in the over two years of planning that preceded the conference, there was much accountability and care. She spoke of the experience being 3 or 4 days of worship with some other activities thrown in. In the afternoon, a group of about twenty activists continued the witness at Colosimo’s gun shop. Seven more were arrested after police were able to procure a paddywagon. Later, Dr. Vincent Harding concluded the pastoral part of the conference by noting that God is calling us to something larger than we thought. Peace is more than the conference, more than getting arrested and more than working exclusively on foreign peace, what one speaker called “trickle down peace.” Radical relationship is needed for as long as it takes. Our unity is God’s will, but we do the fixing at great cost. God is calling us to something larger than we thought. Thank God.

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