Bob Wohlsen, a member here at University Lutheran Chapel in Berkeley presented the following Statement of Conscience at the  2013 Sierra Pacific Synod in Fresno, CA:

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

“Twenty four years ago, a man walked onto a Stockton elementary school playground, adjacent to what was then Faith Lutheran Church, with an assault weapon and started shooting. In his wake, five children died, 31 were wounded and a scarred community was left to pick up the pieces.

This event was the impetus for California’s current gun laws, which are among the strictest in the Nation, the federal Assault Weapons Ban that has expired, and the ELCA Social Message on Community Violence.

Six months ago, a man walked into Sandy Hook Elementary School, in Newtown Connecticut, with an assault weapon and started shooting. In his wake, 20 students and 6 teachers died.

This event is the impetus for the scores of gun law revision bills in the CA Legislature and the push for new and revised federal gun laws.

On this same day, I picked up my 6-year-old Grandson, Russell at his Jefferson Elementary School kindergarten in Berkeley.  It was horribly surreal, in the context of this day, to see all the happy students gather their belongings and joyfully greet their waiting parents. Right then and there, I committed to Russell and his little buddies to do something to make my community less violent.  This is why I’m here speaking to you today.

In response to this continuing violence, Presiding Bishop Mark Hansen on January 17 said in a video broadcast:

“We have work to do… It is the work of peacemaking”.

The ELCA Conference of Bishops, at their meeting March 4, issued a Pastoral Letter on Violence, which concludes with this invitation to action:

“We invite you, our sisters and brothers, to join us in this work:

This work is the work to reduce violence.

Today is May 3.

God is calling us to be peacemakers.

What response will God hear from you?

What will you do to reduce violence in your community?

Explore the possibilities with the folks at your table right now, your family, congregation, colleagues, neighbors, kid’s and grandkid’s school, and community.

Pray, Write letters, join or convene a conversation about reducing violence, join or start a group working to reduce violence.  We all have a role to play.

I urge you to Commit, right now, to do something to make your community more peaceful and healthy and do it.

God’s Peace be with you.

Amen

On May 4, 2013 Andrew Stevens presented the following summary of “Issue of Conscience” at the Sierra Pacific Synod Assembly in Fresno:

Good morning. I want to share a story with you. I am part of the Lutheran
Campus Ministry at the University of California – Berkeley, which is a campus
ministry shared with the Episcopal students in that area. It’s a great ministry. At one
point, a member of a nearby Episcopal church visited one of our worship services
and asked if several students would come visit her home congregation and sing at a
service. So one Sunday morning about five or six of us piled into the chaplain’s car
and drove to St. Alban’s Episcopal Church in Albany, CA.

The building was beautiful, and the service was lovely. We sang two songs
during worship, and after the service was over, many members of the congregation
spoke with us, thanking us for coming. While everybody commented on how nice
our singing was, every person I talked with said the same thing: how wonderful it
was to have young people in worship. I looked around, and sure enough, we were
probably the only people under 40 there that Sunday. We were probably the only
people under 40 there all month.

St. Alban is going through the same thing many of our congregations, our
synods, and our churches are going through right now: a struggle with dwindling
numbers, and decreasing participation of young people. We’ve heard a lot about it at
this assembly, and we are all wondering how we can address this trend.
I’m 22. I was born in the 90s. (Sorry if that annoys anyone.) I am keenly
aware that I – along with all the youth here and around the church – we are a very
important component of the future of this church. And I want to share my vision
about what that future can look like.

I’m not worried about a small church. I’m not concerned with smaller
numbers, or reduced congregations. I’m not concerned about shrinking. I’m
concerned about being a wrong-sized church. I’m worried about having too many
small and unsustainable congregations, and worried about a system of synods and
churchwide organizations that are too “top-heavy” for the community of believers
they serve.

It is easy for institutions to grow. It is really hard for institutions to shrink
and yet become stronger as they do so. We don’t know how to become more
committed to our ministry and our mission as we see numbers become smaller than
they have been in the past. And yet that is exactly what we have to start doing. Our
future is one of a smaller church, and if we can’t figure out how to shrink in a way
that affirms our mission and strengthens our work, we will never be able to
revitalize ourselves.

I don’t know how many of you know this, but we have a twitter hash-tag for
this assembly (#sps13). A handful of people have been tweeting throughout this
assembly, and it has been really interesting to see what people are saying. I want to
read one text that I saw which sums up a lot of my concerns about the future: “Isn’t
it odd that we voted NOT to live within our means?” Isn’t it odd that we voted NOT
to live within our means?

And of course it’s not that simple. This is not a black-and-white issue about a
budget, or who’s “right” about any one line-item. But it is about a way of thinking
and living into our future. I don’t want to be the one stuck dealing with an over-large
church in 20 years, I want to deal with this issue now – actively and engaged with all
of you.

It is up to us: this assembly, this synod council, all of you who are clearly
active parts of your home congregations: it is our responsibility to hold ourselves
accountable to our future. This is on our shoulders. So I encourage us all, all of us
who are voting members this year, all those who will be voting members next year,
returning synod council members, newly elected synod council members, and church
leaders everywhere, to challenge ourselves to see how we can lift up the wonderful
ministry we are doing, even as our numbers shrink. Let us use this trend in
declining figures to help us figure out how we can distill and strengthen our mission,
and strengthen the work we choose to do.

I have been so inspired by many insightful conversations I have had at this
assembly with all sorts of people, and I am confident in our ability to realize our
greatest potential in the years to come. And I, for one, really appreciate that. Thank
you.

On Sunday University Lutheran Chapel participated in the annual CROP Hunger Walk in Berkeley.
Our team had 6 walkers and we all successfully finished the 3 miles to help end hunger.  (Zack walked for part of it, but finished the walk from the stroller.)

It was a beautiful day and there were so many walkers out for this great cause!  Plus, we raised $775 (with a couple more donations possible)…and we expect that we will have a match from our endowment team.  Thanks so much for your help!

A is for Activist is an ABC board book written and illustrated for the next generation of progressives: Families that want their kids to grow up in a space that is unapologetic about activism, environmental justice, civil rights, LGBTQ rights, and so on.

The rhymes are fun for the kids to hear and play with, but also meaningful for us grownups. It was important to me that the book be one that I too would enjoy reading over and over—not something I’d want to hide after day 3, even if my son loved it. The illustrations are also multi-layered. Your kid will find something they can learn to recognize on each page. There are new things to discover over multiple readings. There are references for grownups to “get”, and maybe even be a conversation starter down the line. Oh, and there’s always a cat.

Take a look at the “A is for Activist” website and get a copy of the book for the children in your life!

From Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, posted on JANUARY 30, 2013 by Jakada Imani and Rhina Ramos:

Remind me again: who lost the past election?  Oh…yes, it was Mitt Romney, failing to recognize the contributions of millions of Americans, discarding 47% of the population as victims, and proposing that self-deportation was the cure for our broken immigration system.

“Self-deportation” is the notion that the U.S. government should make conditions for immigrants so harsh and painful that they would voluntarily leave the country. This controversial approach doesn’t take into account that the overwhelming majority of immigrants have strong ties in their communities and many are parents children born in the United States.

It also ignores the fact that conditions in the US are already oppressive for immigrant families– anti-immigrant laws, increase of ICE raids, and massive incarceration of immigrants regardless of their immigration status are just part of the deplorable reality affecting the immigrant community.

On the strength of the Latino and Asian vote, Obama won. We also won the promise of a balanced approach to comprehensive immigration reform.

The current “enforcement first” proposals coming out of DC break that promise by calling for doubling down on more of the same. The US already spends $18 billion on enforcement and detains nearly half a million men, women and children a year. The road to real immigration reform starts with an end to mass detention and deportation… now.

Yesterday, President Obama spoke in Las Vegas saying “I’m here today because the time has come for common-sense comprehensive immigration reform.”

His speech came on the tails of a bipartisan proposal unveiled as a blueprint to comprehensive immigration reform yesterday. Sadly, this Senate proposal follows the losing “enforcement first” strategy championed by Mitt.  Spending billions more on border patrol, drones and ICE raids won’t help reunite families split up by our broken immigration system or create a real pathway to citizenship for aspiring Americans.  In fact, these approaches just follow Romney’s losing path towards repression and denial of human rights.

Comprehensive immigration reform can’t start with compromising the basic civil liberties that make us American. Most enforcement policies rely heavily on the racial profiling, policing, and detaining of people of color. The current system already robs children of their parents and holds people indefinitely in prison-like immigration detention centers under the label of border security. Even Obama’s pronouncement on immigration reform asked for more border security instead of focusing simply on a pathway to citizenship.

We believe that approaches that continue to break up families, divide our communities, and perpetuate the “otherness” of aspiring Americans are immoral and costly.

Basic respect for human dignity should not be on the negotiation table. We need to stop the madness of dividing families. We need to stand for immigration reform that honors due process for all and focuses on a pathway to citizenship for everyone. That is how we can unite families, and heal communities and strengthen our nation.

This year’s Advent Play, Amahl and the Night Visitors Journey to Bethlehem, was a huge success. We could write about the beautiful live music, the fantastic actors, the comic relief of a nearly deaf king with a parrot, or of the relevant messages, but no words would capture the experience of watching the story unfold live all around us in the sanctuary.

Still, for those who couldn’t be there, and for those who want to relive the memories, we have a video clip (on the right) and lots of beautiful pictures!

Click here for more pictures!

SHARE El Salvador and University Lutheran Chapel

In 1981, Eileen Purcell, a community organizer working with Catholic Social Service of the Archdiocese of San Francisco, made a presentation to the Lectionary Group meeting at the University Lutheran Chapel. Eileen had been invited by Reverend Gus Schultz to share her work with Central American refugees and the findings of her 1980 fact-finding trip to El Salvador. Archbishop Romero of San Salvador, El Salvador had been assassinated while saying mass on March 24, 1980, four US Church women had been raped and killed by the US sponsored military in December, and thousands of Salvadorans were killed or suffering persecution and fleeing the country seeking refuge. Many who reached San Francisco turned to the Catholic Church for help. The Archdiocese in San Francisco was turning a bright light on the situation. Catholic Social Service was committed to building effective services and advocacy for the refugees in our midst while at the same time addressing the root causes of the exodus.  Included in that Lectionary Group was Reverend Gustav Schultz, Pastor at University Lutheran Chapel.  Also included were several other future key players in the Sanctuary Movement.

Eileen Purcell presented the Lectionary Group  with the startling facts of Salvadoran brothers and sisters; Archbishops, Bishops, Priests, Pastors, Nuns, and more importantly thousands and thousands of people – peasant farmers, women, men, children, who were being slaughtered in a brutal civil war that raged with no end in sight in the very small country of El Salvador.  That day the Lectionary Group heard of how the war arrived violently and destructively taking away any chance of safe ground within El Salvador.  Those who spoke out against the impunity were killed or disappeared or fled for their lives.  Many were arriving in the U.S. with no where to go.  They wandered through the desert and through the cities traumatized and seeking safety.

Those present answered the call.  Pastor Schultz invited the group to consider declaring public sanctuary for Central American refugees.  Five congregations, including the Chapel,  began a discernment process. They met refugees, studied domestic and international law, and examined their faith traditions and the biblical invocation to “love one another” and to “welcome the stranger.” They also studied the potential risks and ramifications of providing sanctuary to refugees the United States government deemed ineligible for legal status.  They drafted a written covenant and invited each congregation to elect whether or not to adopt it.  And on March 24, 1982,  five congregations, including University Lutheran Chapel’s congregation, declared public Sanctuary for Central Americans with four Salvadoran refugees physically receiving sanctuary and staying in the Chapel for a period of time.   It was not a new thing, but a reaffirming of the Sanctuary promise that had been made during the Vietnam War for the sailors from the USS Coral Sea.  In those early days other faith-based organizations began to also join the Sanctuary movement, and the East Bay Sanctuary Covenant (EBSC) was formed.  The University Lutheran Chapel was a founding member of that Covenant.  They declared safe places for refugees, they joined together to raise awareness of the plight as well as the US complicity.  They helped refuge for the many Central Americans fleeing the wars in their homelands.

Shortly after declaring public sanctuary, Pastor Gus Schultz and other members of ULC traveled to El Salvador and to Honduras at the invitation of some of the same Salvadorans who had participated in Sanctuary, the Archdiocese of San Francisco and Concern. Their mission was to visit the United Nations-sponsored refugee camps that had taken in thousands and thousands of Salvadoran refugees as they had spilled across the borders fleeing scorched earth policies and massacres.  They returned to share the stories of what they had seen.  They returned with the pleas from the Salvadorans that they met – Stop the US sponsored war.

The war continued in El Salvador throughout the 80’s, and the Chapel continued to accompany the Salvadoran people.  Members of the chapel continued to participate in the East Bay Sanctuary Covenant (EBSC) and in other groups around the Bay Area to work to end the war, to help the Salvadorans in El Salvador, the refugees in Central America and throughout the world.  Delegations continued to go to El Salvador and to the refugee camps in Honduras.  International presence proved to save people – soldiers were less likely to capture, torture, kill peasant farmers and church workers when we were standing with them, accompanying them.

Pastor Schultz joined the Board of Directors of the SHARE Foundation and was a founding member of othe National Sanctuary Defense Fund and chair of the Board of Directors. He worked with the Lutheran Synod and the World Council of Churches to introduce Bishop Medardo Gomez of the Salvadoran Lutheran Church to those in the exterior of El Salvador.

By 1984, the Sanctuary Movement blossomed to include upwards of 500 congregations nation-wide, sparking a crackdown by the U.S. government. As US Sanctuary workers were threatened, arrested and put on trial by the US government the Chapel became a key player in the trial, and the National Sanctuary Defense Fund  (NSDF) raised millions of dollars to defend Central American refugees and the faith leaders who were persecuted for standing with them.  For a period of time NSDF was housed at ULC Press conferences were regularly staged in the sanctuary, members of the chapel sat on the EBSC board of directors and Chapel members continued to travel to El Salvador.

In 1987 the SHARE Foundation launched a  national campaign t called “The Going Home campaign.”  “Going Home” was a response to an invitation directly from the refugees in the UN camps in Honduras.  They had been there for almost 7 years and they wanted to return to their home villages in El Salvador.  Their children didn’t know their home and the camps contained innumerable struggles. The refugees asked the SHARE Foundation to accompany them on the perilous journey.  SHARE and ULC, as part of the Going Home campaign, helped to coordinate the delegations, work with the refugees and raise money to accompany the thousands of refugees in the camp back to El Salvador.

The Chapel joined SHARE’s Sister Parish program in 1988, teaming up with Berkeley’s Kehilla Synagogue to share the honor of being a Sister Parish with San Jose Las Flores (also a Sister City with the City of Berkeley through NEST’s Sister City program).  Several Chapel members have traveled to San Jose Las Flores meeting with the community carrying handmade gifts from the congregation and carrying back beautiful embroideries that were signs of our solidarity and accompaniment.

Gus Schultz once noted that Sanctuary was not a place, but an enduring relationship, a covenant.

The Chapel, and SHARE, have worked together through decades in relationship with our sisters and brothers –  from the sailors of the USS Coral Sea to the people of  El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, abroad and here at home.  We have been defining what it means to accompany one another – with prayer, communication, through raising funds and bearing witness to pain and joy.

As many of you know, Palestine is submitting a bid at the UN General Assembly on Thursday, 11/29/2012 to become an observer member state in the UN.

The presiding bishop of the ELCA, Rev Mark Hanson, is in support of Palestine’s bid and has sent a letter to president Barack Obama asking that the US support Palestine’s bid to upgrade its status.

Click here to read bishop Mark’s letter.

Come join us in an opportunity for children and youth of all ages to engage in advocacy about immigration issues.  According to the most recent executive orders regarding deportation of undocumented immigrants, those who are not criminals and who have family ties in the United States are not supposed to be targeted for deportation.

 However, thousands of parents are deported away from their children every year in the United States, leading to enormous struggles for health, security, and safety for their kids (both those who remain in the US and those who try to reunite with their families in countries that are completely unknown to them).

“We Belong Together” is a campaign for children to write cards to Congress and President Obama requesting that families be kept together, not divided by deportation or immigration status.  The campaign hopes to gather 20,000 letters by November 30.  Just sign up and they will give you the information, and take care of mailing your letters, too!  It is a way to help those in need in a very unique and life-changing way and a wonderful Sunday school project.

Where: Sign up online here: http://www.webelongtogether.org/wish

When: Cards and letters due by November 30 for holiday delivery

We have had many wonderful, deserving organizations in the running for the Social Justice awards and the following three were elected in the annual voting process:

Lutheran Volunteers Corp 
Lutheran Volunteer Corps (LVC) unites full-time stipended Volunteers with financial supporters, non-profit organizations and ministries to work for peace with justice across the nation. In addition to working for justice, LVC Volunteers live together in intentional household communities of 4-7 people to encourage simple, sustainable living. Financial support from the chapel will be used to support the Bay Area LVC.

Lutheran Peace Fellowship 
Lutheran Peace Fellowship (LPF) is a community of Lutherans across the U.S. and around the globe, responding to the gospel call to be peacemakers and justice seekers. Based in Seattle since 1994, LPF offers a wide range of expertise, support, and resources for youth and adults, including topics such as simple living and hunger.

East Bay Sanctuary Covenant 
The East Bay Sanctuary Covenant (EBSC) provides sanctuary–support, protection, and advocacy–to low-income and indigent refugees and immigrants. EBSC’s work primarily consists of two programs: the Refugee Rights Program and the Community Development and Education program. The chapel helped to start this organization.