Annual Gathering Report
In Search of Economic Justice
by Tracy J. Sukraw
Thirty members of the Episcopal Women's Caucus spent significant time focusing on issues of economic
justice in the church and the world when they met for their annual gathering, held Oct. 25-27 at the Holiday Inn in Newton, Massachusetts.
The weekend also marked the kick-off of farewell celebrations in the Diocese of Massachusetts for the Rt. Rev. Barbara C. Harris, the Anglican Communion's first female bishop, who retired November 1 after a 13-year tenure as Massachusetts' bishop suffragan.
Caucus members gathered for a Saturday evening reception and dinner with Bishop Harris at Episcopal Divinity School (EDS) in Cambridge, and some stayed for the diocese's Gospel Vespers celebration for Bishop Harris at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Boston on Sunday afternoon.
The Rev. Gayle Elizabeth Harris, Massachusetts' bishop suffragan-elect, said afterward that the Caucus gathering at EDS held “a spirit of celebration, not just honoring Barbara, not just rehearsing all she has done and meant to the church, but a spirit of saying, We continue to look to you to be a voice for the future. There was the spirit of Christ's love embracing the totality of God's presence among all people in the church.”
That justice-seeking spirit infused the weekend's
presentations and discussions. Caucus president Ginger Paul of Shreveport, La., said that she came away from the annual meeting with the sense “that there is a continuing need for the Episcopal Women's Caucus to be a visible presence in the church, ever pressing forward, with other members of the Consultation, to struggle for justice so that the ministry of all will be honored and equally valued.”
During the opening program on Friday evening,
Meizhu Lui addressed the topic of economic justice in the world. Lui is the executive director of United for a Fair Economy in Boston, an organization that focuses attention on the negative consequences of growing economic inequality. Through educational resources and
programs, it supports efforts to build a grassroots social movement toward a fair economy.
“...growing inequality in our culture is not an act of nature or an act of God. It's an act of men and women...”
Lui spoke of the principle of fairness as “a bedrock American value” but was quick to add that “the practice of fairness in our country is not equally great.”
To illustrate income
growth gaps, Lui lined up five volunteers, each representing a fifth of the population, and had them step forward across the room according to their group's corresponding income growth between 1979 and 1999.
The volunteer representing the bottom fifth–which experienced an income loss of one percent–was soon left far behind the volunteer representing the top fifth, whose income growth of 42 percent sent her striding across the room. “Since the Reagan years, policies have made it come true that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer,” Lui said.
By contrast, for the period between 1947 and
1979–when, according to Lui, everyone benefited from the progressive, post-WWII policies in place to support a middle class–income for the bottom fifth of the population grew 116 percent compared to a relatively equal 99 percent growth for the top fifth.
“My point here is that growing inequality in
our economy is not an act of nature or an act of God. It's an act of men and women who make the rules that can remedy problems in our society,” Lui said.
The picture of growing inequality in the U.S.
has to be looked at in global terms, she said, “because it is all one economy.” She asked Caucus members to check the labels inside their clothing to see where it had been made, and members were soon calling out a world atlas of origins: Mongolia, China, Macao, Mexico, India, Honduras, Thailand. “Certainly we get the picture that things are being made more and more around the world. Again, because of trade agreements that have opened doors for corporations to go searching for the cheapest labor anywhere in the world–and sometimes we call this the race to the bottom–wages are falling all over the world,” Lui said.
“The income gap between the fifth of the people
living in the richest countries and the fifth in the poorest is now 78 to 1–so a huge gap. The richest fifth consume 86 percent of all goods and services while the poorest fifth just over one percent,” she said.
Another way of measuring the gap, she said, is
to look at the infant mortality rate, which is 8 per 1,000 in richest countries compared to 169 per 1,000 in the poorest.
Among the consequences of global economic
inequality is spiritual and cultural destabilization, Lui said. “Some of the rise of [religious] fundamentalisms are reaction to the foreign cultural invasions and excessive materialism...the seeds of global discontent are starting to grow.”
And yet, she said, “The vast majority of people
have a vision of shared resources; of trade between equal partners; of knowing that our natural resources are precious and that we have to provide the stewardship so they will still be there for the seventh generation; of social justice based on respect and equality. I think it particularly falls to women to bring forward this vision, because women are traditionally the nurturers, the peacemakers, healers and givers of life. As we go forward we need to make our voices heard, to say that our values are the ones on which to build a just society.”
Where is the hope?
In response to Meizhu Lui's presentation, one Caucus member wondered aloud where hope could be found.
That question lingered over the following day's discussion of economic justice in the faith community, led by the Rev. Carmen Guerrero, who coordinates Jubilee Ministries for the Episcopal Church.
Lui had said the night before, “For women, we
are often one man away from poverty.” Guerrero, in her presentation, too, shared a series of sobering statistics about economic inequality, especially its impact on women and ethnic minorities.
“The lack of economic justice for women puts
all of society at risk,” Guerrero said, noting that three out of every 10 households in the U.S. are maintained by women. According to the U.S. Census Bureau's Public Information Office, she said, the median earning of women working full time is $27,355. “Then I looked at the poverty level statistics: 22.1 percent of all African Americans live at poverty level. Their median income is $30,000. Hispanics, 21.2 live around poverty level at $31,000. Therefore I believe that we cannot talk about economic justice in this country without addressing the issues of poverty, discrimination and of globalization. And, addressing economic justice in this country is not something that we can do in isolation from the rest of the world.”
Solidarity with the Poor
She recalled a memorable conversation she shared with Bishop Jubal Neves of Brazil during the 2000 General Convention in which he told her, “In an age of economic globalization the church must be involved in global solidarity with the poor.”
His statement reminded Guerrero of an experience she had in the Diocese of Los Angeles when she was called to assist women from Thailand who had been essentially enslaved by a sweatshop clothing manufacturing enterprise. Efforts to find clothing, housing and food for the women, as well as social services, were “all an effort to bring about justice in a situation that was a clear violation of human rights” that had been going on virtually in front of her church community's eyes. “Sometimes I think it's a lot easier to become partners with dioceses in other countries than to face the injustices going on down the street,” Guerrero said.
Ways You Can Help
The Five Principles
• Respect those who are oppressed as persons of worth
• Take responsibility for your own social order and join the resistance
• Recongnize your place in the system and how you have been advantaged by it
• Repent
• Make reparations
“One of the main things I learned in working
with these women was that it is imperative to be concrete when proclaiming the acceptable year of the Lord's favor, also called Jubilee, because it carries with it the heavy responsibility that goes beyond the spiritual. It is imperative that we do this in concrete ways because, as good as the spiritual is, it is only part of who we are as human beings. ... I am reminded of the words of God in Isaiah, `I will not rest until justice is done.'”
Guerrero suggested that hope springs from action: “Is there hope? It all depends on you,” she said. She shared five principles for Christians in dominant cultures who want to work for economic justice, taken from the book, Justice in an Unjust World: Foundations for a Christian Approach to Justice by Karen Lebacqz: Respect those who are oppressed as persons of worth. Take responsibility for our own social order and its ills and join the resistance. Recognize our own place in the system and how we have been advantaged by it. Repent. Make reparations.
Guerrero reminded the group of several specific areas of ministry in the Episcopal Church devoted to economic justice:
The Episcopal Public Policy Network, a project
of the Episcopal Office of Government Relations in Washington, D.C., which lobbies on public issues affirmed by the General Convention or Executive Council; The Economic Justice Loan Committee, which has stewardship responsibility for $7 million to make loans to projects that benefit the poor and marginalized; the Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) initiative, through which dioceses and endowed parishes can become active shareowners; and the Episcopal Network for Economic Justice, a grassroots network to engage churches and dioceses in matters of economic justice.
Forward action
Caucus members spent time in small groups discussing the implications of consumerism and concrete ways that faith-based communities and organizations like the Episcopal Women's Caucus can respond to economic justice issues.
Later, several Caucus members commented that
what they had heard and discussed signaled the need for more education about the interconnected issues at hand.
Said Barbara Schlachter of Iowa City, Iowa,
“Economic justice issues touch the whole world, and every day we are implicated in the problem, even if our hearts are in the right place. It is so hard to know how to make different choices that will make a difference. We need people who will wake us up but who also can provide us with concrete action steps we can take, in our prayers, our churches, our daily lives. We have to take the Baptismal Covenant seriously. We say it, but we have to help people find ways to do it,” she said. “This is our time to make a difference.”
The Rev. Jennifer Lynn Baskerville of Berke
ley, CA, spoke of perceptions of resource scarcity closer to home in church communities and how to “eliminate the classic conflict between, for example, how do you feed the poor and not let the liturgical arts die? There are always going to be people who care about specific ministries. What we need is more people caring about more things and able to put resources where their concerns are so that we are feeding souls as well as bodies.”
During Saturday afternoon's business meeting, Caucus members discussed the Executive Council's report and resolution in response to the 2000 General Convention resolution A045 regarding the three dioceses of the church that do not now follow the canons on ordination of women. The Caucus approved a resolution to be forwarded to the Executive Council.
The Caucus also heard a report from former
Board member John Vanderstar, who continues to represent the Caucus at the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice.
Tracy J. Sukraw
Editor, The Episcopal Times,
Diocese of Massachusetts
Ways to work for economic justice
If you are looking for ways to work for economic justice, Carmen Guerrero reminded the Annual Gathering of several specific areas of ministry in the Episcopal Church devoted to economic justice:
The Episcopal Public Policy Network, a project of the Episcopal Office of Government
Relations in Washington, D.C., which lobbies on public issues affirmed by the General Convention or Executive Council;
The Economic Justice Loan Committee, which has stewardship responsibility for $7 million to make loans to projects that benefit the poor and marginalized; the Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) initiative, through which dioceses and endowed parishes can become active shareowners;
The Episcopal Network for Economic Justice, a grassroots network to engage churches and dioceses in matters of economic justice.