High Hopes - It Takes a Village

Yesterday, over fifty church leaders gathered at Northwood-Appold United Methodist Church to participate in the workshop "It Takes a Village - Developing Partnerships between Churches and Schools." At least 17 churches were represented among the participants. The workshop is a part of our ongoing strategic effort aimed at strengthening churches and transforming communities in Baltimore. We were blessed to hear from Mr. Michael Sarbanes and Mr. Michael Carter - both from Baltimore City Public Schools - who shared with us some of the ways that churches can become more involved in the schools in their communities, and who solicited feedback from us on how to make church-school partnerships more constructive in moving forward. We also heard from Dr. Philip Leaf, from John Hopkins University, who offered encouraging words as to the positive impact that parents and community members can have on children and youth, which can serve to turn the tide on the negative factors impacting young people in the inner city. One of the things that Dr. Leaf challenged each of us to do was to identify one thing - small or large - in addition to what we are already doing, and commit to doing this. From adopting one classroom, to offering supplies or computer equipment, each of us and our churches can do something more. These incremental action steps can have a large impact. We also heard stories from many of the churches represented of how they are already working with the children in their respective communities, and how they remain committed to continuing, and in some cases expanding, these efforts in the future. At the end of the day, we left with a sense that as a village concerned about the future of our children in the city, we can continue to make a difference. We left with hope that the days ahead will be filled with promise.

High Hopes - Addressing Urban Violence

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the 20th century German theologian, executed for opposing Adolph Hitler’s holocaust, said that the test of the morality of a society is how it treats its children. Recent media reports have been released indicating that with two weeks left before summer break, a record 36 Chicago Public Schools students have been murdered this school year, marking the third straight year that youth homicides have climbed into double digits. Chicago has surpassed New York City and Los Angeles for having the highest youth homicide rate in the nation.

The number of youths murdered in Chicago points to troubling trends across the nation regarding youth violence. Dexter Voisin, a researcher at the University of Chicago who studies the impact of violence on adolescents, points out that those with nonfatal injuries are almost 100 times that of homicide rates. Voisin said, "You think for about every one kid who is murdered, 100 kids witness the murder or are victims of nonfatal injuries, of robberies, muggings and gang-related incidents. A lot of times, this exposure goes undocumented or unreported."

Black youths, he said, are two times more likely than white youths to fail or drop out of school, and at the same time they are also eight to 10 times more likely to be victims of homicide than whites.

Against the backdrop of this death toll, there are those in Chicago seeking to turn around these trends and offer hope to troubled impoverished Chicago neighborhoods where gangs, drugs and guns are pervasive.

CeaseFire Chicago is one such program. CeaseFire is an evidence-based public health approach to reducing shootings and killings. Their methods for reversing the violence epidemic use highly trained street violence interrupters and outreach staff, public education campaigns and community mobilization. Against apparently overwhelming odds, CeaseFire is one of the techniques being used to turn around the trends of youth rising youth violence in Chicago and make neighborhoods safer. To learn more, go to http://www.ceasefirechicago.org/.

Signs of Hope - A Summer of Peace

Yesterday, more than 15 religious leaders from various denominations met with city officials at St. Mary's Seminary and University to address the the issue of ongoing violence in Baltimore. Convened by Archbishop Edwin O'Brien of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, we committed to a new initiative to reduce crime and make the streets safer this summer. We declared this to be a "Summer of Peace" in Baltimore and will work toward this end from June through September. We designated June 19-21 as Peace Sabbath where we will encourage people at all area mosques, synagogues and churches to pray for peace in the city, and to make monetary donations that will go toward the Safe Streets Initiative and other programs that deal with violence among youth in the city. We also asked city officials to keep recreation centers, parks, libraries and pools open during the summer, when kids are out of school and looking for things to do. Finally, we committed to continue to meet on various levels to explore ways to deepen levels of collaboration among leaders from the religious community, the government and community, as together we work toward the objective of peace in the city.

Restoring Hope - Pathways to Community Transformation

The following is an excerpt from the upcoming book, My Hope is Built: Essays, Sermons and Prayers on Religion and Race, vol. 2 (C. Anthony Hunt, Ph.D.)

Today, one of the headlines in the Baltimore Sun pointed to a decline in the crime rate in Baltimore despite the continued economic crisis that affects all across the city. While this decrease in crime may, on the surface, appear to be encouraging, the article points out that Baltimore continues to be one of the most violent U.S. cities.

I teach a graduate level course in Urban Ministries to students preparing for ministry and community service in the city of Baltimore. One of the first major assignments in the course is a field assignment where students are to walk for four or five blocks around the neighborhood surrounding their church, and to count the number of broken windows and boarded up buildings that they see. We’ve discovered that the number of broken windows and boarded buildings is a good indicator of the quality of life in the neighborhoods. In a particular way the broken windows and boarded up buildings point to the challenges incumbent in many communities.

Baltimore, in many ways, has become a poster city for urban blight. A number of popular ethnographies have been recently done on Baltimore, including television productions like "Homicide," "The Corner" (Charles Dutton) and "The Wire." The stir about a year ago was around a popular underground DVD series entitled “Stop Snitching” – where in one segment a young teenager is seen smoking a Blunt and shooting off a semi-automatic weapon into the air.

A number of groups of concerned persons from the community, church and city government continue to meet to address violence across the city, and perhaps more importantly to renew our commitments to developing constructive collaborations between the community, police and others to make communities safer in the city. On this coming Wednesday afternoon, several religious and community leaders will join together at St. Mary's Seminary and University to share our commitment to stopping violence in Baltimore, and calling for a "Summer of Peace."

Baltimore is not unique in the challenges that it faces in restoring hope. Perhaps a closer look at what’s going on in this city might offer a glimpse of how cities across this nation might move toward restoring hope. Recent statistical data indicates that Baltimore is the 8th largest metropolitan area in the United States. Statistical data also projects that the population in Baltimore will increase by over 25 percent over the next ten years.

While Baltimore currently has over 635,000 residents, it is a part of the larger Baltimore-Washington region (or Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area) which is comprised of over 5 million people and continues to grow. The current racial composition of Baltimore is 65% African American, 21% white, 2% Latino and 2% Asian.

In Baltimore, 22.3% of the population was at the poverty level in 1999, while 30.6% of the children lived in poverty (Baltimore City Data Collaborative 2004). In 2004, over one-third of Baltimore high school students, 34.6 percent, failed to get diplomas, ranking as the nation’s worst (reported in Education Week). In 2006, only one-third of students who began ninth grade in Baltimore graduated from high school. Recent statistics indicate that Baltimore is near the top in the rates of the incidence of HIV/AIDS and heroine addiction. Baltimore is considered to be the 12th most violent city, and has the second highest murder rate in the nation. in 2007, 282 persons were murdered in the city – at least 27 were under the age of 18. This was the most murders in the city since 1999.

As the church, we who are United Methodists remain committed to restoring hope through collaborating and partnering with community and government entities to (1) Develop comprehensive asset-based community ministry through Communities of Shalom (shalom is Hebrew for peace, well-being, wholeness). Since 2008, we have developed 7 new Communities of Shalom across the city, and are currently in the planning phases of developing 5 more, (2) Offer a free summer camping experience, called "Camp Life," at United Methodist camping facilities for children and youth who have been affected by the death of a loved one as a result of violence in the city. (3) Partner with professional therapists and caregivers across the city, through Hope Counseling, to provide comprehensive counseling services to persons who have experienced the murder or violence of family members, (4) Partner with the Baltimore City Police Department on a gun turn-in program, (5) and Pray for the city, its leaders and every community.

May God bless all who seek to promote peace and stop violence in the city.

High Hopes - Temple Maintenance

Recently, the wonderful story of Ms. Ernestine Shepherd was shared with me by her pastor, Rev. Esther Holimon. An active member of Union Memorial United Methodist Church in Baltimore, Ms. Shepherd is 72 years old and continues to run marathons and compete in - and win - bodybuilding competitions, and as Barry Simmons reports in a a recent feature on Ms. Shepherd, defies anyone to tell her that she is getting old. Ms. Shepherd's life and story is a reminder to all of us of the importance of the stewardship of our bodies and helps each of us to remember the words of the apostle Paul, "Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own? (1 Corinthians 6:19). UMTV is currently producing a video which shares the story of Ms. Ernestine Shepherd - the "Senior Weightlifting Wonder." To view excerpts from the the video, please click on the link http://www.umtv.org/archives/senior_weightlifting_wonder.htm.

Hope for the City - A 2009 Report

In late 2007, the Baltimore-Washington Conference of the United Methodist Church adopted a comprehensive plan for ministry, Hope for the City, for the churches in Baltimore city. The implementation of Hope for the City beginning in 2008, under the coordination of the Baltimore Hope Council, has included the development of 7 new Communities of Shalom (involving 9 churches) in various communities across Baltimore. In addition to the Deaf Shalom Zone, housed at Christ Church of the Deaf, each of the Shalom Zones seeks to bring about community transformation using the model of asset-based church/community ministry. There are currently plans to develop at least 5 additional shalom zones in the Baltimore region in 2009-10. The implementation of Hope for the City also involves strengthening churches and communities through ongoing clergy and lay leadership development. Currently, pastors serving churches in Baltimore are organized in 6 urban cohort Discipler groups designed to provide training and address specific issues in urban ministry, and to promote collaboration among churches. Lay leadership development has involved the offering of several courses through the Discipleship Academy in urban settings, as well as Leadership Days for leaders in the Baltimore Metropolitan area. An equipping event entitled “It Takes a Village: Developing Partnerships between Churches and Schools,” will be held on May 30, 2009 and is being designed to equip church leaders from across the city to more effectively work with the schools in their communities. The Baltimore Hope Council is currently in the process of planning a region-wide urban convocation, “Redeeming the Dream: Renewing the Church in the City.” The convocation, scheduled for September 18-19, 2009 at the Maritime Institute of Technology, Linthicum, MD, will offer opportunities for persons to be further equipped in the practice of urban ministry. Other ongoing work under the auspices of Hope for the City involves Camp Life, a partnership of the Baltimore Hope Council, the Board of Childcare, and Conference Camping and Retreat Ministries where up to 100 youth from Baltimore will be able to participate in one of the Conference camping opportunities this summer; and Hope Counseling, a partnership of several agencies in Baltimore which provides free counseling and support to persons affected by violence in the city. Indeed we continue to witness and experience signs of hope in the city.

High Hopes - Annual Conference and Making Connections

One of the things that I love and appreciate about United Methodism is that ours is a church of connections. In three weeks we’ll share in connecting as we gather in Baltimore for the 225th session of the Baltimore-Washington Annual Conference. Annual Conference is always an exciting time, as it affords us an opportunity to experience our broader ministry as we connect with persons who we may not see often, but who share a common faith as Methodists. One of the amazing parts of Annual Conference is the joyful noise that seems to pervade our gathering each year. It is the joyful noise of persons reconnecting with each other, the joyful noise of singing and preaching. It is the same joyful noise that almost certainly was shared by those who gathered at the Lovely Lane Meeting House in December 1784 as they joined together to discern about the future direction of our faith community.

Indeed, it is a blessing to connect for a time to consider matters that are important to our faith and life together. Our Pre-Conference materials invite us to use our time together as a time for Holy Conferencing. We are reminded of the words found in 1 Peter 3:8: “Finally, all of you, have unity of spirit, sympathy, love for one another, a tender heart, and a humble mind.” In Eugene Peterson’s offering of these sentiments from 1 Peter in The Message, we are reminded to “be agreeable, be sympathetic, be loving, be compassionate, be humble.” What powerful words of faith and life these are. Indeed, these are words that we can live by as Christians.

As we prepare for Holy Conferencing this year, I pray that we will recall the words of 1 Peter, and that in our time together and in the days that are before us, we will be filled with the joy, love, unity and the humility of God.

High Hopes - The Turn Around-Turn About Community Center

On Saturday, May 2, 2009, the Turn Around-Turn About Community Center opened its doors for service in West Baltimore. The Center is a part of the Community of Shalom at St. James United Methodist Church. The church and Center sit in the midst of a zip code that has some of the highest rates of violence, drug addiction, and HIV infection in the nation. At the ribbon-cutting celebration on May 2nd, city and state officials, educators, and community and religious leaders shared in articulating a vision for community renewal through the Turn Around-Turn About Center, which will facilitate partnerships and will bring programs such as GED tutoring, drug interdiction, job placement and health-care to the community. Rev. Dr. Iris Farabee-Lewis, the pastor of St. James Church spoke of her vision – similar to one shared by Joshua – where the promises of God would be realized through renewed faith and bold action (Josh. 24). May God grant strength and grace to each of those who will share their time, talent and treasure with this important ministry, and may many lives be turned around to the glory of God.