You are invited to the Remind & Renew Oklahoma Clergy Breakfast. Join us at Phillips Theological Seminary in the Student Commons on Thursday, January 24, 2019 from 8:00 – 9:00 am. No RSVP required.
Click HERE to view details about the Remind & Renew Event.
By Ms. Marilynn Knott, Retired Commissioned Minister
Member, Crown Heights Christian Church, OKC
Oklahoma’s most valuable resource is our people. One of the best things we can do for our state is to enable our people to become fully the people God created them to be. If you check out statistics on poverty, you will learn that people of color are disproportionately included in counts of those living in poverty. Jim Wallis labels racism as America’s Original Sin.
One of my great grandfathers was the captain of a local militia for the Confederacy during the Civil War. I was told he was very bitter about the loss of the war and carried that bitterness throughout his life passing it on to his family. Some years ago, I sat in a court house in Tennessee reading the will of this great grandfather’s father who was the product of Manifest Destiny probably taught in his church. Tears ran down my cheeks as I read the names of his house slaves and the children who inherited them listed among the horses and cattle he was also leaving them. His great granddaughter, my mother, did not pass that on to me. I never got the chance to ask her how that happened. My guess is she learned racism was wrong in Sunday school when a teacher taught her that God commanded us to love our neighbors as we love ourselves and she thought God meant it.
People of faith don’t always get things right. As Paul says we get caught up in the world sometimes and transfer the ways of the world to our faith. The good thing is we serve a God of second chances giving us the opportunity to turn around and work to set things right. My mother took that opportunity and lived and modeled it all her 98 years from serving all colors of people as a deaconess in the Methodist church in West Virginia during the depression to intercessory prayers from her nursing home bed.
Systemic racism is insidious, destructive in ways that are gradual and not easily noticed. As we pray about needed systemic change, let us seek and follow guidance on becoming intentional in our efforts to overcome systemic racism.
While the Woman-to-Woman Worldwide journey isn’t a ‘hands-on’ mission, it does offer a way to respond to the call for Disciples women to experience solidarity with one another, to affirm the unity of the church in Jesus Christ, and to join the common struggle for justice and peace in the world today by educating and advocating for those needs. These international, ecumenical, and personal experiences encourage faithful women to see the world through new eyes and bring that perspective back to their congregation and community. An integral part of the post-journey experience is giving presentations about their experiences and sharing what they have learned with others.
“Woman-to-Woman Worldwide is designed to establish a network of “growing concentric circles of world proportion.” T.J. Liggett
You are invited to participate in this program in a number of different ways.
Following a seven-month long search that yielded an impressive and diverse pool of applicants, the Board of Trustees of Phillips Theological Seminary has named the Rev. Dr. Nancy Pittman as the school’s next president. Pittman has served as interim president of the Seminary since July 1, 2018 and will immediately assume the presidency.
“Dr. Pittman is the clear choice because of her strong leadership skills and vision for the future of theological education,” said Claire Meredith, chair of the seminary’s board of trustees and the presidential search committee.
Read the full article published on the Phillips Theological Seminary website HERE
(photo provided by Phillips Theological Seminary)
Kick off the New Year by getting more involved with the Oklahoma Disciples Women. Come see where the Lord may lead your new year! The theme is Healthy Bodies as We Age.
Please plan to join the Central Area Disciples Women of Oklahoma at New Covenant Christian Church (12000 N. Rockwell, Oklahoma City) on January 22, 2019 for the next meeting. You do not have to be in the Central Area to join. Come and be a part of an amazing group of women and be blessed with the friendship and fellowship of Disciples Women.
Agenda:
Please RSVP by January 15th by calling 405-722-7445
By Ms. Marilynn Knott (Retired Commissioned Minister)
Chair, Commission on Faith in Action
Member, Crown Heights Christian Church, OKC
My name is Marilynn Knott and I am currently the Chair of the Faith in Action Commission of the Christian Church in Oklahoma. Just over two years ago the Faith in Action Commission began exploring more deeply the need to address racism and other forms of discrimination from a faith perspective. We held a one-day workshop led by Pro-Reconciliation/Anti-Racism team members from another Region and then began formation of an Oklahoma PRAR team. Interested people, including members of the Faith in Action Commission, participated in a more in-depth training the next summer.
Eventually we determined that we needed the whole Christian Church in Oklahoma to share in the formation of PRAR team and thus decided to provide ten one-day workshops, two in each area for clergy and laity both, to invite all to become a part of the process. The first five of these workshops are scheduled and will be held starting in March and continue throughout the spring. The second five will be held in the fall. Dates and places for the first five are on the Regional calendar along with dates for the fall workshops with places still to be determined. Reminders will be sent as we get closer to the dates and begin registering participants.
This initiative began following the flare up in Ferguson Missouri followed by the Terrance Crutcher incident in Tulsa, which raised the awareness of the need for people of faith to address discrimination and we still hear of similar tragedies today. There are no easy answers but there are answers as God calls us to love one another and puts no limitations on whether the other is black or white, male or female, immigrant or citizen.
Starting today we are calling you to join us in prayer for discernment of God’s vision for our world of diverse people. Each Monday we will post some thoughts to encourage your prayers. We hope you will join us as we prepare to answer the call truly to love one another as Jesus loves us.
“Abide in Me,” Okahoma’s 2019 Leadership Training School, is coming soon on February 23, 2019! This event will offer education, worship, fellowship, and renewal for those in ministry in Oklahoma congregations. LTS will be held at First Christian Church in Edmond, 9 a.m.-4:15 p.m.
Our preacher for the day is Rev. Teresa Hord Owens, the General Minister and President of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). There will be three opportunities for workshops, with participants choosing one workshops around topics of justice, Disciples roots, and inclusivity.
Presenters included are from local, regional, and general church ministry organizations, providing a full and vibrant day of learning options. The cost for the event is $35 per person.
Childcare will be provided free for those in 5th grade and below; please indicate your childcare needs when you preregister. Youth in grades 6-12 are encouraged to participate in the event. We hope you will join other Oklahoma Disciples at LTS 2019!
More details including registration will be coming soon!
The Oklahoma Region is planning two mission trips to Caminante in the Dominican Republic in 2019:
These mission trips not only change the lives of the participants, but they also change the lives of the children we minister to through Caminante.
The first trip will take place around March 16-23, 2019. Those traveling will spend 7 or 8 days visiting the different ministries of Caminante. This trip is educational in nature. You will have the opportunity to observe the different programs at the vocational school and visit Santo Domingo, the capital city of the Dominican Republic. You will work with local children in the homework rooms and have the opportunity to help the local teenagers make coconut jewelry.
The second trip will take place around July 21-30, 2019. You would spend 8 or 9 days working with the Sister Denisse and the Caminante staff as they minister to children in their summer community fair. This fair is similar to our Vacation Bible Schools. You would help the children play games, make crafts, help with lessons and serve snacks and lunch. The fair reaches about 250 children each day. What a blessing!
You will assist in taking this fair to one or two villages where Haitian immigrants live and have the opportunity to observe the different programs at the vocational school. You will visit and experience Santo Domingo, the capital city of the Dominican Republic.
These trips are safe and secure. The lodging is in a nice, clean hotel. There are age appropriate activities for recent high school graduates as well as older adults.
The total cost per participant for these trips will be between out $1700 to $1850 per person. This includes airfare, lodging, all meals, trip and medical insurance and sight-seeing expenses.
Partial scholarships are available for all participants. If you feel led to join this ministry please call the Regional Office 405-528-3577 or Don Johnson 580-402-2612 for more information.
The Oklahoma City Community Foundation is helping provide warm meals to homebound elderly citizens this winter by awarding $53,400 in grants to 51 churches and organizations participating in Mobile Meals of Oklahoma County, including seven Christian churches. In addition, $5,000 each was awarded to Edmond Mobile Meals and Meals on Wheels of Norman.
The Oklahoma City Community Foundation has supported central Oklahoma’s Mobile Meals programs since 2008, awarding more than $350,000 over the past decade. According to the Oklahoma Department of Human Services, the need for continued nutrition assistance is vital as Oklahoma’s senior citizen population continues to grow at an unprecedented rate. The organization’s most recent State Plan on Aging reported 19 percent of our state’s population is now over age 60.
“Today, one in five Americans is over the age of 60 with the population expected to nearly double by 2060,” said Cristi Twenter, executive director of Edmond Mobile Meals. “Roughly 17 percent of Oklahoma’s senior population struggles with hunger. Nine percent of those seniors in our state are living in poverty, and 26 percent of Oklahoma seniors live alone. Grant programs to assist Mobile Meals programs are crucial in helping to keep pace with the growing demand for services. We believe no senior in our community should have to make a choice between paying for food, medication and other necessities, which is why we never base service on a client’s ability to pay for meals.”
The Christian churches reported their volunteers provide nutritious meals, wellness checks and meaningful contact to more than 160 homebound senior citizens living in central Oklahoma who are unable to prepare their own meals.
“For nearly 50 years, the Oklahoma City Community Foundation has listened to both the needs of our community and to the wishes of our donors, leading us to focus on the health and wellness of senior citizens in the community,” said Nancy B. Anthony, Oklahoma City Community Foundation. “Our local Mobile Meals programs are crucial to seniors in this community, and we’re privileged to have the opportunity to support their work.”
Grants were awarded to the following Christian churches that provide meals through Mobile Meals of Oklahoma County:
About the Oklahoma City Community Foundation
Founded in 1969, the Oklahoma City Community Foundation is a 501(c)(3) public charity that works with donors to create charitable funds that will benefit our community both now and in the future. To learn more about the Oklahoma City Community Foundation, visit www.occf.org.