A letter from Tricia Lloyd-Sidle in the Caribbean
September 22, 2009
Dear Friends in Christ,
Tricia in Jamaica with the Reverend Nicole Ashwood, Caribbean and North American Council for Mission, and Dr. Fulata Moyo, World Council of Churches.
This fall has me traveling in the United States. I look forward to seeing many PC(USA) folks in September and October. Maybe you will be one of them?!
First, I will be in Carlisle and Baltimore presbyteries as part of World Mission Challenge. Forty-five PC(USA) mission workers will visit hundreds of congregations across the United States to tell how God is at work around the world.
World Mission Challenge, a reprise of a similar event in 2007, will be held September 25 to October 18, 2009. WMC has 152 presbyteries participating. See the Mission Challenge Web site for a list of the participating presbyteries and the mission speakers, or call Ellen Dozier at (888) 728-7228, x 5916 for more information.
Then I will be in Cincinnati for a Cuba Partners meeting and the World Mission Celebration, a large gathering for Presbyterians who care deeply about mission. The event will be held October 22–24 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel and the adjoining Duke Energy Center. Learn more at the Mission Celebration Web site or by calling Lis Valle at (888) 728-7228 x5279.
For more information about the Cuba gathering on October 20-22, contact me at revtjls@yahoo.com. If your church is involved in (or interested in) mission in the Dominican Republic or in Jamaica, please come to a get-together for sharing information and experiences that will be held on Friday evening at the World Mission Celebration in Cincinnati. I’d love to see you!
Jiizas ansa im se, 'Wan man a go dong fram Jeruusilem tu Jeriko an som tiif grab im. Dem tek we im kluoz, biit im an go we lef im haaf ded. Wan priis a go dong di siem ruod, si di man, an paas pan di ada said.'
— Luke 10:30-31 (in Jamaican Patois)
Spotlight on Jamaica
Ashley Smith’s insistence that he would study theology in London was a radical break with tradition. Even though the Presbyterian Mission Board in Scotland decided in the 1860s “to make every effort to educate and train a native ministry,” not much progress had been made 80 years later. There was little need for theological education, the thinking went, because “native pastors were going to small, rural churches.” It was understood that the larger, urban churches would only call white missionary pastors. Later, as general secretary of the Jamaican church, the Reverend Ashley Smith worked to undo this practice, angering many along the way.
Earlier this year, Ashley Smith was honored as a pioneer and a beloved mentor by the 36th Synod of the United Church in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands. The celebration of his 50 years of ministry included stories about his bold leadership. He was one of the early leaders to recognize the importance of an Afrocentric Christology for the Jamaican church. His book, Real Roots and Potted Plants, wrestles theologically with the issue of identity for Caribbean Christians.
Identity is at the center of the current controversy in Jamaica over a Bible translation project. Patois is a language known by almost all Jamaicans but that was long considered to be “low-class” and “improper.” It has become increasingly acceptable, and now a written version of patois is being developed for the first time. The Bible Society of the West Indies is overseeing a 12-year project to produce a Patois Bible, sparking both praise and disdain. Critics fear a “dumbing-down” of Scripture, but United Church moderator, the Rev. Henley Bernard, supports the project, saying it will provide “greater access to the word of God through contemporary speech forms and cultural images that help to make the good news have the greatest sense."
Poster for the WCC's 2009 Caribbean focus of its "Decade to Overcome Violence."
One love: Building a peaceful Caribbean
The United Church in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands was happy to welcome a delegation from the World Council of Churches at its synod meeting this year. Not only is the Caribbean the 2009 Focus of the WCC’s “Decade to Overcome Violence,” but Jamaica will host the decade’s concluding International Ecumenical Peace Convocation in 2011.
For the Jamaicans, and for Christians throughout the region, building a peaceful Caribbean is of utmost importance. There is enormous diversity among the 13 nations and scores of territories and colonies in the region. Sadly, however, they have all been shaped by the violence of conquest, slavery, and outside domination. The epidemic of violence continues to spread amidst widespread poverty, economic and political instability, and the omnipresent lure of a consumerist life-style.
Building a peaceful Caribbean is central to the mission and ministry of Christians in the region. Working ecumenically to build peace is especially important, as it is clear that no one nation is an island unto itself—even island nations! The United Church in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands participates actively and provides leadership in numerous ecumenical organizations, including several in which the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) also belongs: Caribbean and North American Council for Mission; Caribbean and North American Area Council; and the World Council of Churches.
I invite you to pray along with Caribbean Christians, a prayer from Jamaica:
Keep your church free, that it may be the channel
through which justice and peace,
integrity and wholeness,
harmony and goodwill
may flow to the dispossessed and the desperate,
that your Kingdom may come in all its fulfillment
of life and health and peace,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
(from the World Council of Churches’ Web site)
Tricia Lloyd-Sidle
The 2009 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 272, 274
