A Diverse and Empowered Body
By Kathryn Baker
Sunday plenary and worship is always a highlight of any PW Churchwide Gathering. This one was no exception. The Sunday, June 21 plenary session and worship was also the closing to the 2015 Churchwide Gathering.
Gathering attendees explored the daily theme, “Oneness in the Global Community,” beginning with a time of spiritual reflection led by Dee Koza. She likened a story of clotheslines in East Germany to 1 Corinthians 12:27, “Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.” She told of how, at the time of the Berlin Wall, women of East Germany related to one another by moving their clotheslines so they could see one another. As they hung their clothes on the line, they prayed for their neighbors.
Pilju Kim Joo gave a meaningful presentation on food sovereignty. One billion people go to bed hungry every night, and one child dies of hunger every 5 to 20 seconds. As we try to lose weight, many people in the global community are in poverty and experience hunger, not from scarcity but from lack of sharing.
A U.S. citizen, Pilju has worked on agricultural issues in North Korea since 1989. She travels to North Korea frequently, focusing on food production and sustainable community development work, financially supported largely by the United States and South Korea. Pilju organized Agglobe Services International, Inc., an NGO that works on global food security.
Pilju offered her firsthand witness that people can address food scarcity if they have access to seeds, implements and knowledge. Since 2004, she has worked in the North and South Hwanghae on refining methods in cotton farming and training local people to grow it. This training gives people a source of income, with which they can buy food. Pilju, who has been called “Cotton Granny,” closed by saying, “If the whole world works together it will bring peace. Let’s do it together.”
Sadekie Lyttle-Forbes, a mission partner from Jamaica, preached the Word. She said, “When we become Christians, the image of God should become clearer to those who look at us, when they see our actions, the way we treat people and each other, the way we speak, should draw people to Christ.” In short, our love for others reflects Christ. She added, “Love carries the ingredients of inclusiveness.” What unifies us is that we are all baptized by the same Spirit. No one should say another cannot belong; our diversity makes the body of Christ beautiful.
Sadekie emphasized that we all have a purpose; it is just not the same purpose. It doesn’t matter who you are, what your socio-economic status is or your level of education. “You belong!” she affirmed, saying that God has placed each of us here and wants each of us to be part of the global community. The Apostle Paul said to honor everyone, even those who are weak. Thus we have a responsibility to ensure that everyone feels cared for, affirmed and that she belongs.
Saying, “My sisters we have to use our diversity as our secret weapon,” Sadekie stressed that we all have a role and a strength in the quest to guarantee a better global future. She acknowledged this is continuous work, but women know what it is to labor.
As Communion was celebrated for more than 1,700 attendees, the Gathering choir sang, “O For a World,” “Jesus, Remember Me” and “Come and Fill Our Hearts.” Following Communion, a dramatic interpretation, “Journey to the Circle” honored prophetic women in the Bible.
The Gathering closed with the all attendees reading the benediction: “Now unto God—who is able to accomplish far more than anything we could ask or think, according to the power at work within us—be glory in the church in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”
