Olive Branch Interfaith Peace Partnership

"The Cup of Endurance runs over…" From the Letter from a Birmingham Jail

Getting Ready and Being Urgent about Change

A Study and Action Guide for People Who are ready for Change based in the Riverside Church Speech of April 4, 1967, exactly one year before his death, where he named America’s dangerous triplets – racism, militarism and materialism – and called instead for a beloved community. Developed for the Olive Branch Interfaith Peace Partnership by the Rev. Dr. Donna Schaper.

Our goal is that 100 plus congregations across the nation will use this guide for four weeks during November, December and early January in order to get ready for change. We are framing the get ready time as NOW; the celebration time as the weekend of the King Birthday and Inauguration (and potentially there is a large immigration march the day after the inauguration) – and the first 100 days of the new administration as the time to get serious. By the time of the first 100 days of the new government, we promise to be ready.

This guide is a gift from the Tent of Abraham, Hagar and Sarah, a group of Jews, Christians and Muslims who have met in retreat for the last six years and are now working out an action proposal for multireligious visioning of the future. It comprehends the biblical themes from Babel to Pentecost and Exile to Freedom – while offering two simultaneously spiritual and political strategies, those of tithing and Sabbath-ing.

A Covenantal Pledge, to use personally, in your congregations, and with your communities.

On this rebirthing day, January 19, 2009, Martin Luther King’s birthday, on the eve of there coming into office new government to represent the American people, I join in covenant with other Americans:

I commit myself to give a new birth in America and in the world to the vision of Dr. Martin Luther King.

To call ourselves and every nation now to develop an overriding loyalty to humankind as a whole,

In order to preserve the best in our individual societies;

I commit myself to work toward a world-wide fellowship that lifts neighborly concern beyond any tribe, race, class or nation to call for an all-embracing and unconditional love for all humanity and for the web of life upon our planet;

I commit myself to fuse power with compassion, might with morality, and strength with insight; to choose non violent coexistence rather than violent co-annihilation; to speak for peace and justice through out the world – within and beyond our doors and shores. I commit myself to take the following specific actions:

To Tithe my Time and Money and Energy on behalf of justice by giving at least ten per cent of all I have to the beloved community. I list my specific ways here. My community/congregation lists its specific ways here.

Fill in here or in your own journal or on the walls or doors or refrigerators of your lives. We recommend both a private ritual and a public one, proclaiming your solidarity with this covenant.

I do this in the knowledge that tomorrow is today, that we are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. Now let us begin. Now let us rededicate ourselves to the long, hard, and beautiful struggle for a new world.

Notes on Using this study, “Getting Ready”, Some Do’s and Don’ts.

The Study is Summarized in four weeks, meant for you to custom design it for yourself and others. It is more a series of hints than a recipe. Custom design it for use in your way, by your people. Add to it. Subtract from it. Reformat it. Send it around. Print it out. Not everyone learns or prepares in the same way. There may be only one idea for you here. Use it. Discard the rest.

Do use the material here for sermons, conversations, with children, at Senior Centers, wherever.

Do commit yourself to the full process of readiness. Do not skip the steps of grief. Unacknowledged loss and grief unmanaged is in our way. Let us move from Babel to Pentecost, exile to freedom – and from grief acknowledged to hope reborn. We are not heading towards acceptance! We are not heading towards the status quo. We are heading towards regeneration, not sustainability, which sometimes just bargains to keep us where we are, with what we have. We are surely not interested in self-improvement or growth. We are interested in new ways for the beloved community to come together and rejoice in itself and the promises made to it and by it.

Do thank Elizabeth Kubler Ross for the framework of denial, anger, bargaining, acceptance borrowed here. Note that it is appropriated. We do not have to accept injustice. We may have to accept our own mortality. But there is nothing necessary about injustice.

Do follow the outline.

Getting Over it, Getting on to It, Getting to it THEN Celebrating who we are free to be and become.

These are the Themes

• Tithing our time, energy, money
• Giving ourselves Sabbath – so that we not become idolatrous in our work for justice or too big for our britches.
• Moving from the confusions of Babel to the Spirit Filled Time of Pentecost: Moving from Exile to Freedom

Here is the Guide and Appendices: