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. First Sunday . |
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First Sunday Spotlight: First Sunday's 100th Edition! It's hard for me to believe, but the first edition of First Sunday was produced in February 1994, as an outreach effort by the Peace & Justice ministry. Aidan Rooney, freshly arrived at St. Vincent's, was its staff contact person. Included were announcements of our very first visit by a delegation from Las Anonas, a program called "Brown Eyes, Blue Eyes" sponsored by the African-American Leadership ministry (the beginning of the still-continuing process of developing a racial-healing zone), plans for the very first Good Friday Way of the Cross in Germantown, and the continuing process of neighborhood house meetings that was being conducted by P&J in association with PIA. It listed three forthcoming events as part of P&J's "Second Sunday" series: presentations by Dick Taylor on the tenth anniversary of the Catholic bishops' peace pastoral; by an invited speaker on the Kennett Square mushroom-pickers' labor struggles, and by P&J itself, reporting to the full community on the results of the house meeting process. Its reflection item, setting the stage for Dick's presentation, focused on the words of John Paul II on World Peace Day, just a month earlier, "Families, you have a mission of prime importance: that of contributing to the construction of peace, indispensable for respect for human life and its development." The introduction stated, "We of St. Vincent's P&J ministry hope to make First Sunday a regular monthly Bulletin insert . . . to highlight the activities of the various social-justice and peace-centered groups and individuals in our Parish. We believe the gathering and dissemination of such information through a regular channel is an important service that we can provide to the full community, and is one clearly central to our mission as a ministry." In the second edition, March 1994, the page-two box listing Parish ministries first appeared. In January 1995, First Sunday announced Faith & Works, a representative group of parishioners who, through a process of study and reflection, were committing "to help ourselves and others understand what it means to be a parish that reflects God's call to stand with the poor and to act for peace and justice, and to enable this mission to become central, not fringe, integral, not optional, the work of every believer" (using the words of the bishops' statement, "Communities of Salt and Light"). Faith & Works took over sponsorship of First Sunday through September 1995, when the parish as a whole became its sponsor. Announcements from the pulpit were made regularly at each first-Sunday of the month Mass, highlighting the following week's Second Sunday events and other items of special importance. In September 1997, First Sunday helped set the stage for an enlarged and energized celebration of St. Vincent's feast day, calling special attention to Vincent's charism of service to the poor and to our Parish ministries. Soon after, it began to feature a regular "Pulse" section, recalling an earlier parish publication of reflection and creative writing by that name. Many people helped gather the materials for First Sunday through these ten years, including Nancy Cunningham, Eileen DiFranco, Mary Ellen Graham, Michelle Samsi and, most recently, Jerry Szucs. Some of them are no longer part of the community and are sorely missed. Virginia Maksymowicz has been proof-reader. Looking through these hundred issues, there is a great amount of history of this Parish to be found; I hope to make an archive available to the community as a reference resource. As of issue #101, Alice Foley will be First Sunday's editor/publisher. Alice has graciously come forward to take up the job as I step down; we wish her eloquence and wisdom in her new responsibility. - Blaise Tobia Alternate Gifts This holiday season Americans will spend $220 billion on gifts, or about $700 per person. At least one-third of this amount will be spent on "dead-end" gifts - useless, trivial "stuff" that will soon end up in a landfill. What could happen if this money was spent instead for gifts to the world, to erase global poverty and save our endangered planet? There are many means by which to give gifts of love and peace both in this holy season and throughout the year. Alternative Gifts International <altgifts.org> is a great site for investigating possibilities; besides their own projects - many of them centered on providing the crucial gift of health-giving water in the many parts of the world that don't have it - they also have links to many other projects such as A Safe Haven for Enslaved Women (Ukraine), Blankets for Recovery (North Korea), Back to School (Iraq). Another similar organization is Heifer International <heifer.org>, which helps to buy domestic animals for families and villages around the world. (You can "buy" a cute lamb as a gift for a young person, for example, and then help them realize that sending this lamb to another young person somewhere in the world who really needs it, and who will be greatly appreciative, would be the best gift of all.) Iraq War Prayer Service An Advent prayer service, "If one suffers we all suffer: An evening of mourning and reparation for the war in Iraq," is being sponsored jointly by the St. Vincent's No War affinity group and the Peace & Justice ministry. It will take place on Friday evening, December 10, at 7:30 pm, in the chapel. One of its themes is taken from Archbishop Oscar Romero: "God of the prophets, we pray for ourselves and our Church that we might become prophets of justice and life to our world." Darfour Genocide Also on Friday evening, December 10, World Human Rights Day, Church of the Advocate (18th and Diamond) will be hosting a program, "Children of Darfur: Survivors of Genocide." According to the U.N., in Darfur, Sudan ,we are witnessing the greatest humanitarian crisis in the world today. More than 1.5 million people have been forced to flee their homes, with 70,000 killed. Amnesty International has documented "indiscriminate bombings, killings, rapes, torture, abductions and forced displacement of civilians by government forces and government-backed militias." Moving children's drawings of the violence and distress - often not recorded in any other way - will be on display at 6 pm; a panel discussion will take place at 7 pm including Joe Hoeffel (Congressman and former Senate candidate) who is co-sponsor of a bill calling for more substantive actions on the part of the U.S. and who was recently arrested for civil disobedience at the Sudanese embassy. St. V's P&J Ministry The next regular meeting is Sunday, December 12, after the 9 am Mass. We will be discussing possible directions for the ministry in terms of the war and in terms of renewed efforts for social justice, based in the U.S. Bishops' document "A Place at the Table." We will also be discussing possible participation in Inauguration Day protests. One of these, planned for Philadelphia, is being organized by the Shalom Center as a Christian-Jewish-Islamic event incorporating Martin Luther King Day and the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha. The other is planned for Washington DC, and has already been endorsed by more than 4000 groups and individuals. Also in consideration will be Voices in the Wilderness' month of peace action planned for March, "Counter Terror: Build Justice." All members of the Parish are encouraged to join the discussion. Homeless Encampment on Broad Street The Kensington Welfare Rights Union has set up an encampment of homeless people in two large tents at the corner of Broad and Clearfield in North Philadelphia. This "Bushville" (a name based on the "Hoovervilles" of the Great Depression) is intended to keep the current plight of poor and homeless families in the news and in our consciousness. A group of St. Vincent's parishioners attended a candlelight vigil at the site last Sunday and were greatly moved. Early this week, a group of the encampment's residents went to the downtown federal office of Housing and Urban Development, but were denied entry. They subsequently occupied a nearby military recruiting office in an attempt to highlight the relationship between huge military expenditures, reduced taxes for the wealthy and substantial cuts in social programs shredding the economic safety net of our society. (See <kwru.org> for more information.) St. V's Human Services Ministries The many important ministries that are carried out as part of the greater St. Vincent's community (listed below) are feeling greater stress as the safety net is shredded. More people are in need, and there are fewer sources of funding. Please inquire with them, in this holy season, about how you might be able to help - as a volunteer, as a provider of food or materials, or as a contributor of funds. Tutors are always in short supply, as are skilled medical and legal volunteers. |
African-American Leadership: concerned with promoting the development of African-American leadership within the parish and the Catholic community at large - open to all |
Inn Dwelling/Villa Vincent: provides transitional housing and related support services to families in twenty-four houses in Germantown and is rehabbing commercial and residential space on nearby Germantown Ave. General and construction-skilled volunteers are welcomed. |
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If you have any items related to peace or social justice to bring to the attention of First Sunday or might be interested in writing a first-person essay for the Pulse section, please contact Alice Foley (215-843-2907) or Jerry Szucs (215-763-3992- 97 |