Bound Together and Finely Woven

It was the first week of August -- just a few days before the Sojourners 20th Anniversary Festival was to take place in Grand Rapids, Michigan -- when a phone call came to the Sojourners office for Aaron Gallegos. This was not unusual, since Aaron was taking last-minute registrations, fielding questions about meals and accommodations, and trouble-shooting the chaos.

"I just wanted to let you know that I won't be able to make it to the festival," the voice on the phone said.

"Have you registered?" Aaron wanted to know, ready to pull up the information from his files.

"No," was the reply.

Aaron grew uneasy, thinking that perhaps he was speaking to one of the multitude of resource people who were planning to offer their gifts -- someone whose name he just didn't recognize. After further questioning, it became clear that he was talking to a Sojourners reader. The reader just wanted to let us know she wouldn't be able to join us for the celebration.

It made sense, in a heart-warming sort of way. You always RSVP for family gatherings. From the very beginning, it became clear that Sojourners readers and friends were heading to Grand Rapids with the spirit of a "family reunion," and those who couldn't make it wanted to let us know why.

One reader's granddaughter was getting married that weekend. Another couldn't leave home because he was waiting on a heart for a transplant! We received letters, telegrams, and phone calls from all over the country -- and as far away as Australia and the Philippines -- wishing us well and promising to be present with us in spirit and prayer.

ON AUGUST 13 THE caravan began to leave from Sojourners. The first car scheduled to depart lost its transmission in the driveway, necessitating a quick run to the airport to rent another; the accelerator pedal of Carey Burkett's car kept falling off on the 12-hour journey from Washington, DC; and Ed Spivey drove partway through the night with his 8-year-old daughter, Colleen, and spent the next morning stopping at every rest area on the Ohio Turnpike so she could roller-skate. Nonetheless, the last of us eventually straggled onto the Calvin College campus in Grand Rapids at about 3 a.m. August 15, the day the conference was to begin -- exhausted but eager for a celebration.

After a few hours of sleep, we spent the day taking care of a multitude of last-minute details, worrying about whether it was all going to come together. But that evening, when musician Ken Medema struck up the first chord of "Bound Together, and Finely Woven, With Love" -- and the crowd responded with jubilant singing and clapping and greeting of one another -- we knew it was all going to be okay. As Jim Wallis put it, we were all carried by "the contagious spirit and energy from those who came."

The energy just kept on flowing. Ed Spivey warmed up the crowd with a stellar comedy routine, and Jim Wallis offered a warm welcome to the thousand people gathered in the Calvin College chapel. Joan Chittister's keynote address that first night (see "The Prophets and Us," page 20) brought the crowd to its feet, and Noel Paul Stookey blessed us with his musical grace through both poignant glimpses of suffering and warm touches of humor.

Friday morning began with a time of prayer and music, made rich by the intercessory offerings of festival participants from every corner of the chapel, and by the considerable talent of Ken Medema -- who posesses a rare and remarkable gift for transforming prayers and stories into songs. The prayer time was an appropriate grounding for a day jam-packed with Bible studies, seminars, and panels.

We were informed that all the Catholics at the festival got together and decided that the Protestant work ethic had definitely been at work in the planning of the schedule. Indeed, the most common refrain was that there was too much to choose from.

Morning Bible studies were offered by Daniel Berrigan, Joan Chittister, Calvin Morris, Reaves Nahwooks, Joan Brown Campbell, Ched Myers, and Bill Wylie Kellermann. Twenty of Sojourners' contributing editors -- and a multitude of other friends -- graciously donated their time and offered seminars throughout the weekend on 60 different topics, which fell under six "tracks": "The Church as Prophetic Community," "Economics and Values," "Earth-keeping," "Racial Justice and Cultural Pluralism," "Gender and Power," and "Peacemaking and Nonviolence."

Topics varied from global economics to environmental ethics, from the musical power of the spirituals to shared experiences of giving birth, from the lessons of liberation theology to the witness of liturgical direct action. Participants explored the intersection of the men's movement and prophetic feminism, shared stories of peacemaking and struggles to build community, surveyed the impact of popular culture, and faced the challenges of disintegrating economic systems as well as the endangered status of African-American males and the earth's ecosystem.

Special seminars were held for the teenagers at the festival, an opportunity for them to come together to discuss the issues that most challenge them. And seminars were also offered about the life of Sojourners Community, Sojourners magazine, and the work of Sojourners Neighborhood Center in inner-city Washington, DC. The only major logistical glitch came when Barbara Tamialis and Nathan Jernigan of the neighborhood center turned out the lights to show their slideshow. As they were on one side of a partition in a large all-purpose room, their action left Jim Wallis on the other side to carry out his seminar on "A Magazine and a Movement: The Future of Sojourners" in the dark (we have done our best to see no theological significance here).

AFTERNOON SEMINARS WERE followed by panels, one focused on each of the six tracks. Gar Alperovitz, Janice Love, Chuck Matthei, and John Perkins examined economic alternatives; Sharon Gallagher, Marie Dennis Grosso, and Richard Rohr discussed issues of gender and power; and Joan Brown Campbell, Bill Wylie Kellermann, and Ron Spann called the church to its prophetic task. On Saturday afternoon Richard Cartwright Austin, Wesley Granberg-Michaelson, Reaves Nahwooks, and Rosemary Radford Ruether discussed our responsibility to the earth; Shelley Douglass, Don Mosley, and Ched Myers sounded the call to be peacemakers; and Joan Brown Campbell, Timothy McDonald, Eugene Rivers, Thomas Trimmer, and Jim Wallis lifted up the critical need for our movement to become more multicultural. The panels, coordinated by Jim Rice, provided a stimulating forum for resource people to share their views, challenge one another, and interact with participants.

Mary Joan and Jerry Park, founders of Little Friends for Peace, put together a celebrative and educational program for the 200 children at the festival. They focused on building self-esteem, playing cooperatively, and learning skills for resolving conflicts nonviolently through communication.

The children's laughter and obvious glee at meeting one another added to the symphony of joy that under-girded the festival. "I saw no 'outsiders' in this group of beautiful children," said one parent. "Special friendships were made, and at least one slumber party occurred during the festival that included kids who were strangers only 24 hours before."

By late afternoon everyone was gravitating toward the pool, the gym, the volleyball net, and the dormitories for a much-enjoyed break or nap. It was in these "in-between spaces" -- during breaks and over meals -- that much of the festival took place, as stories were shared and friendships made or deepened.

On Friday evening Richard Rohr spoke eloquently and passionately to our hearts (see his article "Why Does Psychology Always Win?" this issue). Ken Medema treated us to a mini-concert, with a versatile and uplifting spectrum of music spanning classical, rock and roll, blues, contemporary folk, and reggae.

A coffeehouse was scheduled to run after the evening program until 11:15. Even after a very long day, people still crammed into the coffeehouse and had to be gently ushered out the door by Karen Lattea at 11:45. Talent was provided by festival participants, who volunteered entertainment ranging from singing and poetry to storytelling, stand-up comedy, and ukelele playing.

People still weren't ready to quit. One had to walk a gauntlet of late-night hallway conversations back in the dormitories. And members of the Sojourners staff stayed up late to put out a daily festival newsletter.

Aaron Gallegos and Judy Coode gave Grand Rapids' all-night Kinko's copy center the only 3 a.m. business it had all summer­ -- unfortunately the newsletters got mis-stapled in clumps of 50 pages each. Newsletter editor Bob Hulteen, who fell ill Friday evening, dozed off in mid-sentence while dictating newsletter copy to Julie Polter. He panicked at 6 o'clock the next morning when the computer wouldn't print and woke up Scot DeGraf, who said upon seeing the printer, "You have to put paper in it, Bob."

SATURDAY BEGAN early, and the Sojourners staff quickly acknowledged our mistake at setting steering committee meetings over breakfast at 7 a.m. The day's schedule matched Friday's. Saturday was a day when many connections were made around the edges. Several people responded to a participant's announcement for "creative activists" to get together to share their stories. The group -- including writers, a painter, a liturgical dancer, a tie-dye artist, and a presenter of "chalk talks" -- discussed how they might offer their gifts to the faith-based peace and justice movement, and committed themselves to starting a newsletter.

An "African-American caucus" met to discuss the relationship of Sojourners to their work and constituencies back home; single adults met to talk about their particular concerns and challenges; and a spontaneous meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous took place. All the Californians got together and dubbed themselves "Sojourners West."

Saturday ended on an energetic and jubilant note with a special edition of "Let Justice Roll," the concert/rally/revival that Jim Wallis and Ken Medema have taken on tour across the United States and Canada. Twelve hundred people packed into the Fine Arts Building at Calvin College to have their hearts encouraged and their spirits lifted.

The festival culminated with a closing worship service on Sunday morning. The children entered in a procession and shared what they had learned together. Preacher Vincent Harding encouraged us to carry on in faithfulness. And communion was shared among a crowd of friends, both old and newly made.

For many, the emotional highlight of the conference was the offering of intercessions on Sunday morning. Sojourners Community worship leader Rose Berger had invited participants to mention their concerns to her up until the worship service. Just before it began, many people were still approaching her and saying, "Is it too late?"

Rose, with Ron Spann of Detroit's Church of the Messiah, voiced the intercessions: "We remember Lazarus House in Washington, DC, with its ministry to homeless people with AIDS ... Azusa Christian Community in inner-city Boston ... La Semilla de Libertad and their work with the development of base communities ... our teenagers.

"We remember the Dominican Sisters of Marywood; Jubilee Partners in Comer, Georgia, and the Overground Railroad as they minister to refugees from Central America ... women and men on death row ... the elderly.

"We remember Witness for Peace communities in Nicaragua, Guatemala, Mexico, and the United States ... the women and children of Wellspring Women's Center ... the Burlington Emergency Shelter in Vermont ... the new Pax Christi group in San Jose, California ... the women of the Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod, who have no right to vote on theological issues.

"We hold up single parents ... those who are grieving ... Joe Frick of New Jerusalem Community in Cincinnati, Ohio, who at 13 years old is diagnosed with leukemia ... We lift up the victims of violence in our world and ask for peace in our cities, overseas, and at home ..."

The intercessions went on, and the sense of family grew even stronger. When our worship came to a close, we shared a deep sense of having experienced, in Jim Wallis' words, "a wonderful, blessed intersection of the whole church."

AS WE WERE LEAVING, a woman from Detroit said, "I wouldn't have come if the festival had been somewhere other than in my state. And that would have been the biggest mistake of my life." A retired couple that had driven from Georgia told us they would have come no matter where it was -- and expressed their delight at the large number of "over-50" participants.

Indeed, based on comments, letters, and evaluations, it seems that no one came away disappointed. Well, almost no one. Colleen Spivey was heard saying to Ed, "But, Dad, I thought you said we were going to Calvin and Hobbes College." Her disappointment seemed mitigated, however, by the college's provision of endless ice cream cones at every meal.

Doris Lavender's 10-year-old daughter Ebone's response to the festival was, "When can we come back?" And Elizabeth Holler, a new Sojourners staff member who helped document the event by videotape, said, "It is such a privilege to be part of a movement that touches so many people."

The most frequently asked question at the festival (apart from directions around this beautiful, but confusing, campus designed by a student of Frank Lloyd Wright who didn't believe in signs on buildings) was, "Why Grand Rapids?"

Our highest concentration of subscribers is in the Midwest. We wanted to be centrally located in the country and in or near Chicago, the birthplace of Sojourners. Calvin College offered the best facilities­and by far the best price for keeping costs to participants low.

Special thanks go to the folks at Calvin; to Joe Nangle, who steered the festival from beginning to end; to Aaron Gallegos and Joe Roos, who helped with coordination; to Gene Beerens, our Grand Rapids liaison; and to a myriad of Sojourners volunteers -- ­too many to name -- ably coordinated by Ann Delorey. Because of their tireless effort, we can look back on a great experience (although Joe Nangle was heard to say during our post-festival evaluation, "Wasn't it funny how well organized everybody thought we were?").

The other common question at the festival was, "When are you going to do it again?" This was often followed by an invitation to bring a festival to a particular region of the country.

We're still resting up from the 20th anniversary. But we are so gratified by the response -- and have had our own spirits so lifted by the faith and energy of those who came -- that ... well, who knows? Perhaps we'll see you in your part of the world.

Joyce Hollyday was associate editor of Sojourners when this article appeared.

Thanks for the party, the gathering of witnesses, saints, new friends, dedicated people; for the inspiration and rededication; for the affirmation. This Christian "place" is a good place to be. Maybe I've always been; now I find that I truly am. My love to each of you at Sojourners -- and my thanks.

-- Jim Wolf, Boone, North Carolina

I have been reading Sojourners for 10 years, and, for me, it has been a life line, a grounding, a source of identity and community. The Sojourners 20th anniversary celebration was an incarnational moment in my history when the company of the faithful became embodied. I am compelled to write by an overwhelming feeling of deep gratitude.

The first night I wept to hear us called by Joan Chittister into the company of the prophets whose vision for justice has compelled my own over the years. Again and again I heard the refrain initiated in that opening night: "Whatever the cost, we must go on ..." And so I was weeping, more than once during the weekend, tears of recognition: "Yes, here are people who share my vision."

To be counted with this company of Christ-followers is an honor. I have been re-called to radical conversion; re-centered in my faith; inspired for the journey ahead as I carry the justice vision forward. Re-called, too, to prayer and an old friend, the Bible. A great spiritual hunger was awakened in me, with the result that I actually dusted off my Bible and started reading Isaiah with my breakfast.

The faith journey is one of continual calls to conversion. Thank you for providing the forum for what was surely a powerful conversion moment, a powerful incarnational moment, in so many of our lives who consider ourselves sojourners in faith.

-- Brenda Carr, London, Ontario, Canada

Sojourners has been an inspiration to me at different times in the past, but the 20th anniversary festival was the greatest gift I have ever received.

Seeing Sojourners in person(s), hearing your clear-headed, well-informed social analysis, your spirit-filled preaching, and well-organized, joyful program has removed all doubt in my mind about God's intention for human life in this world. I hope I/we can keep the fire kindled by this festival burning and move forward toward a more unselfish life.

The very existence of Sojourners and the work of other festival leaders is proof of the Spirit moving in our world. Please consider having another festival sometime soon.

-- Mary Jo Burpee, Grand Rapids, Michigan

I want to congratulate all at Sojourners for the tremendous success of the celebration in Grand Rapids. My son Nicholas is still grooving to the sounds of Ken Medema: "Bound together and finely woven ..."

-- Robert Ellsberg, Maryknoll, New York

The fullness of each moment spent in the company of so many loving and caring people gave more to me than I ever could have imagined. I returned to my life and work in North Carolina energized, committed, and eager to add "my little brick to the work of God."

You have brought inspiration to my life, and I thank each of you who worked to bring together a joyful, beautifully organized, and creative celebration. What a gift to have the opportunity to feel the faith and peace of such a "cloud of witnesses." I'm still floating.

-- Joy Becher, Greensboro, North Carolina

Still aglow from the "family reunion," I want to offer gratitude to Sojourners Community and staff. It was an oasis in the desert in which all persons of conscience have been walking this year.

Sojourners' renewed vision of community networking rings so very true. We felt very alone this year, when in reality there were many of us spread throughout the country.

I feel nourished and ready, as Vincent Harding prayed, "to be goin' on." We shall overcome ... only not necessarily in the way we imagine!

-- Patricia Lay Dorsey, Grosse Pointe, Michigan

Dorothy Friesen's seminar on "Practical Peacemaking" began with each of us sharing what we are doing for peace. One of the last to speak was a woman who said she didn't know where to start with peacemaking; she had come to the festival with her husband and young child to learn.

After the seminar several people went over to her and shared their names and addresses, and made suggestions of groups she might connect with. And I noticed that throughout the conference, people from the seminar kept checking in with her. I was touched by the easy way people shared themselves with each other and how deeply they cared for one another. And I thought that, if nothing else, the festival was worth it for that woman.

-- Maureen Stanchfield, Washington, DC