Assembly offers 'a different level of community.'

By Ruth Aukerman

I had never been to a Caring Ministries Assembly before. I might have missed this one as well had it not been for a Training in Ministry (TRIM) class that was offered in connection with it. I am so glad that I went. This conference was the best Brethren gathering in a long time for me. I cannot remember an Annual Conference, district meeting, TRIM experience, or any other recent spiritual event that has touched the core of my being as has this Caring Ministries Assembly.

Maybe the most important reason was the theme, "Peace Beyond Our Fears." The hymn, "Healer of Our Every Ill," with its prayer, "give us peace beyond our fear and hope beyond our sorrow," was one of our favorites at the time when my husband, Dale, was dying from lung cancer. So when in the assembly's Bible studies, lectures, and sermons fears and anxieties were identified and then held up to the grace of God, this was very personal for me. Even big, global fears like the tsunami, terrorism, and 9/11 can be seen in a new light and from a new perspective. Out of the pain and the sub-basement of my soul still needs to come much more gratitude for the life God has given me and is living through me.

The presenters and ministers of the word seemed to know my life, but I found out that I was not alone in my fears. Next to me sat sisters and brothers who also were afraid of failure, isolation, or our economic and political tomorrow, let alone the tomorrow of our dwindling, marginalized denomination. Many of them I knew by name but most were strangers. They came from a wide spectrum of theological and political persuasions.

It was not the kind of conference where one is already of one mind, where speakers preach to the choir. No, if we were to identify the demons that were binding us we might each have different names for them, but I think we all came with the deep question: "Is God still with us? How long is Christ sleeping while the storm rages outside our little boat?" That for me was a different level of community--a community of those who know that they need to be freed from fear.

The bread we broke together assured us that God still is Immanuel, spreading a table in the presence of our personal, communal, or political enemies. We, the "worm" of the Church of the Brethren, are beloved by God.

Because of that we can and must return to our heritage of peacemaking and peace witness. We as caregivers must call our people away from the spiral of fear that paralyzes and is subservient to the principalities and powers of the prevailing culture. Through ever-consistent prayer we must again be a living peace church, all the more now, all the more even in the valley....

At a time when many pastors are afraid to speak truth to power and when whole communities--and even Christian congregations--give in to irrational fears, it simply was good to be reminded of who we are and whose we are. I am so very thankful for this unapologetically Brethren conference, and to all who prayed and worked so hard to make it happen.

For me it was a 'kairos' event. God's timing is perfect.

--Ruth Aukerman is a licensed Church of the Brethren minister from Union Bridge, Md.

Source: 8/26/2005 Newsline
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