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Update on the Streator dispute

From Pantagraph: LaSalle Co. prosecutor: Church dispute is civil matter (also see here)

STREATOR — No criminal prosecution is expected in a case involving a monsignor’s allegation that an 86-year-old woman took money that did not belong to her group.

The matter instead is civil, said LaSalle County State’s Attorney Brian Towne. Dorothy Swital of Streator has hired a lawyer and a benefit will be held Sunday to pay her expenses.

Monsignor John Prendergast, head of the now-combined Streator parishes, earlier said Swital transferred two certificates of deposit from the now-defunct St. Casimir Altar and Rosary Society to the new Polish Rosary Society.

The $35,622 belongs to the new St. Michael the Archangel parish and not her group, said Prendergast.

“We have been in consultation with the lawyers involved,” said Towne. “The money is not missing. We know exactly where it is and when you get into that kind of situation, it’s a civil matter.”

Swital said she has had no contact with Prendergast but continues to believe it is the new group’s money. “I’ve gotten a lot of support,” she said. “I would say it’s three to one.

“We gave it (the money) to the church when they needed it,” said Swital. “We’ve done nothing wrong.”

Prendergast and diocesan officials continue to maintain it is church money, citing both canon (church) and civil law.

A chicken and spaghetti meal for Swital’s defense fund will run from noon until 3 p.m. Sunday at Polish National Alliance Hall, 906 Livingston St.

Four Streator Roman Catholic parishes, including St. Casimir, were combined into one parish. A new church building on the north side is planned.

Seems an issue of money over souls; the letter of the law over the spirit of the law. Why is recourse always to the law? Can’t Christians resolve such things among themselves? St. Paul warned us about this — see 1 Corinthians 6:1-7. How will the Monsignor be a judge of the world when he must run to authorities over such a simple matter?

The Monsignor may have his laws books straight, but then, so did the Pharisees. If he were to relent, what harm would come – these ladies would support their church wholeheartedly, with their prayer, hard work, and money. Instead, he will win, and in the process their hearts and faith will be broken. Rather than hallowed victory, he and the Church he is supposed to represent will have hollow victory.

The voice of the LORD cries to the city —
and it is sound wisdom to fear thy name:
“Hear, O tribe and assembly of the city!
Therefore I have begun to smite you,
making you desolate because of your sins.
You shall eat, but not be satisfied,
and there shall be hunger in your inward parts;
you shall put away, but not save,
and what you save I will give to the sword.
You shall sow, but not reap;
you shall tread olives, but not anoint yourselves with oil;
you shall tread grapes, but not drink wine.” — Micah 6:9,13-15

My suggestion, leave the Monsignor his money, let him wallow in it and eat its fruit. Come to your nearest PNCC Parish, or start one in Streator, where your hard work and contribution will always be within your control. As you say: the things you have worked for, for the benefit of the Church. No one will grasp at your purse while you dine at the table of the Lord.

Christian Witness, , ,

Church closing by vote and without abandonment

From the Cleveland Plain Dealer: Broadway United Methodist Church in Slavic Village to close

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Broadway United Methodist Church, formed as a Sunday school in Cleveland’s Slavic Village neighborhood in 1872, is preparing to celebrate its last Christmas. The 92-year-old church building, which once held hundreds of worshippers at Sunday morning services, now draws an average of 20 people to the old wooden pews.

On Nov. 17, only 17 members gathered in the sanctuary for Sunday worship. After the service, they cast ballots on whether to close the cash-strapped church, which in recent years disbanded its choir, closed its preschool and spent its endowment funds.

The vote was 16-1 to close.

“We sat there and held hands,” said Donna Lorenz, a member since 1980. “Some were crying.”

Member Lea Ann Russell said that other than the sniffling, there was dead silence after the vote was announced.

“I was so worked up,” she said. “But we knew it was coming to this. When you can’t pay the bills, it’s just not right to try to keep it open.”

Church’s closing another blow to Slavic Village

Broadway United, which sits near a huge empty lot that was once St. Alexis Hospital, torn down a few years ago, will hold its last Sunday service on Dec. 26.

The closing is yet another blow to the Slavic Village neighborhood, devastated by the foreclosure crisis and plagued with boarded-up houses.
“We’re at a place in time where change needs to happen,” said the Rev. Yvonne Conner, the church’s pastor. “This is part of a society reshaping itself. It’s part of the cycle. It happens whether we like it or not.”

Broadway United is 3rd Methodist church in area to close this year

Broadway United is the third United Methodist church in central Greater Cleveland to close this year as city neighborhoods and inner-ring suburbs continue to lose populations to outer-ring suburbs and exurbia.

“It’s an indication of what’s facing older, industrial communities,” said Cleveland City Councilman Tony Brancatelli, noting that Slavic Village also lost three Catholic churches in the recent downsizing by the Cleveland Catholic Diocese.

The two other United Methodist churches that closed this year are Masters in Euclid and Brooklyn Memorial on Cleveland’s near West Side.
That leaves the Greater Cleveland area with 62 United Methodist churches, said the Rev. Orlando Chaffee, superintendent of the denomination’s North Coast District, which stretches from Chagrin Falls to Elyria and from Lake Erie to Brunswick.

Church has rare copy of da Vinci’s ‘The Last Supper’

Broadway United, built by Bohemians in 1918 and known as “Old Broadway,” is an imposing Gothic stone structure, featuring priceless stained-glass windows and an actual-size copy of Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” above the altar.

The 15-by-30-foot painting, unveiled in 1924, was commissioned by the Stafford family, wealthy members of the church.

In 1957, according to church history, restoration artists working on the original 15th century painting in Milan, Italy, came to Old Broadway to study colors and details of the rare copy.

Pastor Conner said that after the church closes, the sanctuary and art will be maintained and preserved for special events such as weddings, funerals and musical concerts.

The church building also includes offices of the United Methodists’ North Coast District, which will remain, as will some of the church’s outreach programs.

“The good news is that they’re not abandoning the neighborhood,” said Brancatelli.

Broadway United Methodist was center of neighborhood

Howard Benes, 83, of Independence, grew up in the neighborhood and drives from his suburban home to Old Broadway every Sunday for the 10:30 a.m. service.

He remembers when the church was full. He remembers the basketball team, the harmonica club, the drama club and the pork, sauerkraut and dumpling church dinners.

“When I was a kid, I was there seven days a week,” he said.

Benes, a retired Cleveland firefighter, said his happy memories of Old Broadway are helping him deal with the sadness of the closing.

“I hate to think of the Christmas service,” he said. “It’ll be the last one, but there’s not much I can do about it. With everything, there is a beginning and, unfortunately, there has to be an end.”

Much like in the PNCC, this closing was done after worship and prayer, and by the vote of the membership. The membership and pastor also took responsibility for how this change was to come about, not as an abandonment of buildings and neighborhoods, but by maintaining a presence — the sanctuary will be maintained and used for special events and outreach programs will continue. Any closing and transition is sad and difficult, but done with the voice and vote of members, and with good planning and commitment to Christian witness, the Church itself lives on.

Poland - Polish - Polonia, , , ,

Ś+P Jerzy J. Maciuszko

From The Plain Dealer: Jerzy J. Maciuszko promoted libraries and Polish culture

Berea — Jerzy Janusz “George” Maciuszko was a leading librarian and Polish scholar.

Maciuszko died March 3 at the Renaissance in Olmsted Township. He was 97.

He headed Baldwin-Wallace College’s Ritter Library and the Cleveland Public Library’s prestigious special collections department. He also chaired Slavic and modern languages at the former Alliance College in Cambridge Springs, Pa., where he started a pioneering academic exchange with Poland.

Among dozens of honors, Maciuszko won an Officers’ Cross of the Order of Merit from Polish President Lech Walesa, an Eagle Trophy from the American Nationalities Movement and a “Man of the Year” award from the American Biographical Institute, for which he wrote.

Congratulating him for a Polish Heritage Award from the Cleveland Society of Poles, President Clinton wrote, “As a scholar, writer, and educator, you have made your own outstanding contributions to the heritage and to the intellectual life of our nation. Your efforts and achievements have helped to reaffirm the ties of family and friendship between the people of Poland and the United States.”

Eugene Bak, head of the local Polish American Cultural Center, said, “Polonia has lost its most distinguished citizen. He was always so considerate, so gentle.” Maciuszko donated many books to the center, which named its library for him.

John Grabowski, vice president of the Western Reserve Historical Society, said, “He was an absolute gentleman of the old school.” Introduced to Grabowski’s wife, Maciuszko kissed her hand.

The librarian helped to start Western Reserve’s ethnic collection. Now Grabowski will seek a publisher for a manuscript Maciuszko finished a few days before his death: “Poles Apart: The Tragic Fate of Poles During World War II.”

In 1983, Maciuszko told The Plain Dealer that literature had kept Poland alive. “When Poland was wiped off the map of Europe in 1795, literature assumed the role of guardian of the Polish identity.”

He felt that heritage mattered more to succeeding generations of Polish-Americans. “Often the first-generation immigrants put aside their ethnic background in a rush to become Americans, the second generation grapples with identity and the third returns to the beginnings.”
Jerzy Maciuszko (pronounced YUR-zhi ma-CHEWS-coe) was born in Warsaw. He graduated from the University of Warsaw with a bachelor’s degree in English. He taught English at a high school in Warsaw.

In 1939, the Germans invaded, and Maciuszko was captured at the border. He spent nearly six years in a prisoners’ camp. Besides hard labor, he played violin in a camp orchestra and wrote a short story, “Concerto in F-minor,” which passed the censors and shared top honors in a contest staged by the International YMCA.

Late in the war, Maciuszko escaped and became a liaison officer for the U.S. Army, helping fellow Poles find other homes than their newly Communist homeland. He moved to England in 1946 and inspected Polish secondary schools for the British Ministry of Education.
In 1951, he taught at Alliance. Soon he moved to Cleveland and joined its library’s foreign language department.

In 1963, Maciuszko began to direct the library’s John G. White Collection, which features folklore, orientalia and the world’s most comprehensive set of chess publications. He rose to head all of the library’s special collections, including books going back to the 1400’s. He also earned a library doctorate at Western Reserve University and taught there.

Maciuszko returned to Alliance in 1969 and chaired Slavic and modern languages there. He worked out an exchange program between his school and Jagiellonian University in Krakow.

In 1974, he moved to Berea and started four years of leading Ritter Library. At age 65, he had a child, Christina, with his wife, the former Kathleen Mart Post, another librarian. Retiring in 1978, he became a professor emeritus and continued to write and speak prolifically.

Among his many works were “The Polish Short Story in English: A Guide and Critical Bibliography,” published in 1969 by Wayne State University Press. A Columbia University reviewer called the book “a monumental work indispensable to all American teachers and students of Polish literature.”

He also wrote a monograph on the Polish Institute of America and chapters for the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History and the Encyclopedia of World Literature in the 20th Century. He chaired the Slavic division of the Association of College and Research Libraries and co-founded the association’s journal, Choice.

Maciuszko swam steadily and served on the board of the Riemenschneider Bach Institute at Ritter Library.

Jerzy Janusz “George” Maciuszko, 1913-2011

Survivors: wife, the former Kathleen Mart Post, and daughter, Christina of Cleveland Heights.
Memorial service: 3 p.m. on May 15 at the Polish American Cultural Center.
Contributions: Jerzy J. Maciuszko Memorial Fund, Polish American Cultural Center, 6501 Lansing Ave., Cleveland, OH 44105.

Eternal rest grant onto him O Lord and may the perpetual light shine upon him.
May his soul, and he souls of all the faithful departed, rest in peace. Amen.

Wieczne odpoczynek racz mu dać Panie, a światłość wiekuista niechaj mu świeci.
Niech odpoczywa w pokoju, Amen.

Christian Witness, Perspective, PNCC, , , ,

The concept of assent in a democratic Church

The Polish National Catholic Church rightly takes pride in the fact that its people, all its people, function as its legislative body. Per the Constitution of the PNCC:

ARTICLE VI — CHURCH AUTHORITY

SECTION 1. The authority of this Church is vested in three branches, namely: legislative, executive and judicial.

…

SECTION 3. In administrative, managerial and social matters, this Church derives its authority from the people who build, constitute, believe in, support and care for it. It is a fundamental principle of this Church that all Parish property, whether the same be real, personal, or mixed, is the property of those united with the Parish who build and support this Church and conform to the Rite, Constitution, Principles, Laws, Rules, Regulations, Customs and Usages of this Church.

SECTION 4. The administration, management and control over all the property of the Parish is vested in the Parish Committee elected by the Parish and confirmed by the Diocesan Bishop, and strictly dependent upon and answerable to the lawful authorities of this Church.

The Church is democratically governed, that is, its people make the decisions and express their will at Holy Synod, both the quadrennial General Synod and at Diocesan Synods.

One of the problems frequently seen in other Churches, with similar democratic forms of governance, is the constancy of faith, morals, Tradition, doctrine, and liturgy (within liturgical Churches) under a democratic decision making processes. Are there limits to democracy, and can democracy trump all things?

In a democratic Church, are you one vote away from deciding Jesus is not true-God and true-man, from denying the Virgin birth, from turning the resurrection into a fuzzy myth narrative of confused and poor disciples who carried along the beautiful message of Jesus because it was oh so special to them?

There are those, even within the PNCC, who take Bishop Hodur’s teaching on the democratic nature of the community of Church as a license to make everything subject to democratic process. This form of thinking places the individual in charge of the Church’s teaching, and frees them from the constraints of ‘all that old stuff we’ve gotten way past.’ They use enlightenment arguments, Bishop Hodur arguments, other Churches are doing it arguments, it suits me better arguments, and its unfair/unjust/un-democratic arguments. They only argument they fail to see is the Catholic argument, the linkage to the universal constant within which we strive to overcome what is personal to reach what is Divine.

InsideCatholic, a strongly apologist website which easily resorts to the “heretic” and “exommunicated” argument does make a solid point in Episcopal/Catholic Conversion Is a Two-Way Street:

The developing story of the new Apostolic Constitution for Anglicans continues to unfold in the media, boosted by the Anglican Communion’s instability due to the Episcopal Church and their co-revisionists in the Anglican Church of Canada. Less reported has been the equally well-trafficked path away from Rome and toward the Episcopal Church.

In 2009, Episcopal bishop and gay celebrity Gene Robinson crowed that his New Hampshire diocese was brimming with disaffected Catholics, drawn to the promise of a more inclusive church. While Bishop Robinson’s celebration was premature … he was not misrepresenting the source of some new pew occupants.

“Pope Ratzinger,” Bishop Robinson declared, referring to Benedict XVI by his given name in a late-2005 speech, “may be the best thing to happen to the Episcopal Church . . . . We are seeing so many Roman Catholics join the [Episcopal] church.”

Roman Catholics and Episcopalians have swapped places for years, easily facilitated by related liturgical forms and practices. Unlike other Reformation-era churches, the Church of England, then a geographic arm of the Roman Church, maintained the forms and hierarchies of its parent. The Anglo-Catholic wing of Anglicanism is the closest to its source, in many cases conducting services that are more recognizably Catholic than the post-Vatican II Mass. Some American conservatives see Rome’s embrace of theological orthodoxy — reasserted by Benedict and his predecessor, Pope John Paul II — as a compelling alternative to an increasingly listless Episcopal Church.

Similarly, liberal Catholics tied to their forms of worship enjoy the option to embrace the Episcopal Church’s “Catholicism Lite” without the inconvenient frowning upon birth control, abortion, or whatever the latest sexual lifestyle innovation might be.

The point being that if Church is merely choices, one may find the most comfortable outward portrayal of Church for oneself. One may find that place where a loose set of choices is constantly put up for personal and collective vote as the mood strikes today. It is a stunning lack of constancy and perseverance on the narrow road (Matthew 7:13-14).

As with any linear analysis of possible alternatives, one can find the place of balance. In the PNCC the balance point lies at the junction between democracy and assent. Democracy is a governing principal, and self determination over what one gives to build the Church. No one can take the parish, or the Church itself, away from those who “build, constitute, believe in, support and care for it.” In the same manner, no one can use the power of the vote to take the Catholic out of the Church, similarly taking catholicity away from those very same people.

At the XXIII General Synod, a perfect example of balance was on display. The Church Doctrine Commission presented two papers, “To Live in the Spirit of God,” which addressed Church teaching on current moral and bioethical issues, and “Eschatology in the PNCC: A Clarification.” Both were presented, not for a vote, but for the assent of the faithful.

In accord with the Constitution of the PNCC:

ARTICLE VI — CHURCH AUTHORITY

SECTION 2. In matters of Faith, morals and discipline the authority of this Church lies in the hands of the Prime Bishop, Diocesan Bishops and Clergy united with them. This authority is derived directly from God through Jesus Christ, agreeably with the words of our Savior: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you: and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20).

“Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” (Matthew 18:18)

The Church’s Catholic nature of Church precludes votes on doctrine and its Holy Tradition. As PNCC faithful, we are bound to conform our lives to the Church’s teaching, not as a matter of choice but as a matter of becoming.

Of course, we are not all there, conforming our lives and our choices perfectly to the Church’s guidance. It is difficult to lay down ones life (John 15:13). We all struggle in the gulf between our sinfulness and perfection, the gap between what is earthly and Divine within us. As we travel that road in growing closer to God’s desires for us, as we climb the ladder, we are called to become, to strive for that which is promised to the faithful. That promise is best fulfilled under the guiding and protecting hand of sound orthodox doctrine and Tradition — not a fuzzy assumption that we are any more right today in our personal choices than people have been for 2,000 years.

Yes, a Church can have a democratic form of governance and hold its Catholic faith through assent.

Christian Witness, Perspective, PNCC, Political, , , , , ,

Idle hands are the devil’s tools

From The Southern: Teens rocked by unemployment

Katie Pemberton is one of the lucky ones.

Pemberton, a Benton Consolidated High School senior, had no trouble landing a job the Franklin County election office, a requirement for her participation in the BCHS work program.

“I’ve been working here since the end of August, and I’ve had other jobs before,” she said. “It was really pretty easy to find one.”
Others weren’t so lucky, according to program coordinator Sandy Blackman, a BCHS teacher.

In years past, the school-to-work program had an enrollment of 15 to 20 students who attended school half a day and worked, for pay, at jobs in the community the other half of the day.

“We now have six kids,” Blackman said. “The jobs just aren’t out there.”

While Blackman doesn’t always match students to jobs, she does send out a letter to local businesses describing the program and asking employers to consider hiring her students.

Before the start of this school year, she sent out 250 such letters.

She got only one reply.

“We’ve had businesses that hire a student every year, but not this year,” she said.

The national economy is likely the culprit in the disappearance of teen jobs, she said.

“The kids come to me to ask about job openings and there just aren’t any,” Blackman said. “Some businesses can’t afford taking on another employee right now.”

Not alone

Blackman’s students aren’t alone in their failure to find a job.

According to figures from the U.S. Bureau of Statistics, the national unemployment rate for teens ages 16 to 19 was 25.4 percent in December. While that number dipped slightly from the 26.2 percent unemployed at the start of 2010, it represents a huge increase from December 2006, when only 14.6 percent were unemployed…

And from Bloomberg Businessweek: The Youth Unemployment Bomb

From Cairo to London to Brooklyn, too many young people are jobless and disaffected. Inside the global effort to put the next generation to work

In Tunisia, the young people who helped bring down a dictator are called hittistes—French-Arabic slang for those who lean against the wall. Their counterparts in Egypt, who on Feb. 1 forced President Hosni Mubarak to say he won’t seek reelection, are the shabab atileen, unemployed youths. The hittistes and shabab have brothers and sisters across the globe. In Britain, they are NEETs—”not in education, employment, or training.” In Japan, they are freeters: an amalgam of the English word freelance and the German word Arbeiter, or worker. Spaniards call them mileuristas, meaning they earn no more than 1,000 euros a month. In the U.S., they’re “boomerang” kids who move back home after college because they can’t find work. Even fast-growing China, where labor shortages are more common than surpluses, has its “ant tribe”—recent college graduates who crowd together in cheap flats on the fringes of big cities because they can’t find well-paying work.

In each of these nations, an economy that can’t generate enough jobs to absorb its young people has created a lost generation of the disaffected, unemployed, or underemployed—including growing numbers of recent college graduates for whom the post-crash economy has little to offer. Tunisia’s Jasmine Revolution was not the first time these alienated men and women have made themselves heard. Last year, British students outraged by proposed tuition increases—at a moment when a college education is no guarantee of prosperity—attacked the Conservative Party’s headquarters in London and pummeled a limousine carrying Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla Bowles. Scuffles with police have repeatedly broken out at student demonstrations across Continental Europe. And last March in Oakland, Calif., students protesting tuition hikes walked onto Interstate 880, shutting it down for an hour in both directions…

Couple disaffected youth, the hopelessness that the new economy has wrought (no, you never will catch up with your parent’s standard, much less gain any power) and throw in a few friends who learned the fine art of IED making in Afghanistan and Iraq, and — well you know who they’ll be targeting first.

Our challenge, particularly as Christians, is not to pull the wool over their eyes, or gloss over the struggle, but to show them that there actually is something else. We have the place where worldliness and all that comes with it is of little importance, where small community and self-reliance make for a good and positive life, the place where we work together, for each other and for the Everlasting. Should we teach them about iPods or I-we-and-Thee?

As it was in 1897, so it is today in the year 1910, that Bishop Hodur is a supporter of reform in the civil or the social spirit, he is for the nationalization of the land, of churches, schools, factories, mines and the means of production. He has stated this openly and states it publicly today, he does not hide his sympathies for the workers’ movement and he will never hide them, and he considers himself nothing else than a worker in God’s Church.

But the bishop is an opponent of erasing religion from the cultural work of humanity — indeed, Bishop Hodur believes strongly and is convinced that all progress, growth, just and harmonious shaping of human relations must come from a religious foundation, lean on Divine ethics, and then such growth will be permanent and will give humanity happiness. — Straz, 21 Jan. 1910.

Perspective, Poland - Polish - Polonia, , , , ,

Accidents of history

From the Ekonom:east Media Group: Roman Catholics in Vienna still protest over giving church to SPC

Members of the Roman Catholic parish of Neulerchenfeld in Vienna, whose church will be given as a present to the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC), are continuing to protest the decision of the Archdiocese of Vienna.

After collecting signatures against the decision, parish members – mostly of Polish descent – organized a protest in downtown Vienna late last year, and are now threatening disobedience to the Roman Catholic Church.

The Neulerchenfeld parish does not want to comply with the decision of Archbishop of Vienna Christoph Schonborn, and 800 of its members were very surprised when the gift was made official with a contract earlier this month.

The parishioners claim they were not informed about the signing of the contract between the Archdiocese of Vienna and the Serb Orthodox church of St. Sava.

In a statement to the media, they said they will continue to fight for their church, and might stop paying church taxes.

The Archdiocese of Vienna and the Serb Orthodox church in Vienna signed a deal at the start of the year that the Roman Catholic church in Neulerchenfeld will be given as a gift to SPC.

The church is set to replace the Temple of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, located in Vienna’s 17th district, which was too small to hold all of the faithful. The church in Neulerchenfeld, also dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, was built between 1733 and 1753.

The church given as a present is much bigger that the current Serbian Orthodox church and can hold over 1,000 people.

And from CWNews via ByzCath: Vienna: laity protest cardinal’s gift of parish to Serbian Orthodox

The laity of a largely Polish parish in Vienna are protesting Cardinal Christoph Schönborn’s decision to give their parish to the Serbian Orthodox Church. Pfarre Neulerchenfeld was constructed between 1733 and 1753. Austria’s largest newspaper reports that the parish has far higher Sunday Mass attendance than many other area parishes.

A parish with a large Sunday attendance of 800 plus, mostly Poles, is given away while other parishes with sparse attendance remain empty. What is interesting is that this is being done by an Austrian Bishop. Putting together some historical antecedents, something special to Poles is being taken from them by an Austrian, and given to what is in effect Russians. It would only be more ironic if the Austrians sent in German police to remove the Poles.

I am stressing the irony here to make a point. First, that these sorts of things remain in historical memory. Second, that the Roman corporate sole model of church property administration yields actions like these.

It is also unfortunate that a strong group of faithful in a living parish (not declining, priest-less, and empty) is being forced out by a bishop with absolute control, and without consultation. This general mode of operation in the Roman Church is becoming more and more familiar as church closings become more widespread. It remains that the only model capable of overcoming control structures like these is the democratic Church model as practiced within the PNCC.

Allegory of the 1st partition of Poland -- Catherine II of Russia, Joseph II of Austria, and Frederick the Great of Prussia divide Poland
Art, Christian Witness, Perspective, Xpost to PGF, , ,

It’s Not Just Black And White – Jailing Everyone

The Arizona State University Art Museum presents It’s Not Just Black And White by Gregory Sale – Social Studies Project 6, February 1 – May 14, 2011. The Season Opening Reception will be held Friday, February 18th from 7-9pm. Social Studies Project 6 will be installed in the Turk Gallery of the ASU Art Museum’s Nelson Fine Arts Center location.

With a population of roughly 6.5 million, (Arizona has) over 40,000 inmates. The state of Washington, with a population slightly larger than Arizona, has roughly 18,000. — The Arizona Republic, January 28, 2011

A recent Pew Center report indicates that in 2008, one in 33 adults in Arizona was under correctional control, which includes jail, prison, parole and probation. Twenty-five years ago, this number was one in 79. What has changed so much is not human nature, but the offenses for which we incarcerate and the imposition of mandatory sentences. — Rep. Cecil Ash, R-Mesa (Ariz.) quoted in the Arizona Capitol Times, December 11, 2009

It’s not just black and white is a three-month-long residency exhibition with Gregory Sale, a Phoenix-based artist who will work through artistic gestures to initiate and host dialogue, aspiring to give voice to the multiple constituencies of the corrections, incarceration and criminal justice systems. The ASU Art Museum gallery space will operate as a site for developing and displaying visual and mediated exhibitions, dance and other staged events, discussions and readings.

As the title It’s not just black and white implies, the intent of the project is to expose and examine the many often conflicting viewpoints, perspectives and values that are generated from serious considerations of justice and public safety. The project will provide the opportunity for the public to explore the impact of modern criminal justice through fact-based tours, dialogues and programs – offering more first-hand experience of the many strands that make up this complicated narrative.

ASU Art Museum Social Studies Initiative

The Museum’s Social Studies initiative is a series of residency exhibitions, begun in 2007, that explore this dialogue-based, process-oriented context by literally bringing the studio into the museum, and by engaging the public directly in the creative process of exhibition-making in the space where “the art object” is usually found.

The ASU Art Museum continues to transform museum traditions by returning to the original sociological function of the institution – to encourage the circulation of ideas embedded in the archive, to provide a safe place for curiosity and to create an exchange point for the flow of conversation between and among artists, curators, collectors, students, social and governmental institutions, and the public.

It’s not just black and white is supported by grants from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and Friends of the ASU Art Museum.

Other events:

Collecting Contemporary Art: The FUNd at ASU Art Museum
Curator: Heather Lineberry
Dec 18, 2010 – May 14, 2011
Location: ASU Art Museum
Cost: Free

Collecting Contemporary Art features a selection of works acquired in part or in whole by the FUNd at ASU Art Museum, an endowment established by the Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation. From monumental found-object installations to print portfolios of etchings and lithographs, the international pieces share a current of experimentation and an exploration of social and political concerns. The exhibition charts the Museum’s collecting goals and exhibition history over the past 15 years, with significant representation of Latin American and Latino artists, artists from Arizona and artists in residence at the Museum. Artists represented include Kim Abeles (Los Angeles), John Ahearn (New York), Abel Barroso (Cuba), Sandow Birk (Los Angeles), Xu Bing (China), Deborah Butterfield (Montana/Hawaii), Enrique Chagoya (born in Mexico, active in the U.S.), Colin Chillag (Phoenix), Sue Coe (born in England, active in the U.S.), Jon Haddock (Tempe), Kcho (Cuba), Los Carpinteros (Cuba), Aimee Garcia Marrero (Cuba), Paulo Nenflidio (Brazil), Adriana Varejao (Brazil) and Kurt Weiser (Tempe).

Citadel: An Installation by Patricia Sannit
Curator: Peter Held
Feb 5, 2011 – Apr 9, 2011
Location: Ceramics Research Center
Cost: Free
Opening Reception: Feb. 18, 2011, 7-9 p.m.

Patricia Sannit, a Phoenix-based artist whose vessels are influenced by cultures worldwide, is literally breaking new ground for her installation Citadel — with the assistance of scores of community volunteers. Citadel is a 10-foot diameter structure inspired by an Iraqi archeological site called the Citadel at Erbil, in the Kurdish region. Sannit’s new direction explores the layering of time and history through the medium of clay.

Re-Thinking the Faculty Exhibition 2011
Feb 19, 2011 – Apr 30, 2011
Location: ASU Art Museum
Cost: free
Opening Reception: Feb. 18, 2011, 7-9 p.m.

This year, the faculty show takes a new direction. It represents the beginning of an exciting set of possible partnerships, exchanges and experiments between the School of Art and the ASU Art Museum. It’s also the first instance of the museum’s rethinking and revitalizing the way we do things, as part of our Re-Thinking the Museum initiative.

Art historian and writer Robert Atkins was selected to open Re-Thinking the Museum as juror/curator of the ASU School of Art Faculty Biennial Exhibition. During the month of November, Atkins reviewed submissions, visited artists’ studios and discussed opportunities for site-specific installations as he selected work for the 2011 exhibition.

Arizona State University Art Museum
Mill Avenue at 10th Street
Tempe, AZ 85287-2911
Telephone 480-965-2787

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IWJ National Conference

Attend IWJ’s National Conference in Chicago June 19-21. Join in celebrating 15 years of fighting for workers’ rights and help plan IWJ’s future at IWJ’s 2011 National Conference at DePaul University in Chicago.

IWJ’s national conferences are unique in bringing together religious, community, labor and business leaders; faculty and students; low-wage workers, government professionals and members of the legal community under one roof to connect and discuss ways to reclaim justice for people. Click here for more Information and to register.

Invited speakers include:

  • Kim Bobo, Executive Director of Interfaith Worker Justice
  • Arlene Holt Baker, Executive Vice President of the AFL-CIO
  • Hilda Solis, Secretary of Labor
  • Rev. Dr. James Forbes, Jr., Senior Minister Emeritus of The Riverside Church and President of the Healing of the Nations Foundation

Those attending are also invited to IWJ’s 15th Anniversary Gala, Monday June 20th from 6-9pm. Ticket costs are included with your registration.

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Plant an olive tree

From the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation: Please join in solidarity this holiday season, and help to replant olive trees in occupied Palestine.

Knowing that the common people in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem continue to suffer under occupation and displacement, we are reminded that Mary and Joseph, huddling in a nook, were refugees under Roman occupation, and that they had traveled from Nazareth to Bethlehem, where Joseph’s family lived. Just as they lived in fear of a foreign occupying power two thousand years ago, sadly the Palestinians live in fear of the Israeli occupation, which imposes apartheid and takes their land. Often times, their olive trees are ripped out in an effort to displace them from their land.

Help to plant so that the children of many future generations might enjoy and be sustained by a gift of hope, a gift calling for a just and lasting peace.

The Olive Trees by Vincent van Gogh, 1889

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